Crossing over to Samsung: I used Galaxy F54 5G for 15 days and here’s why I am blown away

The Samsung Galaxy F54 feels surprisingly slim and light for a 6,000mAh phone. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

As such, the Galaxy F54 carries the distinctive, no-frills Samsung flagship look with three camera lenses arranged in a straight, island-less line at the back – despite being a mid-ranger. I particularly loved the fact that the back carried no tacky “108MP OIS AI camera” text, giving the otherwise rather plasticky rear a more premium touch.

Another aspect I am a fan of is the rounded edges that make the Galaxy F54 a comfortable phone to hold, with my fingers neatly wrapping around the plastic frame. I was lent the silver colour for review, and though it’s a fingerprint magnet thanks to its lustrous mirror-like finish, I really dug the unique look. However, I would have preferred a more consistent silver tone, rather than the rainbow effect that detracted from the premium feel.

The bezels are reasonably slim all around. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

The 120Hz 6.7-inch display is among the best in its class with punchy colours and adequate brightness. It’s got a slightly warm tone to it, which I felt was easier on the eyes.

Performance

The Galaxy F54 features the same chipset as its more premium sibling, the Galaxy A54. A recently launched processor, the Exynos 1380 performs similarly to the Snapdragon 778G, at least in terms of benchmarks.

The chip delivers smooth and flawless performance for everyday tasks, but it tends to run slightly warm. This is surprising because the phone does not overheat or throttle during gaming, even for long periods. It just maintains a mild warmth regardless of what you are doing, or even when you are not using the phone at all. I hope this is a matter of optimisation and not the infamous Exynos heating issues.

A camera design inspired by the premium Galaxy S23 series. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

Sadly, the phone comes without a charging brick in the box and since I don’t have a spare brick lying around, I was only able to charge it with the non-Samsung 33W and 120W units with me at the time. With these, the 6,000mAh battery takes an eternity to fill up to 100%.

Camera

The Galaxy F54 boasts 3 rear cameras – a 108 MP (OIS) No Shake Camera for stunning shots, an 8 MP ultra-wide lens for capturing more of the scene, and a 2 MP macro lens for close-ups. The front camera has a 32 MP resolution for selfies.

The phone shines in bright daylight, producing crisp and detailed images with realistic colours, though the skies may look slightly bluer than they are. You can also crop the images without losing much detail.

A detailed photo with realistic colours. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

(Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

Indoor photography is less impressive, though. The colours often look dull and inaccurate, especially under white lighting. Notice how my burger looks bland and cold in the photo below. This seems to be a software issue, though, that can be fixed with updates. I noticed similar inaccuracies with the selfie camera. Although very detailed, selfies seemed to suffer from overprocessing, giving them an unnatural look.

Notice how my burger looks bland and cold in this photo. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

The phone handles warm lighting better than white lighting in indoor scenarios. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

(Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

Clarity takes a hit when you move to low-light scenarios, as is the case with most phones. The phone manages to capture bright and colour-accurate images with good dynamic range in low-light situations, but the details are fuzzy when you zoom in.

Excellent details but zooming into the trees below reveals a mess. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

A well-handled shot. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

A feature that I enjoyed was the Single Take mode, which is great for parties and other social events. The phone automatically saves multiple photos and video clips, applying filters and creating boomerangs as it pleases.

Software

Thanks to the power of Samsung’s exclusive collaborations with various brands, One UI offers features you will be hard-pressed to find on other Android skins. The Galaxy F54 integrates smoothly with Windows PCs thanks to Samsung’s partnership with Microsoft, and it also brings exclusive filters from Snapchat into the camera app through Samsung’s alliance with the platform.

Samsung offers the best of Android in a well-optimised package. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

Being a first-time Samsung user, I was also pleased to find that One UI is a complete experience of its own, with a proper fleet of apps and services you can switch to if you don’t dig Google offerings. Other Android OEMs use a mix of proprietary apps and Google apps, which often results in a mess. One UI also feels extremely refined, with smooth animations and excellent UI consistency.

I only missed icon shape customisation — the default squircle icons are too quirky for my liking and I’d have preferred an option to turn them circular. The horizontal scrolling app drawer isn’t very intuitive too.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy F54 5G is an all-rounder with very little to dislike. It looks premium, has an excellent software experience, and the newly-launched Exynos 1380 doesn’t perform too shabby either. The only bummers are the plastic back, which while looks premium, doesn’t go well with the almost Rs 30,000 price tag; And the battery charging speed, which takes nearly two hours to fully charge.

The back is a fingerprint magnet and scratches easily. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)

But if you are a fan of good software, then the Galaxy F54 5G will not fail to impress you. One UI 5.1 is extremely well-optimised on this device and the promise of 4 years of Android updates will keep it that way. Think of the Galaxy F54 as an affordable alternative to the recently launched Galaxy A54. Meanwhile, fans of build quality and processing power can explore options like the Poco F5 and the Motorola Edge 40, which sell for the same price.