Comparison of two Samsung Galaxy S23 FE phones with A54; Should we buy A54 or S23FA?

Next, we are going to compare two premium mid-range phones, Galaxy S23 FE and Samsung Galaxy A54. Which product is the best Korean mid-range phone?

Not much time has passed since the launch of the Galaxy S23 FE by Samsung. However, the new Korean premium mid-ranger has made a name for itself as one of the best mid-range phones on the market in a short time.

Read more:

Galaxy A54 vs Samsung S22; Should we buy the new mid-range or the old flagship?

This phone uses the wonderful design of the Galaxy S23 Plus and provides some features of Samsung’s 2023 flagships at a much lower price.

On the other hand, Samsung’s Galaxy A54 is another king of the mid-range climate, which has gained many fans with great improvements compared to its previous generation, the Galaxy A53, and achieved great sales.

Read more:

The biggest changes in the Galaxy A54 compared to the Samsung Galaxy A53

Of course, both Galaxy S23 FE and Samsung Galaxy A54 phones have their own shortcomings and flaws; But great features such as an unrivaled screen, a very user-friendly and attractive interface, and of course an extremely competitive price have made these two mid-range phones the first choice of many mobile phone users around the world.

However, if someone wants to buy a great mid-range phone, which of these two phones is a better option for them? In the following, we are going to introduce these two phones and compare their specifications and technical capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE price and specs vs. Galaxy A54

Two years after the unveiling of the Fan Edition or FE version of the Galaxy S21, the Galaxy S23 FE was unveiled on October 5, and it is going to be released on the market within these days with a base price of $600. By paying $60 more, you can get the 256 GB model of this phone; But there is no news of the 512 GB or higher version!

On the other hand, the color scheme of this attractive mid-range Samsung phone consists of cream, black, mint green and an attractive purple color, which seems to be the most desirable color of the S23 FE.

On the other hand, the Galaxy A54 now has a price tag of $400 and is available in 128 or 256 GB capacity. This phone will be available in black, white, green and purple colors.

In the table below, you can see the technical specifications of both phones side by side and compare them. Of course, in the following sections, we will examine the various technical specifications of this phone in detail.

Similar appearance, but completely different!

In the past few years, Samsung has decided to pursue a single, minimal design for its phones, just like its long-time rival, Apple. Therefore, it is not surprising that the different phones of this Korean company are very similar. At the same time, it is very difficult to distinguish two mid-range phones Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23FA from each other, and even their weight and dimensions are completely similar to each other!

Also, both new Samsung phones use the Gorilla Glass 5 protective layer on the front and back. However, the S23 FE uses an aluminum frame; While the frame used in A54 is made of plastic!

Despite all the physical similarities of these two phones, their most important difference should be their resistance against dust and moisture penetration; Where the Galaxy S23 FE is equipped with the IP68 standard to resist dust and moisture, and the Galaxy A54 uses the lower IP67 standard!

So if you are looking to make one of these products look better from a design point of view, hold on; Because both of these phones are excellent and very well-made products, with their attractive design and suitable dimensions, they are considered to be rare and unique products.

Two great screens; But one is better than the other!

With two Galaxy S54 and Galaxy S23FA phones, Samsung once again showed that it is not without reason that it is known as the best manufacturer of AMOLED panels in the world! S23 FE uses an amazing Dynamic AMOLED screen with a variable refresh rate between 60 and 120 Hz, which few products in the world can compete with. The panel used in this screen has a brightness of 1450 nits and can be read even under direct sunlight.

On the other hand, although Galaxy A54 is slightly lower than S23FA in terms of features and screen quality, it is still considered one of the best products on the market. The screen of this phone has the ability to provide a refresh rate of 60 or 120 Hz; But it lacks variable refresh rate technology. On the other hand, the maximum brightness of this screen is 1000 nits, which is still considered excellent.

Compared to its predecessor, the A53, the A54 screen offers more saturated colors and better HDR performance.

If you put these two phones side by side, you will probably notice a slight difference between their screen quality. Nevertheless, you can be sure that both of Samsung’s new mid-range phones have a screen performance beyond all competitors and on par with some Android flagships.

The user interface is practically the same

Much has been said about the user interface of Samsung One UI. This user interface is designed extremely smooth and fast and has many small and big features so that both beginners and more professional users can make the most of it. Of course, on the other hand, the big drawback of the One UI user interface is the presence of a large number of default applications and services, some of which you may never use. However, there are tricks through which you can manage the default and additional applications of the phone to some extent.

The two Samsung Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 FE phones have exactly the same appearance in terms of software. Also, if Samsung sticks to its commitment to support these two phones for four years, both of them will receive the next versions of Android (up to Android 17).

Of course, despite the fact that the software capabilities of these two phones are practically similar to each other, the key differences in hardware specifications and processing power have caused the user of these two phones to be somewhat different from each other. You will read more about the hardware specifications of these two phones in the next section!

Hardware performance: the difference from earth to heaven!

The most important difference between the two 2023 Samsung premium mid-range phones is undoubtedly their hardware specifications. The Snapdragon 8 generation 1 chip used in the Galaxy S23FA, despite its weaknesses, is still considered one of the most powerful mobile chipsets in the world and was able to achieve the highest scores in various benchmarks at the time of its release.

Of course, this phone has a Snapdragon 8 Gen chip. 2 used in the Galaxy S23 series is useless and therefore it is placed in the mid-range category instead of the flagship price class. Nevertheless, the hardware performance of this phone is nothing less than a flagship.

