Samsung Galaxy A54 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is a strong mid-ranger that ticks most containers – it has a fantastic show, premium construct, a good digital camera setup and a big battery – however slight efficiency niggles and inconsistent battery life cease it from being an instantaneous suggestion.

Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G appears to be a tempting improve for these on the hunt for a mid-range machine, boasting a refreshed design, high-end supplies and the promise of two-day battery life. 

The upgraded supplies imply Samsung’s £449 Galaxy A54 feels nice, and the upgraded 50MP digital camera with a bigger sensor ought to present a leap in high quality in comparison with its predecessor, however is it sufficient to tempt customers from in style mid-range options just like the Google Pixel 6a?

After spending per week utilizing the Samsung Galaxy A54 as my principal smartphone, I’m conflicted. Sure areas actually stand out among the many mid-range competitors, however some key areas are nonetheless missing and cease the A54 from being an instantaneous suggestion.

Design and display screen

• New Galaxy S23-like design
• Glass rear helps it really feel premium
• 6.4-inch 120Hz AMOLED show

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has had fairly the improve within the design division in comparison with its predecessor, the Galaxy A53 5G, although you won’t discover it by it front-on.

That’s as a result of most of stated change is occurring on the rear of the telephone. Probably the most instantly noticeable is that Samsung has ditched the contour digital camera housing current on final 12 months’s mannequin, as an alternative opting for a similar minimalistic design because the flagship Galaxy S23 line. 

The easy trio of lenses on the rear is actually one of many cleaner appears round, particularly in comparison with rivals that use large round and rectangular digital camera housing. I personally suppose it’s slightly too minimalistic, bordering on the tasteless, however I’m certain there will probably be some that actually respect the brand new look.

A minimum of there are some beautiful color choices accessible to jazz up the simplistic design, coming in notably vibrant shades of Lime and Violet, together with a extra muted Graphite and Silver. The lime inexperienced end is a private favorite of mine, with a vivid flash of color that appears beautiful in actual life. 

The opposite massive improve for the Galaxy A54 is the fabric used; relatively than going for ‘glasstic’ (that’s plastic to you and I) Samsung has given the A54 the premium therapy with a full glass rear. 

It instantly makes the telephone really feel extra premium, particularly in comparison with the plastic Galaxy A34. It additionally provides a little bit of heft, however to not the purpose the place it feels substantial within the hand. At 202g it’s simply heavy sufficient to really feel premium with out going to the extremes of the 240g iPhone 14 Professional Max. 

It additionally sports activities the extra rounded corners of the Galaxy S23 vary, which helps the telephone stand out from a sea of similar-looking mid-range options, and IP67 mud and water resistance ought to defend it from most accidents. 

New design adjustments apart, it’s very a lot enterprise as typical for the Galaxy A54, sporting an influence button and quantity controls on the correct, a USB-C port on the underside and a mixed SIM and microSD card tray. The latter is a pleasant contact, permitting you to increase storage by as much as 1TB if required – I want it was a function of the flagship S23 vary too. 

The 6.4-inch AMOLED panel sports activities an ‘Infinity O’ design that, to you and I, merely means it has a single hole-punch digital camera cutout in the midst of the show. It’s the best solution to inform the distinction between it and the Galaxy A34 with its ‘Infinity U’ design. 

The mix of the FHD+ decision and 120Hz refresh price is sweet, although it stays unchanged in comparison with final 12 months’s A53 and textual content can typically look slightly mushy should you’ve skilled something increased, although most customers doubtless gained’t discover. It might’ve been good to see a leap to the next refresh price just like the equally priced 144Hz Motorola G200, however it’s arguably a lot of a muchness at that time. It felt buttery easy when zipping across the UI, on the very least. 

The show is dynamic, dropping between 60Hz and 120Hz relying on what you’re doing, although you may as well drive a 120Hz refresh price on the expense of battery life. It gained’t drop all the way down to a battery-saving 1Hz, however what mid-range telephone does?

All that stated, my closing impressions of the show are largely constructive; it’s large enough to comfortably watch YouTube movies and films on Netflix, colors are vibrant and punchy (if not slightly too vibrant) and it’s simply legible in direct daylight with a most brightness of 1000nits. I did miss components like HDR10+ when watching Netflix although, options yow will discover on the likes of the Redmi Notice 12 Professional Plus 5G and Google Pixel 6a.  

