The Samsung A55 5G 2024 leads the A-series and is more fully featured than its cousins. It has a new 4nm Exynos 1480 SoC that is quite the performer with excellent GPU and the beginnings of AI NPU capabilities.
That is a good segue into the difference between the Galaxy S-series and A-series moving forward. The S-series promotes AI, although it is really limited to some photo editing tricks and AI search. It will be a few years before we see real on-device AI processing. By that time, the A-series may have some off-device AI cloud processing.
New review format
We are experimenting with our review format. Where we used to put all the raw data in tables at the end, we will now break them up and briefly comment on the various parts. Why? Readers who want to know more will paw over the tables. Readers who wish to see if it’s a good phone can just read the comments.
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.
Australian Review Samsung A55 5G 2024 8/128GB model SM-A556E Dual sim/hybrid)
| Brand | Samsung |
| Model | Samsung A55 5G 2024 |
| Model Number | SM-A556E |
| Memory/Storage Base | 8/128GB |
| Price base | $649 (Normally $699) |
| Warranty months | 24 |
| Tier | mid-range |
| Website | Product page |
| From | Samsung Online and approved retailers. See Made for Australia, and Don’t buy a grey market smartphone |
| Country of Origin | Not disclosed – China or Vietnam |
| Company | Samsung is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics (the world’s largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker. |
| More | DXO Tests |
| Test date | 1-7 April 2024 |
| Ambient temp | 18-26° |
| Release | April 2024 |
| Other models not for Australia (Don’t buy) | B, N, or U model. E is for Australia. |
Screen – Pass+
This is the same screen as the A35 5G 2024 – a good, bright, reasonably colour-accurate 1080p sAMOLED. It is daylight-readable and bright enough for some HDR content to show decent detail in dark and light areas. It uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimming, which will be evident to people who are not tolerant.
| Size | 6.6″ |
| Type | sAMOLED |
| Flat, Curve, 2D, 3D | Flat, centre O-hole |
| Resolution | 2340 x 1080 |
| PPI | 390 |
| Ratio | 19.5:9 |
| Screen to Body % | 0.858 |
| Colours bits | 8-bit 16.7M colours |
| Refresh Hz, adaptive | Fixed 60Hz or Adaptive stepped 60 or 120Hz |
| Response 120Hz | 240Hz touch |
| Nits typical, test | Not disclosed (438) |
| Nits max, test | 1000 nits HBM (High Brightness Mode). Tested in 2% 1012 nits. Peak Brightness: Not disclosed Tested 1602 nits in a 2-5% window |
| Contrast | Infinite |
| sRGB | Not disclosed, but assume 100% |
| DCI-P3 | Not disclosed, but assume 100% of the 16.7 million gamut. |
| Rec.2020 or other | N/A |
| Delta E (<4 is excellent) | 2.6 |
| HDR Level | HDR10+ |
| SDR Upscale | No |
| Blue Light Control | Yes |
| PWM if known | All Samsung AMOLED use PWM 240-250Hz approx., and then at 500Hz. This is critical for PWM-intolerant people. |
| Daylight readable | Yes |
| Always on Display | Yes |
| Edge display | Yes |
| Accessibility | Full suite of enhancements |
| DRM | Widevine L1 FOR 1080P SDR. You can get HDR10 on YouTube.) |
| Gaming | Not Tested |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| Comment | See DXOMARK Tests. Score 147. This is the same as the A35 screen, which scores 143. Poor touch management Better palm management Excessive auto brightness in the dark Off-angle colour tints The photo preview colours are off. |
Processor – Pass+
Samsung’s Exynos SoCs have been average performers, and the IT media has tended to treat them as lower-class chips. This new 4nm SoC is much better in battery life and photo post-processing and has a huge jump (for a mid-range processor) in GPU video performance.
The downsides
- It has not improved its modem, which still only finds the nearest tower (versus Qualcomm finding four or more). So, if you need regional, remote, or black spot reception, look for a Qualcomm.
- The 6K MAX NPU (equal to about 20 TOPS) is still insufficient to provide more than limited on-device AI processing. To be fair, that is not what the A-series offers anyway.
- The integrated stereo amp (a first for Exynos) needs much work. The sound is materially inferior to the A35 5G 2004.
- With all the NPU power, it must work on photo post-processing. It uses a large crop factor to keep videos stable. The result is a lot of noise and artifacts in dark and light areas.
