Samsung Galaxy A55 5G vs Galaxy S24: Formulaic mid-ranger meets a proper flagship

Samsung has just introduced the Galaxy A55 5G officially, making it the latest and possibly highest-ranking Samsung mid-ranger so far. Succeeding the Galaxy A54, this new phone introduces core updates to the mid-range formula that doesn't redefine the experience, but will undoubtedly make the A55 5G a phone that would sell like hotcakes. 

That said, the Samsung Galaxy S24 is surely the hottest thing on the Android side of the block; it's surely one of the best Android phones around. A proper flagship, with holding back, this one is the phone to recommend if you're looking to get into the Android ecosystem. 

Surprisingly, the Galaxy A55 5G won't be sold in the US, which is a surprising break-away from tradition. All former Galaxy A5x devices were sold in the US, but in 2024, the Galaxy A35 5G will be hitting the shelves here. Samsung will position the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 FE as the stepping up stones to the higher-end Galaxy S24. 

While it's a bit unfair to compare a true flagship and a mid-ranger that's obviously inferior in many ways, not just everyone might need a flagship, so the Galaxy A55 5G has the unique ability to maximize the value gained. 

From the get-go, the Galaxy A55 5G towers over the Galaxy S24 with its much larger 6.6-inch body. After all, the latest Samsung flagship is equipped with "merely" a 6.2-inch display, making for a much more compact handset. Materials are different, too: the Galaxy S24 comes with Armor Aluminum and Gorilla Glass Victus 2, whereas the Galaxy A55 is certainly humbler with its materials. 

One thing that is now common between the two devices is the design language. After the Galaxy S24 adopted the fully flat iPhone-like design, it's now time for this flat design to trickle down to the Galaxy A-series of mid-rangers. The Galaxy A55 5G is now fully flat on the sides, ditching its predecessor's slightly curved side frame. 

Material-wise, the Galaxy A55 5G ascends to metal, similarly to the Galaxy S24. The mid-ranger also surprises with Gorilla Glass Victus+. At the same time, the flagship phone comes along with Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which should be sturdier and more scratch-resistant. 

One intriguing aspect of the Galaxy A55 5G is its raised side bezel that houses the power button and volume rocker, an interesting design take that sets it apart from the in-house competition. Samsung calls this one the "Key Island", and it looks like something that will differentiate the mid-range crop from the more popular phones. 

Colors-wise, things are surely a lot more lively in the Galaxy A55 5G's world. We get four awesome-looking colors: Awesome Iceblue (a very faint blue), Awesome Lemon (a jovial yellow), Awesome Lilac (a mellow violet hue), and Awesome Navy (a dark gray color variant).

The Galaxy A55 5G comes with an IP67 certification, while the Galaxy S24 boasts the more impressive IP68 one. The difference between the two is the maximum submersible depth: IP68 allows you to dunk your device in up to 1.5 meters, while IP67 in just 1 meter. Not a big difference, in all honesty. 

The Galaxy A55 5G is the significantly larger device in comparison to the Galaxy S24, and this certainly affects the screen size. Samsung's fresh and new mid-ranger boasts a 6.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate for the smoothest user experience. Samsung's Vision Booster, which amplifies screen brightness in certain situations, is also here. 

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 certainly employs one of the finest displays at the moment. Despite its FHD+ resolution of 1080 by 2340 pixels, it's an A+ OLED screen with switching refresh rate of 1-120Hz for a very smooth experience. In terms of colors, sharpness, and viewing angles, this one is excellent, no second opinion on that. 

Display Measurements:

The Galaxy S24 that has the better display when it comes to maximum and minimum brightness, but surprisingly, the Galaxy A55 is very close to the Galaxy S24 in terms of color rendition. 

The Galaxy A55 5G arrives smack-bang with an octa-core chipset, the Exynos 1480. This one should be a step-up from the Exynos 1380 that powered last year's Galaxy A54 and should be a better performer, though it's doubtful the difference would be palpable. The Galaxy A54 was certainly choppy and completely unimpressive in terms of performance, so we are cautiously bracing for disappointment once again.

Meanwhile, you can get Samsung's Galaxy S24 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the US, while the Exynos 2400 powers the phone in most international regions. We are excited to report that both versions perform mostly similarly, and boy, do they perform! Surely, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 performs better in intensive graphics tasks, but you shouldn't feel too down for having the Exynos version as well.  

