Samsung’s midrange A-series phones get a Galaxy S23 facelift

Samsung’s Galaxy A34 and A54 are the latest additions to its popular midrange A-series. Although both phones offer a number of upgrades over last year’s models, the most striking thing for me is how much they both look like this year’s Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus.

The camera bumps of the A33 and A53 are gone, leaving three simple camera lenses per phone in their wake. It makes both look more premium to me, and Samsung is promising flagship-level support periods of up to four generations of major Android updates and five years of security patches.

The Galaxy A54 will go on sale on April 6th in the US starting at $449.99 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. In the UK the A54 is releasing this month starting at £449 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or £499 for 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy A34 will also be available this month in the UK starting at £349 for 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or £399 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Samsung is not announcing a US release for the Galaxy A34 at this time. We’ve followed up with the company for exact European pricing and release info.

Hold them in your hands and the flagship illusion disappears, these are obviously midrange phones. Both feel a little thick (8.2mm, presumably to make room for their large 5,000mAh batteries), and the A34 in particular has a plastic-feeling back panel. Both phones support fast-charging at up to 25W.

The phones each come with a main, ultra-wide, and macro camera on their back — though their exact specs differ. The A54 has a main 50-megapixel sensor, which is joined by a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and 5-megapixel macro. Samsung boasts that this main sensor is bigger than the one found in its previous-gen model, which should make for better low-light photography. The A34, meanwhile, has a 48-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultrawide, and 5-megapixel macro camera.

Around front the phones are more visually distinct. The A34 has its 13-megapixel selfie camera in a small teardrop notch, while the A54 has a hole-punch cutout containing its 32-megapixel front-facing sensor. Both have 120Hz, 1080p OLED displays with a peak brightness of 1000 nits, though the A34’s screen is slightly bigger at 6.6 inches, versus 6.4 inches on the A54.

Internally, the A34 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 processor, while the A54 has one of Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1380 chips. Both phones have microSD card slots that support up to a 1TB cards.

Rounding out the specs, both phones feature a relatively robust IP67 rating for dust and water resistance (that’s technically enough for full submersion, though we’d recommend not putting that to the test yourself), 5G, and in-display fingerprint sensors. Exact colors vary by market, but in the UK the A34 is available in black, silver, lime, and violet, while the A54 will be sold in white rather than silver in addition to black, lime, and violet.

Stay tuned for our full review of the Samsung Galaxy A54.