As discussed in a previous post I have purchased the Galaxy A54 5G 128gb to use for work and to have a backup phone my main phone being an S23 Ultra 512gb version. So I thought I would give an initial assessment after the first day. I believe the file system is UFS 3.1 whereas the S23 is UFS 4.0 which is much quicker
The phone arrived with 33% charge so first job was to charge it up took around an hour which was fine
The phone is an attractive phone but I don't like the gorilla glass back at all as it is so slippery and keeps sliding off any surface that isn't perfectly level, it will not stay still on the arm of the settee beside me, I've ordered a smart view case from samsung so that won't be an issue. Matt coatings for the back of phones is much better and would result in less drops
The phone set up very easy from scratch, a little slow in places setting apps up for the first time but once set up the phone is surprisingly very snappy and responsive
There is no wireless charging but to be fair it's something I rarely use
The battery life is staggering. I absolutely thrashed it non stop setting it up and testing it downloading installing updating etc non stop for hours and tried out music via my Bluetooth headset and the sound was excellent 👌
The network is very sharp and snappy and up to now seems very stable. This is something I will keep my eye on as maintaining a stable network connection is a challenge for my S23 Ultra which I notice most when streaming. I'll be able to compare properly once I start using it for work as I stream radio and connect to teams etc most of the day whilst out and about I.e how it performs running several apps simultaneously
The Bluetooth works flawlessly
The NFC worked when I took a payment with a debit card via the phone but it did take a while finding the sweet spot to get the NFC connection which seems to be closer to the cameras whereas on the S23 its closer to the middle of the phone
No issues with WIFI
I need to see how the mobile signal performs when out and about but I suspect it won't be as strong s the S23, which won't be an issue in the car as I connect to the car via Bluetooth which then utilises the cars antenna
Gaming, I tried out Subway Surfers for a few hours and it worked fine although you do notice the odd micro buffer during game play. It barely scratched remaining battery life, which surprised me. One thing I have noticed is very few no network available messages which I get regularly on the S23 despite having a strong signal
Storage. I got the 128gb version. After full set up and restoring the backup I made with my S23, it used about 40gb of storage with around 80gb remaining. I would recommend getting the 256gb version if it is to be a main phone but I think 128 is enough as it will be a second phone and you can also add a microSD up to 1tb which can help for files etc. I have ordered a samsung Pro plus microSD 512gb for £40 from Samsung as there is currently a special offer as they are normally £74 nearly half price. Its a shame samsung removed the ability to utilise the SD card as internal storage as although its slower, it is a useful function should you run out of memory
In summary, my initial assessment is the phone is a vary capable phone and fun to use and feels like a high end phone in performance. We'll worth the investment
I'll try to update again once I've had a chance for a more thorough workout
