Review: Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (6GB+128GB)

Last March 30, Samsung officially unveiled two models from their latest A series line-up with the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Galaxy A34 5G.

Samsung claims that the new Galaxy A series models will offer users a brighter display, more advanced cameras, long battery life, and an upgraded sleek and stylish design.

We got an opportunity for a hands-on review with one of their mid-range units the Galaxy A5 5G.

The new Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is priced at Php24,990 (128GB) and Php26,990 (256GB) now available for purchase through samsung.com, Samsung Experience Stores, Authorized Resellers, and e-commerce online partners on Lazada, Shopee, Abenson.com, and MemoXpress Online.

Let’s check on what the new mid-range phone from Samsung can offer.

Design and Build Quality

The Galaxy A54 5G will be available in four colorways: black, white, lime, and violet.

The materials used for the A54 5G are glass for the back panel with aluminum for its frame, and the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Going thru the button placements on the phone, the power button and the volume rockers are present on the right side while the left side has nothing on it.

On the top, it has another secondary microphone and a SIM card slot. There’s no 3.5mm audio jack to connect your wired headphones.

A microphone, USB Type-C port, and the loudspeaker grille are found on the bottom.

On the back, there is a triple camera that has a floating camera design like In the Galaxy S23 series with all the circular lenses arranged in a straight line without any camera housing.

There is a single LED flash beside it and a Samsung logo found at the bottom center.

Since the material on the back panel is made of glass, therefore it will be glossy that can easily attract fingerprints and smudges. We recommend getting a protective case cover as it is not included in the retail box.

It has a thickness of 8.2mm and weighs 202 grams due to the glass back panel. But still, the phone Is compact and comfortable to hold.

On the front, you have thin bezels all around except for the small chin below the screen which is a bit raised. It has a small single punch-hole or an infinity-O design in the middle for its front camera. The earpiece Is present on the top edge of the screen.

The phone also has an in-display fingerprint sensor that unlocks it very fast.

Display

The Galaxy A54 5G offers a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels and 402 PPI for images to look sharp.

With an AMOLED panel, the phone produces nice color reproduction, contrast, and true blacks.

The display on the A54 5G is now improved providing up to 1000 nits brightness compared to 800 nits from its predecessor. It’s more bright and sunlight legibility is good as well when used outdoors.

It also has the enhanced Vision Booster feature that can dynamically adjust the color tones to improve the visuals on the screen under direct sunlight.

The phone supports up to 120Hz refresh rate for a smoother animation, scrolling, and gaming experience.

With an improved eye-care display feature your eyes are well protected even for long hours of usage with Eye Comfort Shield that limits blue light emitted by the screen. There is an available dark mode as well. The device is awarded by SGS, the world-leading certification company, for its blue emission reduction.

Performance

Under the hood, the Galaxy A54 5G is powered by Exynos 1380 octa-core processor with clock speeds up to 2.4GHz. You’ll be getting four high-performance CPU cores clocked at 2.4GHz and four power-efficient CPU cores clocked at 2GHz for the chipset.

Our review unit is equipped with 6GB RAM, 128GB storage with an expandable storage option of up to 1TB via MicroSD, and a Mali-G68 for its GPU.

There is also a RAM Plus feature, which uses the internal memory of the phone to expand the RAM. This is an addition to the existing 6GB of RAM of the phone, you can either choose between 2GB, 4GB, or 6GB for that extra memory with the RAM Plus. The RAM Plus allows more apps to stay open In the background.

Below are our benchmark scores on the Galaxy A54 5G.

Geekbench 6 Scores: 1005 Single-Core / 2712 Multi-Core
3D Mark: 2812 (Average Frame Rate 16.80)
PC Mark: 12905 Work 3.0 Performance Score

You get good sound quality with its built-in stereo speakers providing decent low bass, high treble frequencies, and clear vocals while also getting considerably loud.

There isn’t a headphone jack though, you either need a 3.5mm to USB-C converter for traditional headphones or headphones that use a USB-C connector to enjoy wired audio. But, if you don’t want those pesky wires then you can easily connect audio with Bluetooth earbuds/headphones.

You’ll also get a fast wireless data connection with the inclusion of 5G connectivity and the upgraded Wi-Fi 6 alongside a Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has a triple camera setup comprising of a 50MP main camera with an f/1.8 aperture , 12MP f/2.2 Ultra-wide and 5MP f/2.4 macro camera.

It’s still good to have the 5MP macro lens just in case you need to use it, and something I personally don’t think a lot of people will use it always.

The front camera offers a 32MP for your selfies with 4K @ 30fps video recording capabilities.

Opening the camera app, you will have four shootimg modes already available to use with Fun, Portrait, Photo, and Video.

