The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G ($449.99) is the newest midrange smartphone from the Korean tech big. This replace to final 12 months’s A53 arrives as among the best affordably priced Android handsets in the marketplace with a big show, triple-lens digital camera suite, and a very good improve path. Nonetheless, it faces heavy competitors from units just like the Google Pixel 7a ($499.99), our Editors’ Selection at this value. As good because the Galaxy A54 5G is, it falls simply wanting dethroning Google’s midrange winner.
Design That Does not Make You Look Twice
The Galaxy A54 5G appears moderately standard, particularly when held subsequent to the Pixel 7a and its unorthodox digital camera bar. The A54 contains a extra conventional slab design with gently rounded corners and a column of lenses protruding from the again, considerably mirroring the design of the costlier Galaxy fashions. It’s a departure from the design of the A53, which was extra squared-off. The A54 doesn’t stand out, which could possibly be higher suited to some tastes. You possibly can snag the cellphone in Superior Violet or Superior Graphite. That graphite mannequin I examined is a nice-looking shade that gained’t appeal to a lot consideration.
Slightly than use plastic for the rear panel, Samsung used Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on each the entrance and the again, which is a pleasant bonus. The glass doesn’t appear overly vulnerable to attracting fingerprints, which is sweet, and provides the cellphone a much-needed enhance in high quality. Nonetheless, whereas many telephones on this phase function aluminum frames, Samsung opted for polycarbonate right here. This can be a bit disappointing and degrades from the expertise of utilizing it. Compared, the Pixel 7a makes use of aluminum across the sides, Gorilla Glass on the entrance, and plastic on the again. The A54 earns an IP67 ranking for cover from mud and water—the identical ranking earned by the Pixel 7a and final 12 months’s A53.
The A54 is barely bigger than the Pixel 7a, with dimensions of ??6.2 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and a weight of seven.13 ounces. In distinction, the 7a measures 6.0 by 2.8 by 0.4 inches and weighs 6.8 ounces. In fact, the Pixel 7a has a smaller display, so we count on it to be just a little extra compact.
The Tremendous AMOLED display of Samsung’s cellphone measures 6.4 inches and contains a 120Hz refresh price, which is quicker than the Pixel 7a’s 90Hz show. Granted, the distinction between 90Hz and 120Hz isn’t fairly sufficient to note except you examine them straight. The two,340-by-1,080-pixel decision makes for a density of 403ppi. I discovered the display to be fairly good. It’s loads vibrant sufficient to see within the solar.
The display options an under-display fingerprint reader for biometric unlocking. I had no points with it throughout testing. The front-facing digital camera, which is a punch gap on the high of the display, helps face unlock. It is not as safe as a fingerprint however in testing, it labored fairly nicely.
The highest fringe of the Galaxy A54 contains a SIM card slot with assist for a single bodily SIM. The proper facet options the facility button and quantity rocker. The underside homes one of many two audio system (the earpiece is the opposite) and a USB-C port. There’s no headphone jack on this cellphone, however there’s a slot for a microSD reminiscence card.
Exynos May Be Extra Thrilling
The Samsung Galaxy A54 would not generate the very best benchmark scores nor the swiftest real-world efficiency, nevertheless it does a adequate job for the value. The Exynos 1380 is a small step up from the Exynos 1280 in final 12 months’s Galaxy A53. It contains 4 Cortex-A78 cores at 2.4GHz and 4 Cortex-A55 cores at 2GHz. The handset has 6GB of RAM, which is 2GB wanting the Pixel 7a, and ships with 128GB of storage.
I examined the cellphone’s capacity to deal with real-world duties by working the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark. The Galaxy A54 scored 12,951, barely above the anticipated stage for a midrange smartphone. The Pixel 7a, with its Google-made Tensor G2 SoC, scored 11,123.
Then I assessed the cellphone’s capacity to deal with CPU-intensive duties by way of Geekbench 5. It recorded a single-core rating of 537 and a multi-core rating of two,599. Compared, the Pixel 7a scored 1,343 and a couple of,853, which is a lot better, particularly the single-core rating.
Final, I examined the cellphone’s capacity to render graphics by way of the GFXBench Aztek take a look at. Right here, the cellphone averaged 13fps in the course of the 1440p take a look at, decrease than the Pixel 7a’s 19fps. The A54 isn’t a high-end cellphone, so body charges within the teenagers are respectable on this value vary. To see body charges rise to the 60fps vary, you’ll have to spring for a flagship such because the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely ($1,199).
Enjoying video games on the A54’s Mali-G68 MP5 GPU is respectable however not nice. Genshin Impression performed acceptably with the graphics at their medium setting and the body price set to 30fps. Increased settings precipitated substantial body drops and hitches. Easy video games like Alto’s Odyssey ran with out a drawback.
Samsung included a 5,000mAh battery within the A54 5G, which is similar capability because the A53 however bigger than the Pixel 7a’s 4,385mAh energy cell. I drained the battery by streaming a YouTube video over Wi-Fi with the display brightness set to the utmost. It lasted 13 hours and 18 minutes. In comparison with the Pixel 7a’s battery lifetime of 13 hours and 25 minutes, the telephones run useless even so far as energy is worried.
The Galaxy A54 helps wired charging speeds as much as 25W, however there’s no energy adapter within the field. That is quicker than most midrange telephones. For instance, Google’s Pixel 7a assist wired charging speeds as much as 18W. I totally charged the A54’s battery in 1 hour and 54 minutes, which is respectable however doesn’t rival the speeds provided by high-end telephones such because the OnePlus 11, which might recharge in 27 minutes due to 80W charging speeds.