Well, our performance benchmarks are here, and they don't paint a particularly great outlook for the Galaxy A55. It's a noticeably worse performer than the Galaxy S24, but is this even surprising? In real life, you can easily tell which one is the mid-ranger and which one's the flagship, too. 

In terms of storage, both devices are available with either 128 or 256GB of native storage, while the RAM is 8GB on both devices. For the Galaxy A55 5G, that's a +2GB improvement in comparison with the Galaxy A54, so a very decent performance upgrade. 

The Galaxy A55 5G comes with a triple camera, like its predecessors, and just like those phones, it relies on the tried-and-tested setup consisting of a wide, ultra-wide, and a macro camera. In particular, there's a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide one, and finally, a 5MP macro camera that's only there for the participation award. Up at the front, users will be able to snap selfies with a 32MP front-facing camera.

Samsung has graced the Galaxy A55 5G with improved Nightography, which stands for enhanced low-light shooting mode. The phone is also endowed with exemplar OIS and VDiS, which stands for video digital image stabilization and ensures your photos and videos are as crisp as they can get. 

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 uses a proper triple-camera setup, consisting of a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP 3X telephoto. This year, Samsung has tweaked its image-processing, delivering more natural-looking photos. The horrible oversharpening we had on previous generations is gone from the produced photos, and the hues are more natural. Photos are still a bit warm-ish, but nonetheless a big improvement over the Galaxy S23.

Surprisingly, there aren't that many differences between the main cameras of these two phones. Surely, the Galaxy S24 delivers much better dynamics. while the Galaxy A55 goes for a slightly over-exposed look, but that's mostly it. At night, the main difference might very well be color rendition, with the Galaxy A55 leaning more towards the red part of the spectrum, while the Galaxy S24 betting on green. That's mostly a minor and easily fixable difference between the two - just apply a filter and call it a day. 

No surprise here: the Galaxy S24 is in a league of its own thanks to its dedicated telephoto camera, which easily beats the Galaxy A55 5G when it comes to zooming on a semi-distant object. 

The Galaxy S24 selfies deliver much better details and dynamics, but the Galaxy A55 doesn't perform half-bad either. 

 

While we don't know what the audio quality and haptic feedback experience will be on the Galaxy A55 5G, we are completely certain that the Galaxy S24 will be way superior on both accounts, as it's a proper flagship phone. 

The Galaxy S24 with its 4,000mAh battery is a fairly durable phone that achieves pretty good battery endurance. However, the flagship only charges up to 25W, which is mostly similar to its predecessors, but the device still juices relatively fast. Meanwhile, in the land of Mid-rangia, the Galaxy A55 5G scores a standard 5,000mAh battery, just as much as its predecessor. It also charges up at 25W.

In the PhoneArena web browsing test, emulating a browsing experience with the displays set at 200 nits, the Galaxy A55 lasts slightly longer than the Galaxy S24, but both phones last quite a long time. Elsewhere, the results are mostly equalized in our video streaming test, which has both devices go through a video playlist. However, the Galaxy A55 seriously beats the Galaxy S24 in our custom 3D gaming test with a nearly double result, which is a massive win for the mid-range phone. However, we wouldn't bet that the gaming experience was more pleasurable. 

Charging-wise, it's the Galaxy S24 that charges much faster than the Galaxy A55 5G in all areas. Even if you only charge for 15 or 30 minutes, the Galaxy S24 will be quicker to juice up, with a full charge taking an hour and 12 minutes. The reason for that is the smaller battery on the Galaxy S24. There's also wireless charging and reverse wireless charging on the flagship, too. 

The two phones are now official, with all hardware Galaxy A55 5G vs Galaxy S24 specs known. We've summarized the essential ones for you. 

The Galaxy S24 is undoubtedly the phone of choice for those wishing for a top premium experience, albeit coming at a significantly higher than the projected price tag of the Galaxy A55 5G. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A55 5G shapes is another iterative release for Samsung, with little changes in comparison with the previous Galaxy A54 generation. New here is the company's market strategy shift, thanks to which the Galaxy A55 won't be sold in the US. The Galaxy A35 takes its place. 

While it could offer good value to those unwilling to shell out a lot of money on a phone, but however good the Galaxy A55 5G is, the Galaxy S24 would undoubtedly offer the more premium experience, all things considered.