In the US and its native South Korea, Samsung is known for making the most premium Android smartphone year after year, but the Korean tech giant's best-selling phone globally is actually its mid-range A series, which is mostly popular in India, Southeast Asia, and European markets.

And so the launch of the Galaxy A55 is a bit of a big deal in chunks of the world, just not in the US, where heavy carrier subsidies and installment plans make mid-rangers not appealing. In fact, this phone won't even sell officially in the US — a lower-tier A33 will be on the way instead.

The A55 is actually Samsung's most premium-feeling A phone ever, with the company finally moving away from plastic to the glass-and-aluminum sandwich design that flagships are known for. If you pick this phone up blind, it feels basically like the non-Ultra Galaxy S series, and that's a good thing.

About this review: Samsung provided us with a unit of the Galaxy A55 for testing. It did not have input in this article.

Samsung Galaxy A55: Pricing and Availability

The Galaxy A55 is already on sale in Europe starting at €479 ($524) and Hong Kong at HK$3,698 ($472), with other regions to follow. As mentioned, the US will not get this phone offically (but you can order off Amazon).

Hardware and design

No more plastic

Samsung's A53 was a very plasticky affair that got mediocre reviews, and for the A54 the company switched over to glass front and back, but kept the plastic frame. This year the A55 finally goes all the way, with an aluminum frame with a brushed metallic finish that looks very nice. The 6.6-inch, 1080 X 2340 OLED screen is entirely flat, and the cameras also sit on the glass back without an island. Basically, this is the same design language used by Samsung's flagship phones.

The bezels wrapping the screen are relatively thick by smartphone standards, and I'm not just comparing against flagships. Mid-rangers from Xiaomi and Oppo have thinner bezels. Still, we are in nitpicking territory here, as these bezels would still be considered ultra-thin just two, three years ago. The panel is not an LTPO panel, so the refresh rate doesn't quite have the 1-120Hz flexibility of superior panels, but it's fine for a mid-ranger. The animations are smooth, and the screen gets up to 1,000 nits brightness which is good at this price range.

Inside the phone is the Exynos 1480, a new mid-range SoC developed by Samsung and announced just a few weeks ago. It's an eight-core chip built on 4nm architecture with 5G support, and performance is fine for casual users. This chip is a big improvement over the Exynos 1380 in benchmark numbers, and in real-life use, this phone is zippy enough.

There's a 5,000 mAh battery, which is good, but it charges at 25W speed maximum, which is bad. The in-display scanner and stereo speakers are fine, but the haptics are mushy and weak. This is very typical Samsung mid-range fare, where the phone looks great and some outer components appear top-notch, but there are some jarring areas that remind "ah yes, this is a mid-range phone."

What I like

Solid camera, great build

I really like the overall build quality of the Galaxy A55. Although the design is straightforward, it doesn't feel plain like some previous Samsung FE phones. The brushed aluminum frame really adds a nice visual touch, as well as this seemingly random groove on the right side. Essentially, the right frame protrudes slightly where the volume rocker and power button are placed, and there's a subtle curve that slopes down around that bump. Maybe this is actually a "design compromise" because the buttons necessitated a bump, but this actually adds a bit of character to the phone and helps it feel less boring.

In-hand feel is good, with the phone's 213g weight and 6.6-inch screen size feeling very manageable. I think people who still claim any screen over 6 inches is "big," and that they prefer "small phones" are stuck in 2014. In 2024, where we do so much, including consuming content and beautifully shot Instagram/TikTok vertical videos, phone screens being well north of 6 inches is absolutely the standard. I personally think anything in the 6.4- to 6.6-inch to be the ideal screen for me (yes, I would consider a 6.2-inch screen small).

The A55's software is typical OneUI fare, but it's customizable and feature-packed. You can open apps in split-screen or floating window mode, which is great for multitasking.

New to the A series is "Samsung Knox Vault," a hardware security chip used to store sensitive data away from the main silicon and memory. Knox Vault has been standard in Samsung's flagship phones over the past few years, but it's been missing from the A phones until the A55 (and the smaller A35 that's coming state-side).

The A55's "triple lens" rear-facing camera system is really a dual-lens shooter, because one of the three cameras is a pointless 5MP macro sensor. We have ample evidence now that smartphones do not need a dedicated sensor for macro shots, and that mid-range phones use these sensors mostly to pad the camera count. Let's ignore it. The good news is the two actually usable cameras are pretty good. The main shooter is a 50MP, f/1.8 lens with a 1/1.56-inch sensor size, this hardware is pretty standard in mid-range phones, but Samsung's processing is mature and HDR is consistently on point. I like the shots I can get with this main camera, even if the shutter speed is a bit slow. The ultra-wide camera, a 12MP f/2.2 lens, is also solid, capturing a sweeping field-of-view.

What I don't like

As usual, there are better value in certain parts of the world

The Galaxy A55 is a good mid-range phone in a vacuum, but as usual, if I examine the scene, there are other options that offer a bit more specs for the same or less money. The $349 Nothing Phone 2a, for example, has a similarly powerful MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chip and a better ultra-wide camera. Realme's 12 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, which is a bit less powerful, but has more RAM, faster UFS storage, and a 3X Periscope zoom lens.

The major benefit for Samsung is it has a much wider global release, brand reputation, and carrier presence in some major countries like the UK. So if you're a casual consumer walking into a store in London or India, you will likely opt for the more reputable and more prominent A55 than something named "Nothing" or "Redmi."

I also find the A55's 32MP selfie camera to apply this beauty filter that I can't seem to turn off. Selfies of myself will have my skin appear whitened and softened, which I must admit some people seem to like, but is not natural. I don't mind the option to do this, but Samsung should not apply this to the front-facing camera automatically.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A55?

You should buy the Galaxy A55 if:

• You want a premium-looking Samsung phone for half of the usual Galaxy S prices
• You want a mid-range phone from a reputable brand with Knox Vault security

You should not buy the Galaxy A55 if:

• You want the best specs for the dollar
• You need a telephoto lens on your phone

I've been on the record as being quite harsh on Samsung's mid-range offerings, because those devices had noticeable signs of spec or hardware compromise. This year, the A55 hides it much better. There are not plastic frames or rubber backs, and the main camera produces great photos. If you know where to look, you'll still spot the compromises, like the UFS 3.1 storage instead of UFS 4.0, the pointless third "macro" camera, and mushy haptics. But these aren't things that would bother the casual user. The Galaxy A55 looks great, and performs fine. If previous Galaxy A phones sold well, I don't see why this improved one would not.