Samsung Galaxy A55 Review — Flagship Feeling with a Reasonable Price

Samsung’s Galaxy A range has seen a revamp with the latest generation of devices, giving them a sprucing up in design and specs that, while still sitting under the top-tier Galaxy S range, have made the A models quite the alluring prospect for Android-lovers.

The Galaxy A55 is the perfect example of this, offering a phone that delivers just about everything the flagship Galaxy S devices do at a more considerate price point (R10,999 for that matter). Of course, there are some really premium bells and whistles that you get when jumping up from the A to the S series, but when it comes to a functional, powerful, and efficient smartphone that performs like a flagship, you can’t go wrong with the A55.

So, what do you get with the A55? The phone includes a 6.6-inch display, which is a decent size and a little smaller than some of the oversized flagships which can feel cumbersome in your pocket, so that’s a plus. You also get 8GBs of RAM, a 256GB storage capacity, a 5,000mAh battery, dual SIM support, and an Exynos 1480 (4 nm) chipset, which is Samsung’s new chip with the A55 being the only phone with it currently.

What you get in action is a phone that is incredibly responsive, stable, and runs multitasking on Samsung’s admittedly great One UI (running on Android 14) without any slowdown or hiccups. Throw in the slick 120Hz refresh rate on the Super AMOLED HDR10+ display, and the A55 just feels premium and in line with the user experience you get on a phone double its price.

Often, the drawback to not buying the high-end devices is getting a camera that lags a little behind the top-dogs. However, the A55 features a pretty handy triple camera set-up including a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultra wide-angle, and a 5MP macro shooter; along with a front-facing 32MP camera. There’s just something about Samsung’s camera AI and technology that works so well, delivering photos that aren’t overexposed, full of detail, and aren’t washed out or oversaturated, giving you a much more ‘real’ photo that you can then tinker with.

Design-wise, you get a very clean metal body with a glass back — something you’d often only see on a higher-end device — so the whole look and feel of the A55 match the on-screen experience while in your hand. Of course, the aluminium body makes the phone a little heavier than some plastic body counterparts (not to mention the glass back being more fragile), but if you want that more upmarket experience, it’s the ‘price’ you pay.

While you do get a better chipset and sharper camera in something like the Galaxy S24, the reality is that you still get all the little add-ons, like a fingerprint scanner, NFC for mobile payments, and microSDXC card slot. There is no headphone jack though, which should be illegal for these brands to do these days, even in the age of Bluetooth audio equipment. So, you’ll have to leave your beloved wired headphones at home with the A55.

Despite this, the Samsung Galaxy A55 is one of, if not the, most impressive ‘mid-range’ phones to date, teetering on becoming a streamlined version of a flagship device and falling into that category. If you’re looking for something that gives you some oomph in terms of specs, feels premium, but doesn’t cost the price of a small car, you can’t go wrong with the A55.

The Samsung Galaxy A55 retails for R10,999 from Samsung’s South African store.