With the A55, Samsung has introduced its new mid-range smartphone. It is priced between €400 and €500.
This offers a large 6.6 inch AMOLED display, a total of 4 cameras and a high-quality design. The cameras in particular are highly praised by Samsung.
But what does it look like in practice? Are the cameras really that good? Is the Samsung Exynos 1480 installed in the A55 sufficiently fast and is the battery life good?
Let’s find out in the test!
The Samsung Galaxy A55 in the test
Samsung describes the design of the A55 as simple. I think this is a very apt description.
At its core, the smartphone is simply a block of glass and metal. The front and back are made of glass, while the frame is made of brushed metal.
Neither the front nor the back is rounded. The A55 clearly falls into the “squarely practically good” category.
The only feature that stands out a bit are the 3 camera lenses on the back. But even these are absolutely minimalist.
I think this design is entirely a matter of taste. I find it a bit boring, but especially if you like it simple, you’ll probably find the smartphone very good.
If you like it a little more eye-catching, you should choose one of the alternative colors that stand out a little more.
However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of the A55. This feels very solid and high quality in the hand. This could also be a high-end smartphone.
This feeling of “massiveness” also comes from the weight. At 213g, the Galaxy A55 is relatively heavy! For example, the larger S24+ only weighs 196g.
At 6.6 inches, the A55’s display is quite large. Larger than the S24 and only slightly smaller than the S24+.
A great display
Samsung can build excellent displays. The A55’s display is also fantastic. Here we have a 6.6 inch AMOLED display with up to 120 Hz and a sufficiently high 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution.
The display is very bright, offers very good colors and great brilliance. No, it’s not quite as bright as the S24 Ultra, but in the upper mid-range this will be one of the best displays on the market.
Good stereo sound
The A55 has two speakers for media playback. So we have a speaker on the bottom, as well as the ear cup, which is also used for music etc.
As a result, the smartphone offers a fairly wide and full sound. The sound quality is also generally quite good! Maybe it’s a touch thinner at high volumes than current flagships, but I absolutely can’t complain about it being too loud.
The speakers are a plus point on the A55.
Cameras, 2x useful, 1x questionable
The A55 has 3 cameras on the back.
Main camera – 50 megapixels, f1.8 Wide angle camera – 12 megapixels, f2.2 Macro camera – 5 megapixels, f2.4
I think the macro camera is only useful to a limited extent. This is significantly worse in quality than the main camera and, in my opinion, primarily to bring the number of cameras to 3 without this being too expensive for Samsung.
So I would describe the macro camera as a gimmick.
The 50 megapixel main camera is much more exciting. This doesn’t rely on a huge sensor, but it’s not tiny either.
Large sensors make it easier to absorb a lot of light and produce higher quality images.
On paper, the Galaxy A55 should be capable of high-quality images.
Unsurprisingly, the A55 produces very high quality and sharp images! The detail representation is also good, as is the dynamics of the recordings.
What I’m a little surprised by, however, is the colors. The A55 inherently has comparatively neutral colors.
Here are a few pictures compared to the S24 Ultra.
Samsung A55
Samsung S24 Ultra
Samsung A55
Samsung S24 Ultra
Samsung A55
Samsung S24 Ultra
Samsung A55
Samsung S24 Ultra
The S24 Ultra clearly has more dynamics in the recordings, stronger HDR, better low light performance and more background separation. However, the S24 Ultra is significantly better when it comes to zoom.
Samsung A55
Samsung S24 Ultra
However, apart from that, they don’t do that much! The A55’s photos look valuable. In some cases I even like the colors in landscape images better than on the S24 Ultra.
The 0.5x wide-angle camera is noticeably slightly worse in quality than the main camera. At least when viewed on a large monitor. Here the image appears a little more “blocky” and less detailed.
However, it still holds up very well! Colors are successful, the images don’t look washed out and the image style is very similar to the main camera.
The wide-angle camera is therefore fully usable as long as the light is reasonably good.
Performance of the A55
Samsung also likes to use its own processors in its own smartphones. Here the Samsung Exynos 1480 in combination with 8 GB of RAM.
The Exynos processors are often a bit of a double-edged sword. These are usually inferior to their direct competitors in the form of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. That’s why Samsung also uses the latter in some of its high-end models.
However, the Samsung Exynos 1480 in the A55 looks very good so far!
In benchmarks, it is definitely convincing for the price range we are in here.
In practice the A55 also runs well, if not very well! Normal everyday applications such as web browsing, Instagram, Facebook, etc. essentially run like on a flagship smartphone.
The 120 Hz display also contributes to this, as it can display animations noticeably more smoothly than a 60 Hz display. This is particularly noticeable when scrolling.
Where we may notice differences to high-end smartphones is in games. Of course, we can’t make general statements here and 99% of all games run perfectly on the smartphone, but there are a handful of “high-end” titles where you might notice a small difference to flagships.
However, even Genshin Impact runs smoothly on high graphics settings.
Still, I would rate the A55’s performance as excellent, even if you play a lot of games on your smartphone. The Samsung Exynos 1480 does a good job.
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy A55 has a 5000 mAh battery. A good capacity for a smartphone of this size.
In practice we even have a very good battery life. I can get through the day with the A55 without any problems, much better than with my Pixel 8 Pro. Maybe a second day here would be possible for me.
Even with intensive use, the battery lasts quite well.
Unfortunately, what is still missing is wireless charging. Wired charging also works with a maximum of 25W, which is not fast.
Conclusion
With the A55, Samsung has a really good and “well-rounded” smartphone in its range. This showed no real weakness in the test.
The feel and workmanship is impeccable. The smartphone feels valuable and well made. The display looks good and can also be wonderfully bright.
The performance of the built-in Exynos 1480 is good for an upper mid-range smartphone and the two primary cameras were also impressive with their high image quality. Even though I was a bit surprised that these are not quite as “colorful” in color as I know from Samsung and the S smartphones.
Nevertheless, the image quality of the primary camera in particular is more than satisfactory in all lighting situations and is even quite close to the high-end models, even if there are of course still small but subtle differences here.
The battery, speakers and the general everyday experience are also positive.
In short, the Samsung Galaxy A55 is a good all-round mid-range smartphone.
If I had to criticize something, it would be that this one isn’t “special”. There is no point where this stands out individually and the design is also very simple. You could also get smartphones that are better in certain areas.
However, finding an all-rounder that is better in all respects will not be easy! The A55 is a very well balanced smartphone, with no real weak points.
POSITIVE
High-quality feel
Decent main camera
Good performance
Good battery life
Very good display
NEGATIVE
No wireless charging
Design a bit boring