Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Balanced Performance Midranger

Just not too long ago, we have done the unboxing and the 1st impression which you can check it HERE by clicking the link. So far our experience with the Samsung Galaxy A54 has been a great one, and we will dive in just a little bit over this review on whats in this midranger offering from Samsung.

For those who did not know, the Galaxy A series is meant to be a budget series to higher end midranger, and the A54 stands up as one of the highest end from the A series offering, putting in certain features that are flagship like, yet dont cost as much as those higher end flagship that you can find in 2023, Also, the A54 is actually the successor top the Galaxy A53 and A52.

Design : Flagship inspired

The very based on the design at the back of the phone is following this year’s S23 series of design and by just looking at it, you might get mistaken that it looks very resemblance towards Galaxy S23 or the S23+. Besides the similarity, the smaller form factor also means that it is easy to held on and browse thru your favorite content or even taking a few pictures, whether it is from the front shooter or the rear triple camera setup. Buttons positioning is also conveniently placed towards the right side for your easy access towards power and volume controls, while your usual USB C ports for charging and data is below along with a down firing speakers that works in tandem with the earpiece. These are all seems like a basic carryover but still essential in caring towards users on the ease of controlling the Smartphone in general.

An advantage for the A54 that it does provide IP67 for dust and water submergence for 1 meter up to 30 minutes, which is still robust in terms for a mid ranger and coupled with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the screen and the back. The rest of the body is build up mostly from environmental friendly polycarbonate materials, which Samsung is using it since they pledge and committed to a much environmental friendly approach to protect our Earth.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 came in variety of colors to choose from, Awesome Lime, Graphite, Violet and White, which is all listed over Samsung’s website

Display & Audio : A View with a Pleasant Audio

The Galaxy A54 offers a very decent screen features, 6.4inch does not sound alot, but it is a 120Hz Super AMOLED display which offers a fast fluid scroll and viewing, and speaking of view, it has a good viewing angle and brightness that goes peaked up to 1000nits, this means despite the screen is capable of FHD+ resolution only, but still, the colors that it produces does a pleasant job whether you wanted to view in a slightly darker area, or sunny under the bright places, it should get the job done. Again having an almost flagship display on a mid range is rare even till this day. Others such is wide color gamut and HDR10+ support is present on the Galaxy A54.

Audio wise, we did notice a decent minor improvement over last year’s Galaxy A53 which still carries a similar loudness with the dual speakers, but the A54 delivers a slightly punchier audio quality out from it, in part this is also thanks to the inclusion of the Dolby Atmos inside and additional equalizer customisation should you wanted to do that, to add there is also an adapt sound tuning with your favorite headphones or TWS to match your hearing aid, so that you can hear comfortably, especially good for all ages as well.

Camera : Good levels of shooters in its class and price

Now dont get me wrong, of course if you are holding a flagship phone today, at anytime it could be a higher end flagship might be better, lets look at it this way, for a sub RM2000 phone, it does a very good job with the inclusion of OIS camera sensors into it, albeit it is true that is in fact a 50MP only main shooter, but one should consider is also Samsung’s experience in tuning and software inclusion in it, which I find mostly got inherited from their mainline S23 series. Throughout my experience playing with the 50MP mode, most details are retained pretty well with good color separation as well as well identified light balanced. The same can be said for selfie side, the inclusion of the 32MP selfie camera its among a few that includes also a maximum of 1080P 60FPS recording mode in it, VLogging will be much smoother and it is one mode that everyone can appreciate as 60FPS video capture is very common upload.

Day Time Photos

Night Time Photos

Night time, came out good as well, as we all know this aint some stellar lens however with right tuning internally and AI is there, it is practically snap and upload, with major details retained along with shadows with it, noise are minimal, however still visible, and for the social media uploaders, rest your worries there, once uploaded it is still damn good to be viewed.

I will include a 4K 30FPS test clip with it as well, simply said, stutters are there if you are moving too fast, otherwise I would term over the overall recording clip as a fairly stable yet accurate with very minimal delays or jitter.

Performance, Benchmarks : A small Stepping stone

You did not read wrongly there, it is indeed an upgraded processor, albeit a tuned and efficient Exynos 1380 Octa Core Processor, and certainly if you are comparing it to last year’s model, the A54 has a slight bump on processor speed and better multitasking capability. I rather seeing this phone at a deeper level, the A54 finally gets the dual band WiFi 6 this time, with Bluetooth 5.3, to many consumers, they will just miss this out but get this, a higher WiFi throughput can get you faster downloads and uploads as long you have a decent WiFi 6 router connected, and seems to be a common thing to have one, so the A54 definitely catches thing up this time round. Besides that you get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, if you need more RAM, just top it up via RAM Plus and an MicroSD slot is there to expand your storage for another additional 1TB, combining physical RAM and RAM Plus will enable the Galaxy A54 to switch over 20 apps or games in sessions.

Experience?, Better than the previous A53 for sure, but minor improvements in terms of keeping on multitasking and gaming, with a mix of calls and usual work along with browsing and streaming, I still can get about a mix of 11 hours usage on and off, which is decently good to translate over more than working hours of use. Recharging with a fast PD charger will get you back from empty to full in about less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. Speaking of which, gaming is smooth over many games, be it MOBA or Shooters, Genshin Impact could be a little heavy but hey, set it to low mix medium and you should be holding your framerate just nice, in other words, generally great for many games and apps to be used and consumed on.

Here’s a benchmark comparison coming along, results meets expectations with really what you can really get from most mid tier heroes.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

Wrapping this up, this is another value for money upper tier mid ranger phone that is able to deliver a reasonable performance in both hardware and software, especially with OneUI 5.1 and Android 13 getting matured with every firmware update, I am sure that Samsung will be carrying on more enhancements towards the users, since they are committed to deliver years of updates and security patches to it as well, do expect that you will receive Android 14 too. If you are looking for a flagship like phone, but still be able to enjoy a great functions and delivery over fast speeds, whether it is 5G, WiFi, switching your favorite apps in between and also a formidable mid tier camera with multiple modes, the Galaxy A54 is another phone you can add to your buy list.

Pricing & Availability

The Galaxy A54 is now available at the price of RM1899. For more information on the Samsung Galaxy A54, CLICK HERE to find out. Buy the Galaxy A54 to enjoy complimentary FREE A54 5G Silicone Cover worth RM119, 2 Years Warranty and Enjoy 30% OFF PWP Add-On Promotion for selected adapters.