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Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Not Just A Pretty Face
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Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Not Just A Pretty Face

by April 21, 2023
Overview
Warranty

1-year

Price

RM1,899

Positives

+ Premium look with good build quality
+ Great display at this price range
+ Good value for money proposition
+ 4 major OS upgrades with 5 years of security updates guaranteed
+ Stereo speakers
+ Above average camera performance
+ Good battery life

Negatives

- GPU needs a boost
- Imbalanced stereo speaker setup
- 25W charging is slow by today's standards
- No charger inside the box
- Disappointing macro camera performance

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Appearance
8.0
Efficiency
8.0
Features
7.5
Materials
8.0
Performance
6.5
Portability
8.5
User Experience
7.0
Value
8.0
Bottom Line

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is a good phone for the price. It's hard to fault some of its drawbacks given its relatively affordable price. Looking at the bigger picture, it's a capable daily driver that would be suitable for many consumers out there.

7.7
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Samsung Galaxy A54 Unboxing

Samsung Galaxy A54 Unboxing and First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Box

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes in your standard white box that looks pretty much the same as previous Galaxy A devices. Just like last year, the box is thin so I’m sure you know why. If not, you will find out in just a bit.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Unboxing and First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Box content

Inside the box, you can find the following items:

  • Quick start guide
  • Warranty card
  • Samsung Pay leaflet
  • USB-C to USB-C cable
  • SIM ejector tool
  • The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone itself

Specifications

Processor Exynos 1380
4 x Cortex-A78 @ 2.4GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 @ 2GHz
5nm
GPU Mali-G68 MP5
RAM 8GB
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.3
USB Type-C
GPS, Glonass, BDS, Galileo
NFC
5G
Storage 256GB
Up to 1TB expandable storage (MicroSD)
Display 6.4″ FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O Display
Up to 120Hz Refresh Rate
1000nits (HBM)
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Rear Camera 50MP f/1.8 wide angle camera, OIS, PDAF
12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, 123°
5MP f/2.4 macro, fixed focus
Selfie Camera 32MP f/2.2 wide-angle selfie cam, HDR
Battery 5000mAh
25W Fast Charging
OS One UI 5.1
Android 13
Ingress Protection IP67
Dimensions 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2 mm, 202g
Colours Awesome White, Awesome Violet, Awesome Graphite, Awesome Lime

Performance

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Antutu v9

Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu V9, the Samsung Galaxy A54 had a decent showing but nothing extraordinary. The Exynos 1380 chip powering it sits quite comfortably within the midrange space, but it’s certainly nowhere close to bad.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Geekbench 6

In Geekbench 6 however, it may seem quite low but that’s because we have yet to populate it with the latest devices for now. Realistically, it’s about the same level as the vivo V27 and definitely a notable step up from the Nord CE 3 Lite, which explains why the price is almost double of the latter device. The flagships are definitely leaps and bounds ahead of it, but that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – 3DMark

Then on 3DMark, the Samsung Galaxy A54 isn’t exactly up to par with recent midrange devices in both Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited and Wild Life Unlimited. This would suggest that the Exynos 1380’s weakness is its GPU power, not the CPU. It should still be fine to play mobile games on it as long as the graphics aren’t particularly demanding.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – PCMark

Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy A54 scored much higher than I anticipated as it comfortably broke through the 10,000 mark at 12,431 points. In comparison, the flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra is 15,894 points, and most flagships from two years ago would be where the A54 is at now. This supports my theory that the Exynos 1380 has its GPU bogging down its overall performance while its CPU is still fine, and it’s certainly an adequate daily driver.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Battery life

For those of you who are wondering about its battery life, the Samsung Galaxy A54 has a decent battery life given its large 5,000mAh capacity. It lasted 10 hours and 42 minutes (642 minutes) in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. While it can be better, I’d say it’s more than enough for most people as it should easily get you through a full day’s of use. As for charging speed, this is what I got with its maximum 25W supported output starting at 2% battery level:

  • 15 minutes = 32%
  • 30 minutes = 54%
  • 45 minutes = 77%
  • 60 minutes = 93%
  • 69 minutes = 100%

Camera

For the most part, the camera performance of the Samsung Galaxy A54 is pleasing. The main camera can capture photos with punchy colour saturation, relatively fast focusing, and good details, even in low light. With that being said, it does have trouble focusing on faces in low light scenarios, either resulting in faces being heavily digitized or just out of focus.

