While excitement around One UI 7.0 and the Galaxy S25 series keeps building up, we just got a reminder that Samsung is quietly cooking up a new rugged phone deep inside its development labs. One of its key components showed up online at one of South Korea's regulatory agencies. A few key details are now confirmed.
The rugged device in question is the Galaxy Xcover 8 Pro — unconfirmed name. Safety Korea (via GalaxyClub) recently authenticated its battery.
- The unit has a higher capacity than the one used for the last two Xcover models.
- The Galaxy Xcover 8 Pro's battery is manufactured by a long-time Samsung component supplier.
- The authentication photo at Safety Korea confirms the battery is user-removable.
More details after the video
The battery carries model number EB-BG766GBY, which corresponds to the Xcover 8 Pro's SM-G766B model number. The latter was discovered at the end of October when the first details about Samsung's plans for its 2025 rugged device lineup surfaced.
Safety Korea confirms that the Galaxy Xcover 8 Pro battery is manufactured by one of Samsung's long-time component suppliers, Ningde Amperex Technology Limited.
Upon closer inspection, the photo of the battery confirms that the unit has a rated capacity of 4265mAh and a typical capacity of 4350mAh.
The last two rugged phones Samsung released, i.e., the Xcover 6 Pro and Xcover 7, had user-removable batteries with typical capacities of 4050mAh. The upcoming model will finally get a bit of an upgrade, which could make a big difference for enterprise users.
Samsung's release plans for the Galaxy Xcover 8 Pro are unknown, but the phone will likely go on sale around mid-2025. Samsung is also working on a new Tab Active rugged tablet.
