Samsung’s Galaxy A55 costs less but offers you more

After getting back into its mid-range smartphone groove with the Galaxy A54 5G, Samsung returns with another classy sub-£500 offering in the Galaxy A55 5G.

With prices starting from just £439, the Galaxy A55 5G represents the kind of price cut we don’t see much of these days. Despite being cheaper, it manages to add a larger display and a faster processor, all housed in a more premium design than before.

You can perhaps understand why Samsung would feel compelled to offer more for less, given the upward pressure exerted by excellent-value phones like the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Motorola Edge 40 Neo, as well as direct competition from the Redmi Note 13 Pro+.

So has Samsung done enough to compete?

Design & Build

• Similar style to S24
• Glass and metal upgrade
• IP67 protection

The Samsung Galaxy A55 5G doesn’t look all that different to the Galaxy A54 5G. Other than the latter’s subtly rounded edge being completely flattened out, it’s spot the difference stuff.

Those flat edges ultimately speak to the direction of travel Samsung has taken with its flagship Galaxy S24. However, the Galaxy A55 5G (together with its brother the Galaxy A35 5G) distinguishes itself with a unique raised housing for the power and volume buttons.

This is a significantly more premium piece of work

Any lingering sense of familiarity vanishes the second you lay your hands on the A55 5G. This is a significantly more premium piece of work, eschewing the plastic of its predecessor in favour of an aluminium frame and a glass back.

The front of the Galaxy A55 5G also gets an upgrade to the newer, tougher Gorilla Glass Victus+ (up from GG5). You still get the same IP67 water and dust resistance as before, but that remains a solid mid-range spec.

The Galaxy A55 5G’s step-up in materials does come at the cost of increased weight. We already found the Galaxy A54 5G to be somewhat unwieldy at 209g, and the A55 5G adds another 4g on top of that. The newer phone is also slightly taller and wider, thanks to its larger display so bare this in mind.

With more severe edges and a larger footprint, as well as the switch to a metal frame, the Galaxy A55 5G is a less comfortable phone to hold than its predecessor. However, it undoubtedly feels like it’s taken a large step towards flagship territory, which is impressive given the cheaper price tag.

I’m reviewing the Awesome Iceblue option, which most people would simply call white. You can also get the Galaxy A55 in Awesome Navy, Awesome Lilac, and Awesome Yellow. Which is… awesome.

Screen & Speakers

• Larger 6.6in AMOLED
• 120Hz refresh rate
• Stereo speakers

After decreasing the size of the Galaxy A54 54G’s display ever so slightly to 6.4in, Samsung has cranked things right up to 6.6in with the Galaxy A55 5G.

Other than an increased canvas, this is otherwise a nigh-on identical screen specification, with a 1080 x 2340 (Full HD+) resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It even gets to the same 1000 nit brightness, when exposed to bright ambient lighting and with autobrightness left on.

You’ll want to make sure you do that, too, as I only measured the brightness as barely scraping to 400 nits with autobrightness off. That’s fine for indoor usage, but won’t stand up to even a British summer’s day.

Colour accuracy is solid, in Samsung’s signature punchy fashion

Colour accuracy is solid, in Samsung’s signature punchy fashion. If you like your picture to be a little more restrained, I’d recommend switching away from the default Vivid setting and opting for Natural instead.

Using this more muted display mode, I recorded a 99.2% sRGB gamut coverage and an average Delta E of 1.72. That’s decent, without ripping up any trees.

You don’t get a 3.5mm headphone jack here, despite the size of the phone, but you do get decent clarity from its stereo speakers. There’s the usual lack of bass, but you expect that from a mid-range phone.

the Galaxy A55 5G’s Exynos 1480 chip allows it to stretch its legs

Specs & Performance

• Exynos 1480
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage

After last year’s Galaxy A54 5G with its Exynos 1380 brought the mid-range series into smooth working order, the Galaxy A55 5G’s Exynos 1480 chip allows it to stretch its legs.

