An honest review of Samsung’s new budget smartphone

It’s a Samsung Galaxy without the massive price tag but does this budget offering really match up?

REVIEW

Samsung has just released its latest mid-range ‘A Series’ smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, which offers a premium-like experience for the more affordable price point of $699.

Not only does the new phone have looks in common with Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S23, but it also offers a lot of premium features.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G offers a premium-like experience for a more affordable price. Picture: Elly Awesome

Unboxing

In Australia, the Samsung A54 5G comes in two colours – Awesome Graphite or Awesome Violet, with 128GB of internal storage. Good news though, the phone also supports external storage, which means you can insert a MicroSD card (of up to 1TB) to expand its storage capabilities.

Unfortunately, however, you will need to buy a charger if you don’t already have one. The only items that come in the box are the phone, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a SIM ejector tool and documentation.

The body of the phone feels sleek, although a little heavy. They’ve used glossy Gorilla Glass front and back, and the edges of the phone do a good job of mimicking brushed aluminium, although it’s made out of plastic. Overall, it gives the phone a fairly premium feel, while not being quite as fancy as Samsung’s S23 flagship device.

The body of the phone feels sleek, although a little heavy. Picture: Elly Awesome

Display and features

It’s debatable whether the Samsung Galaxy A54’s new 6.4-inch FHD+ Infinity-O display, capable of a 120Hz refresh rate, has had major improvements since last year’s A53 model, which was already great. The display does incredibly well at reproducing colours with balanced contrasts, even in bright outdoor lighting, which is great for watching movies or videos. The phone continues to support Dolby Atmos on its stereo speakers, which can get quite loud if need be.

To unlock your device, you can use the in-screen fingerprint reader or face unlock capabilities too, using the 32MP pinhole selfie camera on the front.

The A54’s 6.4-inch FHD+ Infinity-O display. Picture: Elly Awesome

Camera quality

There are four cameras on the back of the phone – a 50.0 MP main camera, 12.0 MP ultra-wide, and 5.0 MP Macro camera. Essentially the same awesome cameras as last year. Now there may be a lot of megapixels but photos from the front camera can sometimes feel a little washed out if you don’t find the correct lighting. Make sure your main light source is in front of you, not behind you, and rotate your body to find this position for the best results. The back main cameras are still excellent and even do well in low light.

There are four cameras on the back of the phone. Picture: Elly Awesome

Battery life

My favourite feature of the Samsung Galaxy A54 would have to be its two-day battery life. With a built-in 5000mAh battery, it can keep up with most people’s use of a phone throughout the day – watching videos, light gaming, emails and messaging.

Although if you’re putting the phone through more intensive tasks, such as open world, or FPS gaming, it will drain the battery faster than you’d expect. Light-medium users will enjoy not having to charge their phone each night.

Overall, this is a great phone for lovers of Samsung phones, and also teens and users who are sticking to a budget but still want high quality smartphone capabilities. Samsung Australia and some select retailers also offer bonus free gifts when you buy the $699 phone from their websites on the first week of launch.

And if you’ve already missed those, then it’s rumoured that the price of this phone will drop a couple of months after its release.

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawesometech | YouTube