Samsung Galaxy A55 vs. Samsung Galaxy A54
Samsung really tricked out this year's A5X model and arguably got it closer to the Galaxy S line than ever. The most notable upgrade this year has to be the overall build quality. The A55 includes an aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and another Gorilla Glass sheet on the back. The new Exynos 1480 chipset also offers a nice little uptick in both performance and efficiency compared to last year's model. The Galaxy A55 has also grown notably compared to the A54 and now rocks a bigger 6.6-inch display inside a proportionally larger body.
That being said, last year's Galaxy A54 has depreciated nicely and, at its attractive price point, still offers much of the same experience as the Galaxy A55. Sure, the build isn't quite as premium, but you still get IP67 ingress protection and two sheets of Gorilla Glass. All the other potentially alluring additional features are shared between the two devices as well, like the stereo speaker setup and microSD card slot for storage expansion. And the two phones have very similar camera setups.
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For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following text.
Size comparison
As we mentioned, the Galaxy A55 is the slightly bigger device out of the two. Samsung decided to stretch the display diagonal from 6.4 inches to 6.6 inches, and the device body grew alongside that as well. Even so, the Galaxy A55 remains pretty pocketable and fairly easy to handle, partly thanks to its thinner display bezels. The A55 boasts a screen-to-body ratio of around 85.8%, while the A54 sits somewhere around 82.9% by our calculations.
That said, the bezel difference isn't really noticeable unless you hold the two devices side by side. Both look good enough for midrangers from the front with reasonably small selfie camera punch holes, identical under-display fingerprint readers and pretty much no other visible sensors or I/O on the front. Both phones are pretty much flat on both sides.
However, there are still notable differences in design language across the two generations. The A54 is much rounder, with gently sloping corners and a middle frame tapering at the phone's front and back. The A55 is rocking Samsung's new design language with a flatter and much sharper middle frame that includes an elevated portion for the side buttons to sit on. Samsung also gave a nod to the new aluminum building material of the frame by giving in a brushed finish.
Speaking of materials, the Galaxy A55 has a more premium build than its A54 predecessor. This includes the aluminum frame we already mentioned and Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front. Some undisclosed type of Corning glass also covers the back side of the A55. Meanwhile, the A54 still has excellent, but not quite as durable, Gorilla Glass 5 on both its front and back, with a plastic middle frame.
The heavier metal frame and larger display are the reasons why the Galaxy A55 is heavier than its predecessor. Not by a lot, mind you. Samsung managed to preserve the same body thickness across both generations, which makes sense since the battery has remained the same at 5,000 mAh.
Samsung arguably went with slightly more noted-down color options for the A55. These include Iceblue, Lilac, Navy and Lemon. The A54 has an arguably more traditional color selection, including options like Graphite and White, as well as the notably more vibrant Lime and Violet.
As we said, the A55 and A54 are very similar in terms of controls and layout. Both have a stereo speaker setup and optical under-display fingerprint readers. NFC is market-dependent for both models. Both also have expandable storage via a microSD slot, shared with the second nano-SIM slot. Neither model has a 3.5mm audio jack or an onboard FM radio receiver. It is also worth noting that, unfortunately, both also have virtual proximity sensors.
Display comparison
As mentioned, the Galaxy A55 has a slightly bigger display than its A54 predecessor. Other than that, the two panels are quite similar in terms of specs and performance. You get a 120Hz refresh rate with identical automatic refresh rate handling. Resolution is also identical across the two phones at 1080 x 2340 pixels with the same 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
Both phones have HDR10+ certification and support. The maximum refresh rate is also quite similar, although we did manage to get a few nits more out of the Galaxy A55 in our testing. You can expect to get around 1,000 nits in auto mode, which is respectable and perfectly usable outdoors, though far from industry-leading. However, it would be unfair not to note that some cheaper phones beat Samsung at its own game and offer more than 1,400 nits of brightness.