Budget-priced devices like the OnePlus 2 are quickly becoming a dominant force in the smartphone arena. Major players, however, like Samsung, have started to acknowledge their presence and have also started to churn out mid-range devices, such as the Galaxy A8. Here is how these two devices compare.

Design

The Galaxy A8 looks sleeker as it has more metal on its body. However, its back panel is made of plastic, which reduces the overall weight of the device and makes it one of the slimmest devices available. It comes with a fingerprint scanner and has three color options: black, white and gold. As for the OnePlus 2, it has a metal frame but the rest of its body is made of plastic. Its back panel has a coating of sandstone, which gives it a premium appearance. However, for those who prefer a different back panel, fortunately, there are alternate panels available, which are made from Kevlar and from a variety of wood, such as rosewood, bamboo and black apricot. Just like the Samsung device, it also comes with a fingerprint scanner.

Display

Comparing the size of the display on these two devices, the Galaxy A8 has a slight advantage as its 5.7-inch super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a density of 386 pixels per inch is bigger than the 5.5-inch LTPS LCD screen, with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a density of 401 pixels per inch, present on its competitor.

Specs

In this category, the OnePlus 2 is ahead as it comes with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, which is coupled with an octa-core CPU comprised of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.56 GHz and four Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 1.82 GHz along with an Adreno 430 GPU. As for the Galaxy A8, it has an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset, coupled with an octa-core CPU, which consists of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz and four clocked at 1.3 GHz along with an Adreno 405 GPU.

Memory

With the OnePlus 2 having no memory slot, it lags behind the Galaxy A8, as it has a version which can support up to 128 GB of external storage. As for RAM, the Galaxy A8 only comes with 2 GB while the OnePlus 2 has either 3 GB or 4 GB.

Camera

The Galaxy A8 has a 16 megapixel camera at its rear but the OnePlus 2 has an advantage as its 13 megapixel shooter comes with optical image stabilization.

Price

The OnePlus 2 with 4 GB of RAM costs $389, unlocked, while the Galaxy A8 has a price tag of $510 without a contract.