Still, all these are firmware-fixable. As this is the first 4nm Exynos 1480 device, it shows a lot of promise. Apart from phone signal strength, it is worthy of consideration.
Continued
| Brand, Model | Exynos 1480 |
| nm | 4nm |
| Cores | 4 x 2.75GHz & 4 x 2.0GHz |
| Modem | Samsung |
| AI TOPS | 6K MAC NPU with about 20 TOPs (trillions of operations per second). TOPS = 2 × MAC unit count × Frequency / 1 trillion. |
| Geekbench 6 Single-core | 1133 |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 3374 |
| Like | Benchmark A35 Exynos 1380 vs A55 1480 Benchmarks |
| GPU | Xclipse 530 and uses AMD RDNA 3 technology. |
| GPU Test | |
| Open CL | 3087 – well above A54 2023 |
| Like | Similar to MediaTek Dimensity 8020 |
| Vulcan | 4052 – well above A54 2023 |
| RAM, type | 8GB LPDDRX5 |
| Storage, free, type | 128GB UFS 3.1 (92 GB free) |
| micro-SD | Yes, to 1TB (shared slot) |
| CPDT internal seq. Read MBps sustained | 972 (Jazz maximum 1485) This is fast, reflecting UFS 3.1 speeds. |
| CPDT internal seq. write MBps sustained | 564 (Jazz maximum 776) |
| CPDT microSD read, write MBps | 77/50 |
| CPDT external (mountable?) MBps | Recognised in My Files but won’t test. Videographers and vloggers will pass as it is not mountable. |
| Comment | The Exynos 1480 is a new SoC that is faster than anything seen in an A-series. It is significantly faster in video, particularly Vulkan, and has a new AMD RDNA Xclipse 530 GPU and an NPU with 5X more TOPs. |
Throttle Test – Pass
It throttles 24% under load – acceptable for typical use.
| Max GIPS | 296067 |
| Average GIPS | 267644 |
| Minimum GIPS | 22695 |
| % Throttle | 24% |
| CPU Temp | 50 |
| Comment | I have not been impressed with older Exynos, but this SoC shows much more promise. |
Comms – Pass
It has Wi-Fi 6, 2.4/5GHz, 2 x 2 MIMO and can connect at a maximum of 1200/1200Mbps. It holds the connection quite well to 10m from the router.
| Wi-Fi Type, model | Wi-Fi 6 AX 2×2 MIMO |
| Test 2m -dBm, Rx/Tx Mbps | -32/1200/1000 |
| Test 5m | -40/1200/1000 |
| Test 10m | -41/1200/1000 |
| BT Type | 5.3 |
| GPS single, dual | Single Accurate 2m |
| USB type | USB-C 2.0 |
| ALT DP, DeX, Ready For | No |
| NFC | Yes |
| Ultra-wideband | No |
| Sensors | |
| Accelerometer | Yes – combo with Gyro |
| Gyro | Yes – combo with Gyro |
| e-Compass | Yes |
| Barometer | |
| Gravity | |
| Pedometer | |
| Ambient light | Yes |
| Hall sensor | Yes |
| Proximity | Virtual |
| Other | Fingerprint |
| Comment | It is Wi-Fi 6 AX 2×2 MIMO, with a maximum connection speed of 1200/1200. Overall, it performed to spec. |
LTE and 5G – Pass
Like most Exynos modems tested, this has very good signal strength, but only one tower was found. It is a phone only for cities and suburbs only.
| SIM | Dual Sim (double-sided) DS model. No eSIM. |
| Active | One at a time |
| Ring tone single, dual | Single |
| VoLTE | Carrier Dependent |
| Wi-Fi calling | Carrier Dependent |
| 4G Bands | B1, 2, 3, 4, 5,7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 20, 25, 26, 28, 38, 40, 41 66 |
| Comment | All Australian bands and most world bands |
| 5G sub-6Ghz | N1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 26 28, 40, 66, 77, 78 |
| Comment | All Australian sub-6GHz and low bands |
| mmWave | No |
| Test Boost Mobile, Telstra | |
| DL/UL, ms | 64.5/13.2/28ms |
| Tower 1 -dBm, fW or pW | From -82 to -97 and 631fW to 6.3pW |
| Tower 2 | No |
| Tower 3 | No |
| Tower 4 | No |
| Comment | Good strong signal but inadequate reception antenna strength from adjacent towers. Good City and Suburbs phone. Weaker than A35 – different generation Samsung modem. |
Battery – Pass
It has the same battery as the A35. But the new 4nm Exynos is far more power efficient, using less power both idle and under load. Overall, you will see a 20-30% battery life improvement.
