Samsung’s Galaxy A80 has a slide-out, rotating camera

Samsung’s new smartphone, the Galaxy A80, is one of the most interesting phones the company has launched in a while. 

It’s only got a triple rear camera, but that camera slides up and rotates to face you when you switch to selfie mode.  

Sounds odd? It actually might be pretty clever. In this way — and unlike some other slide-out phones we’ve seen recently — the phone’s primary camera is also the phone’s selfie camera. And given that the camera is a 48-megapixel, f/2.0 sensor coupled with an ultra-wide, 8-megapixel, F2.2 sensor and a 3D depth module, it should actually be better than most selfie cameras out there, while allowing Samsung to save some component money. 

It’s hard to judge how well this works without trying it out, but a short promotional video from Samsung (below) makes the slide-out process look snappy enough for everyday use. 

The Galaxy A80, even though it’s technically a mid-ranger, has pretty interesting specs as well. It Has a 6.7-inch, notch-less Super AMOLED display with a 2,400×1,080 pixel resolution. It’s powered by an unnamed octa-core chip and comes with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and Android 9.0 Pie. It has a 3,700mAh battery with 25W fast charging. 

The Samsung Galaxy A80 will be available in three colors: Angel Gold, Ghost White and Phantom Black. There’s no word on price or availability just yet.