Samsung Galaxy A54 5G

 Samsung Galaxy A54 5G Review 

It stands to reason that companies like Samsung sell a whole lot more mid-range and budget smartphones than their premium flagship phones. The Samsung Galaxy A54 is designed for users seeking a feature-rich smartphone without breaking the bank. Not everyone has $1000 / £1000 to buy a premium phone, and monthly subscriptions can be expensive. That’s where the Samsung Galaxy A54 fits in. A good overall package. Large screen, great battery life, and a nice array of cameras, the main camera is great, the ultra-wide is good and there’s a reasonable macro camera.  Its impressive camera system makes it a standout choice for photography enthusiasts.

Features and Design

The A54 sports a 6.43-inch Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, delivering vibrant colours and sharp visuals at a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. The device is crafted with Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back, providing durability and style. We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing one for it’s photography and camera performance, so our review focuses on the Samsung Galaxy A54 cameras; and the features included for photography and video. The main camera on the Samsung A54 is a wide-angle 50MP f/1.8 camera, with a Quad Bayer sensor, PDAF (Phase-detection auto-focus) and optical image stabilisation (OIS). The Quad Bayer sensor gives 12.5MP images as it uses pixel binning to combine 4 pixels into 1. The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has a flat screen with curved corners. The other cameras on the back are less impressive, yet still better than those of many mid-range smartphones. For a start, there is a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera with fixed focus. The third camera is a macro camera, again with fixed focus, but at least this is a 5MP camera, rather than the completely pointless 2MP macro cameras found on some models. The front facing camera is a 32MP f/2.2 camera, and using a Quad Bayer sensor, this gives 8MP images as it combines 4-pixels into one. There are stereo speakers, but no headphone socket, and a USB Type-C connection can be found at the bottom. There’s support for both face-unlock, and a fingerprint sensor under the screen making it quick and easy to unlock the phone when needed. Gorilla Glass 5 protects the 6.4inch screen, and also the back of the phone. The screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, and is an AMOLED screen, which means you can select an always-on display if needed. With a glass front and back, the phone can be a bit slippery. There’s an IP67 rating; so it should survive a quick dunk in water alright. If you do need to upgrade the memory on this phone, then you’ll find it has a MicroSD card slot.

Performance

Running on Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI 6.1, the Galaxy A54 offers a smooth and customizable user experience. It features the Exynos 1380 chipset (5 nm) with an octa-core CPU, ensuring robust performance for apps and gaming. The Samsung Galaxy A54, like other Samsung smartphones, gives good colour reproduction and generally consistent results between the different camera modules. Automatic HDR shooting means that dynamic range captured is good, and most of the time this gives good results without being over the top. This makes images look more life-like than the results produced by some phones. There are good levels of saturation, although occasionally saturation can be a little too rich. 

Camera 

The Galaxy A54 is equipped with a triple-camera setup:-

* 50 MP Wide-Angle Camera: Ideal for capturing landscapes and group photos.

* 12 MP Ultra-Wide Camera: Great for expansive shots, especially in night mode.

* 5 MP Macro Camera: Perfect for detailed close-ups.

The camera app defaults to “Photo” mode, and gives you the choice of 0.5x, 1x, and 2x cameras, with the 2x camera using digital zoom. However, one difference from some of the flagship Samsung phones we review, is that it has a “FUN” photo mode, with filters from Snapchat. This works best with people as the subject, but is available for the rear cameras as well as the selfie camera. Once you’ve taken images using this effect, the original (unedited) photo is lost forever, so we wouldn’t recommend using this mode for anything important. Samsung A54 one of the image filters applied, it adds a pink water like reflective surface diagonally to the image also various neon coloured lines. There is the usual portrait, photo and video modes as expected, and inside the MORE section you’ll find additional shooting modes including PRO, PRO Video, Night, Food, and others including the Macro mode, which you need to use to access the dedicated macro camera. You can edit the camera app setup, so you could move the Macro mode (or your favourite modes) onto the main screen for quicker access. The portrait mode has a slider to let you adjust the strength of the effect, and this increase/decreases the amount of background blur. This is available for both the rear camera, and the selfie camera. It’s nice to see some additional shooting modes such as the Fun filters, but these could be more dedicated to photography, such as the motion modes on many of A54’s competitors and allow for creative shooting of light-trails or waterfalls.