Before dealing with the chip used in the Galaxy A54, it is not bad to take a brief look at Samsung’s adventure in the field of mobile phone chips. For years, this company has been trying to introduce its Exynos chipsets as competitors to Snapdragon chipsets, and it even used these chips in some flagships of the past years. However, Exynos chipsets are not at the level of Snapdragon models in terms of performance or thermal control.

Considering this point, it should be noted that the chipset used in Galaxy A54 is Samsung’s Exynos 1380, which has nothing to say against Snapdragon 8 generation 1. This performance difference between the two phones is clearly evident when running applications, playing games, or multitasking, and leaves no room for discussion!

Of course, Samsung has not considered the Exynos 1380 chipset to be a flagship chip and has even set the price of phones equipped with it on par with some mid-range devices from other companies. So maybe comparing these two chips is not very logical! Of course, it should be noted that if you have not worked with any of the recent flagship phones in the world, you will probably never notice the slow performance of the Exynos 1380! Therefore, the fact that these chips are weaker compared to the Snapdragon 8 generation 1 does not mean that these chipsets perform poorly.

In the design and manufacture of the Exynos 1380 chip, Samsung has completely learned from last year’s model of this chip, the Exynos 1280, and recorded about 20 and 40 percent better performance in single-core and multi-core tests.

Also note that if you plan to do normal things like taking pictures or surfing the internet, you probably won’t notice any difference between Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 FE! However, when running heavy applications or detailed games, the differences between the two will become apparent.

Good battery life, but not great either mid-range

After praising the merits of Snapdragon 8 generation 1 chip used in S23FA, it is not bad to have a look at its disadvantages! Despite the fact that this chip is very fast, it does not fare so well in terms of thermal management or power consumption! Of course, its condition is not as bad as the Exynos 2200 chip used in the global model of this phone; But in any case, its charge consumption is higher than many other midranges in the market.

Of course, the examination and testing of the battery consumption and charging capacity of the S23 FE is not yet completely finished; But the Galaxy S22 Plus is a good example to measure the S23FE’s energy consumption performance; Because it uses the Snapdragon 8 generation 2 chip and has a 4500 mAh battery. If you follow the news of Samsung phones, you must know that the S22+ battery charging was not ideal at all!

If you use your phone regularly, you can expect the Galaxy S23 FE battery to last you about a full day. However, if you play video games or run heavy apps, you may have to plug your phone in to charge before the end of the day.

Another important thing about the battery charging of Samsung phones is that this company really tries hard to optimize the energy consumption software of its products. Therefore, the Galaxy S23 FA may have better charging performance compared to the S22 Plus thanks to the software optimizations.

On the other hand, the Galaxy A54 compensates for its processing weakness by providing a higher battery life and is able to beat the S23FA at least in this department! The Exynos 1380 chip used in this phone not only has a lower energy consumption, but the use of a larger 5000 mAh battery is also the reason why the E54 can easily provide a full day of charging to its users.

Proper battery charging is one of the most important features of mid-range phones, and the Samsung Galaxy A54 has performed better than the Galaxy S23 FE in this regard.

Galaxy S23 FE camera performance vs. Galaxy A54

Historically, Samsung has not performed very well in the software department of its phone cameras. However, the Koreans have changed the trend in the past year and have made vast improvements in this field. Of course, these software capabilities are in no way comparable to the amazing capabilities of Google Pixels; But if you put the output images of a Pixel phone next to a flagship Galaxy, you will hardly notice the difference!

Based on this, the imaging of two Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A54 phones is not significantly different from each other in day or night light. Both phones will use almost identical 50-megapixel primary sensors that capture high-quality images with good color saturation and decent white balance.

Also, in both of these phones, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera is used to record images with a high depth of field; But the output images have much lower details.

The good news for those interested in professional photography is that Samsung has built the professional photography mode (Pro Mode) in both phones. Therefore, by changing specifications such as ISO or shutter speed, you can record desired images in different conditions.

At the same time, the most important difference in the camera module of these two phones is in their third lens. The Galaxy S23 FE has an 8-megapixel telephoto lens. However, the 3x optical zoom is its trump card compared to the Galaxy A54 and many others in the mid-range. On the other hand, the 5 megapixel macro camera of the Galaxy A54 is one of the most annoying elements of this phone, no matter how good a photographer you are, you will never be able to capture high-quality images with it!

In addition, the comparison of the selfie camera of these two phones has provided us with interesting information and reminds us that only the higher specifications of the camera cannot guarantee its better performance! The 32-megapixel selfie camera used in the A54 captures really good pictures. However, when you compare it to the images captured by the S23 FE’s 10MP selfie camera, you’ll notice that there isn’t much difference between the two cameras.

Of course, the selfie camera of none of these two phones is considered excellent; But if you intend to take acceptable selfies, the camera quality of these two phones will fully meet your needs.

Summary: Which of the two Samsung Galaxy S23 FE or Samsung Galaxy A54 phones is better?

Taking a realistic look at the specifications of Samsung’s two premium mid-range phones, we can conclude that the Galaxy S23 FE is able to beat the A54 in most areas (except for battery performance) and is a better phone. Nevertheless, the Galaxy A54 is a really capable phone and even its biggest weakness, the chip performance, will not be felt at all in daily use.

At the same time, you should keep in mind that the Galaxy A54 is about $200 cheaper than the S23 FE, and this issue can make us close our eyes to some of its shortcomings! So if the lack of wireless charging, optical zoom in the camera or super smooth user interface is not important to you, the Galaxy A54 is a much better option for you.

On the other hand, for about $200 more, you can buy the S23FA with a better camera, more processing power, and a higher-quality screen. Note that if you are interested in the design of this $600 phone and are looking for powerful technical specifications, the right phone for you is the $1,000 Galaxy S23 Plus.