Training manual leak tells us more about the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active

It sounds like the Galaxy S8 Active is going to be a seriously powerful and rugged handset, and we just learned some more details about the phone thanks to a Samsung training manual on the device obtained by Android Police.

As detailed as the manual is, it doesn't include much in the way of new details that we haven't heard before: the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM, and is going to be sporting a 5.8" Super AMOLED screen running at a resolution of 1440 x 2960 pixels.

The manual does suggest the phone is going to come with Android 7.0 Nougat on board, rather than the 7.1 version that's been knocking around on Nexus and Pixel devices since the end of last year - a slight disappoint in an otherwise impressive specs list.

Build quality

As we'd previously heard, the Galaxy S8 Active is not only IP68 certified like the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, it's also built to the MIL-STD-810G US military standard, so it can take much tougher treatment than your average smartphone.

Bixby is going to be on board, apparently, and like the phones that preceded it, the S8 Active will have a dedicated Bixby button below the volume rocker. According to the manual, fast charging and wireless charging are going to be supported.

What we still don't know is when the Galaxy Active S8 is going to appear - its predecessor tipped up in June 2016, already more than a year ago, suggesting we won't have long to wait. The Active S7 was US-only too, which may well again be the case this time around.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.