In our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra reviewwe rated the flagship as the best camera phone in the world, but you don’t have to spend Ultra money to get a quality camera phone from Samsung, and the company’s recently announced mid-rangers seem to be aimed at making decent mobile photography more accessible and entertaining .
The company just unveiled the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Samsung Galaxy A34 5G, and while most mid-range phones have at least a fill-in camera (think 2MP depth sensor or similar), those- these seem to go against this 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 and a 5MP f/2.4 macro snapper, as well as a 32MP camera f/2.2 on the front.
With these, Samsung claims the Galaxy A54 5G can deliver great photos even in low light conditions, as well as ultra-smooth video calls, and the phone further comes with enhanced editing tools, so so you can get the most out of your images.
The cheaper Samsung Galaxy A34 5G doesn’t seem like a step up 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. , as well as a 13MP f/2.2 front camera.
Another strong point of these phones – at least according to specs – is 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 increases the size to 6.6 inches (although it’s cheaper) and otherwise has the same specs, which is a 90Hz increase over last year Samsung Galaxy A33 5G.
Beyond that, both phones have fairly large 5000mAh batteries, with 25W charging, plus 5G, in-display fingerprint sensor, IP67 water resistance rating, 128 GB or 256 GB of storage, a microSD card slot and stereo speakers.
The differences come down to their power though, with the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G packing an Exynos 1380 chipset (itself announced just weeks before the A54’s unveiling) and 8GB of RAM, while the A34 5G has an Exynos 1380 chipset Slightly less powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1080 paired with 6GB or 8GB 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 also pay less for the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G, with that phone costing £349 for 128GB of storage or £399 for 256GB, while the Galaxy A54 5G costs £449 or £499 for the 128GB models and 256 GB, in the UK respectively. This marks a noticeable year-on-year price increase, compared to the Galaxy A33 and A53, which started at £329 and £399 each. The phones will go on sale April 25 in the region and Samsung will launch a pair of Galaxy buds 2 for free if you buy one of these phones before then.
In Australia, both phones are only available in the 128GB storage version (expandable to 1TB), with the A34 5G costing AU$599 and the A54 5G reserving you a higher amount of AU$699. Both match the launch price of 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 before April 13.
That’s a different story in the US, however, with no sign of the A34 5G, while the A54 5G appears to be landing the same price as its predecessor, at $449.99 for the base model, which includes 8 GB of RAM compared to one from 6 GB on the previous generation. In the US, pre-orders for the A54 5G start on March 30, with the phone on sale from April 6.
These discrepancies in price increases in different markets seem to be due to the current volatility in the global economic climate and echo what we saw from Samsung last year, with companies like Galaxy ZFlip 4 costing £50 more than its UK predecessor, despite maintaining consistent cross-generational pricing in the US.
Analysis: how much are these upgrades?
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Obviously, we’ll have to give these phones a full review before we know how good they are in practice, but on paper they’re improvements over their predecessors in a number of ways, but less so in others.
For one thing, in terms of megapixels, previous phones seem equally accomplished. 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 judging depth, which is missing here – although the 2MP one on the Galaxy A33 5G is exactly the kind of filling goal that we do not miss.
But we know in the case of the Galaxy A54 5G that the main camera pixel size, image sensor size and OIS angle are improved compared to its predecessor, so photos are likely to come out better, even after losing a few pixels compared to the previous one. 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 up from 90Hz on the previous model.
However, the battery capacities, charging speeds and water resistance levels are all the same, and the designs haven’t changed much either. So if there are enough improvements here to rank among the best samsung phones that remains to be seen.