Samsung Galaxy A54 : REVIEW

Samsung’s new mid-range champ

Though Samsung’s Galaxy A series, and its A5X handsets in particular, are typically remarkable entrants into the mid-range market each year, they are undoubtedly among the best Samsung phones money can buy. Mid-range phones are rarely as memorable as their flagship counterparts.

Although the flagship model of Samsung’s 2023 Galaxy A-series mid-rangers offers some welcome improvements over its predecessor, battery life claims are not up to par, and more potent phones are available for the same or less money.

Though Samsung’s Galaxy A series, and its A5X handsets in particular, are typically remarkable entrants into the mid-range market each year, they are undoubtedly among the best Samsung phones money can buy. Mid-range phones are rarely as memorable as their flagship counterparts.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is the company’s newest offering for 2023. They’ve had a lot of success with previous generations, with the Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A51 being among the best-selling phones globally in their respective launch years.

Just over a year has passed since the launch of the Galaxy A53, and Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A34 5G and Galaxy A54 5G side by side in an attempt to revive the brand in the mid-range phone segment by providing premium features and long battery life in an elegant design that is about half the price of flagship phones that serve as inspiration. As the name implies, the A54 is the more feature-rich of these two most recent A-series models; it has a more upscale design, better cameras, and greater power.

The A54’s 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display, which peaks at 1,000 nits (200 more than the A53) is somewhat smaller than that of its predecessor. Both the front and rear of the device sport Gorilla Glass 5, and its IP67-certified design embraces the floating camera aesthetics that were first seen on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and then adopted by the company’s flagship Galaxy S23 series, which debuted at the beginning of the year.

SAMSUNG GALAXY A54 PRICE

      RAM / Storage                                                        India price

8GB / 128GB                                                            35,499

8GB / 256GB                                                           37,499

There are a number of obvious tweaks and refinements that Samsung has exacted on the A54 between generations, including a slightly smaller and brighter screen, a new camera system that omits its predecessor’s depth sensor, and a selection of punchier, more eye-catching colorways.

Samsung Galaxy A54 specs

SAMSUNG GALAXY A54 DESIGN : REVIEW

• Front and back Gorilla Glass 5 IP67-certified structure
• Smaller but heavier than the Galaxy A53

Last year, the Galaxy S22 Ultra had its own design language, while the contour-cut camera aesthetics first seen on the Galaxy S21 series persisted across the majority of the company’s other 2022 devices. However, this year, the Galaxy A54, like the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, adopts the more modern floating camera design originally seen on last year’s Ultra.

While the A53’s elevated camera module was quite appealing (I preferred it to the complete contour-cut look of the S22 and S22 Plus), the A54’s updated design is even cleaner, even if it comes at the price of some distinctiveness when compared to market rivals and predecessors. To compensate, this year’s model is available in a variety of more vibrant colors, including Awesome Lime and Awesome Violet, while Awesome Graphite and Awesome White are more subdued.

SAMSUNG GALAXY A54 DISPLAY : REVIEW

• 6.4-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with variable refresh rate of 120Hz.
• Touch sampling rate of 240Hz, peak brightness of 1,000 nits, and Vision Booster

On its outermost layer, the A54 has a similar display to its predecessor, but Samsung has made tiny but significant improvements that provide an improved overall watching experience.

In a statement of lighting, the A54’s screen has received a 200-nit boost in peak brightness, which now reaches 1,000nits, implying that outdoor visibility should be significantly improved over the A53 and its predecessors.

Although it has a quick refresh rate, scrolling has never felt as fluid or snappy as it does on many other phones with 120Hz screens, especially when navigating through lengthy feeds from apps and websites. Even though most people probably won’t be offended or even notice the slight sluggishness my sharp tech journalistic eyes are attuned to, let’s hope Samsung can simply optimize the A54’s software to reduce lag further post-launch. This may be more of a criticism of the phone’s performance than its screen.

In addition, compared to the A53’s screen, blue light filtration on the A54—branded as Eye Comfort Shield in the phone’s Quick Settings—has been nearly half (12.5% down to 6.5%, per an independent SGS certification). This makes for less distracting viewing in low light or late at night. Concurrently, an abundance of settings allows you to adjust color profiles (the phone comes pre-configured to be “Vivid”), color temperature, and even individual RGB sliders.

• Display score: 4 / 5

SAMSUNG GALAXY A54 SOFTWARE :  REVIEW

• runs One UI 5.1 on top of Android 13 out of the box.
• OS updates for four years plus security updates for five

Although there are some additional pre-loaded third-party apps that could be considered bloatware and need to be manually removed once setup is finished, the A54 does give you the option of which additional Samsung apps you want to install during setup, meaning that apps like the Samsung Calculator and Browser aren’t required inclusions. In the India, examples of these apps include Booking.com and YouTube Shorts.

When switching from a Pixel, Motorola, or even iOS device, One UI has a distinct visual language that takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a fun, feature-rich, and quite powerful experience.

Samsung has matched the commitment it made with its flagship phones by offering users four years of operating system updates and five years of security updates, which extends the phone’s lifespan well beyond many competitors around the same price point (and above). This is by far the biggest win for the A54’s software experience.

• Software score: 4 / 5