We remind buyers to purchase a genuine Samsung 9V/2.77A/25W charger to achieve the fastest speeds. PD/PPS chargers will take about 10% longer.
| mAh | 5000mAh 4905mAh/19.04Wh actual 500 recharge cycles |
| Charger, type, supplied | No Samsung suggests 90 minutes with its 25W (9V/2.77a) |
| PD, QC level | 25W capable |
| Qi, wattage | N/A |
| Reverse Qi or cable | No |
| Test (60Hz or adaptive screen) | Adaptive |
| Charge 0-100% | Genuine Samsung 25W charger: 1 hour 32 minutes GaN PD3 charger: 1 hour 49 minutes |
| Charge Qi, W Using Belkin Boost Charge 15W fast wireless charge |
N/A |
| Charge 5V, 2A | 3 hours 32 minutes |
| Video loop 50%, aeroplane | 17 hours 18 minutes (Samsung claim 26 hours) |
| PC Mark 3 battery | 15 hours 13 minutes Accubattery 18 hours |
| GFX Bench Manhattan battery | Would not run |
| GFX Bench T-Rex | 365.8 minutes (6.1 hours) 4671 frames |
| Drain 100-0% full load screen on | 6 hours 11 minutes Accubattery 5 hours |
| mA full load | 1650-1750mA (this is energy efficient) |
| mA Watt idle Screen on | 204-250mA (ditto) |
| Estimate loss at max refresh | <20% |
| Estimate typical use | This new 4nm Exynos SoC has much better energy efficiency than older Exynos SoCs. Typical users will get 24+ hours, and heavy users will get 15-18 hours. |
| Comment | Unless you use the Samsung charger with a fixed 9V/2.77A/25W output, PD/PPS chargers will take slightly longer as they vary the voltage to take better care of the battery. |
Sound – Passable
We suspect it uses an integrated Exynos amp instead of the TFA90879 amps used with earlier Exynos processors. As such, its overall volumes, while acceptable, are lower. Samsung could work on this area.
| Speakers | Stereo – top earpiece and bottom down-firing. |
| Tuning | No |
| AMP | It appears that the amplifier is now part of the SoC. |
| Dolby Atmos decode | Yes |
| Hi-Res | No |
| 3.5mm | No |
| BT Codecs | SBC, AAC, aptX (free), LDAC, and SSC. 16-bit/44100Hz/Stereo |
| Multipoint | Should be |
| Dolby Atmos (DA) | Yes, and DA gaming |
| EQ | Dolby – Normal, Pop, Classic, Jazz, Rock and custom |
| Mics | One top and two bottom |
| Test dB – all on EQ flat DA off | |
| Volume max | 84 |
| Media (music) | 79 |
| Ring | 76 |
| Alarm | 70 |
| Notifications | 75 |
| Earpiece | 52 |
| Hands-free | The bottom two mics are for voice only, and the top is for noise reduction. It has a good hands-free pick-up of about 600mm and good speaker loudness. |
| BT headphones | Excellent separation and volume. |
Samsung A55 5G 2024 Sound quality – Passable
Samsung has some work to do here. The sound signature is odd – no bass, very late mid, and almost no treble. It focuses on clear voice (regardless of EQ settings) and is not recommended for music.
Read: How to tell if you have good music – sound signature is the key
| Deep Bass 20-40Hz | No |
| Middle Bass 40-100Hz | No |
| High Bass 100-200Hz | Building slowly to 1kHz – very late |
| Low Mid 200-400Hz | Building slowly |
| Mid 4000-1000Hz | Building slowly |
| High-Mid 1-2kHz | Flattening |
| Low Treble 2-4kHz | Flat – slightly choppy (clipped) |
| Mid Treble 4-6kHz | Slight decline |
| High Treble 6-10kHz | linear decline to 10Hz |
| Dog Whistle 10-20kHz | Slight recovery, then drops suddenly to 20kHz. |
| Sound Signature type | Mid: (bass recessed, mid boosted, treble recessed) – for clear voice. Music is tinny, hollow, and harsh at the mid/upper treble. |
| Soundstage | Stereo: as wide as the phone Dolby Atmos: wider by about 10cm with some 3D height and better clarity. |
| Comment | This is one of the more unusual, almost undefinable sound signatures that could, at best, be called quasi-mid, but it has a few too many foibles to be anything more than a clear voice. We suspect that the Exynos 1480 now uses an internal amplifier (older models used TFA9879 amps), and it needs a lot of work to fix this Frankensignature. Use headphones for music. |
Build – Pass+
It adds an aluminium frame to the A35’s plastic one. Otherwise, it is almost the same.
