In March, Samsung introduced the new flagship phones of the series Galaxy AT - Galaxy A54 5G a Galaxy A34 5G. You can read our first impressions of both. Now we have a review of the first mentioned for you and we can tell you in advance that it is indeed a very successful smartphone compared to its predecessor Galaxy A53 5G however, it is somewhat more controversial. If you want to know what it is, and if it is actually worth buying, read on.
Package contents as poor as last time
Galaxy The A54 5G comes in the exact same box as its predecessor, which means you'll find the same stuff inside as last year, apart from the phone itself, a roughly metre-long charging/data cable with USB ends on both sides, a couple of user manuals and a slot extraction needle for a SIM card (or rather for two SIM cards or one "SIM" and a memory card). When Samsung decided not to put a charger in the packaging of its phones, it could at least add a basic case or a film for the display. The contents of the package are a certain calling card of the phone (and also its manufacturer), so it is incomprehensible for a manufacturer like Samsung why it only packs the absolutely necessary with its smartphones. This is certainly a great pity and an unnecessary minus.
The design and workmanship is first class, except for…
Design and processing have always been a strong point of Samsung's higher models, and this is no different Galaxy A54 5G. In this regard, the phone is obviously inspired by the basic and "plus" model of the flagship series Galaxy S23 and at first glance you could mistake it for them. This applies especially to the back, which is fitted with three separate cameras. They protrude quite significantly from the body of the phone, and when you place it on a table, it wobbles uncomfortably. Operating it (and especially texting) in this position can be quite frustrating.
However, the back has one trump card that is truly unheard of in mid-range smartphones – it is made of glass (to be more precise, it is Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass). It gives the phone an unmistakable identity and looks really cool (and feels good too). The downside of this solution is that it picks up fingerprints easily and doesn't hold the phone very firmly in your hand.
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It's also definitely a shame that while the smartphone already boasts a premium-looking back, it "just" has a plastic frame. However, you wouldn't recognize it at first glance, because it seems to resemble metal.
The front is occupied by a flat Infinity-O display and, unlike its predecessor, it has slightly thicker frames. The screen is slightly smaller than last year (by 0,1 inches to be exact), which is certainly not a problem, but it is somewhat surprising. After all, one would expect the successor of a phone to have at least the same, if not larger, screen size as its predecessor. It is all the more surprising that u Galaxy A34 5G screen enlargement has occurred.
The phone otherwise measures 158,2 x 76,7 x 8,2 mm and is thus 1,4 mm smaller in height, 1,9 mm wider and 0,1 mm thicker than its predecessor. Unlike it, it is heavier (202 vs. 189 g), but this difference is not felt in practice. At the end of this chapter, let's add that the new "a" is available in black, white, purple and lime color (we tested a decent white variant) and that just like Galaxy The A53 5G has an IP67 degree of protection, so it should be able to withstand submersion to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes.
The display is exhibition
We already touched on the display a little in the previous chapter, now we will focus on it in more detail. It is of the Super AMOLED type, has a size of 6,4 inches, a resolution of FHD+ (1080 x 2340 px), a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a peak brightness of 1000 nits and supports the Always-On function. Its quality is excellent, it offers a beautifully sharp image, just saturated colors, perfect contrast, great viewing angles and excellent readability in direct sunlight (the increase in maximum brightness from 800 to the mentioned 1000 nits is really noticeable here). It's worth noting that the 120Hz refresh rate is adaptive this time around, an element known from Samsung's flagships. On the other hand, depending on the displayed content, it varies only between 60 and 120 Hz, for the "flags" of the Korean giant, the range of the adaptive refresh rate is significantly larger. Even so, it's something you won't find on competing mid-range phones.
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As with its predecessor, there is an Eye Comfort function that protects your eyes by reducing blue light, and of course there is also a dark mode. We still owe you a few words about the fingerprint reader, which, like last year, is built into the display. It works absolutely reliably and during testing we did not have it recognize our finger inaccurately (the same applies to unlocking with the face).
Performance is quite sufficient
Galaxy The A54 5G is powered by an Exynos 1380 chip, which, according to Samsung, has a Galaxy A53 5G and A33 5G) up to 20% percent higher computing power and up to 26% better graphics performance. "On paper" it is roughly as powerful as the proven mid-range Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset. In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the phone scored 513 points, which is about 346 percent more than its predecessor, and in another popular Geekbench 14 benchmark, it scored 6 points in the single-core test and 991 points in the multi-core test. Let's add that we had it in the version with 2827 GB of operating memory and 8 GB of storage.
In practice, the performance of the phone is absolutely sufficient, nothing cuts or slows down anywhere, everything, including switching applications, is smooth. Perhaps the only exception was slight delays when opening some applications, which did not disrupt the user experience in any way. There is no problem with games either, when you can play popular titles such as Asphalt 9, PUBG MOBILE or Call of Duty Mobile at higher details with a stable framerate. However, for more graphically demanding titles, you will probably have to reduce the details more so that the framerate does not fall below a bearable level (which is 30 fps in most cases). Exynos chipsets are notorious for overheating under long-term load, and the Exynos 1380 did not escape this problem. However, subjectively, we feel that Galaxy The A54 5G overheated slightly less than Galaxy A53 5G. After all, this is evidenced by the fact that in the mentioned AnTuTu 9 benchmark, it warmed up to less degrees (roughly five – 27 vs. 32 °C) than its predecessor.