Digicam

• New 50MP digital camera boasts all-around enhancements
• Ultrawide and macro lenses stay unchanged
• 32MP selfie digital camera

The digital camera setup, no less than the place the primary lens is anxious, appears like a downgrade – on paper, that’s. 

Sure, the megapixel depend has dropped from 64MP to 50MP with the Galaxy A54, however it’s value noting that it’s a totally new digital camera with a bigger sensor, bigger pixel measurement (0.8um to 1um, or 2um should you pixel-bin) and an enhanced OIS.

That interprets to fairly first rate picture seize in my expertise – in well-lit circumstances, anyway. Daylight photos have loads of element and the colors pop, although they’re barely extra vivid than actual life in true Samsung trend. Nonetheless, it makes for vibrant photographs more often than not, excellent for sharing on social media. 

HDR efficiency can be notable, with the telephone in a position to seize the element of foreground topics even with heavy backlighting from the solar. 

Low-light images has improved in comparison with final 12 months’s A53 with a bigger sensor and improved OIS, however it’s nonetheless not fairly up there with the very best round. Pictures are comparatively detailed general, and there are first rate quantities of sunshine captured, however they will nonetheless look slightly darkish and flat in comparison with what I used to be seeing within the second. 

To be trustworthy, it could’ve been fairly first rate for the cash had Xiaomi not launched the Redmi Notice 12 Professional Plus 5G and its 200MP sensor that really excels in low gentle. 

Nonetheless, outcomes throughout the board are pretty acceptable for the worth tag. What isn’t acceptable, nevertheless, is the autofocus efficiency. 

It’s a component I’ve had loads of points with throughout testing, with the telephone struggling to focus rapidly on topics when first opening the Digicam app – it typically took me placing my hand in entrance of the lens to drive the main target change earlier than it’d accurately seize focus. It’s not a problem unique to images both, with movies struggling the identical destiny, particularly should you’re tempted to zoom right into a topic mid-recording. 

The disappointing focus efficiency is a little bit of a shock given Samsung’s digital camera prowess on the high finish of the market – a lot in order that I’m assured that Samsung will repair the difficulty with a future software program replace. For now, although, the autofocus is likely one of the telephone’s greatest weaknesses. 

The primary sensor is backed up by a 12MP ultra-wide and a 5MP macro lens. The previous is pretty first rate for capturing expansive photographs with a large 0.5x zoom, although it’s greatest utilized in well-lit circumstances, sporting an aperture of f/2.2 that may make issues look slightly mushy and darkish in low-light circumstances. 

The 5MP macro lens is essentially the most area of interest of the gathering, and one thing I don’t suppose many individuals will use greater than as soon as with a set focus that makes it troublesome to seize something of be aware. The truth that the macro capturing mode is discovered within the ‘Extra’ part of the digital camera app, relatively than one of many principal capturing modes, says so much about how Samsung views it. 

Flip the telephone over and also you’ll discover a 32MP hole-punch selfie digital camera embedded into the highest of the show that’s greater than sufficient for selfies and video calls, however as you would possibly count on, most images must be left to the rear lenses. 

Efficiency

• Exynos 1380 chipset
• The occasional stutter is current
• Samsung OneUI 5.1 based mostly on Android 13

Not like the Galaxy A34 which has ditched Samsung’s personal processor for a MediaTek equal, Samsung’s Galaxy A54 sports activities an upgraded Exynos 1380 chipset – the most recent one within the firm’s roster having been revealed only a few weeks previous to the telephone’s announcement. 

That’s paired with 8GB of RAM no matter whether or not you go for the 128GB or 256GB variant, with the power to make use of spare ROM as RAM in performance-hungry apps. You’ve additionally received the choice to spice up storage by as much as 1TB with a microSD slot, one thing that’s lacking from Samsung’s flagship vary. 

With all that stated, don’t count on flagship-level efficiency, however day-to-day efficiency is pretty first rate and certain sufficient for informal smartphone customers. I may scroll by way of media-heavy apps like Twitter and Fb with out a lot stutter or slow-down, and the telephone may run top-down shooter Survivor.io with high-level graphics enabled – although the 2D cartoon-style recreation isn’t almost as graphics-intensive as titles like CoD Cellular.

