The Samsung Galaxy A-series smartphones are one of the most popular mid-range devices in the market, featuring a decent performance with a stylish design chassis at an affordable price. We got a chance to try the new Galaxy A54 5G, and here are our thoughts about the device.
Design
It’s no surprise that Samsung borrowed some of the design cues of its Galaxy S-series flagship devices for the new Galaxy A54 5G. The new smartphone features a dimension of 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2mm, and the device weighs about 202g. It’s also an IP67-certified device that offers dust and water resistance (for up to 1m depth and a duration of 30 minutes). However, the smartphone uses a plastic frame instead of a metal variant.
The main display features a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel, and the screen resolution is 1080 x 2340 pixels. While the 1080p screen might be a bit lower than other devices, the display produced crisp colors and sharpness. The screen also features a 120Hz refresh rate, an impressive 1000 nits of brightness, and 403 ppi density. The screen comes protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to resist those accidental scratches and bumps. The main display also features an under-display fingerprint scanner.
The volume rocker and the power/Bixby button are located on the right side of the device. The top portion houses the SIM card slot and one microphone. And the bottom part includes the USB-C port, speaker grills, and another microphone hole.
While the sides are plastic, Samsung implemented a glass panel on the rear side. And to be honest, it’s a big fingerprint magnet. That said, the rear reflective glass panel also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The camera island’s borderless design is also some of the design cues borrowed from the Galaxy S23 series. During my time with the smartphone, I noticed that dust easily gets collected between the camera modules, and I had to blow air to get rid of the dust. While it was just a minor issue for me, cleaning the device always after taking it out of your pocket may be a dealbreaker for some users.
Features & Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is positioned as a premium mid-range smartphone that comes with decent specifications. The device is powered by the Exynos 1380 chip, an octa-core SoC, featuring four Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4GHz, and another four Cortex-A55 cores running at 2GHz speeds. The device comes in different storage and memory options and our review sample is the highest-tier memory configuration, featuring 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
You can increase the storage with the help of a MicroSD card, and the slot is shared with the SIM slot. The smartphone runs on Android 13 OS and comes mixed with Samsung’s One UI 5.1 software. For gaming, the SoC comes packed with the Mali-G68 MP5 GPU. The smartphone ran smoothly most of the time, and gaming with the device also was good without any noticeable framerate drops.
We ran popular smartphone benchmark tools such as PCMark Work 3.0, 3DMark Wildlife, Wildlife Extreme, Sling Shot, Sling Shot Extreme, GeekBench 6 CPU & GPU, and Antutu. Check out the scores below.
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- PCMark 3.0
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- 3DMark Wildlife
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- 3DMark Wildlife Extreme
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- 3DMark Slingshot
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- 3DMark Slingshot Extreme
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- Geekbench 6 CPU
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- Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL
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- Geekbench 6 GPU Vulkan
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- Antutu 9.6.0
Other features include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and 5G connectivity. Samsung also has included a large 5000 mAh battery that has support for 25W fast wired charging. However, it’s a bit disappointing that there is no support for wireless charging. We ran the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery test and the Galaxy A54 5G lasted for about 14 hours and 55 minutes. It should be noted that the benchmark stops when the battery percentage reaches 20% capacity, which indicates it still has some more juice to go on.
Camera
When it comes to smartphone photography, there are three main cameras on the rear side. The main camera module packs a 1/1.56″ 50MP sensor and is joined with an f/1.8 lens, along with support for optical stabilization and phase detection autofocus. The second camera houses a 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 lens for ultra-wide shots, and the third camera module features a 5 MP camera with an f/2.4 lens for macro shots. The maximum video resolution is 4K at 30fps. However, you can still record 60fps videos with 1080p as the resolution.
The quality of the images taken during the day time are good with solid colors and a respectable zoom performance. The night shots are also decent. However, we were not able to save some of the night shots, so excuse us for the lack of low-light samples. That said, the front-facing camera packs a massive 32MP 1/2.8″ sensor and f/2.2 aperture lens. The front camera also is capable of 4K videos at 30fps. The selfie camera is designed as a punch-hole camera. Take a look at the samples below.
Verdict
If you are looking for a great mid-range smartphone with good performance and camera, long battery life, and 5G connectivity, then consider the new Samsung Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. The device features a brilliant 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with support for 120Hz refresh rate, 1080 x 2340 screen resolution, and 1000 nits of brightness. The smartphone is only 8.2mm thick and weighs 202g. While the frame is made of plastic, the front and rear glass panels are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
The performance of the device is good, thanks to the octa-core Exynos 1380 SoC, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of internal storage. Users can increase the storage with MicroSD cards. The Mali-G68 MP5 GPU can handle games quite well. The device runs on the latest Android 13 OS with One UI 5.1 interface. The smartphone also features a triple camera setup for wide, ultra-wide, and macro photography, and the front-facing camera features a 32MP snapper. Both the front and rear cameras are capable of 4K30p video recording. The Galaxy A54 5G is an IP67-certified smartphone and the device also comes with a large 5000 mAh battery with support for 25W fast wired charging.
