Samsung Galaxy F54 5G review: A worthy contender

Samsung is treading in dangerous territory with its latest smartphone. Lucky for the multi-billion-dollar company, its Galaxy F54 5G is worth a look. Priced at Rs 27,999, the Galaxy F54 5G makes a strong case. Can it break through the competition? Let's find out.

Here's a look at what the Galaxy F54 packs for the price.

1. Display: 6.7-inch sAMOLED+ 120Hz panel
2. Cameras: 108MP (OIS)+ 8MP (ultra-wide)+ 2MP (macro); 32MP front-facing (selfie)
3. CPU: Exynos 1380 5nm processor
4. RAM: 8GB
5. Storage: 256GB
6. Battery: 6000mAh, 25W charging support
7. OS: OneUI 5.1
8. Colors: Meteor Blue and Stardust Silver

Note: Samsung Galaxy F54 5G review unit sent to us is Stardust Silver, running OneUI 5.1 during the review period.

Design and display

Samsung Galaxy F54 5G takes on a modern design language, and this is something inspired from its flagships. A welcoming sight, in the budget series in particular. The F54 is the most premium in the F-series, sitting below the popular A-series. Samsung sent us Stardust Silver, which has a little bit of glam, but Meteor Blue looks more elegant. The shiny back of the F54 produces different shades of colours depending on which angle the lights fall on it.

Samsung Galaxy F54 has a polycarbonate construction, which doesn't fully convey the premium factor. But the metallic silver finish conceals the plastic vibe well and Samsung has done a good job at quality construction. Just wish the phone wasn't a fingerprint magnet.

The F54 5G has a fingerprint sensor on the side, integrated inside the power button, which works efficiently. If the accidental touch feature is enabled, it can get a bit annoying to unlock the phone, but once you disable it, the fingerprint sensor unlocks the phone quickly and efficiently. The volume controls are positioned above the power button, which is not easy to reach. But you kind of get used to it with time.

At the bottom, the phone has a USB Type-C port, and a single speaker grille. There's no headphone jack and the SIM card tray is positioned on the right side of the phone, again at the top.

The punch-hole display gives the phone a modern touch and even the bezels are on the slim side. Samsung's expertise in the display space is evident as it continues to impress with F54's Super AMOLED 120Hz panel. The display is bright, vibrant and ideal for watching movies and playing games. The display is not as bright as other Samsung phones, but it is sufficient to be used under sunlight.

The HDR10+ certification is also there to enhance the viewing experience. It's surprising Samsung didn't go with an under-display fingerprint sensor. But it's not a deal-breaker.

Camera

The cameras on the F54 are excellent. The primary sensor does the power-lifting, the supporting ultra-wide sensor is good too. Then there's the macro sensor, which didn't impress us, merely fills up the spec sheet. The 108MP sensor produced detailed shots with good colours and dynamic range in well-lit scenes. Low-light shots come out pretty nice, with rich details.

We tested the camera in different lighting conditions. Shots taken in broad daylight are remarkable, with excellent details and vibrance. The colours are a tad punchy, but not oversaturated. There seems to be a good balance. The camera also takes excellent portraits, surprising for a phone in this range. The portraits add a nice depth and soft bokeh with accurate subject outlining. Even in ambient lighting, the portraits excelled.

The ultra-wide shots held up quite well. In low light, the wide-angle shots were detailed, but the noise was visible. The overall shots are visually pleasing. On the front, there's a 32MP selfie camera, which performs exceptionally well. The selfies are detailed, colours are punchy with a good dynamic range. You'll love the results. 

Check out the camera samples below:

Performance

Though we had our reservations about the Exynos 1380 chipset, the F54 lived up to our expectations of day-to-day operations. Paired with OneUI 5.1, the phone performs well and multi-tasking is handled with ease. Even mild gaming and binge-watching sessions aren't an issue for the F54, making it quite capable for average users.

If you're an avid gamer, the F54 may not be up to the task, but mild gaming and daily tasks can be handled well. It's a reliable phone for most users, who don't indulge in heavy tasks. The graphics rendered in games like Call of Duty: Mobile were smooth. The high refresh rate helped a lot.

There's a lot of bloatware, which can be uninstalled. And then there are features like Glance, which is not everyone's taste or use-case. It's a good thing Samsung lets you disable it in a few taps.

One of the strong suits of Samsung phones is its software support. The Galaxy F54 adheres to Samsung's commitment and gets four years of major Android OS updates and five years of security updates.

As for connectivity, the F54 performs as expected. The 5G coverage on Reliance Jio was good, whereas, with 4G Vodafone, there were some network issues. It is likely to be an isolated issue. Samsung gets Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections right all the time, and we did not face any problems with that.

Battery

The 6,000mAh battery is huge and definitely its biggest USP. The F54 can last two days with mixed-use. At the same time, the charging speed is just 25W, which is not fast at all by today's standards, It takes close to two hours to charge the phone to full, even when it is not drained out.

The lasting battery life is the only compensation for the slow-charging speeds in the F54, something you'll have to live with. Our solution was to leave the phone to charge overnight, but if you can spare two hours during the day, it would be a better option. Incidentally, we encountered some abrupt disruption in charging with 65W adapter, so it is advised to use a 25W adaptor. If only Samsung shipped one with the phone. 

The phone easily lasts a whole day and still has some charge left at the end of the busy day. Once the phone understands the usage patterns, the battery life is only going to improve. With our use, we were left with 40 percent charge at the end of the day after having used the phone for calls, IMs, emails, browsing, social media and streaming. Even when we added an hour of gaming to the mix, the phone didn't drain out at the end of the day. On some days, the phone even lasted two days when there wasn't much testing involved. You can expect 7+ hours of screen time and 24 hours of runtime. 

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy F54 5G checks all the right boxes, making it worth a solid consideration if you're looking for a phone under Rs 30,000. No doubt, the F54 is met with strong competition in this price bracket, but the phone has some really strong points — modern design, great camera, lasting battery, and reliable performance. You may have to live with the slow charging speeds and the other shortcomings can be overcome or settled for. The software support being extended to phones in this range is a bonus and the OneUI is definitely among the better operating systems. So yes, the Galaxy F54 has got what it takes to be a worthy contender in the sub-Rs 30,000 space.