The Great British Mid-Ranger? A Deep Dive into the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G

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Let’s be honest, most of us in Britain don’t need a smartphone that costs more than a decent holiday. We want a phone that just works. One that can survive a bit of drizzle on the way to the shops, take nice photos of the dog, and not die before we’ve finished our commute home. For years, Samsung’s A-series has been the go-to for sensible folk who want a great phone without the flashy price tag. And now, we have the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G.

It’s a phone that promises a taste of the high-end S-series experience – think fancy cameras and a posh design – but for hundreds of pounds less. It’s like getting a Marks & Spencer meal deal for the price of a Greggs sausage roll. But is it all just clever marketing, or has Samsung genuinely cracked the code for the perfect mid-range phone for the UK market?

We’re going to find out. This isn’t just another tech review full of confusing jargon. Think of this as a friendly chat down the pub, where we’ll break down everything you actually need to know about the Galaxy A55. We’ll look at its new metal design, see if the camera is any good for those gloomy British days, and test if the battery can really last you from your morning tea to your late-night telly. So, grab a brew, get comfy, and let’s see if the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G is the cracking new phone you’ve been waiting for.

What’s New? A Quick Look at the A55’s Big Upgrades

Before we dive deep, what’s actually different this year? Samsung hasn’t reinvented the wheel, but they’ve made some important tweaks that make the A55 feel like a proper step up from its predecessor, the popular A54.

• A Posh New Feel: For the first time in the A5x series, the A55 has a metal frame. It might not sound like a big deal, but it makes the phone feel much more expensive and sturdy, less like a plastic toy and more like its pricier S-series cousins.
• A Bigger, Brighter Screen: The display has grown slightly to 6.6 inches. It’s a Super AMOLED screen, which is just a fancy way of saying the colours are brilliant and the blacks are properly black. It’s great for watching iPlayer on the train.
• A Bit More Oomph: There’s a new processor inside, the Exynos 1480. All you need to know is that it’s designed to be a bit faster and better at handling games and juggling apps than the last model.
• Tougher Glass: The screen is now protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+. This is strong stuff, making it more resistant to scratches and drops when you inevitably fumble it.
• Top-Notch Security: It features Samsung Knox Vault, a super-secure hardware feature that keeps your most important data, like PINs and passwords, locked away from hackers. This is a big deal for a mid-range phone.

So, on paper, it’s a solid upgrade. But what’s it actually like to live with?

Design and Build: Is This the Posh-Feeling Mid-Ranger We’ve Been Waiting For?

For years, Samsung’s mid-range phones have been perfectly nice, but they’ve always felt a bit… plastic. The Galaxy A55 changes that completely, and it’s one of the best things about it.

A Touch of Metal

The moment you pick up the A55, you feel the difference. The new brushed aluminium frame running around the edges is cool to the touch and gives it a reassuring weight. It feels solid, substantial, and a lot more premium than its price tag suggests. It’s a design choice that closes the gap between Samsung’s mid-range and flagship phones more than ever before.

The back is still glass, and combined with the metal sides, it looks and feels fantastic. It does, however, mean it’s a bit of a magnet for fingerprints, so you might want to pop it in a case if you want to keep it looking pristine.

The phone comes in some lovely, understated colours that Samsung calls Awesome Iceblue, Awesome Navy, Awesome Lemon, and Awesome Lilac. They’re not too shouty, fitting in perfectly whether you’re in a boardroom or a beer garden.

That ‘Key Island’ Bump

One quirky design feature is what Samsung calls the “Key Island.” It’s a slightly raised area on the frame where the power and volume buttons sit. It’s supposed to make the buttons easier to find without looking.

Does it work? Yes, sort of. It’s a subtle change, and you’ll probably forget it’s there after a day or two. It doesn’t get in the way, but it’s not a game-changing feature either. It’s just… there.

Built to Survive a British Summer

Let’s talk durability. The A55 has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. This is brilliant news for anyone living in the UK. It means the phone can be submerged in up to 1 metre of fresh water for 30 minutes.

In real-world terms, you don’t need to panic if you get caught in a downpour, spill a drink on it, or accidentally drop it in the sink. It’s not designed for swimming in the sea, but it offers fantastic peace of mind for everyday accidents. This is a feature often missing from other mid-range phones, and a huge plus for Samsung.

