A solid middle class with room for improvement

The Samsung Galaxy A5x series includes one of the best selling Samsung phones every year. Unfortunately, last year’s Galaxy A53 didn’t quite convince me, I hope the Galaxy A54 can. In this review you will find out if this phone can outperform its predecessors.

Samsung Galaxy A54

Samsung Galaxy A54 belongs to the popular Galaxy A series by Samsung. This range includes budget phones and mid-range phones with a good price-quality ratio. Samsung has been able to achieve a good price-quality ratio for phones in the A5x series every year. But preserving it is like preserving Michelin stars for a high class restaurant. very Difficult. How many stars does the Samsung Galaxy A54 get? You can read that in this review.

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Samsung Galaxy A54: pluses

1. Big and clear screen

The Samsung Galaxy A54 has a 6.4-inch FullHD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. The AMOLED panel has a 120Hz refresh rate and a fingerprint scanner is integrated. It’s a pleasure to work on the screen, everything looks so beautiful and lively.

However, the somewhat thick screen bezels around it are eye-catching and the refresh rate is not adaptive. This means that it will not automatically adapt to your use. This can affect battery life, but later in this review you’ll see that’s not the case.

2. Durable and beautiful design

The Galaxy A54 looks modern, despite the screen bezels and I can only be positive about the build quality. The phone has a glass back and it really feels better than the previous plastic one, because it has. The frame of the phone is still made of plastic. The phone is also smaller and therefore more compact. Easier to operate with one hand, but make sure it doesn’t fall off. The back is very soft.

The Samsung Galaxy A53’s camera island has given way to three separate cameras that protrude slightly on the Galaxy A54 and look sleeker. The phone is now angled less, too. As a result, the A54’s design is in line with phones in the premium Galaxy S23 series.

All in all, the design of the Samsung Galaxy A54 is sleek and modern and there are a range of different colours. So something for everyone.

3. Strong battery life

The Galaxy A54’s battery life is very solid. The 5000mAh battery can easily last you all day with normal use. If you game a lot or if you use your data package to provide your laptop with the internet on the go, you can get through the day without having to recharge. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet Samsung’s claim of two days, but I’m not a “regular” user.

The handy Edge window on the Galaxy A54

4. A powerful main camera

In terms of cameras, the Galaxy A54 is different from its predecessor, and that’s a good thing. The Galaxy A54 has three cameras, while the A53 has four. Samsung chose to omit the depth sensor. This is not a problem at all since other lenses are perfectly capable of depth estimation. The Samsung Galaxy A54’s cameras are quite versatile, even with a lower camera. The device has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, and a 5-megapixel camera for taking macro photos. On the front is a 32MP selfie camera.

Camera app on Galaxy A54

Photos taken with the Galaxy A54’s main camera and wide-angle camera look good. Yes, you see Samsung’s typical saturated colors, but fortunately the A54 5G falls a little short. Therefore, the photos have a more accurate color reproduction than the photos taken with the A53. Pictures are also clearer, the sharpening algorithm does a good job. Night photos are also slightly better.

Pictures taken in lower quality lighting conditions are unfortunately less sharp and grainy. Focusing could also be a little faster. Sometimes you miss that moment because the camera still needs to be ready.

The camera app is easy to use and offers many customization options and modes for photos and videos. There is a selfie camera fun mode, food mode, portrait mode and slow motion.

Pictures were taken in broad daylight

Pictures taken in poor lighting conditions

Wide angle camera, main camera, 2x zoom

Macro photos

5. Excellent update support

Samsung is the leader in the update policy for Android phones. The Galaxy A54 will receive four new versions of Android and five years of security updates. So you are in the right place in terms of software and security with this smartphone.

• March 2023: Galaxy A54 launched with Android 13
• Late 2023: Android 14
• Late 2024: Android 15
• Late 2025 / early 2026: Android 16
• Late 2026 / early 2027: Android 17
• Security updates through Spring 2028

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Samsung Galaxy A54: the negatives

1. The performance is somewhat disappointing

Samsung Galaxy A54 5G comes with Exynos 1380 chipset, which is the successor to Exynos 1280 found in Galaxy A53. The 1380 is again somewhat more powerful and more energy efficient than its predecessor. I was hoping for an improvement because unfortunately I had to list performance with the negatives when reviewing the Galaxy A53. Unfortunately, this is also the case with the A54.

The phone generally responds well, but never smoothly. This was especially noticeable when gaming The last castle At the highest possible graphics setting. The phone sometimes locks up or freezes the game completely while playing. It also heats up. Then it took a few seconds to close the game from recent apps only to have to restart it again. This in itself isn’t too surprising since the Galaxy A54 is a phone in the middle segment. However, there are phones in this segment, like those from OnePlus and Google, that do better in this area.

Settings menu on Galaxy A54

2. Less powerful selfie camera

The selfie camera performs the least of the three in my opinion. Sharpness is missing in photos, except in fun mode.

3. Lots of extra apps included

Samsung is known for putting a lot of its own apps and third party apps on its phones. Many of these apps allow you to choose not to install them when setting up the phone. However, there are a lot of things left that most people won’t use. Think Bixby, AR zone and Samsung Global Goals from Samsung. Samsung works closely with Microsoft, so you’ll find OneDrive and Outlook on the phone, among other things. Moreover, apps like Disney+ and Nextdoor are pre-installed. Fortunately, you can delete most of the apps.

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4. Express charging can be faster

The phone, like the Galaxy S23, also supports 25W fast charging, allowing the device to fully charge in about two hours. Nowadays, 2 hours is not very fast anymore, and I would have liked to see faster speeds. But for now, Samsung doesn’t want to mess with this. The company indicated that ultra-fast charging is not good for the phone’s battery.

The Game Launcher on the Galaxy A54

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy A54 has been given a fresh and modern makeover, which makes the phone quite contemporary. More similar to the more expensive S series phones. The middle class has a nice screen and good cameras on the back. However, there are two aspects that stand head and shoulders above the rest. These are battery life and update support. At the end of the day and several years later, the A54 is still pretty good.

However, you will notice some lag in daily use and you will have to remove a lot of apps that you are not using. And if you love selfies, you should take less sharp ones for granted.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is a solid mid-range device with a modern look. Overall, the Galaxy A54 is slightly better than the Galaxy A53, so the phone offers great value for money, even though it’s a few dozen more expensive. Still not sure and would like to know more about the subtle differences between A53 and A54? Then check out our comparison.

Alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy A54 are Samsung Galaxy A53 (from €428), Sony Xperia 10 IV (from €461), Samsung Galaxy S21 FE (from €501), Redmi Note 12 Pro (from €300), Xiaomi 12 (from €489 ) and Motorola Edge 30 (from 338 euros).

Buy Samsung Galaxy A54

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is available in Awesome Violet, Awesome Silver, Awesome Lime, and Awesome Black colors at a suggested retail price of €489. For this you get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The variant with 256 GB costs 539 euros.