After launching its flagship phones last month, Samsung has now launched the Galaxy A55 5G, the brand’s latest mid-range phone, alongside the Galaxy A35 5G. Along with many of the year-on-year improvements you’d expect, there are some pleasant firsts for the affordable A series phones.
Sporting an aluminium frame, the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G steps up the premium feel of its plastic predecessor, the very good A54 model. It’s also slightly bigger, with a 6.6-inch display that carries over the 120Hz Super AMOLED technology from last year. Not just for show, the upgraded exterior also benefits from an IP67 rating, while the screen uses sturdy Gorilla Glass Victus technology.
More power also comes with the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, thanks to the brand’s in-house Exynos 1480 chip. The phone also gets 8GB of memory, up from the A54’s 6GB. Meanwhile, the standard 5,000mAh battery capacity should last a couple of days of general use.
In a big move for flexibility, the Galaxy A55 5G supports eSIM technology, letting you easily swap between SIM plans as needed. Some overseas A54 models had eSIM compatibility, but not the Australian version, so it’s good to see more support for the tech locally.
Low-light photography upgrade
One of the biggest factors when buying a phone these days is a good camera. To that end, Samsung has made some improvements to its mid-range offering.
Although the megapixel count on the Galaxy A55 5G camera array remains unchanged, the sensor pixel size is bigger. In other words, it’s better at capturing light, colours, and details when taking a photo. Generally speaking, more megapixels allow you to zoom in and crop photos with less distortion, which doesn’t mean much if you don’t have a good photo to start with.
Software processing is the other big photography benefit versus last year. While the A55 isn’t getting the full gamut of Galaxy AI features, some of the image-enhancing tools trickle down. This includes Edit Assist, which helps you remove unwanted shadows, reflections, and blur from photos you’ve already taken. Plus, you can remove objects, which can sometimes result in amusing replacements.
When taking a photo, the Galaxy A55 5G uses Samsung’s AI Image Signal Processing technology to improve night photography over the A54. Features like Night Portrait mode and 12-bit HDR video also come to the latest handset.
Better photography and video-taking features, along with dual rear and front camera recording, position the Galaxy A55 as a potentially affordable phone for creators.
Locked up like Fort Knox
Security is also a major focus for Samsung with this year’s A series. In another first for the range, Samsung Knox Vault comes included with both the A55 and A35 phones.
A hardware-based security feature, it isolates your most important data, like biometrics and passwords, from the rest of the device. Samsung Knox Vault takes the form of a secure separate processor, meaning that if the CPU somehow gets hacked, or a cloud breach occurs, your data is safe from prying eyes.
Previously reserved for Samsung’s flagship phones, it’s another layer of protection that adds to the existing software-level security on offer. Shipping with Android 14 in the form of One UI 6.1 the new Galaxy A phones have multiple ways to be more privacy-conscious.
Privacy Dashboard is one simple way to check which apps have permission to different information, including your location or camera access. It also lets you revoke access to apps you no longer want tracking your phone activities. There’s also the spam-screening Smart Call feature and Auto Blocker, which helps protect your phone from dodgy apps, viruses and malware.
Adding to its security focus, Samsung has committed to four years of operating system updates and five years of security updates for the Galaxy A55 5G and A35 5G.
Samsung Galaxy A55 5G release date and price details
Out now, the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G costs $699, which is the same price as last year’s model. It’ll come in two colours: the more muted Awesome Navy, and the flashy Awesome Lilac that seems to take an iridescent leaf out of Oppo’s playbook.
For comparison, the slightly lower-spec Galaxy A35 5G costs $549 – $50 cheaper than its 2023 predecessor.
As an incentive to buy from Samsung directly, you also get a pair of Galaxy Buds FE (valued at $199) at no extra cost when buying the Galaxy A55 5G before 15 April. Plus, there’s a bonus $100 trade-in value when handing in your older phone before 4 April.
It’s refreshing to see more features in a mid-range phone without a price increase to boot. There seems to be a lot to like about the A55, as it addresses pretty much every criticism levelled at the last model.
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