BitDepth#1417
Mark Lyndersay
A TOP-OF-THE-LINE smartphone isn't for everyone, so the value of a lower-cost device will depend on what a user can live without.
Samsung's A series of phones replaced the budget J line in 2019 and the A54 is the crossover point from its premium Galaxy S devices.
For a price of between US$399 and $449 you get a device that on first glance is indistinguishable from a standard S23.
The A54 sports a triple-lens array with flash on the back and an agreeable 6.4 inch OLED screen that delivers great colour rendition.
So what justifies a price hike of US$250 to get an S23?
Some things go quietly missing.
The back panel of the A54 is Gorilla Glass 5, compared to the newer, tougher Victus glass on the S23. The A54 is held together by a plastic frame, while the S23 uses an "armour aluminium" frame.
Both devices benefit from a robust protective case for use in rough and tumble real-world environments, so the material used isn't terribly important.
The A54 is powered by an Exynos processor, while the S23 is driven by a recent model Snapdragon processor. For users who don't expect to tax their devices with higher-end games or video editing, the difference in day-to-day use is negligible.
The A54 also has a bigger 5,000 mAh battery, compared to the S23's 3,900 mAh battery. That makes a big difference in use time. Five days after I began testing the A54 and charging it to 100 per cent, the battery lost just two-thirds of its charge.
Even in standby mode with light use, I've never seen an S series smartphone get anywhere near that.
So far, it's just cosmetic differences and a battery advantage, so what don't you get when you choose the A54 over the S23?
There's no wireless charging. You do get an actual charger in the box, but if you prefer a wireless charger, that's not an option.
The crapware. Once you begin setting up the A54, it offers to download a parade of casual games. It's probably a Samsung deal and these games are teen-focused in scope, but despite rather adamantly declining them all, I still had to return to the app listing to delete three that sneaked aboard.
The A54's cameras look a lot like those on the S23 and it uses the same camera app, but there are some fundamental differences hiding behind the apparent similarities in the camera array.
The S23 offers with 8K video capabilities a 50 megapixel main camera, 10MP 70mm telephoto lens and a 12 MP ultra-wide camera.
The A54 has the same main and ultra-wide lenses, but ditches the telephoto option in favour of a lame 5MP macro lens. There's no RAW photo capture. The selfie camera captures 32MP (the S23 selfie camera delivers 12MP) and video capture peaks at 4K, but anyone needing 8K won't be quibbling over the price of an S23.
It probably isn't even a fair comparison. Between the S20 and the S23, Samsung has put a lot of work into improving its camera system. The S22 Ultra (https://cstu.io/0d8bf3) has little missing for a photographer to wish for in a smartphone being used for stills photog
