competition for its own high-end models

With the Galaxy A series, Samsung has been releasing interesting devices for years. The smartphones in the Galaxy A5x series are doing particularly well. That should also happen with the Galaxy A54. We discuss our findings with the phone in the Samsung Galaxy A54 review.

Samsung Galaxy A54 review

If you are looking for a solid, yet richly equipped smartphone, without having to pay the main price for it, the Galaxy A series can probably help you. With the different models offered in the series, you have a nice smartphone for a few hundred euros that you can use for years. Partly thanks to the excellent update policy. But is that enough for the Galaxy A54 to succeed? We have tested the smartphone in recent weeks, and you can read our experiences in the Galaxy A54 review.

Sales package

In every review we discuss the content of the sales package, also known as the unboxing. With more and more devices, we are ready fairly quickly these days. Packages are no longer as extensive as they used to be, where you often received a stack of paper and the necessary accessories. With the Samsung Galaxy A54 you only get the device, together with some paperwork, the SIM needle and the charging cable. You have to arrange a case and the adapter yourself.

Design and interface

The Samsung Galaxy A54 features the new design strategy that Samsung has been applying since the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S23. This is especially noticeable on the back of the phone. The camera module is no longer one whole, but consists of three separate lenses that protrude from the back of the device. The side, the frame, is made of aluminum, with the power button and the volume key placed on the right side.

The fingerprint scanner of the device is located in the screen. This does its job nicely, although it seems a bit less sensitive and fast than with a high-end smartphone. Is that bad? Certainly not. It does more than just fine. You can save multiple fingers. It is not the smallest device and because the device is made of glass, it can be useful to use a case. If you do not opt ​​for transparent, this may be at the expense of the color of the phone. Samsung supplies the Galaxy A54 in black and white, but also in lime and lavender. We received the latter here.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 offers a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen that does an excellent job. This offers a Full-HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Enjoying a summer day with the device is no problem, the screen remains easy to read. If you use the device in direct sunlight, the readability is moderate and it could have been a bit higher. The colors are beautiful and, if desired, you can adjust some things to the screen settings.

Interface

Years ago we had the TouchWiz interface, Samsung has come up with the One UI skin for its devices for some time now. It is a fairly obvious layer over Android, but it is self-operating. You scroll horizontally through your installed apps. Thanks to the presence of Android 13, you can also personalize and customize the necessary things. For example, you can choose between the light and dark theme, but you can also get started with the Always On Display.

At the top of the screen you have access to the notifications and the quick settings. The manufacturer has also built in some options that allow you to adjust the grid size. Of course you can also fill the screen with shortcuts and widgets.

Communication

To make calls, you use Samsung’s own telephone app. You have the Android Messages app at your disposal for sending messages. There is also Samsung’s own keyboard as standard, but you can replace it with one from the Google Play Store if desired. Think Gboard or SwiftKey. The A54 offers support for the 5G network. There is room for two SIM cards. If you do not use the second SIM card slot, you can possibly insert a memory card here. The call quality of the phone is more than fine.

Samsung supplies its own Internet browser for internet browsing. This lets you, for example, synchronize open tabs with other devices with the Samsung Internet browser. However, you can of course also switch to the Google Chrome browser, or another one from the Play Store. Of course there is WiFi, you can find your way with GPS and you can use Bluetooth on the Galaxy A54.

Multimedia

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is well suited for watching videos, watching Netflix or listening to music. The screen scores well, although it is less readable in direct sunlight. On a sunny day without direct sunlight it is still good to work with. The sound quality of the Galaxy A54 is more than okay. The balance between higher and lower tones is quite okay, although it sometimes sounds a bit high.

Camera

Taking pictures with the smartphone is done by many. Samsung knows that too, which is why they have put a fairly extensive camera in the phone. The Samsung Camera app on the smartphone really needs no further explanation and can be operated very well. For example, you have a manual mode and you can get started with the night mode, food mode and you will find a so-called ‘fun’ mode. This makes a series of (Snapchat) filters available that add effects to your image.

What about the camera setup? The Samsung Galaxy A54 offers a 50-megapixel main camera. The other lenses are a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 5-megapixel macro camera. There is no telephoto lens, although that is not surprising in this price segment. Nevertheless, Samsung offers a 2x zoom mode in the camera app. This will therefore mainly zoom in software, possibly with the help of some smart techniques, so that the quality does not suffer too much.

The camera quality of the Samsung Galaxy A54 is perfectly fine, actually as we are used to from Samsung. We are also used to images that are sometimes very saturated, which is also the case with the Galaxy A54. I don’t really find it disturbing, although there is a clear saturation in some photos. That could have been a little less.

What Samsung has done with the wide-angle lens is a mystery to me. The colors are often less sparkling and the photos are often not sharp at the edges. It is clear that the wide-angle lens of the phone is of lesser quality. Bottom line, we can say that the camera itself takes beautiful pictures. Then there is the zoom function. It does its job through software, because there is no telephoto lens. The results are still quite reasonable. You can view the photos we took with the A54 in the digital photo album.

Video

You can also use the Samsung Galaxy A54 to film. This can be done, for example, in 4K at 30 frames per second, but it can also be done in Full-HD at 60fps, as below. The video quality is fine, although it sometimes seems a bit choppy at the edges.

Performance and battery

Where Samsung has opted for a Snapdragon chipset in the high-end Galaxy S23 models, we see its own Exynos in the Samsung Galaxy A54. In the case of the A54, this is the Exynos 1380, an octa-core chipset that succeeds the 1280 we know from the Galaxy A53. Business is going fine and not noticing any annoying features. The phone keeps up with all the tasks we give it fast enough.

The battery capacity is 5000 mAh, just like last year. A large capacity so you don’t have to worry about an empty battery. This was also apparent during the review period of the Samsung Galaxy A54. With moderate use, the device can easily last two days with four hours of screen time. With average use you can get to a day and a half, with more intensive use you can reach the end of the day without too many problems. Charging takes longer, because this can be done with a maximum power of 25W. You still have to purchase this charger yourself. It is also striking that it is still only 25W charging. Competitors often offer double or triple fast charging speeds.

Update Policy

The update policy of the Samsung Galaxy A54 is perfectly fine and the best on the market. That is immediately a strong plus of this smartphone. You can be sure of security updates for a period of no less than five years. You can also expect four Android updates. This means that the phone will be equipped with Android 14, 15, 16 and Android 17. At the time of writing, the phone is already completely up-to-date with the May security update and of course Android 13.

Judgement

With the Galaxy A models that have appeared in recent years, Samsung has already proven itself several times. The phones are all very fine devices and are not always inferior to the much more expensive high-end smartphones. We also see that with the Samsung Galaxy A54. It is a very nice phone without any major drawbacks. Except that the wide-angle lens really needs improvement, because it is out of tune with the rest of the camera, which shoots great photos. The update policy is fantastic and no other manufacturer can measure up to that. For an amount of 400 euros you have an excellent smartphone, which you will certainly enjoy for the coming years.

You can buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 from Samsung itself, but also from Belsimpel, Mobiel, Coolblue, Bol.com and MediaMarkt.