It's been a long time coming, but a new leak says that T-Mobile will soon carry the Galaxy S8 Active, the rugged version of Samsung's flagship.
If this turns out to be true, then AT&T will no longer have an exclusive stranglehold on Samsung's "active" variants.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Active Leaked
The leak comes from the usually reliable Evan Blass or @evleaks, who has a good track record when it comes to these things. In other words, there's some good weight on this rumor.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Active for T-Mobile [first reported: https://t.co/aWxlwQQ4rU] pic.twitter.com/Hh4FxxBON6
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) Oct. 12, 2017
As everyone can see, the Galaxy S8 Active is just like the kind that AT&T has, from the rugged body to the reinforced corners that mitigate strong impacts. The only difference here is in the upper-left corner that reads "T-Mobile" instead of "AT&T," but that's just pointing out the obvious.
On an interesting note, the date on the phone is Nov. 22, and if it's anything to go by, that could just be the release date. That's a pretty big "if," though.
Galaxy S8 Active vs. Standard Galaxy S8
As a refresher, the Galaxy S8 Active is basically the same as the standard Galaxy S8 across the board in terms of specs.
It's also worth mentioning that aside from the extra durability thanks to its metal frame, it's packed with a larger 4,000 mAh battery instead of a 3,000 mAh pack. However, all those niceties for the sake of toughness and longevity come with a price, and it's the edge-to-edge Infinity Display, not to mention that it weighs a bit more at 0.45 pounds than 0.34 pounds.
Under the hood, though, it still houses the same Exynos 8895 or Snapdragon 835 for the U.S. and Chinese variants, 4 GB of RAM, 12-megapixel rear-facing sensor, and 8-megapixel front snapper, including wireless charging support, a fingerprint scanner, an iris scanner, and a heart-rate sensor, to name a few.
Good News
In plain English, this is just the thing for users who have trouble getting one because of its limited carrier availability or for those who simply don't want to stick with AT&T.
More importantly, what this tells us is that AT&T's exclusivity deal with Samsung looks like it's about to come to an end.
However, it's still recommended to take this news with a grain of salt until Samsung or T-Mobile announces something official since it's still just a rumor and leak, after all.
For the record, the Galaxy S8 Active is already available from AT&T for $28.34 a month under a 30-month plan or $849.99.
