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Samsung’s newly launched flagships may be intimidating in price, but the even newer Galaxy A54 5G certainly isn’t, at half the price of the Galaxy S23 Ultra but with most of the powerful features.
It’s pretty clear what Samsung is trying to do with this range: by streamlining the design of the A Series so that they look pretty similar to the flagship Galaxy S23 Series, they’re blurring the lines between flagship and midrange at least in design. When it comes to performance, though, you’re still only going to get what you pay for.
Samsung Galaxy A54 Specifications
- Processor: Samsung Exynos 1380 (5nm), octa-core
- Display: 6.40” 1080 x 2340 Super AMOLED, 120Hz, 19.5:9 aspect ratio
- Memory: 8GB RAM / 256GB ROM
- Rear camera: 50MP Main (Wide) + 12MP Ultra-wide + 5MP Macro
- Front camera: 32MP
- Video: 4K@30fps, 1080@30/60fps, 720p@480fps
- Battery: 5000mAh
- Dimensions: 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2 mm
- Weight: 202g
Display & Design
As mentioned, the Galaxy A54 5G mirrors the floating camera design of the flagship Galaxy S23 Utlra. In fact, it’d be hard to tell one from the other at a distance, if it weren’t for the more “funky” colour of the Galaxy A54 5G.
The difference stands out only when you look closer at the phone. Improving on its predecessor, the Galaxy A54 5G has a glass back, which makes it nicer to hold, and it’s a little blockier than the Galaxy S23. Our review unit was in violet, a vibrant shade of purple, which really stands out from other phones.
On the front, the Galaxy A54 5G has a 6.4” OLED panel with a refresh rate that goes up to 120Hz. For a mid-range phone, this is actually pretty impressive, but in practice, we found that the colours weren’t quite as great as the Galaxy A53 5G last year. It’s not exactly less vibrant, but just somehow off — a little
Besides that, the bezels around the screen are pretty prominent and, honestly, distracting. It makes the phone look less premium than it actually is when the screen is turned on.
On the bright side, pun intended, the screen gets brighter than the Galaxy A53, so the screen is still readable in direct sunlight. The high refresh rate also makes scrolling buttery smooth, so if you can overlook the slightly funky and over-saturated colours, we’d consider the display on the Galaxy A54 a small improvement over the last generation.
Performance
Unlike the flagship line, the Galaxy A54 is powered by Samsung’s self-developed Exynos 1380 chip, running OneUI 5.1 over Android 13. As a whole, OneUI 5.1 is intuitive and familiar enough to most Android users, with some fancy quirks that quite improve the everyday smartphone experience.
More importantly, the Galaxy A54 5G runs pretty smooth, albeit running a little hot after long usage, which results in the occasional lag. The overheating issue is actually pretty prevalent on most of Samsung’s devices, including the Galaxy S23 Series, so we weren’t exactly surprised — Samsung really needs to step up in this regard.
As usual, we tested the phone’s gaming capabilities using Genshin Impact. Now, graphically speaking, it’s really not the best, as expected for a phone in this price range, but the game can still run with minimal lags. PUBG Mobile also ran smoothly on the Galaxy A54, albeit with the occasional stutter.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is a decent casual gaming phone, as long as you don’t run it too hard and don’t pay too much attention to the graphics and oversaturated colours.
Camera
Just like all the other devices in the A Series, the Galaxy A54 5G has three rear cameras consisting of a 50MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro lens. On the front, you’ll get a 32MP shooter for all your selfie needs.
For a brand that prides itself on smartphone camera innovation, the Galaxy A54 5G certainly doesn’t disappoint. The rear camera system takes decent enough photos with balanced lighting and sharp details. Even low-light photos looked decent on the Galaxy A54.
You can switch between 50MP and 12MP on the Galaxy A54 5G easily, just like the Galaxy S23, but obviously, the image quality will suffer for it. It’s also too much to ask for good zoom quality, given the hardware you’re working with, so sadly, no awesome moon photos with this.
On the selfie front, the Galaxy A54 5G also exceeded expectations, largely thanks to Samsung’s usual AI mojo that optimizes the photo so that you’re always seen in the best of light.
Battery
5,000 mAh is a pretty standard battery capacity for a phone in this price range, so it’s up to the power efficiency of the chipset that determines the battery life.
The Galaxy A54 5G’s battery life is quite decent. It managed to last two whole days with low to moderate usage, mainly just scrolling social media and checking messages. When we threw a little gaming into the mix, though, it lasts a little more than a day, which is still pretty good.
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