Main camera

The main wide-angle camera gives the best results, with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilisation (OIS) helping in low-light conditions. The lens is equivalent to 23mm which is relatively wide-angle for a main camera. Noise levels are well-controlled, even when shooting in low-light conditions. In low-light the main wide-angle camera gives the best results, thanks to OIS and noise handled well by good image processing.

Ultra-wide-angle camera

Looking at images from the ultra-wide-angle camera, you can spot a slight drop in image quality and colour, when comparing the same scene taken with the main camera. However, results will be good enough for most people; we found them definitely superior to ultra-wide-angle shots from other mid-range phones. The dedicated 5MP macro camera has a fixed focus, and shooting is recommended with the subject 3-5cm away from it. This means you can get close-up photos of things, as long as the subject or object is the right size for your framing. Anything beyond this will be out of focus, so larger items are best photographed with the main camera. Results are quite good in good light, and if you plan on sharing images on social media then 5MP will be plenty. You can also use the 2x option on the main camera, as this has a reasonable close-focus distance.

5MP macro camera

We much prefer it when the camera uses the main camera, or ultra-wide-angle camera for macro photography, the facility of auto-focus is much more useful, as not all small things are the same size. Samsung could have added a macro mode by simply using an ultra-wide-angle camera with auto-focus, as many other phones have. This would have given us higher resolution macro photos, as well as potentially freeing up space for a telephoto camera rather than a low-resolution macro one.

Selfie camera 

The selfie camera (or front facing camera) on the A54 gives you 8MP pixel-binned images from the 32MP quad-bayer sensor camera. Results are reasonable, and the background blur effect works well. As the focus is fixed, it’ll be important to make sure you and your friends are the right distance otherwise focus won’t be perfect. If you wanted a smartphone with a selfie camera that features auto-focus, 

Video recording

Video recording maxes out at 4K and 30fps on the main camera, and the selfie camera. In comparison the Pixel 7A offers 4K 60p from the main camera, and 4K 30p from the selfie camera. If you use the selfie camera for video, focus is fixed. Other video modes include super slow-mo, slow motion and hyperlapse recording.

Battery 

The battery department of Galaxy A54 comes with a 5000mAh battery which supports 25W fast charging solution so that users can keep using their phone throughout the day. GSM, HSPA, LTE, and 5G communication technology is integrated to provide fast internet on the device. The phone doesn’t support wireless charging.

Storage Options And Colours

Available in four eye-catching colours, Lime, Graphite, Violet, and White

Samsung Galaxy A54 offers multiple storage configurations:-

* 128GB with 4GB, 6GB, or 8GB RAM

* 256GB with 6GB or 8GB RAM

Advantages

4K video from main and selfie camera

Great main camera

Large battery

IP67 rating

Disadvantages

No wireless charging

5MP macro is fixed focus

Specifications at a glance

50MP f/1.8 main camera, PDAF, OIS

12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, fixed focus

5MP f/2.4 macro camera, fixed focus

32MP f/2.2 selfie-camera, fixed focus

4K,30p video (main, selfie)

6.4inch screen, 120Hz, Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 5

Under-screen fingerprint reader

5000mAh battery, 25W charging (wired only)

Android 13, microSDXC slot

IP67 rating

Dimensions

* Size: 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2 mm (6.23 x 3.02 x 0.32 in), 202g

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is in the somewhat awkward, and definitely overcrowded, mid-range smartphone market. Offer too much and you compete with other Samsung phones: offer too little, and you aren’t competitive with other brands. Around this price point, there is some real competition, including from Samsung’s own S-series from last year.  There’s also the Google Pixel 7A, which has some seriously impressive photography features. However, both of these have smaller screens and smaller batteries. Samsung Galaxy A54 offers a good overall package, with a large screen, great battery life, as well as a nice line up of cameras, thanks to a great main camera, a good ultra-wide, and a reasonable macro camera.