Among the phablets in Samsung's lineup, the Galaxy A8 is one of the best. However, the smaller Galaxy S6 Active may be a good choice for many who are looking for a rugged smartphone with remarkable specs. Here is how the Samsung devices compare.

Design

The S6 Active gets very few points when it comes to design. It has a plastic body with rubber on its sides. However, its advantage is its waterproof and dustproof rating, made possible by its sturdy build. It has an IP68 rating and can be dunked in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. It is also resistant to thermal shock and solar radiation. As for colors, the back panel of the device comes with a camouflaged coating in blue or white but there is also a plain gray version.

As for the Galaxy A8, it has a full metal body and it looks very much like the iPhone 6 as it has similar rounded edges. Though it is bigger than its competitor, it is very slim at only 5.9 mm. It has a fingerprint sensor and comes in three colors, white, black and gold.

Display

The Galaxy A8 has a size advantage but its screen is not as sharp as its competitor. The larger device has a super AMOLED capacitive screen measuring 5.7 inches with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a density of 386 pixels per inch. As for the S6 Active, it has a 5.1-inch super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels and a density of 576 pixels per inch.

Specs

The hardware on the S6 Active gives it a huge advantage. It comes with the same Exynos 7420 chipset, used by the S6 and S6 Edge flagships, along with an octa-core CPU comprised of four Cortex-A53 cores and four Cortex-A57 cores along with a Mali-T760 GPU. As for the Galaxy A8, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset, an octa-core CPU comprised of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz and four clocked at 1.3 GHz along with an Adreno 405 GPU.

Memory

There is no memory slot on the S6 Active but the version on the Galaxy A8 allows for the addition of up to 128 GB of external storage. As for RAM, the S6 Active is ahead with 3 GB as its competitor only has 2 GB.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Active is priced at $129 with a two-year contract while its sibling the Galaxy A8 could cost around $515, unlocked.