The camera pleases day and night
Galaxy The A54 is equipped with a triple camera with a resolution of 50, 12 and 5 MPx, with the first having optical image stabilization, the second serving as an ultra-wide-angle lens (with a 123° angle of view) and the third as a macro camera. So "on paper", the photo composition is weaker compared to its predecessor (it had a 64 MPx main camera and an additional depth sensor), but in practice this does not matter at all, rather the opposite. During the day, the photo quality is very good, the images are perfectly sharp, have enough detail, great contrast and a very solid dynamic range. If we are to compare them with the ones we took with the camera Galaxy A53 5G, they seem to be a little brighter and the color rendering is a little closer to reality. We also found the camera to focus a bit faster, not only during the day but also at night. We also have to praise the image stabilization, which works perfectly.
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As for shooting at night, here too Galaxy A54 5G scores. So we can confirm that Samsung wasn't kidding when it claimed that the phone's new main sensor takes better pictures in low-light conditions compared to last year's. Night photos have less noise, a higher degree of detail, and the color presentation is not so far from reality. However, the difference is not dramatic, "just" noticeable. It is also possible to use the night mode (which is activated automatically in really dark scenes), but it is rather useless, because the differences between photos taken in this mode and without it are hardly noticeable. I was pleasantly surprised by the digital zoom, which this time is more than usable (even at full zoom). On the other hand, there is practically no point in using an ultra-wide-angle camera at night, because the photos it produces are unnaturally dark and do not look good at all.
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Videos can be recorded in up to 4K resolution at 30 frames or in Full HD at 60 or 30 fps or in HD at 480 fps. In good lighting conditions, the quality of videos for a mid-range phone is well above average – they are perfectly sharp, detailed and their color reproduction is fairly true to reality. It's just a shame that image stabilization only works up to Full HD resolution at 30 fps. Without it, the videos are rather noticeably shaky, see our test 4K video. Here the improvement was directly offered, so maybe sometime next time.
At night, the video quality naturally drops, but not as sharply as in the case Galaxy A53 5G. There is not so much noise, the color rendering seems more natural, but most importantly, we did not notice any problems with focusing.
Overall, we can state that Galaxy The A54 5G delivers very good camera performance that will satisfy even the more demanding photographers among us. The improvement compared to its predecessor is especially visible at night (we will tactfully ignore the unusability of the ultra-wide-angle camera - although probably only a few people use it at night).
Operating system: Customize your phone to your liking
Galaxy A54 is software built on Androidu 13 and the One UI 5.1 superstructure. The add-on allows a wide range of phone customization options and offers a number of useful features such as improved lock screen customization options, new wallpaper categories, a new battery widget that allows you to check the battery level of your phone and all connected devices from the home screen, improved multi-window functionality (specifically, it is possible by dragging the corners to minimize or maximize the application window without having to go to the options menu), quick access to the most used applications in split-screen mode, the ability to change the directory for saving screenshots and screen recordings, improved options for the Remaster function in the Gallery or new actions for routines (allowing for example, change the font style or control the Quick Share and Touch sensitivity functions).
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We probably don't need to add that the system is perfectly tuned and smooth and, like the previous version of One UI, extremely intuitive. We must also praise the fact that the phone comes with a minimum of unnecessary applications. Its software support is also exemplary - it will receive four future upgrades Androidua will receive security updates for five years.
Two days on a single charge is guaranteed
Galaxy The A54 5G has the same battery capacity as its predecessor, i.e. 5000 mAh, but thanks to a more economical chipset, it can boast better durability. It reliably lasts for two days on a single charge, even if you don't use it too much, i.e. you will always have Wi-Fi on, play games, watch movies or take photos. If you save it a lot, you can even get twice as much. Samsung deserves a lot of credit for this.
As said at the beginning, the phone doesn't come with a charger and we didn't have one available at the time of testing, so we can't tell you how long it takes to charge. We have to refer to Samsung, which claims that it charges from zero to one hundred in 82 minutes, which is a very weak result in 2023. 25W charging is simply insufficient today and Samsung should finally do something about it. The cable will otherwise charge the phone in approximately two and a half hours.
So to buy or not to buy?
All in all, it is Galaxy A54 5G is a very good mid-range smartphone. It boasts an excellent display with high brightness, completely sufficient performance, a nice design led by a glass back, a quality camera that scores especially at night, above average battery life and long software support. On the other hand, it offers few changes compared to its predecessor and has some not entirely negligible flaws, such as relatively thick frames around the display, wobbles due to protruding rear cameras (Samsung should have taken care of this) and limited image stabilization when shooting videos. We don't even need to mention the poor sales packaging.
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In other words, Galaxy The A54 5G is not as obvious a choice as it was last year Galaxy A53 5G. Samsung already played it safe with him, and even more so with his successor. In short, there are few changes and the price/performance ratio is not so good here. In order for us to be able to recommend the phone to you with a clear conscience, its price would have to be at least one or two thousand crowns lower (currently, the version with 128GB storage is sold for CZK 11 and the version with 999GB storage for CZK 256). It seems like a better choice Galaxy A53 5G, which is available today for less than CZK 8.
It also has an eSim
It lasts me a day and a few hours with normal use. It would probably last two days with minimal use. With intensive use, it won't even last a day.
It's about the way of use, yes.
Thanks for the review. We bought recently at MP for about 8300 and it was a great choice. Even with the bonus of buying an older phone. We are satisfied. I can recommend.