Samsung is giving its widespread A-series smartphones two new flagship fashions: the Galaxy A35 and A55 to switch their predecessors, the A34 and A54. The South Korean producer as soon as once more mixes up the codecs, with each smartphones being hardly distinguishable from each other. Learn the primary nextpit hands-on to seek out out why the Galaxy A55 remains to be clearly forward.
The Samsung Galaxy A55 in a nutshell
The excellent news first: the Samsung Galaxy A55 is now extra reasonably priced than its predecessor, albeit solely by €10. For these dwelling Stateside, €489 is $534 after conversion, making it far more costly than the Galaxy A54’s $449 price ticket throughout the pond For the essential model with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB ROM, Samsung has utilized a €479 MSRP, whereas the model with double the flash reminiscence prices €529.
Pricing within the US wouldn’t run too removed from its predecessor, and can virtually be cheaper than their European counterparts. The underside line? You get a pleasant mid-range smartphone to your cash, which improves on the Galaxy A54 (review) and the A35, notably by way of efficiency. In truth, it feels extra like an S-class than an A-class with its new metallic chassis.
Samsung Galaxy A55 design and construct high quality
The Galaxy A55 follows Samsung’s present smartphone design language, which we’re already aware of because of the present Galaxy S24 collection. The three individually mounted digicam lenses are positioned on the prime left behind, with the Gorilla Glass-protected again being fully clean. You get to select from colours like Superior Iceblue, Navy, Lilac, and Lemon. By the way in which, Samsung affords the identical colours for the Galaxy A35.
Nonetheless, there’s a new characteristic on the perimeters: For the primary time in a Samsung A collection machine, the body is made from metallic. The brushed aluminum feels high-quality and appears actually stylish. Nonetheless, it’s a must to look very intently to see the distinction between the A35 and its plastic body. Relying on the machine shade, the body of the Galaxy A55 is a bit more shiny and options plastic antenna strips for higher cell phone reception.
The Samsung Galaxy A55 feels excellent to carry within the hand. The flat body matches comfortably within the hand, and the marginally rounded elevation on the left implies that the quantity rocker and the on/off button might be instantly felt, even together with your eyes closed.
The entrance show measures 6.6 inches throughout diagonally. An AMOLED panel with Full HD+ decision and 120 Hz is in motion right here, with a peak brightness (HBM) of 1,000 nits. This isn’t a shock from Samsung because the show on the Galaxy A55 appears to be like first-class.
Energy and battery
The Samsung Galaxy A55 takes the processor a era additional. The Koreans South are shifting the Exynos 1380 from the A54 down a notch to the A35 in 2024, whereas the Galaxy A55 will obtain the brand new Exynos 1480, which is manufactured utilizing the 4 nm course of as an alternative of the 5 nm course of. A distinction in efficiency can be noticeable in our temporary hands-on.
The working system ran easily on the Galaxy A55. That is partly as a result of 120 Hz show, but additionally attributed to the SoC. In a direct comparability, the A35 will not be fairly as quick, however avid gamers are more likely to profit much more from the improve. Based on preliminary benchmarks, the A55 will increase by a superb 31% in comparison with its predecessor within the Geekbench 6 GPU benchmark, which could be very a lot in keeping with the 32% enhance in efficiency promised by Samsung. The rise in CPU efficiency is far more average at 10 to twenty p.c, relying on the benchmark.
The Samsung Galaxy A55 has a 5,000 mAh battery. At 25 W, the quick charging ‘characteristic’ would not essentially deserve its title, however a minimum of the battery ought to be capable to cost from zero to 52 p.c in half-hour. Based on Samsung, a full cost takes 84 minutes.
There’s additionally excellent news by way of working system updates: Samsung guarantees 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of safety patches. Though this isn’t fairly on par with Google’s Pixel 8 series or the Galaxy S24 models, it’s nonetheless glorious for a mid-range smartphone. Fantastic!
Samsung Galaxy A55 digicam
The digicam within the Galaxy A55 was a little bit of a disappointment. Nothing has modified by way of {hardware}. Software program improvements have been additionally very restricted. Due to the addition of AI and NPU, picture high quality needs to be somewhat higher, with a twin recording perform for the entrance and rear cameras, and somewhat extra picture stabilization.
Sure, Samsung is sticking to the identical outdated digicam configuration of a 50 MP predominant digicam, a 12 MP ultra-wide angle, and a reasonably ineffective macro digicam within the prime A collection mannequin in 2024. Presumably, the A55 will take images which can be on par with its predecessor, the A54, which was not notably spectacular with its digicam within the nextpit review a yr in the past.
Early Verdict
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy A55 is a average replace as Samsung would not have to do extra. The Galaxy A collection instructions near 50% of the market share for telephones throughout the $500 value vary, and the A55 will proceed to supply a wonderful total package deal for the lots in 2024 with out excelling in particular person areas.
Nonetheless, those that usually are not fixated on Samsung will even discover different thrilling smartphones on this value vary. The Google Pixel 7a (review), as an illustration, in all probability affords a considerably higher digicam, whereas the Poco F5 (review) and the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ (review) are thrilling choices from Xiaomi.
