Samsung’s just announced the Galaxy A54 5G and A34 5G, which take features from its top-tier trinity – the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra, and distill them into more affordable, pared-back packages. These aren’t budget phones by any means, sitting comfortably in the mid-ranger category.
The Galaxy A54 5G will get a worldwide release, starting at $450 / £449 / AU$699, sitting between the Pixel 6a and Pixel 7 in price. The Galaxy A54 5G has a slightly confusing worldwide launch, in the US, the phone will be available for pre-order on March 30, or can be picked up in-store from April 6. In the UK, the phone will be available starting this month.
The A34 5G will have more limited availability, focusing on the UK and other select markets, with no word yet on a US release. The Galaxy A34 5G will have a starting price of £349 / AU$599, costing a little less than the Nothing Phone (1), and will also arrive this month.
Thankfully, Samsung has made sure the specs reflect the prices, with both phones packing highlights like optical image stabilization (OIS) and IP67 water and dust resistance, making them a natural progression from last year’s Galaxy A53 5G.
While the A54 is the more premium of the two phones, they do share plenty of similarities. For starters, fire them up and you’ll be running Android 13 with the latest Samsung interface, OneUI 5.1. This comes complete with Snapchat integration so you can directly access the native camera quality from the social app.
Both phones also pack bright screens that climb up to 1000 nits, and smooth 120Hz refresh rates, though the A54 5G’s screen can switch between more levels of smoothness to finetune power-saving.
Storage in the A34 and A54 5G starts at 128GB and climbs up to 256GB, and both have microSD card slots, so this can be bumped up by 1TB – great for anyone who plans on keeping the phone for more than a couple of years.
With IP67 water resistance, Samsung’s also building its midrangers to last, and there’s Gorilla Glass 5 on the front of both the A34 and A54 too – though only the A54 5G has it on the back as well. Add 25W fast charging to the mix, as well as an in-display fingerprint scanner, and whichever you go for, each phone offers a solid foundation.
Onto the cameras, both the A54 and A34 5G pack triple camera setups with a 12MP ultra-wide snapper plus an f/2.2 lens, and a 5MP macro camera plus an f/2.4 lens.
The main camera on the A54 5G features a relatively large 1/1.56-inch 50MP sensor with 1-micron pixels and superior OIS, while the main camera on the A34 5G swaps that for a 48MP sensor with less impressive hardware.
The differences don’t stop there. The A34 has a slightly larger 6.6-inch screen with a waterdrop notch, and MediaTek Dimensity 1380 power, the A54, meanwhile, has a 6.4-inch screen, a punch-hole selfie camera like the S23 series, and Exynos 1380 silicon.
While Samsung has increased its pricing year on year only in the UK (but not in the US or Australia), we’re hoping the hike is reflected in performance – after all, our main criticism of last year’s A53 5G was how laggy it got in our time with it. If remedied for the A34 and A54 5G, these look like they could be two of the best midrange phones on the market.
Need more help? You can find your next phone in our guides to the best android phone, and the best budget camera phone.
