Samsung Galaxy A55 review

Solid triple-camera setup on the back

The camera setup from the Galaxy A54 remains unchanged. We have a 50MP main camera aided by a 12MP ultrawide camera and a 5MP dedicated macro unit. The selfie shooter is once again 32MP.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Sony IMX906, f/1.8, 1/1.56", PDAF, OIS; 2160p@30fps
• Ultra wide angle: 12 MP Sony IMX258, f/2.2, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/3.06", 1.12µm, fixed focus; 2160p@30fps
• Macro: 5 MP, f/2.4, fixed focus.
• Front camera: 32 MP Sony IMX616, f/2.2, 1/2.74", 0.8µm, fixed focus; 2160p@30fps

We like that Samsung uses 12MP ultrawide sensors for its midrangers, as they produce far superior stills compared to their commonly used 8MP counterparts. The main sensor is also optically stabilized, which is a nice bonus to consider and Samsung used an IMX906 sensor this time around, at least according to the HWiNFO app.

Daylight photos

Main camera

Despite using the same camera hardware as last year's Galaxy A54, the A55 demonstrates slightly different processing of stills. The main camera produces nice daylight photos with plenty of detail and a touch of additional sharpness. That last bit is the main difference between the A54 and A55. The latter seems to produce sharper and cleaner overall images. On the other hand, the new rendition offers a more conservative approach to colors - they are now closer to natural but still lively, especially foliage and sky.

Main camera daylight samples

50MP daylight samples

Dynamic range is excellent, contrast is good, exposure is accurate, and color temperature is on point, but we tend to see a bit of noise at times in homogeneous areas like the sky or when shooting stills indoors. The barely noticeable noise aside, the device maintains good quality indoors.

Portraits: Normal • Portrait mode

2x zoom

Samsung messed up the processing on this one. For some reason, last year's 2x zoom photos looked better. This year, the Galaxy A55 offers subpar 2x zoom crop mode as noise is quite obvious, and everything looks fuzzy. We no longer see those sharp and detailed stills from the 1x mode. Colors, contrast, dynamic range, etc. are the same, though.

2x zoom daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

Samsung's ultrawide cameras are generally impressive, and the 12MP unit on Galaxy A55 is no exception. In fact, the A55 blows past most of its competitors when comparing ultrawide cameras. We found the stills to be solid in most aspects - sharpness and detail are excellent, colors are on point, contrast is good and we don't see any signs of color fringing either.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Cracks begin to show in high-contrast scenes and indoors, though. When ambient light isn't sufficient, sharpness drops and noise starts to creep in. Dynamic range could also see some improvement due to the clipped highlights outside and crushed shadows inside. Nevertheless, those are minor problems, especially compared to the glaring issues most ultrawide cameras have in the same price bracket.

Low-light photos

Main camera

Nighttime camera performance is mostly solid, mainly because the system often triggers the dedicated Night mode.

When the Night mode kicks in, you can enjoy natural-looking, detailed, sharp, and clean photos. Contrast and colors are also on point.

Low-light main camera samples

The samples we took without the Night mode can be easily distinguished - they lack contrast, have clipped highlights and have muted colors.

2x zoom

To our surprise, 2x zoom mode takes decent enough nighttime photos, with rendering that's very similar to the standard 1x mode, but with a bit more noise and softer.

Low-light 2x zoom camera samples

Ultrawide camera

We noticed that the camera app always triggered the Night mode. However, the samples are far from ideal - most of them are quite noisy and soft, with limited dynamic range. Still, they are a tad better than most ultrawide cameras in the price range.

Low-light ultrawide camera samples

Selfies

Selfies out of the Galaxy A55's 32MP should be coming out at 8MP after pixel binning, but we get 12MP photos instead - at least in the wide mode that covers the camera's native field of view. There is also a crop mode, as usual, which can make your face fill up the frame better, and in this mode, you're getting the selfies in 8MP.

The selfies here are excellent. They are detailed and relatively sharp (as long as the lighting conditions are optimal), and the colors look natural. The HDR algorithm is doing a good job of maintaining exposure on the subject's face without blowing up the background.

Selfies

Video recording

The Galaxy A55's video recording capabilities haven't changed one bit. The device can still record 2160p@30fps videos with EIS using the main camera. The ultrawide unit is also capable of recording 4K@30fps footage, which isn't something you'd normally see on a budget phone.

The 4K footage with the main camera looks very inviting - punchy colors, good contrast, plenty of fine detail and wide dynamic range. While sharp, the clip we took suggests that Samsung has added a bit of artificial sharpening, which you can notice on the trees and grass. There's a little bit of noise in there as well. But generally, we like the video recording capabilities.

Understandably, the ultrawide camera's video is softer and less detailed but offers a similar rendition. The dynamic range is slightly narrower (notice the clipped white cars and buildings in the distance), but we can let that one slide. Overall, the 4K footage coming out of the ultrawide camera is almost impressive.

The nighttime video is surprisingly good. We find it somewhat clean, with plenty of contrast, good colors and plenty of detail, even in the shadows. However, the highlights are visibly overexposed, which is probably the reason why the shadows have so much detail in them as well.

The stabilized 4K footage looks pretty solid. In fact, it's one of the best EIS we've seen in this price range.

Video samples playlist

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.