This is a higher-clocked chip made using a more energy-efficient 4nm process, and it’s backed by 8GB of RAM as standard. Benchmark results point to a healthy, if not huge improvement over the Galaxy A54 5G.

Compared to its contemporaries, the Galaxy A55 5G comfortably trumps the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Google Pixel 7a in our CPU benchmark tests, but falls a little short of both in GPU terms.

This results in buttery smooth day to day performance, but also points to a phone that shouldn’t be a primary pick if gaming is your priority. It’ll run the likes of Wreckfest on High settings, but the frame rate will be far from flawless. You’re probably better off playing such complex 3D fare at medium settings.

Samsung Galaxy A55 benchmarks

You can select between 128- and 256GB of internal storage, and there’s a microSD slot if you feel the need to expand the provision, though it’ll take up one of the two SIM card slots.

As the name suggests, you can count on 5G connectivity where available, while the Galaxy A55 5G also supplies Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC for mobile payments. It’s all pretty up to date on the connectivity front for a mid-ranger.

Cameras

• 50Mp main camera
• 12Mp ultrawide
• 5Mp macro
• 32Mp selfies

We’ve seen nothing but thoughtful evolution so far, but the Galaxy A55 5G’s progress somewhat flatlines with its camera system. Samsung seems to have fitted the phone with exactly the same setup as the Galaxy A54 5G.

That means a fairly typical showing of a 50Mp main camera with an f/1.8 aperture and OIS, a 12Mp ultra-wide, and a 5Mp macro camera. There’s the same 32Mp selfie camera around the front, too.

It should surprise no one that my impressions of the Galaxy A55 5G’s photographic skills broadly fall in line with last year’s model, even with the usual improvements to image processing that come with a new model.

That main camera does a lot of the heavy lifting here, turning out detailed images packed full of Samsung’s customary colour – perhaps even too much for some tastes – when shooting in good lighting.

Night shots are less assured, with a hint of grain and softness, and I spotted a strange green visual artefact in one particular instance. They still look decent, but if you want truly strong night shots for less than £500, look to the Pixel 7a.

The A55’s 12Mp ultra-wide is nice to have for those landscape shot situations, but the fall-off in quality and inconsistency in tone compared to the main sensor is quite pronounced.

Samsung goes a little further than most with its 5Mp macro camera, producing passable close-up shots. But it’s still a superfluous addition, and I prefer the no-nonsense dual-lens approach taken by the Nothing Phone (2a) and Pixel 7a.

As that suggests, there’s no dedicated telephoto here, but 2x shots look pretty solid thanks to that solid main sensor and Samsung’s reliable cropping system. You’ll be dicing with increasing amounts of blur as you stray into 4x and 10x territory, though.

Once again, Samsung’s 32Mp front camera does a bang up job with selfies. Skin tones are natural, subject definition is good, and there’s a nice degree of background blur even without the portrait mode activated.

It has a slightly wider field of view than many, which is a better pick for group shots, with the default view cropping in for a more regular close-up without a noticeable drop off in detail.

Video recording is decent, stretching to 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps. The provision of OIS keeps things suitably steady.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 25W charging
• No adapter included

Samsung stuck with a familiar 5000mAh battery for the Galaxy A55 5G, which proves to be ample. Together with the new Exynos chip, it makes for an impressively efficient runner.

the Galaxy A55 5G will be good for a full two days of ‘normal’ usage in between charges

In practical use, I found the Galaxy A55 5G’s stamina to be strong. On a 15 hour day with 4 hours 30 minutes of screen on time – what you might term moderate usage – it fell to just 63%. On an especially intense day of 7 hours and 50 minutes screen on time, the Galaxy A55 5G still got through to bedtime with 22% remaining.

That’s an impressive level of stamina and indicates that the Galaxy A55 5G will be good for a full two days of ‘normal’ usage in between charges.

Meanwhile, a PC Mark Work 3.0 battery score of 12 hours and 26 minutes falls several hours behind the Nothing Phone (2a), but comfortably beats the likes of the Pixel 7a and the Motorola Edge 40 Neo.

