Unlike the Galaxy A34 which has ditched Samsung’s own processor for a MediaTek equivalent, Samsung’s Galaxy A54 sports an upgraded Exynos 1380 chipset – the latest one in the company’s roster having been revealed just a few weeks prior to the phone’s announcement. The Samsung Galaxy A54 has a lot going for it, but as the new high-end of the Galaxy A series it’s creeping closer to the Galaxy S series in terms of features and pricing – especially if you’re prepared to look at the previous generation of S series handsets. You could be forgiven for dubbing the A54 the S23a. Samsung wanted to go big on battery life with its A series with both the Galaxy A54 and its cheap Galaxy A34 sibling sporting the same 5,000mAh battery that’s found in the top-end flagship S23 Ultra, which is also bigger than that of the S23 and S23 Plus. The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes in four colours: White, Violet, Graphite, and Lime. My personal favourites are Lime and Violet! Features and performance At least there are some stunning colour options available to jazz up the simplistic design, coming in particularly vibrant shades of Lime and Violet, along with a more muted Graphite and Silver. The lime green finish is a personal favourite of mine, with a vivid flash of colour that looks gorgeous in real life.

On paper that sounds pretty damn impressive, especially when coupled with Samsung’s claims of two days on a single charge, but that doesn’t always reflect real-world usage. Charging isn’t quite up there either, especially when powering such a large-capacity battery, capping out at just 25W – and you don’t get a charger in the box either. That means that even once you’ve sourced a charger, the process is slow, reaching just 41% in half an hour of charging, with a full charge taking 1 hour and 33 minutes.

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Samsung announced the Galaxy A54 5G and Galaxy A34 5G today. The two new mid-range phones are full of surprises, with Samsung giving them a few higher-end features than usual, such as a more polished exterior, better audio during phone calls and video calls, improved Nightography and camera AI, and better displays, to name a few. Battery life is also a little hit-and-miss. As long as you’re not using the phone too often it should last, but even a 5000mAh battery can’t always provide comfortable all-day battery life if you’re really putting the phone to the test. Combined with slow 25W charging, there’s still a lot to be done here.

When it comes to software, the phone ships with Samsung’s latest OneUI 5.1 based on Android 13. It’s very much the usual affair with Samsung’s signature UI design and heavy reliance on Samsung-branded apps, but with small new features like the ability to use certain Snapchat filters within the native Camera app thanks to a new partnership between the two companies. Battery life

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Still, results across the board are fairly acceptable for the price tag. What isn’t acceptable, however, is the autofocus performance. The display is dynamic, dropping between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on what you’re doing, though you can also force a 120Hz refresh rate at the expense of battery life. It won’t drop down to a battery-saving 1Hz, but what mid-range phone does? The Galaxy A54 also has eye comfort functionality which reduces blue light when reading and using the device.

For people who are still using wired headphones, you can still use them with the Galaxy A54 through a 3.5mm to USB-C dongle adaptor. Unfortunately, dongles like these aren’t the most convenient way to use wired headphones since they can be a little buggy. Additionally, you won’t be able to use wired charging while the headphones are taking up the USB-C port. It’s not the optimal way to listen to audio on the Galaxy A54, but it can be a last resort if need be.On the wireless side, the Galaxy A54 now supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and NFC. You also get dual SIM support with 5G. When it comes to photography, that 50 MP camera figure holds its own, delivering impressive detail even if the colours are a bit over-saturated by default. Outside during the day, photos look vivid but not over-processed, although the sky looks a little too blue and the trees a little too green. To be honest, it would’ve been pretty decent for the money had Xiaomi not released the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G and its 200MP sensor that truly excels in low light. The Samsung Galaxy A54 runs the latest Android 13, with Samsung’s One UI 5.1 over the top which isn’t too intrusive. That’s also without using the phone to listen to music and otherwise kill time on the two-hour trip from London to Paris via Eurostar, so I thought I’d put that to the test on the way home. Reader, I was very disappointed. I took the phone off charge at around 10:30am, used it for maps, listening to music and playing a couple of games on the Eurostar and the battery dwindled to just 30% by 3:30pm. Safe to say it didn’t make it until that night without a top-up.