| Size (H X W x D) | 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2 |
| Weight grams | 213 |
| Front glass | Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| Rear material | Glass (could be Acrylic Glass PMMA) |
| Frame | Aluminium |
| IP rating | IX4 10L water spray for 5 minutes IP67 1m water for 30 minutes Not warranted for water ingress |
| Colours | Awesome Navy Awesome Lilac |
| Pen, Stylus support | No |
| Teardown – easy to repair. |
In the box – Passable
No matter how much we criticise a manufacturer for not including a charger (it costs $99 to buy a 65W Samsung one plus $20 for a 3W cable), people only focus on the phone’s price. Use of lower-wattage chargers will result in a 3- 4 hour charge.
| Charger | No |
| USB cable | No (possibly on the retail version) |
| Buds | No |
| Bumper cover | No |
| Comment | More Samsung penny-pinching |
Operating System – Pass+
This device’s strength is its two-year warranty, four OS upgrades, and five years of regular security patches.
However, Samsung receives payment to preload about 10GB of Bloatware. We recommend using Google Apps instead and removing Samsung-specific apps. This makes it easy to swap to any brand of Android device.
Privacy – Passable
We are also concerned about the massive privacy implications of accepting all of Samsung’s seven legal ‘policies’ totalling 25,214 words – to use a phone. That is on top of Google Android policies, any app policies, and Microsoft 365 and OneDrive if you use those for backup. The policies are at the end of the document. Our take – extreme arse covering! You can also use the phone without a Samsung account, but it does nag you.
We won’t repeat all these policies. You can see them at the end of Samsung A35 5G 2024 – lots of great features at a low price
| Android | 14 |
| Security patch date | 1 February 2023 (we would expect quarterly) |
| UI | 6.1 No AI as on the S24-series |
| OS upgrade policy | Up to 4 OS upgrades |
| Security patch policy | Up to 5 years |
| Bloatware | It has 92GB free, and frankly, about 10GB is from bloatware. There are 33 Samsung Apps (we recommend using Google equivalents), Facebook, Galaxy Store, Gaming Hub, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Netflix, Spotify, etc. |
| Other | The One UI and Android 14 take a massive 28GB, which shows how One UI has grown. |
| Comment | Samsung has a great upgrade policy, and One UI is easy to use. Privacy can be an issue, as Samsung encourages you to log in and create a Samsung account, but you can avoid that. You can’t avoid Google! |
| Security | |
| Fingerprint sensor location, type | Optical under glass – soke touch fails. |
| Face ID | 2D |
| Other | Knox and Secure folder |
| Comment | One of the more secure Android phones. |
Samsung A55 5G 2024 rear camera – Pass
While it is a step up from the A35 5G 2024, DXOMARK only gives it four more points. It has a different processor, lots of AI post-processing power, and a slightly better Sony 50MP sensor and 12MP wide-angle sensor. We suspect that Samsung has a lot of work to do on the camera firmware to fix things that should be easy to do.
On the positive side, it has improved Nightography—there is no tedious shutter lag—and the results are an improvement over the A35.
In other words, it is OK but could improve.
