Galaxy A54 5G Review: A Fun Choice, but It Still Lags Behind the Pixel 6A
It's one of Samsung's cheapest phones, but you may want to consider one of Google's cheapest instead.
Our Experts
- Shortlisted for British Photography Awards 2022, Commended in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022
Pros
- Big, vibrant screen
- Expandable storage
- Affordable price
Cons
- Processor and camera performance lags behind cheaper Pixel 6A
Samsung's best phone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, offers huge performance and amazing photography prowess. But it also comes with a whopping $1,200 price tag (£1,249, AU$1,949), which is simply out of the question for many of us. Looking lower down Samsung's range doesn't mean suffering with slow, frustrating hardware. As Samsung's new $450 (£499, AU$699) Galaxy A54 5G proves, you can get a phone with solid performance for a very reasonable price.
The Galaxy A54 packs a 6.4-inch display, an octa-core processor that offers enough power for daily essentials (including light gaming) and a camera that does a decent job of handling your out-and-about snaps. I even like the design, particularly the lime green version I reviewed. Its 128GB of storage will be enough for most people, and those who need more space can expand it with microSD cards up to 1TB in size.
Read more: Best Samsung Phone to Buy in 2023
It's got a lot going for it considering its reasonable $450 price tag. And it's often on sale for even less: While writing this review, I saw a $375 price on Best Buy and Amazon (sadly, though, I didn't see it when publication time rolled around). Even with that potential discount, however, the Galaxy A54 gets outshone by Google's budget phones in key areas, particularly the camera.
The 6.4-inch display is bright and vibrant.
Galaxy A54 or Pixel 6A?
Even at the Galaxy A54's competitive price, the competition is fierce, with Google's superb $349 Pixel 6A and the latest Pixel 7A priced at $499 -- just $50 more than the A54's usual retail price. We gave the Pixel 6A a CNET Editors' Choice award for its combination of solid all-round performance and affordable price, with it remaining one of the best budget phones money can buy. The new Pixel 7A also impressed us with its great camera and smooth performance, pushing CNET to recommend it over the Pixel 7 since it's $100 cheaper.
Up against the A54 5G, the Pixel 6A is still the phone to go for. Its performance is a bit better, its camera takes nicer shots and Google's plain version of Android is generally nicer to use than Samsung's One UI skin. If you're willing to pay $50 more, the Pixel 7A also offers better camera performance and wireless charging, which is missing from the Galaxy A54 5G. Still, the A54 is slightly larger and offers microSD card storage expansion, so it's not a total victory for the Pixel. Here's what you should know about the phone.
Galaxy A54: Fun design, vibrant display
The lime green version of my A54 5G is really quite pretty with its glossy glass back and metallic-looking edging (that's actually plastic). It feels nice enough to hold, although it lacks the more solid feel of the Pixel 6A or 7A. It's IP67 rated for water resistance (as are the Pixel 6A and 7A) which will keep it safe during phone calls in the rain or around clumsy friends carrying beer.
A fingerprint scanner is built into the display.
At 6.4 inches, the display is larger than the Pixel 6A's 6.1-inch screen, which is worth keeping in mind if you spend a lot of time playing mobile games or watching videos and would benefit from a larger screen. The Galaxy A54's vibrant screen is quite a bit brighter than the Pixel 6A's and 7A's, making it more easily readable outdoors under direct sunshine.
Galaxy A54: Processor, software and battery
The Galaxy A54 runs on an Exynos 1380 processor, backed up by 6GB of RAM. It produced fair scores on benchmark tests considering its low price, coming in a bit below the Pixel 6A. Still, there's enough power to make everyday web browsing, WhatsApp texting and emailing feel swift. I managed to play both Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9: Legends at default settings with fairly smooth gameplay.
Galaxy A54 vs. Pixel 6A vs. Pixel 7A performance comparison
- Geekbench 6 (single core)
- Geekbench 6 (multi core)
- 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme
It runs on Android 13 at its core, over which Samsung has slapped its One UI software. While I enjoy the overall look of this skin, I don't like how much clutter Samsung preloads onto the phone. Apps like Disney Plus, Bolt, TikTok and Booking.com came already installed, along with a plethora of Samsung's own apps (including its own app store, a Galaxy Shop app, SmartThings, Messages and various TV and media apps). There's also a bunch of preinstalled Microsoft apps like Linkedin and OneNote. I bought the phone unlocked, directly from Samsung in the UK, so you may find different apps on yours -- potentially even more carrier-specific apps if you bought it from a network.
