Samsung Galaxy A54 vs. Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

The popular Samsung Galaxy A54 and the new Galaxy S23 FE are similarly priced smartphones that have become hot deals during the Black Friday madness. And that’s why we decided to pit them against each other and see which one proves worth getting and why.

The Galaxy S23 FE is more like a Galaxy S22 FE that arrived late to the party as it features chips from the previous generation and shares much of the S22 series hardware. The extra weight and thicker bezels reveal its less-than-premium nature, instead positioning it closer to the Galaxy A series.

Summary:

Let’s start by comparing the full spec sheets here.

Size comparison

The Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 FE feature identical designs and are also similar in size and weight. Both smartphones are waterproof, feature two flat Gorilla Glass 5 panels, and similarly curved matte bezels.

However, the Galaxy S23 FE has a slightly more premium build: it has an aluminum frame, while the A54 uses a plastic one. And then – the S23 FE has an IP68 protection rating, while the A54 – IP67. The latter means that the S23 FE can survive up to 1.5 meters deep, while the A54 can survive up to 1 meter deep.

Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A54

Aesthetically, both smartphones are beautiful and, unless a metal frame is a must for some reason, both would please equally.

View the comparison

The Galaxy A54 features a Super AMOLED screen, while the Galaxy S23 FE has a 2X Dynamic AMOLED panel. However, no matter what Samsung calls them, they are effectively the same panels.

Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A54

Both panels have a diagonal of 6.4 inches and have the same resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels. Both support 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ streaming. Oh, and they both have the same little hole for the selfie camera.

And, as you’d expect, both screens have nearly identical brightness capabilities – approximately 980 nits in automatic mode and about 450 nits with manual control.

Both screens offer accurate color calibration.

Both phones only use fixed 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rate modes, unlike the higher-tier Galaxies, which offer more granular control over the refresh rate.

Finally, the two Galaxies support HDR10+ streaming and are successfully recognized on Netflix and the like.

Battery life

The Galaxy A54 is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S23 FE has a smaller 4,500 mAh cell.

The Galaxy S23 FE performed worse in all of our active battery tests, except for voice calls. It scored at least 1 hour less on the web and 2 hours less in the video streaming and gaming scenarios, resulting in a lower than average active usage score of 9:45 hours.

If you take into account the difference in battery capacity, the two chipsets appear to be equally power efficient overall. The Snapdragon chipset inside the S23 FE, however, has a much more power-efficient modem, resulting in much longer talk time.

Charging speed

The Galaxy A54 and S23 FE are both designed for 25W wired fast charging. The two Galaxies charged equally quickly in our test despite the difference in battery capacity.

Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are only supported on the Galaxy S23 FE.

Test the speakers

The Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 FE both feature hybrid stereo speaker setups with a dedicated bottom-firing speaker for one channel and an amplified earphone for the other.

The Galaxy S23 FE has the more powerful speaker system: it got a very good rating in our loudness test, while the Galaxy S23 got a good rating. Both offer pleasantly rich and deep audio, but if we also want to evaluate the quality, we would say that it is also very good for the S23 FE and good for the A54.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is powered by the mid-range Samsung Exynos 1380 chipset with an octa-core CPU with 4 high-performance cores and 4 power-saving cores plus a 5-core Mali-G68. The basic model has 4 GB of RAM, there are also versions with 6 GB of RAM and the higher one (ours) has 8 GB of RAM.

The Galaxy S23 FE restores chipset fragmentation, and different markets get different hardware platforms, both descendants of flagships. The US version features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC (our review unit), while the global model elsewhere is based on the Exynos 2200 chip. Both hardware platforms are a generation older than that of the regular Galaxy S23 series-derived Galaxy S22. Both chipsets have octa-core CPUs with a Prime core and powerful GPUs.

As expected, although good, the Galaxy A54 has lower performance than the Galaxy S23 FE. This applies in every aspect: the Galaxy S23 has a 40% faster CPU and a 3x faster GPU.

SAMSUNG
A54 Galaxy

AnTuTu 10
589,448

Geekbench 6
2,797 multicores

GFX 3.1 bench
25 fps (on screen)

Even though the Galaxy S23 FE is a much faster smartphone, it is worth noting that the phone slows down a lot and may lose up to half of its performance after a while. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A54 doesn’t slow down that much, if at all. However, when it comes to real-life gaming performance, the Galaxy S23 FE would still offer better graphics.

Camera comparison

The Galaxy S23 FE’s biggest draw is its cameras. You see, while both smartphones technically have a total of four cameras each – three on the back, one on the front – the Galaxy S23 FE has a 3x telephoto lens, while the Galaxy A54 has a 5MP macro imager instead.

The Galaxy S23 FE supports video capture at 8K24fps and 4K60fps with its main camera, as well as 4K60fps with its selfie camera, while the Galaxy A54 maxes out at 4K30 on all cameras.

Both Galaxies have similar 50MP OIS primary cameras.

The ultrawide cameras on both phones have 12MP sensors with similar ultrawide lenses.

