Having been the subject of many a rumour in June, the Samsung Galaxy A8 is now officially part of the Korean company's line-up although there are no indications as yet as to whether it will be released outside of China.

The headline feature for the phone, which is more mid-range than top tier, is that it is Samsung's thinnest device yet. It's just 5.9mm deep, which is remarkably thin for a smartphone and we'd love to hold one to see how much that makes a difference.

Other specifications include a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen and 4G (LTE) connectivity. It also has a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, which signifies a return to Qualcomm for Samsung after using its own Exynos processing for the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.

There is 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (with microSD card support for up to a further 128GB), and the phone is powered by a 3,050mAh battery.

Front and back cameras are 5-megapixel and 16-megapixel respectively. It runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

READ: Samsung Galaxy A8 fully shown off in leaked hands-on video

In design terms, as well as a superslim waistline - which makes it just 151g - the bezel of the screen is tiny. That gives the effect of (almost) edge-to-edge glass without needing to wrap it around the phone like the S6 edge.

The Galaxy A8 is available to pre-order in China now in white, black and gold colours. If Samsung decides to release it in the UK or other regions, we'll let you know.