The only slight downside? The phone is a little heavier and wider than last year’s model, partly due to the bigger screen and metal frame. It’s not a small phone by any means, but it still feels comfortable to hold.

The Screen: Big, Bright, and Beautifully Smooth

The display is where you’ll spend all your time, so it needs to be good. And thankfully, the A55’s screen is more than just good – it’s fantastic for the price.

A Feast for the Eyes

The 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display is a real treat. As we mentioned, AMOLED technology means that colours are incredibly vibrant and punchy, and blacks are deep and inky. Photos and videos look stunning, and text is pin-sharp. Watching shows like The Grand Tour or a nature documentary on this screen is a joy.

It’s also very bright. With a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, the screen is easy to see outdoors, even on those rare sunny days. You won’t be squinting to read your messages while sitting in the park.

Silky Smooth Scrolling

The screen also features a 120Hz refresh rate. This sounds technical, but it simply means the screen updates 120 times per second, twice as fast as older phones. The result is that everything feels incredibly smooth and fluid, from scrolling through your social media feed to playing games.

It’s an adaptive refresh rate, which means it can automatically switch to a lower rate when you’re doing something static, like looking at a photo, to save battery life. It’s a smart feature that gives you the best of both worlds: smoothness when you need it and better battery when you don’t.

The bezels – the black borders around the screen – are still a little thicker than you’d find on a top-end phone, but they’re not distracting. For a phone in this price bracket, it’s an absolutely superb display.

Camera: Good Enough for Your Holiday Snaps?

The camera is often where mid-range phones cut corners. So, how does the A55 stack up? It has a triple-camera system on the back, but it’s really the main camera that does all the heavy lifting.

The setup includes:

• A 50MP main camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS).
• A 12MP ultra-wide camera for fitting more in your shot.
• A 5MP macro camera for very close-up pictures.
• And a 32MP selfie camera on the front.

The Main Camera: Great in Good Light

In daylight, the 50MP main camera is excellent. It captures photos that are sharp, detailed, and full of vibrant colour. Samsung’s image processing can sometimes make colours a little too bright and poppy, but for sharing on Instagram or WhatsApp, they look fantastic.

Thanks to Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), the camera can counteract shaky hands. This helps to keep your photos sharp and is a massive help when shooting video, making your clips look much smoother.

What About When It Gets Dark?

Samsung has made a big fuss about its “Nightography” feature, promising great photos in low light. The A55 does a respectable job here. The camera automatically takes longer to capture a shot to let in more light, and the results are often bright and usable.

However, this is where you start to see the difference between the A55 and a true flagship phone. Night shots can sometimes look a bit soft and lose some detail. It’s still very impressive for a mid-range device, and you can definitely get good photos on a night out, but don’t expect the same magical results as a £1,200 phone.

Ultra-Wide and Macro: The Supporting Acts

The 12MP ultra-wide camera is handy for taking photos of big landmarks, landscapes, or trying to squeeze all your mates into one picture. The quality is decent in good light, though it’s not as sharp as the main camera, and the colours can look a little different.

The 5MP macro camera is the weakest link. It’s designed for taking extreme close-ups of things like flowers or insects. It can be fun to play with, but the results are often a bit blurry and low-resolution. Honestly, you probably won’t use it very much.

Selfies and Videos

The 32MP selfie camera is really good. It takes sharp, detailed selfies, and the portrait mode does a great job of blurring the background to make you stand out.

For video, the A55 can shoot in 4K resolution from both the front and back cameras, which is brilliant. The footage is steady thanks to OIS, and the colours look great. It’s more than good enough for capturing family moments or creating content for social media.

Performance and Software: Can It Keep Up?

A phone can look great and have a nice camera, but if it’s slow and frustrating to use, none of that matters. So, how does the A55 perform in the real world?

The New Exynos 1480 Chip

Under the bonnet, the A55 is powered by Samsung’s new Exynos 1480 processor. This chip is a solid performer for everyday tasks. Swiping through menus, opening apps, browsing the web, and watching videos are all handled with ease. With 8GB of RAM, there’s plenty of memory to keep multiple apps running in the background without the phone slowing down.

For most people, the A55 is more than fast enough. It feels responsive and snappy day-to-day.

