Samsung just announced a more durable version of its Galaxy S8 smartphone with a bigger battery

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August 7, 2017 2:32 PM

Samsung on Monday officially announced the Galaxy S8 Active, a more rugged version of its flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone.

The Galaxy S8 Active is a tougher version of Samsung's best phone.

The phone will be exclusive to AT&T, but only "for a limited time." It'll be available to preorder on Tuesday, with a full release on Friday.

AT&T says the device will cost $28.34 a month in a 30-month payment plan or $850.20 outright.

As various leaks had suggested, the Galaxy S8 Active ditches the curved sides of the standard Galaxy S8 for a flatter, more traditional design. The display itself is the same as before — which is a good thing — but the bezels around it are more pronounced.

Most notably, the Galaxy S8 Active comes coated in a thicker frame with metal sides and a polycarbonate material on the back. The makes the phone a bit heftier than the standard Galaxy S8, but Samsung says it allows the device to meet military-grade durability standards. The company says the phone is water-resistant, too, and that its display can survive drops from up to 5 feet.

The point is that the S8 Active shouldn't fall apart if you rough it up a bit, though we'll have to test it to be sure.

The other noteworthy change should be battery life: Samsung says the Galaxy S8 Active comes with a 4,000-mAh battery, which is significantly larger than the 3,000-mAh battery in the regular model.

Beyond that, you're looking at just about the same phone as before. The device still runs on Qualcomm's fastest processor, the Snapdragon 835, with the same 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of expandable storage. The top-notch cameras are still here, too, and the fingerprint scanner is still awkwardly near the top of the phone's back.

There also remains a button dedicated to activating Samsung's Bixby voice assistant. Previous Galaxy S Active phones have included a button that can be custom-mapped to various shortcuts, but here you're stuck with the assistant that Business Insider's Steve Kovach recently deemed "half-baked."

Since this is a carrier exclusive for the time being, there'll also be some apps preloaded onto the phone — AT&T says its DirecTV Now streaming service will be included, for one.

All of this means the Galaxy S8 Active should be plenty powerful, but it's still fairly expensive for a phone that gives up the standard S8's signature feature, that curved design. Nevertheless, if you want a high-end phone and don't want to bother with a case, the S8 Active may be worth a look.

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