Samsung Galaxy A54 Review – Frankly Flagship style on a value budget

There’s no doubt the focus of many reviews and tech websites are the Flagship phones from Samsung and Apple with some of the greatest smartphone technology packed into their premium devices. But for over a month I used the Samsung Galaxy A54 as my primary phone and I’ve gotta say it doesn’t disappoint.

Priced at $699, though it seems regularly available at $649, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is almost half the price of the smallest flagship Galaxy S23.

Now the S23 is also discounted right now from it’s launch price of $1349 down to $1149, putting the price differential at $500 between an A54 and an S23.

What you have with the A54 is a larger phone, with a 6.4 inch screen compared to the S23’s 6.1, but also therefore room for a much larger battery at 5,000mAh vs 3,900mAh.

While I prefer a smaller phone, I’m clearly in the minority looking at the success of the “plus sized” phones from all manufacturers.

Camera specs on the A54 are impressive, though a generation old comparatively, though still with a 50MP main camera, it’s well capable and didn’t once make me think I NEEDED a better camera. It’s a flagship style triple lens offering with an ultra-wide and zoom options, I sincerely think most smartphone owners would be blown away by the performance of this camera.

In every-day use, this thing is fantastic.

Great colour reproduction along with the versatility of the multiple lenses

In a busy environment you can switch to that ultra-wide to capture the whole moment

And it’s night time performance is excellent!

I even put it side by side with the best thing Apple has to offer, the iPhone 14 Pro. Here’s how they stack up.

The Samsung Galaxy A54:

And the Apple iPhone 14 Pro:

Sure on magnification there’s an advantage to the iPhone but there’s also a $1,000+ price differential.

And that’s the thing here, what do you need from a smartphone?

I switched from the Oppo Find N2 Flip, to the Pixel 7, then to this Samsung Galaxy A54 and now onto the Galaxy S23. While I utterly love the Flip form-factor, and the purity of the Pixel from Google, as an end user, I think the Galaxy A54 offers the best bang for your buck.

It has the performance to run every application under the sun, including plenty of rounds of Ultimate Golf for me. It fits perfectly as part of the Samsung ecosystem for anyone using an older model Galaxy and long-overdue for an upgrade without having to spend the flaghship dollars.

I get that the processor performance of the S23 is far better than the A54, but I think for 95% or more of users, the A54 has the performance to suit their needs.

The A54 has the looks of the S23 with the triple lenses, you’ve gotta have them side-by-side to know those lenses are slightly bigger and really notice.

And the S23 has a stunning gloss chrome-like finish to the edges while the A54 is a matte-look, and despite it’s larger size the A54 is just 40 grams heavier.

I come at these reviews from the privileged position of having smartphones handed to me on a platter every time they are released. Knowing that, I like to think to myself – ok – if I have to use my own money to buy a smartphone outright as is the smartest way to get value from both a phone and a mobile plan – I’d pick the A54 every time if I was an Android user. Well below $700, this phone has a great camera, fantastic performance, a good looking big-screen and from the outside looking in people would assume you have an S23 series given it’s design.

Well worth your consideration if an outright buy is on the cards for you.