We’ve already talked about the Galaxy S23 FE’s 3x zoom camera: it’s 8MP, while the Galaxy A54 has a 5MP macro shooter instead.

Finally, the Galaxy S23 FE has a 10MP selfie camera with fixed focus, while the Galaxy A54 has a 32MP Quad-Bayer imager with FF that saves 12MP selfies (instead of 8MP).

The main cameras of both phones offer pleasant photos, although there is a difference in favor of the Galaxy S23 FE. The Galaxy S23 FE takes slightly more detailed photos with a balanced look and just the right level of sharpness. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A54 smeared grass as well as overly sharp foliage and buildings. Color rendition is different on both phones, but they tend to oversaturate photos quite often. Long story short, the Galaxy S23 FE has more natural-looking photos.

The same goes for ultrawide cameras: the Galaxy S23 FE has slightly more detailed images with less sharpness. But here the difference is minor. All photos offer sufficiently resolved detail and low noise, and the field of view is impressively wide. There is minimal corner softness and images do not exhibit a fish-eye look.

Zoomed in photos are much better on the Galaxy S23 FE since it features a telephoto lens. Sure, the S23 FE increases its output from 8MP to 12MP, but photos still offer a longer zoom and more detail. Then there’s the Galaxy A54, which offers 2x zoom via some sort of high-quality digital magnification, and the other results are quite good, if a little artificial due to AI upscaling.

The Galaxy A54 is the only one with a macro camera, and the 5MP macro shots are pretty nice and will be good for Instagram.

Galaxy A54 – macro

Finally, the 10MP selfies of the Galaxy S23 FE appear more detailed and with a better developed subject than the 12MP selfies of the Galaxy A54. This is because the A54 improves its photos from 8MP to 12MP and you can tell by the softness. On the other hand, the colors of the Galaxy A54’s selfies are realistic, while those of the S23 FE – not so much.

Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x • selfie

Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x • selfie

Samsung’s camera app supports automatic night mode in low light: it appears as a small moon icon, and if you tap it, you’ll disable it. It usually takes 1 second less than normal night mode, but we found that automatic night mode (where it triggered) and normal night mode output are identical on all cameras.

Please note that sometimes, or most of the time, the Galaxy A54 does not automatically activate Night Mode for the ultrawide camera and we had to activate it manually.

The Galaxy S23 FE once again offers slightly better photos: slightly more detailed, less noisy and with more realistic color saturation. It’s a minimal difference, but still visible.

The same conclusions apply to ultrawide cameras.

Zoomed photos are better on the Galaxy S23 FE, albeit noisier: they’re more detailed and offer more magnification, obviously. But keep in mind that the Galaxy S23 FE rarely uses the zoom camera at night and often offers 3x digital zoom on the main camera, which will bring it on par with the Galaxy A54’s capabilities.

Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x

Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x

Finally, let’s talk about video capture. The Galaxy S23 FE can capture video at up to 8K24 (main) and 4K60 (main and front), while the Galaxy A54 maxes out at 4K30. Optional video stabilization (EIS) is available for all cameras on both smartphones, although it doesn’t work in 1080p60 mode on the Galaxy A54.

Surprisingly, daytime videos from the Galaxy A54’s main camera are more detailed and with natural sharpness than those from the Galaxy S23 FE. Not a huge difference, but still.

The Galaxy A54’s ultrawide camera offers slightly more detailed video, albeit a little too sharp, and with lower noise levels.

As expected, the Galaxy S23 FE’s telephoto lens has much better 4K video.

Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x

Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x

The Galaxy S23 FE’s selfie camera offers more detailed 4K video, but with worse color rendition.

Galaxy A54 • Galaxy S23 FE

The Galaxy S23 FE has a slight advantage over the A54 when it comes to dynamic range and color saturation at night.

Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x

Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x

Here’s a glimpse of how the Galaxy A54’s main camera compares in image quality to that of the Galaxy S23 FE in our photo comparison tool.

And here’s how the Galaxy A54’s main camera compares in terms of video quality to that of the Galaxy S23 FE in our video comparison tool.

Verdict

The Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 FE are similar enough, but with enough differences to make you wonder which one to get.

The Galaxy S23 FE costs $400 in the US right now, even though it launched for $600 just a few days ago. Meanwhile, the price of the Galaxy A54 has dropped to $300, making it the cheapest offering.

And being a cheaper smartphone, the Galaxy A54 is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone with a solid build, an excellent screen, a long-lasting battery, and an overall good camera experience. Its performance is also quite good.

The Galaxy S23 FE is a flagship phone of sorts, even if it arrives a little late. It has a more premium build with an aluminum frame and IP68 rating, more powerful hardware that allows for better graphics and DeX support, and better photo quality, plus a true telephoto lens. However, the battery life was average and the GPU limitation is huge.

Long story short: Either get the Galaxy A54 for its lower price and solid overall specs, or spend a little more and get the Galaxy S23 FE for its flagship features and better cameras.