Samsung Galaxy F54 Review: Striking Balance of Features & Affordability

The Samsung Galaxy F54 5G promises to deliver a feature-rich smartphone experience at an accessible price point. It is power packed with specs. With a Super AMOLED Plus 120Hz refresh rate display, 108MP triple-camera setup, humongous 6000mAh battery and an efficient Exynos 1380 chip, all packed in a sleek design, the Galaxy F54 is positioned right on the cusp of INR 30,000 budget segment. But does it strike a perfect balance between impressive features and affordability in real-world usage? That's what we will find out in this Galaxy F54 5G review.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy F54 5G has a slim, lightweight design measuring 8.4mm and weighing 199 grams. It is comfortable to hold in one hand but calls for a learning curve for those with smaller hands. The F54 has a modern design that is visually appealing, especially the Stardust Silver colour that we received for this review. It has a glossy, reflective finish that changes colour as light falls on it, leaving it prone to smudges if you don't put a case. 

The plastic build quality may not be as premium as metal or glass, making the phone lightweight and less prone to shattering. The camera deco is made from metal which adds a tinge of premiumness to the F54.

Unlike the recent Samsung phones with flat edges, the Galaxy G54 has rounded edges that fit comfortably in the hand. The power button also doubles up as a fingerprint reader for quick unlocking and is easily accessible. 

Despite its size, the Galaxy F54 is a durable smartphone. While it may not feature premium materials, it offers a solid build quality well-suited for everyday usage.

Display

The Galaxy F54 features a large and vibrant 6.7-inch display with a Super AMOLED Plus panel offering a Full HD+ (2400x1080 pixels) resolution along with 120Hz refresh rate and HDR capabilities. The F54 does not have Gorilla Glass protection, or at least it isn't being actively advertised by Samsung.

The display on the F54 is quite expansive, making it perfect for watching, gaming and productivity use. The AMOLED panel truly shines when it comes to colour reproduction. It offers vivid and accurate colours with excellent contrast ratios for an immersive viewing experience while watching movies or playing games. 

In my testing, the display on the F54 offers 525 nits of peak brightness and has deep blacks that enhance the contrast. The display is also energy efficient as it intelligently adjusts brightness levels based on the ambient lighting conditions with the Adaptive Brightness mode.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy F54's display delivers a visually immersive experience with vibrant colours, sharp details, and smooth animations.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy F54 is powered by the Exynos 1380 chipset built on a 5nm process and features an octa-core CPU. It's got four high-performance Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4GHz, and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Powering the gaming experiences on the F54 is the Mali-G68 MP5 GPU with decent graphics processing capabilities. This combination balances performance and energy efficiency, allowing smooth multitasking and responsive app handling.

The F54 scored 429294 points on AnTuTu, which is decent, and the CPU throttled to 83% of its maximum performance. This phone performs admirably with a lag-free experience (mostly) in the face of daily tasks. It can also run games such as Call of Duty Mobile and Battlegrounds Mobile India without breaking a sweat, albeit on medium to high settings.

With 8GB of RAM, the Galaxy F54 has ample memory for seamless multitasking and ensures a snappy and responsive user experience, even when using intensive apps. The F54 offers a generous storage capacity of 256GB, providing the user with adequate space to store apps, photos, and videos. It won't quickly run out of room.

The F54 has a single speaker at the bottom, which is loud but less immersive than a stereo setup would have been. 

So, whether browsing the web, streaming content, or engaging in resource-demanding tasks, this smartphone handles it all efficiently. The F54 runs on One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 out-of-the-box and is easy to use. It's also highly customizable with dedicated themes and features like AR stickers, voice focus and more. Samsung promises four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates support with the F54, so that's a neat addition.

Battery Life

The Galaxy F54 has a 6,000mAh battery that easily offers two days' use on regular use. With such a large battery capacity, you can watch, play or browse the web on the go, as it offers excellent endurance. In the PC Mark Work 3.0 test, which measures battery endurance, the F54 lasted 14 hours and 40 minutes on a single charge.

Unfortunately, it takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes to charge with a compatible 25W fast charger fully. The challenge is that Samsung skips providing one in the box. That being said, the battery life is based mainly on usage patterns, so keep your phone etiquette in check, and the F54 will not disappoint you.

Cameras

The Galaxy F54 has a triple-camera setup on the back, headlined by an impressive 108MP primary camera with OIS. This camera captures good-looking, detailed pictures and videos with excellent clarity and without any blurring or noticeable camera shakes, even in challenging lighting conditions.

The night mode helps improve the highlights and reduce noise in low-lit conditions. It also offers improved dynamic range and balanced exposure levels with support for 4K video recording and 1080p at up to 60FPS. 

The primary camera is accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide camera that offers a wider FOV for capturing landscapes, architecture or large groups of people. The 2MP macro lens lets you go up close to a subject for more details.

It also has a 32 MP front-facing camera that enables you to capture detailed and sharp selfies. The front camera also supports 4K and 1080p video recordings at 30FPS.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy F54 is an enticing package for those looking for a smartphone with a compelling camera system, great battery life and reliable daily performance. My experience with the F54 has largely remained free of concern.

The lack of a dual speaker system and an in-box charger will be irksome for some people, and for those people, I'll recommend the Motorola Edge 40 or the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, which don't make these compromises. And, if you are into intense gaming sessions on your phone, the Poco F5 will be a safer bet for you.

Written by Siddharth Chauhan

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