I like the One UI interface, but I don't like all the preinstalled apps.
While you can uninstall many of these, the extraneous apps make the phone feel messy as soon as you turn it on. By contrast, the Pixel 6A's default interface is neat, clutter-free and has only the basic Google essentials like Chrome, Gmail and Drive installed as standard, with no third party services forced on you from day one.
Both Samsung and Google promise security updates five years from launch in order to keep them safer to use for longer. However that does mean that the Pixel 6A, having been launched last year, is guaranteed to receive support until 2027, while the A54 should continue to receive updates until 2028. Samsung also offers an additional generation of Android OS updates compared to Google. It's not a huge difference, but worth keeping in mind if you want to squeeze every ounce of useful life from your device.
The A54 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery which is larger than the 4,410mAh battery in the Pixel 6A. Perhaps due to the larger screen though, battery life was pretty much the same on both phones during my YouTube streaming drain test and in general use throughout the day. With careful use you should get a full day out of either phone, but either phone will still need a full recharge overnight.
It runs Android 13 at its core, with four years of Android generation updates promised by Samsung.
The base Galaxy A54 has 128GB of storage, but it's one of the last remaining phones to support expandable storage via microSD cards up to 1TB in size. That's a big tick in its favor as it means you can safely opt for the lowest storage model and simply buy a cheap 128GB card to double the storage, providing loads of room for photos, music or apps.
Galaxy A54: Three cameras for vibrant snaps
On the back of the phone are three cameras; a 50 megapixel main camera, 12 megapixel ultrawide and 5 megapixel macro camera. I found shots from the main camera to be generally decent, although the software optimizations often result in quite oversaturated images which look quite unnatural to my eye. Images look crisp however and the 2x preset digital zoom (there's no optical zoom here) delivered sharp images.
Taken with the main lens, the camera has done a good job of balancing the bright sky and the more shadowy buildings.
Colors are vibrant here, but a bit cold.
Switching to the ultra-wide lens, the shot looks a lot warmer, which I prefer.
The super wide lens worked well, too, with decent exposures and plenty of detail. I did often find quite a noticeable color shift between the main and wide lenses. The wide lens typically produces slightly warmer colors, which I mostly prefer against the often cool-looking images the main camera captured.
Taken from the A54's main camera, this outdoor shot is well exposed, but the colours are so over-saturated that they look quite unnatural.
The Pixel 6A's shot has colors that are much more true-to-life.
Low light images are decent, with the main lens capturing bright, sharp shots that are roughly on par with what we found from the Pixel 6A.
The 5-megapixel macro lens allows you focus close up on your subject. But as with most macro lenses on phones we've seen before from OnePlus and Samsung, it's pretty disappointing. The focus is sometimes off, and colors look more drab compared to photos taken with the main camera. Personally, I'd prefer it had Samsung not tried to squeeze an extra camera in here and simply lopped a little extra off the asking price.
The macro lens lets you get close up on your subject, but the results generally aren't great and I do find the lens a bit of a pointless addition.
There's a 32-megapixel selfie camera that does a good job of capturing detailed, well-exposed selfies.
While the A54's camera setup won't appeal to photographers among you who want true-to-life images, it'll do the job well if you just want vibrant shots of your kids on your next beach vacation. But I do prefer shots from both the Pixel 6A and 7A, which produce less over-saturated images with spot-on exposure.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G?
The A54's combination of decent performance, fun design, vibrant cameras and low price make it a potentially great budget option. Its bright screen, expandable storage and longer software support are ticks in its favor over Google's Pixel 6A, but the Pixel 6A wins in almost every other respect. The software is nicer to use, the cameras are better and it's even cheaper. Between the two, my money would go on the Pixel 6A.
How we test phones
Every phone tested by CNET's reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone's features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it's bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor's performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.
All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.
We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever its price is, actually represents good value.