Samsung Galaxy A55 vs. S24 FE
So, you're looking for a solid Samsung phone but don't want to break the bank? We get it; a Galaxy phone has plenty of appeal, but pricing can get crazy for the Galaxy S family. Luckily, the Korean giant has a pretty full lineup with offers at every price point. Today, we are exploring the best option for a "budget flagship" or "upper midranger", depending on your personal definition.
It is worth pointing out that there is a pretty substantial price difference between the two phones. At the time of writing, a base 128GB/8GB Galaxy A55 will set you back around € 350, while a base 128GB/8GB Galaxy S24 FE retails for around € 550. It's a serious price difference.
There is no doubt that the Galaxy S24 FE is the better device out of the two. The real question is whether it is twice as good as the Galaxy A55. While that will undoubtedly be a personal decision to make, we can at least go through the key points of comparison quickly and concisely, pointing out the differences for you.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following video or in the following text.
Size comparison
The Galaxy A55 and Galaxy S24 FE are pretty similar size-wise. Both are fairly big devices, even by modern standards and in fact, a bit on the heavy side, tipping the scale at 213 grams. The two devices have the same footprint despite the fact that the Galaxy A55 has a slightly shorter 6.6-inch screen diagonal, compared to 6.7 inches on the S24 FE.
The Galaxy A55 has slightly thicker display bezels. The S24 FE also has a few design touches that make it look a bit more modern - specifically, the raised island for the side buttons. Both phones are very well constructed. The S24 FE has better IP68 ingress protection than the Galaxy A55 and its IP67. The difference isn't huge in practice, but it is there. The S24 FE should be able to survive in slightly deeper water.
The two phones are also very similar regarding materials. They have sturdy aluminum frames and Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front.
The S24 FE has a slightly tougher Gorilla Glass Victus+ back side compared to the basic Gorilla Glass on the Galaxy A55.
Both phones have the same set of controls and overall control layout. This includes an under-display optical fingerprint reader.
Both phones use virtual proximity sensors rather than hardware ones. Other than that, both phones are chock full of sensors. Both devices have Sub-6 SA and NSA 5G connectivity. eSIM connectivity is also available on both.
Both phones basically support the same positioning and have Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support, as well as NFC, though that can be market-dependent. Speaking of market-dependent features, the S24 FE has tri-band Wi-Fi in some places.
The Galaxy A55 only has a basic USB 2.0 port. While it supports Host/OTG, it lacks advanced features like the DP video output available on the S24 FE. Only the S24 FE has Samsung DeX support.
Display comparison
The Galaxy S24 FE has an ever-so-slightly-larger 6.7-inch display, compared to the 6.6 inches on the Galaxy A55. Both phones naturally use Samsung-made OLED panels, and both actually have a 120Hz refresh rate and pretty similar refresh rate management. Both displays are also certified for HDR10+. They also both have a FullHD+ resolution and very similar display density.
The only real difference between the display of the two phones is brightness. Both phones have a pretty modest manual maximum brightness of below 500 nits.
When you switch to Auto mode, however, the Galaxy A55 can reach 1,010 nits maximum, while the S24 FE can reach 1,372 nits.
Battery life
The Galaxy A55 has a slightly larger battery at 5,000 mAh, compared to 4,700 mAh on the Galaxy S24 FE. The difference in capacity isn't huge, but combined with other hardware differences like display and chipset, things compound into a noticeably better Active Use Score on the Galaxy A55. Both phones have solid endurance, but the Galaxy A55 has the edge in this category.
Charging speed
Both phones support up to 25W wired charging through Samsung's Fast Charge standard, which is just USB Power Delivery + PPS, so any third-party charger with this spec will do.
The S24 FE also supports 15W wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, neither of which is a feature on the Galaxy A55.
In typical Samsung fashion, charging either phone takes over an hour. The two phones have similar but still slightly different charging curves. With its slightly smaller battery, the S24 FE slows down in the final stretch of its charging cycle, staying in trickle charge for longer.
Technically, the Galaxy A55 charges a bit faster than the Galaxy S24 FE, though there is a marginal difference.
Speaker test
Both phones have a hybrid stereo setup with a dedicated bottom-firing speaker and an amplified earpiece as the second channel. The earpiece is quieter and focuses mostly on high and mid-tones, while the bottom full-blown speaker has bass and good vocals. The balance is good, though.
Both phones managed a Very Good loudness score in our testing. Both phones are also tuned quite similarly. Their sound quality is good - there is some bass, and the vocals are solid.
The S24 FE has a slight edge in the speaker department regarding loudness and output clarity, especially in the higher ranges.
Performance
The Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy A55 use pretty different chipsets. Both are modern Samsung-made parts manufactured on a 4nm process. However, the Exynos 2400e inside the S24 FE is definitely on a different level than the Exynos 1480 inside the Galaxy A55.
Before we go on to some actual benchmark figures, it is worth pointing out that the Galaxy A55 has 6GB of RAM in its base variant, with 8GB and even an elusive 12GB option also available. The S24 FE has 8GB of RAM across the board.
In terms of storage, you can get the A55 with 128GB or 256GB. It is worth noting that both of these are expandable since the Galaxy A55 has a microSD card slot. The S24 FE is available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB variants, but the S24, once again, lacks a microSD card slot.
While both phones currently run Android 14 and One UI 6.1 with similar features, Samsung has promised up to four major OS upgrades on the Galaxy A55.
The Galaxy S24 FE gets Samsung's new, incredibly generous treatment, with the promise of up to seven major OS upgrades.
AI is also a potentially important factor to consider. The Galaxy S24 FE gets the full set of Galaxy AI features. These are unfortunately not available on the Galaxy A55. At least not yet. There has been some talk of Galaxy AI potentially coming to the A series as well at some point.
