Samsung’s youth-centric, midrange A series gets two new devices: the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Galaxy A34 5G. The new phones bring about a shift in the positioning of its Galaxy A series. There’s no Samsung Galaxy A74 or any other A series phone coming for now.
And for our Philippine readers, we’re sad to say that Samsung is focusing on these two devices, so don’t hold out hope for a Galaxy A7x series phone coming anytime soon. But you don’t have to worry too much. The Samsung Galaxy A54 and A34 continue the Galaxy A tradition of bringing flagship features to this segment.
Let’s tackle the essential things you need to know about these new phones.
Samsung Galaxy A54 and A34: Price and availability
Pricing is a good indicator of whether it’ll be worth an upgrade to a new phone or if it’ll be better to get the previous generation device at a discount or any other phone available. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy A54 and A34, the A34 seems to be making a good impression, mainly because there is no price change from last year’s Galaxy A33 5G in the Philippines. The A54 gets a PHP 1,500 (around USD 28) increase from its predecessor.
The two phones are available at these prices:
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
- 8GB + 256GB – PHP 26,990 (~USD 493)
- 8GB + 128GB – PHP 24,990 (~USD 455)
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G
- 8GB + 256GB – PHP 21,990 (around USD 401)
- 8GB + 128GB – PHP 19,990 (around USD 365)
Samsung is kicking off pre-orders today, March 15, with the units coming to authorized Samsung Mobile dealers starting March 31. You’ll get the best deal during this pre-order period because Samsung offers a free storage upgrade to the 256GB models for the A54 and A34. This offer saves you PHP 2,949 (~USD 55) on the new phone. If you trade in your old devices, you can enjoy savings of up to PHP 10,150 (~USD 185). And you get a discount of 50% off on the Galaxy Buds2 Pro and 30% off the Galaxy Watch5 series.
The company is also throwing in a free travel adapter, which unfortunately signals to us that these phones are losing an adapter in the box. We’re confirming this with Samsung, though. But following the logic of them giving it away, you better manage your expectations about getting one.
The Galaxy look
Samsung’s doubling down on unifying its design, with both models getting the “floating camera” look from the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, S23, and S23+. So, if you can’t afford a Galaxy S phone, the Galaxy A54 or A34 is your next best bet.
Looking at the phones from the back, it’s initially hard to tell them apart. But there’s a subtle difference in the finish. The Samsung Galaxy A54 has a premium glass panel with a glossy finish (Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the back). It’s shiny, which made it a fingerprint magnet even during the short time I spent with it. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A34 has this more iridescent yet matte finish.
I gravitated towards the latter immediately. But the A34 has the more dated “Infinity U”-style notch for its selfie camera, while the A54 has the more conventional hole-punch. Also, Samsung has dropped the audio jack for both phones. So, you need to spring for a pair of wireless earbuds for these phones.
Both are IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. The phones can be protected from immersion in water with a depth of up to 1 meter for up to 30 mins. Samsung touts the recycled materials it used on both phones to help with its eco-initiatives.
There are three color options available at launch. It comes in Awesome Graphite, Awesome Purple, and Awesome Lime. We were told that the lime option for the A34 will be coming later as an exclusive online offer, and the A54’s purple option will be an online-exclusive color variant. I liked how fresh the lime shade was, but the purple also injected that bit of fun into these flat-edged phones.
Let’s talk displays on the Samsung Galaxy A54, A34
Speaking of flat edges, Samsung highlighted the display improvements with the Galaxy A54 and A34. These get a balanced 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which can kind of get rid of the black bars if you watch movies on your phone.
The Samsung Galaxy A54 shrinks slightly from the A53’s 6.5-inch display to this generation’s 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy A34 goes bigger with a 6.6-inch FHD+ display. Both now support a 120Hz refresh rate, are brighter with a 1,000 nits maximum brightness, and have Gorilla Glass 5 protection for the display.
It gets technologies like Vision Booster and reduced blue light to make it easier to use both smartphones for extended periods.
Performance preview
Samsung highlighted the improvements in performance and battery life. The Samsung Galaxy A54 runs on an Exynos 1380, while the Samsung Galaxy A34 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080. Both smartphones only come with 8GB of RAM this year. And you’ve already seen the storage options above. Both phones support up to 1TB of extra storage.
Battery sizes for both Galaxy A54 and A34 are the same at 5,000mAh with 25W charging support. But hardware and software tweaks promise longer battery life with up to 21 hours of video playback compared to the 18 hours on their predecessors.
There are subtle changes in the cameras from the previous generation. The Galaxy A54 seemingly gets a downgrade to a 50-megapixel sensor over the A53’s 64-megapixel one. But it gets a larger pixel size at 1 micron, allowing it to capture more light for better-quality images. Samsung also improved optical image stabilization (OIS) and video digital image stabilization (VDIS) for the A54. It loses the depth sensor of its predecessor but retains the 12-megapixel ultra-wide and 5-megapixel macro sensors of the A53.
The Galaxy A34 also drops its depth sensor but keeps the same rear camera setup as the A33 (48-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, and 5-megapixel macro cameras). It doesn’t get improved OIS, but it gets better VDIS. Selfie cameras on the Galaxy A54 and A34 are 32-megapixel and 13-megapixel, respectively.
Get more for longer
New and shiny things are cool and fun. But it’s not sustainable or cost-effective to change devices yearly. So, Samsung is bringing up its promise to offer four cycles of operating system upgrades and five years of security updates for the Samsung Galaxy A54 and Galaxy A34. This theoretically means these phones will get up to Android 17. This longer life cycle is one of the better deals you can get in the Android ecosystem.
Which new Samsung Galaxy A phone tickles your fancy? Let us know on social media!