What About Gaming?

If you’re a serious gamer, you might want to look at a phone designed specifically for gaming. However, for casual gaming, the A55 is perfectly capable. Popular games like Candy Crush or Royal Match run flawlessly.

More demanding games like Call of Duty Mobile or Genshin Impact will run, but you might need to lower the graphics settings to get a consistently smooth experience. The phone can also get a little warm during long gaming sessions, but its new, larger cooling system does a good job of stopping it from getting too hot.

Software: Clean, Capable, and Full of Features

The A55 runs on Android 14 with Samsung’s One UI 6.1 on top. One UI is a clean and easy-to-use version of Android. It’s packed with useful features and customisation options, allowing you to make the phone truly your own.

One of the best things about buying a Samsung phone is the software support. Samsung promises four generations of Android OS updates and five years of security updates for the A55. This is fantastic. It means your phone will keep getting new features and stay protected from security threats until at least 2029. This is better than many other phone makers, including Google itself, and adds huge long-term value.

A Bit of Bloatware

The only small niggle is that Samsung does pre-install a few of its own apps and some from partners like Microsoft. You can uninstall most of them, but it’s a minor annoyance when you first set up the phone.

Battery Life: Will It Last the Day?

A long-lasting battery is a must-have, and the Galaxy A55 delivers. It has a big 5,000mAh battery, which is the same size as last year’s model.

Thanks to the more efficient processor, the A55 can easily last you a full day of typical use. If you’re a light user – just sending some messages, browsing a bit, and making a few calls – you might even squeeze two full days out of it. Even on a heavy day of taking photos, using maps, and watching videos, you should still make it to bedtime with some charge to spare. It’s a reliable workhorse.

The Catch: Charging Speed and No Charger in the Box

Here’s the slightly annoying part. The A55 supports 25W fast charging, which is… well, it’s not that fast anymore. Many rival phones from Chinese brands offer much faster charging speeds. A full charge from 0 to 100% will take you around an hour and a half. It’s fine, but it’s not brilliant.

What’s more frustrating is that Samsung doesn’t include a charger in the box. All you get is a USB-C cable. Samsung says this is for environmental reasons, but it means you’ll have to use an old charger or buy a new 25W one separately to get the fastest charging speeds. It feels a bit stingy.

There is also no wireless charging, which is a feature still reserved for more expensive phones.

Special Features: Knox Vault and More

One of the standout features of the A55 is Samsung Knox Vault. This is a hardware-based security system that’s separate from the main processor. It creates a secure, tamper-proof safe inside your phone to protect your most sensitive information, like your lock screen PIN, passwords, and biometric data.

This is EAL5+ certified, which is one of the highest security ratings for a consumer device. It’s the kind of feature you normally only find on flagship phones, and it gives the A55 a serious advantage if you care about security and privacy.

The phone also has a reliable in-display fingerprint scanner, which is fast and accurate, and stereo speakers that are loud and clear enough for watching videos or listening to podcasts.

The Verdict: Is the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G Worth Your Money?

So, after all that, should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G?

For most people in the UK looking for a great all-round phone that doesn’t break the bank, the answer is a resounding yes.

Samsung has absolutely nailed the essentials. The A55 feels like a premium phone, with its new metal frame and Gorilla Glass Victus+ screen. The 6.6-inch 120Hz AMOLED display is gorgeous. The performance is smooth for everyday tasks, the main camera is great in good light, and the battery life is dependable.

But the real masterstroke is the long-term value. With five years of security updates guaranteed, this is a phone you can confidently buy and use for years to come without worrying about it becoming outdated or insecure. The addition of the super-secure Knox Vault is the icing on the cake.

Of course, it’s not perfect. The charging could be faster, it’s a shame there’s no charger in the box, and the secondary cameras are a bit underwhelming. But these are minor complaints in what is otherwise an incredibly well-balanced and compelling package.

It successfully brings a premium, flagship-like experience to a much more sensible price point. If you want a reliable, stylish, and secure phone that will serve you well for years, the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G is one of the best choices you can make right now. It’s the M&S of phones, and in this case, that’s a very good thing indeed.

Further Reading

• Samsung UK Official Product Page
• GSMArena Samsung Galaxy A55 5G Specs
• TechRadar Review of the Samsung Galaxy A55