Benchmark performance
One quick glimpse at the benchmark scores of the two phones makes it instantly apparent that the Galaxy S24 FE is roughly twice as powerful in the CPU department and four times as powerful in the GPU department. AnTuTu and its compound benchmarks show that the S24 FE has roughly more than twice the performance of the Galaxy A55.
In practical terms, despite the benchmark performance disparity, the Galaxy A55 is perfectly capable, offering plenty of performance to chew through daily tasks and demanding games.
That said, better performance now definitely equates to better performance in the future, down the line, when a few years have gone by and a few software upgrades have hit. So, a better phone now is sort of an investment into futureproofing.
Camera comparison
At first glance, the Galaxy A55 and S24 FE have similar camera setups. Each phone's main and ultrawide cameras have sensors with similar size and resolution.
However, the S24 FE's main cam has more advanced autofocus and can capture 8K@30fps and 4K@120fps video. The S24 FE also gets an extra 3x optical zoom camera, which is way more versatile than the 5MP macro camera on the Galaxy A55.
The Galaxy A55's selfie cam uses a 32MP Quad-Bayer sensor, whereas the S24 FE has a 10MP ISOCELL 3J1 unit. We'll see if that makes any difference.
Image quality
When there is plenty of light, the main cameras of the two phones take quite similar photos. You get comparable contrast, dynamic range, resolved detail and noise.
Neither phone has a particularly impressive ultrawide. However, the S24 FE has a clear advantage in the detail department. It also has much better contrast and a wider dynamic range.
Samsung Galaxy A55: ultrawide • main • 2x digital zoom • Portrait mode main cam
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: ultrawide • main • 3x optical zoom • Portrait mode main cam
The Galaxy A55 lacks a dedicated telephoto. We decided to compare its digital crop 2x zoom shots from the main camera with the 3x telephoto shots from the dedicated camera on the S24 FE. Expectedly, it is hardly a fair fight. The telephoto on the S24 FE is just superior in every possible way. It has much more detail, better contrast and dynamic range and much less noise.
In a rather interesting plot twist, looking at the low-light photos from the main cameras on both phones, we definitely like the Galaxy A55's better. Its photos are cleaner, with much less noise and better-developed shadows and highlights.
The ultrawide cameras on the two phones capture pretty different low-light photos, especially in terms of color rendition. We kind of like the warmer approach of the A55 a bit better. That aside, neither ultrawide is particularly impressive. The photos are decidedly soft and noisy.
Regarding zoomed photos, the dedicated telephoto on the S24 FE still has the edge. However, the difference between it and the 2x digital zoom on the A55 in low-light conditions is not major. Both shots are likable enough.
Samsung Galaxy A55: ultrawide • main • 2x digital zoom
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: ultrawide • main • 3x optical zoom
Both selfie cameras take nice photos. Skin tones are rendered very competently, and the dynamic range is nice.
Samsung Galaxy A55: selfies
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: selfies
Video quality
The Galaxy S24 FE technically has the better capture capabilities of the two phones. Not that we particularly care about 8K on a mobile phone, but having 4K@60 and 4K@120fps is a nice addition. Still, the Galaxy A55 can more than happily do 4K@30fps on all but its macro camera, which is what most users will care about anyway.
The two phones' main cameras capture comparable 4K video footage. Perhaps the S24 FE has a slight edge in detail and clarity. 4K video capture from the ultrawide cameras on both phones is fine but not impressive in any way.
Below, we have a few frame grabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it's easier to compare to one another.
Samsung Galaxy A55: ultrawide • main • low-light
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: ultrawide • main • telephoto • low-light
At night, the main camera on the S24 FE seems to have a slight advantage in video quality with better dynamic range. The difference isn't huge, though.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy S24 FE are excellent and well-rounded devices. The S24 FE is objectively the better phone out of the two. It is much closer to flagship territory in its feature set. Some highlights compared to the A55 include better ingress protection and tougher back glass, a faster USB port with DP output and DeX support, tri-band Wi-Fi in some markets, better beak display brightness, wireless and reverse wireless charging, louder and cleaner speakers, up to seven major OS upgrades, much better overall performance and a more versatile camera setup.
All the while, the Galaxy A55 holds its own pretty well in every department. Plus, it has a few alluring advantages over the S24 FE of its own, including better Active Use Score and expandable storage. Its biggest advantage, however, is its lower price but that gap is gradually closing as the S24 FE is going down in price.
- The much lower price.
- The better battery life.
- The expandable storage.
- The largely identical user experience and camera quality.
Get the Samsung Galaxy A55 for:
- The better ingress protection and tougher back glass.
- The better connectivity, including a faster USB port with DP output and DeX and tri-band Wi-Fi in some markets.
- The higher max screen brightness.
- The wireless charging support (reverse too).
- The slightly louder and cleaner speakers.
- Up to seven major OS upgrades.
- Access to Galaxy AI features.
- The much better overall performance.
- The more versatile camera setup.
Get the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE for:
Related
Reader comments
- YUKI93
- 16 Nov 2024
- K1F
Only if the phone has USB3 with wired video output in the first place. I totally doubt the upcoming Galaxy A56 will have it anyway.
- K
- 13 Nov 2024
- CbI
I have used A51 and A54. I didn't find any issues with the screen. Slight differences will be there. But are the differences worth the almost double price. Maybe they are worth to.you. But for others?
- Rafe
- 11 Nov 2024
- PmP
S24 FE still has a display with better technology, "Dynamic Amoled" is more modern, it is not greenish, it does not change colors, brightness and contrast at extreme angles like the old Super Amoled on the A55.
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