| Rear Primary | Wide |
| MP | 50P bins to 12.5MP and has 7.7x crop factor |
| Sensor | Sony IMX906 |
| Focus | PDAF |
| f-stop | 1.8 |
| um | 1 |
| FOV° (stated, actual) | 72.7 (H) x 85.3 (D) |
| Stabilisation | OIS |
| Zoom | 10X |
| Rear 2 | Ultra-wide |
| MP | 12MP |
| Sensor | Sony IMX258 |
| Focus | Fixed |
| f-stop | 2.2 |
| um | 1.12 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | 104.3 (H) x 116.3 (D) |
| Stabilisation | No |
| Zoom | No |
| Rear 3 | Macro |
| MP | 5MP |
| Sensor | GalaxyCore GC5035 |
| Focus | Fixed |
| f-stop | 2.4 |
| um | 1.12 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | 3-5cm critical |
| Stabilisation | No |
| Zoom | No |
| Special | |
| Video max | 4K@30fps No Zoom and 1080p with Zoom |
| Flash | Yes |
| Auto-HDR | Yes |
| QR code reader | Yes |
| Night mode | Nightography |
| Features | It has better quality day and office light shots than the A35 and has better Nightography with an instant shutter speed. Despite noticeable NPU post-processing performance gains and a Sony IMX906 sensor, it only scores 108 and 117th ranking. The A35 scores 104 and 125th rankling. |
| Comment | While it takes pretty acceptable still images, the low ranking means it does not excel in any area. We found weaknesses in the screen colour preview match, digital zoom was not good, and some image noise and artifacts, particularly in dark areas, caused by post-processing. 4K video appeared to be more prone to shaking than we expected, and perhaps the crop factors are slightly off. |
Samsung A55 5G 2024 test photos
Samsung A55 5G 2024 Front Camera – Pass
The selfie has decent natural skin tones, but its tight field of view and fixed focus make it a single selfie lens.
This bins to 8MP (lower than the A35 at 13MP) and further crops output to 5.7MP. This is a ‘feature’ of AI post-processing and software stabilisation.
| MP | 32MP bins to 8MP and crops to 5.7MP (7.7x crop) |
| Sensor | Sony IMX616 |
| Focus | Fixed |
| f-stop | 2.2 |
| um | .8 bins to 1.6 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | 63.5 (H) x 73.9 (D) |
| Stabilisation | EIS |
| Flash | Screen |
| Zoom | No |
| Video max | 4K@30fps |
CyberShack’s view – Samsung A55 5G 2024 is worth the $100 price hike over the A35
Only when you do such an in-depth review and testing to verify results do you see the subtle differences between close models like the A55 and A35.
This has a better processor, leading to better image processing and faster performance (especially in RAM and storage speeds). The downside is that it feels like Version 1.0, which needs a few rough edges knocked off to achieve more. I can’t comment on whether Samsung does this.
Competition
At $649 (plus $119 for Samsung’s charger and cable—$768), it is not low-cost, but people will pay a premium for the name.
I would suggest you look at
Samsung A55 5G 2024 ratings
These are our new ratings from April 2024. This uses a new scale where Pass is closer to 70/100, and we mark up or down from there.
| Ratings | |
| Features | 8 |
| It has everything you need | |
| Value | 8 |
| It is the same price as the 2023 A54 | |
| Performance | 8 |
| The new 4nm Exynos is a far better SoC with superior GPU and NPU results. However, it still suffers from a modem that can only be fixed on one tower, making it a city/suburbs phone. | |
| Ease of Use | 8.5 |
| Excellent OS upgrade, update policy and 2-year warranty. | |
| Design | 8 |
| Nice, but a little bland | |
| Rating out of 10 | 8.1 |
| Final comment | It is a good successor to the A54 5G and a safe buy for the price. It has sAMOLED and updates—there is no downside. |
Samsung A55 5G 2024 Pro and Con
| Pro | |
| 1 | Decent all-day battery life and faster charging capability |
| 2 | 2-year warranty, OS updates for four years, security updates for five years |
| 3 | Bright sAMOLED screen |
| 4 | The camera is suitable for day, office, and low-light shots, but it is an average performer all around. |
| 5 | AMOLED, IP67 and NFC |
| Con | |
| 1 | The 2024 A55 is an incremental update to the A54 |
| 2 | No charger inbox |
| 3 | Privacy policies are ridiculously complex. |
| 4 | Phone signal strengths are good but limited to one tower. |
| 5 | Samsung is becoming more of its own ecosystem with a little too much Samsung bloatware – Apple-like. |
Samsung A55 5G 2024 smartphone
RRP $699 but on special at $649
Pros
- Decent all-day battery life and faster charging capability
- 2-year warranty, OS updates for four years, security updates for five years
- Bright sAMOLED screen
- The camera is suitable for day, office, and low-light shots, but it is an average performer all around.
- AMOLED, IP67 and NFC
Cons
- The 2024 A55 is an incremental update to the A54
- No charger inbox
- Privacy policies are ridiculously complex.
- Phone signal strengths are good but limited to one tower.
- Samsung is becoming more of its own ecosystem with a little too much Samsung bloatware – Apple-like.