Choosing the more options will open another set of shooting modes with Pro, Pro Video, Single Take, Night, Food, Panorama, Macro, Super Slow Mo, Slow Motion and Hyperlapse.

Users can now remove unwanted shadows and reflections for the first time in Galaxy A series, thanks to the enhanced editing tools like the Object Eraser. It can also enhance a photo much better or an animated gif with the GIF Master.

Samsung also included the “Remaster Picture” feature that’s available on the Gallery app when you edit your photo. A part of a default photo application on the Samsung S23 series is now on the A54 5G. The Remaster Picture can further enhance photos and improve their overall appearance which is very useful.

Sharing our sample photos captured using the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G.

0.5x Main Camera – Outdoor (Sunny Weather)

1x Main Camera – Outdoor (Sunny Weather)

2x Main Camera – Outdoor (Sunny Weather)

1x Main Camera – Indoor (Ambient Lighting)

1x Food Mode – Indoor (Ambient Lighting)

1x Night Mode – Outdoor Low Light

Selfie – Indoor Low Light

Wide Selfie – Indoor Low Light

1x Main Camera – Outdoor Cloudy Weather

For video, the Galaxy A54 5G can record up to 4K at 30fps only; 1080p at 30fps and 60fps; and 720p at 30fps. All of these are available on both the rear and front cameras.

For a smooth steady recording of your videos, the phone has optical image stabilization (OIS) and Video Digital Image Stabilization (VDIS). Turning on Super Steady mode will be available at the 1080p 30fps at the rear camera only.

We had daylight videos out of the Galaxy A54’s main camera which is appropriately excellent. It offers great contrast, the dynamic range is very good, the colors are just right and the details are present.

Software

The A54 5G runs on Samsung’s One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 with the company promises a four major OS upgrades and five years of security patches. So you have no worries with the A54 5G as it will be receiving updates up to the Android 17 version.

Apart from the usual set of Samsung’s proprietary apps and Google tools on the device. It also comes with some pre-installed apps such as Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, Lazada, TikTok, One, ESports, and Microsoft apps with OneDrive and LinkedIn.

The One UI 5.1 offers home screen customization tools allowing you to change the home screen and lock screen wallpaper of the phone. The Color Palette is another useful feature, which allows you to optimize the entire user interface by picking up a dominant color from the home/lock screen.

To protect important sensitive data, it has its very own proprietary security and management software with the Samsung Knox.

Battery

The Galaxy A54 5G draws its power from its built-in 5000mAh battery with support for 25W fast charging capabilities.

Samsung claims that a single charge can provide you with up to 2 days of power and 21 hours of video playback.

With the fast-charging feature, I was able to juice up the phone from 0 to 100 percent in just 1 hour and 22 minutes. But during our charging test, a 15-minute charge will already get you 26 percent on the battery then the next 30 minutes went up to 74 percent.

Under the battery settings, you have a power saving mode and adaptive battery feature to extend the battery’s usage.

On an average day, the Galaxy A54 was serviceable. I could take it off charge at around 8:30 am. Then I would use it irregularly throughout the day to listen to music, scroll through my social media, watch a few videos on YouTube, and reply to messages. I would reliably end the day at around 6:30 pm from work with around 16% battery left in the tank. Well, that’s pretty good.

What We Like

AMOLED Display
Refreshed Design
Great Cameras
OIS and VDIS
120Hz Refresh Rate
Vision Booster
Eye Care Technology
5,000 mAh battery
Expandable Storage via MicroSD
RAM Plus
Good Software and Security Support

What We Want

Audio Jack
Applied Screen Protector
Inclusion of Power Adaptor
Video Stabilization Available In UHD

Conclusion

I like the overall updated design of the new Samsung Galaxy A54 especially the glass rear panel and the floating camera design found on their Galaxy S23 series. It gets a truly premium build and is also durable thanks to the support of an IP67 rating.

The AMOLED display packs bright, crisp visuals and a colorful screen with support for a 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth scrolling experience.

Samsung upgraded the main camera to 50MP doing a pretty good job in taking photos during well-lit and at low light conditions it can provide a decent image quality compared to its predecessor.

Even with the upgraded Exynos 1380, the performance is pretty decent there is no lag, apps don’t crash, and operates smoothly from watching videos and even gameplay.

The 5000 mAh battery should last you throughout the day if you’re a light to medium user. But if you’re a heavy user, I would suggest bringing along your charger or power bank to extend usage on the phone for the whole day. You also get support with a 25W fast charging to quickly juice up the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G offers a lot of improvement over its predecessor. The phone is a pretty decent all-rounder mid-range phone that will do most things very well whether you’re using it for work or play.