The ultrawide camera isn’t as good but its pretty close, with it being weaker in low light scenarios, but it certainly is more than usable. The macro camera is rather disappointing as the quality looks like something from nearly a decade ago, grainy and dark, so I would generally avoid it altogether. Selfies come out with a surprising amount of detail, making me think I captured it with the main camera when I was looking through the pictures again, but it is definitely more reliant on lighting for a good shot.

The Good

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review -

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Display

There are a number of good reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A54. For starters, it has a premium look that you would typically expect from a flagship-level device. Sure, it does remind one of an iPhone but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it looks and feels good. Keep in mind that it’s IP67-certified so it has a good level of protection against water and dust as well, further adding value to it.

It also has a pretty great display, but dial down your expectations a little bit. It’s a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The Infinity-O display refers to the dot notch for the selfie camera, taking up very little space from the screen. The brightness is also more than adequate so you shouldn’t have trouble seeing even under sunlight. It will not be able to match up with most flagships today but it’s a pretty good one for the price. Not to forget, it also has Gorilla Glass 5 for added protection.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review -

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – One UI 5.1

Another good point is that you don’t miss out with the latest software as it comes with One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 right out of the box. Furthermore, they are also ensuring support for the device as well with guaranteed 4 major OS upgrades over and 5 years of security updates. This means that you don’t need to force yourself to go for a flagship to have better, long-term support, which is great.

Lastly, you get a dual speaker setup with the Samsung Galaxy A54. It’s not the best but it sure beats having a mono speaker setup regardless. While bass is rather hollow, it’s surprisingly clear with a good amount of details being produced. There are a number of its competitors within the same price range that only comes with a single speaker, so it’s at least worth mentioning.

Looking for something better? Check out our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review by clicking right here.

The Bad

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review -

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

Of course, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is not immune to drawbacks. For starters, it doesn’t come with a charger inside. Some people were not sure if this practice will only be limited to flagships but this should solidify the answer that it’s not the case. Getting a charger that can have it charge this as fast as possible shouldn’t be difficult since it only supports up to 25W.

Speaking of which, the 25W fast charging speed is quite outdated by today’s standards. While I don’t expect it to go as high as 100W, something like 50-70W sound reasonable enough, especially since a number of its competitors can support the aforementioned speeds. Hopefully we’ll see that improve to at least double next year.

Lastly, while I did praise it for having a dual speaker setup, the Samsung Galaxy A54 suffers from imbalanced audio. The bottom-firing speaker is much louder than the one coming from the earpiece. Furthermore, having one fire on the bottom while the other is towards you, it makes for a rather odd experience. While the speaker position might be something that can’t be helped given the use of the earpiece, they should definitely normalize the volume here for an overall better audio experience.

Samsung Galaxy A54 Verdict

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review -

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is a good phone for the price. Whether it’s suitable for you or not depends on your needs in a smartphone. It’s hard to fault some of its drawbacks given its relatively affordable price of RM1,899.Looking at the bigger picture, it’s a capable daily driver that would be suitable for many consumers out there.

As such, as the end of our Samsung Galaxy A54 review, I award this smartphone with our Silver Pokdeward.

Pokde-Silver

Big thanks to Samsung Malaysia for sending us this smartphone of the purpose of this review.

About The Author
Aiman Maulana
Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. YouTuber, video editor, tech head, and a wizard of gaming. What's up? :)