There’s no assist for wi-fi charging, which is a disappointment, however not a shock on this cellphone’s value phase. The 7a does embody wi-fi charging, which supplies it a small benefit.
Concerning sound high quality, the cellphone helps stereo playback by utilizing the downward-firing speaker on the cellphone’s backside and earpiece collectively. I listened carefully to “Silent Shout” by The Knife, which pushes any speaker’s audio capabilities. I used to be largely pleased with the small audio system on the cellphone, although the bass response lacks a bit.
Shooters That Are Good Sufficient
The Galaxy A54 5G has a 50MP essential sensor with optical picture stabilization. It bins captured images right down to 12.5MP. The cellphone additionally has a 12MP ultra-wide shooter and a 5MP macro digital camera. The selfie digital camera takes 32MP images.
For essentially the most half, images captured with any of the cameras look good, although the principle digital camera creates essentially the most vibrant photos. Images have that further Samsung brightness and vibrancy we’ve come to count on. I want the extra natural-looking colours provided by the Pixel 7a.
Google pulls forward of the A54, notably with its low-light images. Google’s Night time Sight is among the many greatest darkish images modes within the business, and it simply retains that title. You may get respectable images in low mild with the A54, however the sensor’s limitations are clear when in comparison with these of the 7a.
The selfie digital camera does an excellent job in common or portrait mode. Pictures are sharp and crisp, and the bokeh impact utilized to portrait mode makes the images really feel much less like selfies and extra like precise images. You gained’t get superior options like True Tone (for extra natural-looking pores and skin) provided on the Pixel, however images of individuals nonetheless look good.
You possibly can seize as much as 4K video at 30fps. The cellphone helps 1080p seize at 30fps or 60fps, as nicely. Lastly, you’ll be able to file slow-motion video at 240fps. The footage we captured appeared tremendous, nevertheless it did not wow us.
Full 5G Performance
The A54 helps each sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, together with C-band spectrum. I evaluated the cellphone on AT&T’s community in Danbury, Conn., which is a moderately weak location for the provider. Our checks give us an concept of how nicely the cellphone can deal with a weak sign, however AT&T’s greatest 5G community protection isn’t accessible in our testing space. We examined it towards the Pixel 7a.
On the sting of AT&T’s commonplace 5G community, speeds have been poor, however they have been equally poor for each the A54 and the 7a. The Samsung reached 11.3Mbps down and 0.2Mbps up, whereas the Pixel achieved 11.1Mbps down and 0.2Mbps up. The outcomes have been solely marginally quicker in an space listed on AT&T’s web site as having full 5G+ (AT&T’s model of ultra-wideband). The Samsung scored 21.2Mbps down and 1.2Mbps up, whereas the Pixel had 22.3Mbps down and 1.1Mbps up. Whereas the speeds in Danbury have been lackluster, Samsung’s cellphone does in addition to others when examined underneath the identical community situations.
Regardless of the sluggish AT&T service, calls I made with the Galaxy A54 sounded nice. I measured the earpiece and speaker volumes and located that each have been within the vary I anticipated, with the earpiece peaking at 82.5dB and the speaker at 94.1dB. These are strong numbers and imply calls are straightforward to listen to.
The Galaxy A54 falls wanting the Pixel 7a in terms of Wi-Fi. It contains Wi-Fi 6 whereas the 7a runs the newest Wi-Fi 6E. I examined each telephones’ Wi-Fi speeds to see if there was a noticeable distinction in efficiency, and there wasn’t a lot. The Galaxy A54 nabbed 413Mbps down and 219Mbps up when examined in the identical room because the router. Compared, the Pixel 7a hit 407Mbps down and 204Mbps up. On the fringe of the router’s vary, the A54 hit obtain speeds of three.5Mbps and add speeds of 1.2Mbps, whereas the 7a registered 2.2Mbps down and 1.1Mbps up. In different phrases, the A54’s Wi-Fi performs on par with different telephones in its value vary.
Lastly, the Galaxy A54 contains Bluetooth 5.3 for connecting with wi-fi headphones and NFC for cellular funds, which is turning into extra widespread on midrange smartphones.
Loads of Updates to Come
Some folks love Samsung’s One UI pores and skin; others can’t stand it. Every little thing One UI followers love in regards to the pores and skin on Samsung’s costlier telephones is right here. The A54 options One UI 5.1, which relies on Android 13. It’s quick and snappy, even with the extra modest processor on board.
You get the usual array of Google and Samsung apps, comparable to Google Messages and Samsung Web. Not many pointless apps come preloaded on the unlocked model of the cellphone, and a lot of the default apps are helpful for the general Android expertise.
The AT&T model we examined arrived with some apps and video games we’d moderately not must take care of. Fortunately, you’ll be able to safely delete these further apps to create a cleaner expertise if you want.
Samsung is the market chief for long-term software program administration within the Android area. The Galaxy A54 5G presents the identical 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of safety updates as on the high-end Galaxy S23 sequence. Google falls one 12 months quick for Android model upgrades in comparison with Samsung; the 7a will obtain solely three.
A Succesful and Inexpensive Challenger
The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is way from essentially the most thrilling smartphone ever designed, nevertheless it delivers a lot of worth. For $450, you get strong on a regular basis efficiency, good battery life, respectable cameras, on-point wi-fi connectivity, and the business’s most beneficiant replace coverage. Sadly for Samsung, the Google Pixel 7a is just a bit higher. The variations are slight, however think about its standout design, superior images suite, and small efficiency win, and the Pixel 7a stays our Editors’ Selection choose for midrange telephones.