Nonetheless, the expertise wasn’t excellent. The transition from lock display screen to house display screen can typically take a second, for instance, with the telephone hanging on a blurred display screen earlier than loading your app icons and widgets. I additionally seen framerate drops when enjoying the pretty fundamental Survivor.io for greater than half-hour, which doesn’t bode effectively for longer gaming classes. 

Components like switching between the primary and ultrawide lenses also can take a second or two, which isn’t excellent should you’re making an attempt to seize a fast snap of your pets or kids doing one thing humorous. 

So, sure, when you’ll have a comparatively easy expertise, it’s not fairly as speedy as some power-hungry customers would possibly like. That’s backed up by our benchmarks too, with a multi-core rating of 2703 in Geekbench 6 and simply 810 in 3DMark. Issues aren’t that rather more encouraging in GFXBench, managing simply 19fps within the high-end Aztec Ruins take a look at.

You’ll additionally get first rate connectivity with the inclusion of 5G connectivity and the upgraded Wi-Fi 6 alongside Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC. There isn’t a headphone jack although – that could be uncommon on the flagship stage, however it’s nonetheless comparatively frequent amongst mid-rangers just like the Redmi Notice 12 Professional Plus 5G.   

With regards to software program, the telephone ships with Samsung’s newest OneUI 5.1 based mostly on Android 13. It’s very a lot the standard affair with Samsung’s signature UI design and heavy reliance on Samsung-branded apps, however with small new options like the power to make use of sure Snapchat filters throughout the native Digicam app due to a brand new partnership between the 2 corporations. 

Battery life

• Giant 5000mAh battery 
• Battery life relies upon closely on what you’re doing
• 25W charging is simply too sluggish for the scale of the battery

Samsung wished to go massive on battery life with its A collection with each the Galaxy A54 and its low cost Galaxy A34 sibling sporting the identical 5,000mAh battery that’s discovered within the top-end flagship S23 Extremely, which can be larger than that of the S23 and S23 Plus.

On paper that sounds fairly rattling spectacular, particularly when coupled with Samsung’s claims of two days on a single cost, however that doesn’t all the time mirror real-world utilization.

On a mean day, the Galaxy A54 was serviceable. I may take it off cost at round 7:30am, use it sporadically by way of the day to take heed to music, scroll by way of Instagram and reply to WhatsApp messages. It’d reliably finish the day at round 11:30pm with round 40% battery left within the tank. That’s fairly good.

Nonetheless, after I took the telephone to Paris for a separate telephone launch, battery life started to falter. 

Beginning at 6:00am, I used the Galaxy A54 for texts, replying to work messages on Slack, replying to emails on Gmail and taking images of Parisian structure and I barely made it again to the lodge with 3% battery at 11pm – and that’s with me consciously utilizing it much less within the night due to its dwindling battery life.

That’s additionally with out utilizing the telephone to take heed to music and in any other case kill time on the two-hour journey from London to Paris by way of Eurostar, so I believed I’d put that to the take a look at on the best way house. Reader, I used to be very dissatisfied. I took the telephone off cost at round 10:30am, used it for maps, listening to music and enjoying a few video games on the Eurostar and the battery dwindled to simply 30% by 3:30pm. Protected to say it didn’t make it till that night time with out a top-up.

That’s backed up by benchmarks too, with duties like watching Netflix for an hour utilizing 7% of battery whereas half-hour of sunshine gaming drained 8% – the latter is kind of the leap in comparison with Qualcomm-enabled telephones just like the (admittedly way more costly) OnePlus 11 and its 4%, regardless of a higher-res show.  

Charging isn’t fairly up there both, particularly when powering such a large-capacity battery, capping out at simply 25W – and also you don’t get a charger within the field both. That signifies that even when you’ve sourced a charger, the method is sluggish, reaching simply 41% in half an hour of charging, with a full cost taking 1 hour and 33 minutes. 

In comparison with equally priced telephones just like the Realme GT 3 and its 240W charging that may go from flat to full in 9.5 minutes, that’s fairly rattling sluggish. 

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