Samsung Galaxy A80 gets SIRIM green light and it’s missing one key feature

UPDATE: Samsung Galaxy A80 will support Samsung Pay in Malaysia. The device has been relisted with NFC included.

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The Samsung Galaxy A80 is coming to Malaysia very soon and this is a new premium mid-range smartphone that features a rotating camera. The device has just passed our local SIRIM certification and it appears that it is missing a key feature which we believe should be included as standard on all Samsung smartphones.

According to its listing, the Galaxy A80 with the model number SM-A805F/DS will support a variety of 4G LTE bands which cover 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2600MHz. The device also supports dual-SIM as well as faster 802.11ac WiFi on 5GHz.

Unfortunately, like the Galaxy A70, it doesn’t have NFC included on the device. This means that the Galaxy A80 for Malaysia will not support Samsung Pay, contrary to what we were told during the regional launch last month.

It is odd that Samsung is omitting Samsung Pay from the latest range of Galaxy A series. The mobile payment feature is a key differentiation for Samsung and it was included on previous Galaxy A models including last year’s Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A9.

Typically, Samsung Pay uses both MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) and NFC technology. At the very least, Samsung could offer just NFC support for Samsung Pay on the latest models. This will allow users to replace their supported Visa Paywave and Mastercard PayPass cards with their smartphone.

The Galaxy A80 is currently the most powerful smartphone under the Galaxy A family. It has a 6.7″ Full HD+ display with no notches and it comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Under the hood, is the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor that comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage.

For taking pictures, it gets a triple-camera array which can be rotated to the front. It has a 32MP f/2.0 main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 3D Depth camera that can support Live Focus Video.

The A80 is powered by a 3,700mAh battery that supports 25W Super Fast Charge via USB-C. Another thing to take note is that the device doesn’t come with a headphone jack and it lacks microSD expansion. You can learn more in our first impressions post.

Thanks @KevinNgTK for the tip!

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