If there’s one weakness here, it’s that Samsung persists in supporting a pretty mediocre charging speed. At just 25W, you’ll only get to just over half a tankful from empty in 30 minutes of charging. The Nothing Phone (2a) supports 45W, while the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G supports a whopping 120W, and the latter also gives you that speedy charger in the box.

There’s no wireless charging provision here, which isn’t too surprising. You can pick up a Pixel 7a with this feature for similar money, but it’s something of a mid-range outlier.

Software & Apps

• Android 14
• One UI 6.1
• Four years of OS upgrades

Samsung supplies the latest version of Android with the Galaxy A55 5G, which is Android 14, together with its own latest custom UI, One UI 6.1. In that way, it’s right up there with the company’s flagship Galaxy S24 series, minus the AI tricks.

One UI is an interface that you’ll either be instantly comfortable with, or else have to grow accustomed to over time.

Samsung’s software has been installed on millions upon millions of devices across more than a decade, albeit under different names, which means that it’s often viewed as the default Android OS by an awful lot of people.

It’s also a smooth, flexible, colourful and fully featured UI that proves to be a tinkerer’s delight.

If you’ve ventured away from Samsung at any point over the years, however, you may have experienced the cleaner, more streamlined delights of stock Android and those UIs that stick closer to Google’s way of doing things. To someone who’s acquired a taste for such things, One UI can feel very busy indeed, and even a little clumsy, with lots of preinstalled apps – several of which duplicate core Google services.

Samsung is promising four years of major OS upgrades for the Galaxy A55 5G, and up to five years of security updates. That’s pretty strong for a mid-range phone.

Price & Availability

Samsung is selling the Galaxy A55 5G in two storage variants from its website here in the UK. The model with 128GB, which I’m reviewing here, costs £439, while the 256GB model costs £489.

Amazon, John Lewis, Very, Argos, and Currys are all selling the phone at a similar price. Very was offering a £10 discount at the time of writing, while John Lewis was offering a free set of Galaxy Buds FE headphones with the phone.

That £439 starting price makes the Galaxy A55 5G £10 cheaper than last year’s Galaxy A54 5G. We haven’t been too accustomed to seeing anything get cheaper in recent years, let alone a popular smartphone range, so this is welcome news.

Even so, I’m hesitant to label the Galaxy A55 5G a bargain. Not when the Nothing Phone (2a) can be had for £319 and the Motorola Edge 40 Neo for £300 or less.

One negative is the fact that the Galaxy A55 5G doesn’t appear to be bound for US shores. Only the Galaxy A35 5G is headed stateside at the time of writing for $399. It’s not too dissimilar, but is still an inferior product with a cheaper build, inferior performance, and a lesser camera set-up.

Check out our chart of the best mid-range phones to see all the top A55 alternatives.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G?

Samsung has taken the good work done with the Galaxy A54 5G, and thoughtfully built upon it. This is another all-round capable mid-ranger with a much improved build, a larger display, and faster performance.

While it would have been nice to see some more improvements in the camera and display departments, these were solid components last time around, and remain so in 2024. Given that the phone costs a little less than its predecessor, it would feel churlish to complain too much, though cheaper rivals such as the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Motorola Edge 40 Neo mean that I still wouldn’t call it a full-on bargain.

Samsung could still do with improving its charging speeds, especially compared to some of its mid-range rivals, and the Galaxy A55 5G is bigger and bulkier than ever. However, it remains an easy recommendation for anyone with less than £450 to burn on a smartphone.

Specs

• Android 14 with One UI 6.1
• 6.6in, FHD+, OLED, 120Hz, flat display
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Exynos 1480
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage with MicroSD
• 50Mp, f/1.8 main camera
• 12Mp ultra-wide camera
• 5Mp macro camera
• Up to 4K @ 30fps rear video
• 32Mp front-facing camera
• Stereo speakers
• Dual-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5000mAh battery
• 25W charging
• 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2mm
• 213g
• Launch colours: Meteorite Gray, Moonlight White, Celestial Blue