by In our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review, we rated the flagship as the best camera phone in the world, but you don’t need to spend Ultra money to get a quality camera phone from Samsung, and the company’s recently announced mid-rangers look aimed at making decent mobile photography more accessible and fun.
The company just revealed the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Samsung Galaxy A34 5G, and while most mid-range phones will have at least one pop-up camera (think a 2MP depth sensor or similar), these seem to buck that trend.
With the Galaxy A54 5G, you get a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and a 5MP f/2.4 macro camera, along with a 32MP f/2.2 front camera.
With these, Samsung claims that the Galaxy A54 5G can deliver great photos even in low-light conditions, along with ultra-smooth video calls, while the phone is also said to feature enhanced editing tools so you can get the most out of your images. .
The cheaper Samsung Galaxy A34 5G doesn’t sound like a step down, though, as it has a 48MP f/1.8 main snapper with OIS, an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide and a 5MP f/2.4 macro, along with a 13MP front-facing camera f/2.2.
Another highlight of these phones – at least based on the specs – are their displays, with the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G sporting a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the Galaxy A34 5G ups the size to 6, 6 inches (despite being cheaper) and otherwise has the same specs, upping the 90Hz to last year’s Samsung Galaxy A33 5G.
Beyond that, both phones have decently large 5,000mAh batteries with 25W charging, plus 5G, an in-display fingerprint sensor, an IP67 rating for water resistance, 128GB or 256GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and stereo speakers. .
However, the differences come into play as the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G features an Exynos 1380 chipset (the same was announced just weeks before the A54 launch) and 8GB of RAM, while the A34 5G features a slightly less powerful MediaTek chipset Dimensity 1080. combined with 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM. The Galaxy A54 5G also has a slightly more modern design, with a punch-hole camera, while the A34 5G has a notch, or what Samsung calls an “Infinity-U display.”
Of course, you’ll pay less for the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G too, with that phone costing £349 for 128GB of storage or £399 for 256GB, while the Galaxy A54 5G costs £449 or £499 for 128GB and 256GB models. GB. the UK respectively. This marks a significant increase in price year-on-year, compared to the Galaxy A33 and A53, which started at £329 and £399, respectively. The phones will go on sale on April 25 in the region, and Samsung will buy you a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 for free if you buy one of these phones before that date.
In Australia, both phones are only available with 128GB of storage (expandable to 1TB), with the A34 5G costing AU$599 and the A54 5G setting you back a higher AU$699. Both match the starting price of the previous models, and the new handsets will be available from March 31. As in the UK, Australian buyers also get a bonus in the form of a Galaxy Watch 4, as long as you make the purchase by April 13.
It’s a different story in the US, however, with no sign of the A34 5G, while the A54 5G appears to be landing at the same price as its predecessor, at $449.99 for the base model, which includes 8GB of RAM compared to starting from 6 GB in the previous generation. Stateside, pre-orders for the A54 5G start on March 30, with the phone going on sale from April 6.
These differences in price increases across markets appear to be due to the current volatility of the global economic climate and echo what we saw from Samsung last year, with the Galaxy Z Flip 4 costing £50 more than its predecessor in the UK. despite maintaining stable intergenerational pricing in the US.
Analysis: how much of an upgrade are these?
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Obviously we’ll need to put these phones through a full review before we know how good they are in practice, but on paper, they’re improvements over their predecessors in several ways, but less so in others.
For one thing, in terms of megapixels, previous phones look just as complete. In fact, the Galaxy A53 5G actually has a 64MP main snapper, and both the A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G have a fourth sensor for depth judgment, which is missing here – although the 2MP on the Galaxy A33 5G is just the kind of filling lens we do not lose.
However, in the case of the Galaxy A54 5G, we know that the pixel size of the main camera, the size of the image sensor and the OIS angle have been improved over its predecessor, so photos are likely to turn out better, even after reducing some pixels compared to the previous sensor.
Other clear improvements come in the form of the chipsets used by the new phones and the Galaxy A34 5G’s refresh rate, which is higher than the previous model’s 90Hz.
However, the battery capacities, charging speeds and water resistance levels are all the same and the designs haven’t changed much. So whether there’s enough improvement here to rank among Samsung’s best phones remains to be seen.
