-
Samsung / Pocket-lint
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
Our top pick
The Galaxy A54 is very much a Galaxy S23 ‘Lite’, offering a minimal, but sturdy design. In performance terms it’s the display and battery life that make it a compelling option as does the long software support.
-
Google / Pocket-lint
Google Pixel 6a
Affordable, stock Android
$329.49 $449 Save $119.51
The Pixel 6a is Google’s latest affordable phone, taking much of the Pixel 6 experience and condensing it down to a more affordable package.
If you’re in the market for a phone that offers a great experience, with lots of great features and capabilities, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, there are a few options out there. Two of the best phones, or most well-known, come from Samsung and Google. Those are – of course – the Galaxy A54 and Pixel 6a (respectively).
Price, specs & availability:
At the time of publishing, there was quite a big difference in pricing between the Pixel 6a and the Galaxy A54. The former has been discounted quite heavily with it being quite old in smartphone terms now, and is about to be replaced by the Pixel 7a. Full recommended retail prices are very close, however, and with Samsung offering longer software support, it makes a very sensible purchase.
-
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G Google Pixel 6a Brand Samsung Google SoC Exynos 1380 Tensor G1 Display 6.4-inch, Super AMOLED, Full HD+, 120Hz 6.1-inch, OLED, Full HD+, 60Hz Battery 5000mAh 4410mAh, Fast charging Front camera 13MP, f/2.2 8MP, f/2.0 Rear cameras 50MP main f/1.9 OIS, 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 5MP macro f/2.4 12.2MP f/1.7 main, 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide Dimensions 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2mm, 202g 152.2 x 71.8. x 8.9mm, 178g IP Rating IP67 IP67
Design and durability
When it comes to design and durability, there’s one thing that may sway your decision when picking between these two phones: the size. There’s quite a difference in how the Pixel and Galaxy phones feel in the hand.
Samsung’s phone is noticeably taller, wider and heavier than the Pixel phone. Google’s phone is a pretty nimble one-handed device, where the A54 is quite a large device. Its slimness helps somewhat, but it’s not as compact as the Pixel phone is.
The two companies took contrasting approaches to both materials and aesthetic too. Pixel’s phone has a sturdy aluminium frame that gives the phone a slightly more rigid feeling. However, Samsung has put a higher grade glass on the front and on the back, so its outer surfaces should be more resistant to bangs and knocks.
Water and dust resistance is exactly the same on both, and is something you don’t get from a lot of other phones in this price bracket. It’s IP67, meaning it can withstand any dust, and will survive up to 30 minutes submerged in a metre of fresh water. In real-life terms, that just means when you answer the phone in the rain, or accidentally drop it in water, it will almost certainly survive unscathed.
As for looks, that’s entirely subjective. The two-tone panel with the black framing and camera bar on the Pixel is distinctive, making it easily recognisable as a Pixel phone. Samsung’s clean and minimal approach to the Galaxy phone has strong appeal too. Although that feeling is somewhat tarnished by the plasticky look of the frame.
On the whole – from a design perspective – we prefer the more compact Pixel design overall. And – as neat the rounded corners and the bezel on the Samsung are, we like the rectangular, minimalist look on the front of the Pixel 6a. There is a benefit to Samsung’s size though, but that all comes to the fore when looking at features and performance. So let’s dive into display and software first.
There are a few ways to compare the displays, the media experience and the software. On paper, the Samsung has a lot going for it, and that’s reflected in the display performance.
It’s the bigger of the two screens – it’s 6.4-inches versus the 6.1-inch Pixel screen – but it’s also not as narrow, featuring a slightly wider aspect ratio. You get more of that feeling of an expansive, immersive view from this screen than you do on the Pixel.
Both are fullHD+ resolutions though, so there’s no real noticeable difference in terms of sharpness and detail. Technically, the Pixel 6a screen does squeeze in a few more pixels per inch, but it’s not a difference you can easily see with the naked eye.
It’s in colour reproduction we saw the biggest difference between the two screens. Both have different colour modes. Samsung’s vivid mode is the default, and it’s far too saturated, so we set it to the natural mode instead. Pixel has ‘Boosted’ ‘Adaptive’ and ‘Natural’ modes. So – again – we set to natural for a comparison.
With both set to this mode the one thing that stands out is that Samsung’s screen still saturates the colours quite a bit. With oranges and reds in particular it can get to the point where you start to lose detail because of the slightly overblown colour. Whites in scenes take on a more golden tone, where the Pixel is a lot cleaner. Colours in Pixel’s screen are a lot more muted, often to its detriment, but switching to adaptive mode does give a more vibrant look that matches the Samsung, but with less red/warm overtones.
Perhaps surprisingly, we found both displays were adequately bright in most situations. Samsung’s screen has a slightly higher general brightness, but it’s tough to see in normal conditions. Outdoors in bright sunlight, Samsung was slightly better at cutting through those bright light beams reflecting on the glass. Both are HDR10+ compatible.
One area the Samsung does beat the Pixel is in refresh rates. It can deliver up to 120Hz, and can switch between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the content. Pixel is locked to 60Hz, and you can see the difference when you go from one to the other. Scrolling quickly through the software elements is sharper and smoother on the Samsung display.
Software – on the other hand – is very different on the two phones. Samsung’s OneUI is about as far removed from the stock Android on the Pixel as you can get. It adds a lot of bloat and a completely different design for the drop-down and settings menus. It also comes with a lot of additional duplicate or redundant apps.
With that said, if you’re concerned about overall longevity and support, the Samsung is – perhaps surprisingly – supported longer than the Pixel. Samsung is offering four years of major updates and five years of security patches. Pixel 6a gets three years of software updates, and five years of security patches. It’s worth noting here, though, that the Pixel 6a is older and has one software update under its belt already. But, because it’s a Google Phone, it should get major updates almost as soon as they’re available. Samsung typically takes a couple of months to get major updates out, but it has a fantastic recent track record of delivering security patches.
Performance, speed, battery life
When it comes to everyday speed and fluidity there’s no massive difference between the Pixel 6a and the A54. Run them through a benchmark test and you’ll see the Pixel phone scores slightly higher on single and multi-core tests, and if you launch apps side-by-side, the Pixel does load most apps and games ever so slightly faster than the Samsung, but there’s really not much in it. It’s not like when we compared the A54 to its more expensive sibling, the S23.
The important thing to take away is that both feel quick and responsive enough that – unless you’re used to the absolute top flagships from the past year to two – you’ll be perfectly happy. They can run just about anything without trouble. Although it has to be said, the Pixel 6a doesn’t seem to take much to start feeling warm to the touch on the back. Playing a game for 10-15 minutes is enough to start it feeling warm, or even launching the camera and taking photos. It’s not uncomfortable, but it definitely feels warmer to the touch than Samsung’s with similar usage.
There’s no real contest when it comes to battery life. Both are good, but the Galaxy A54 consistently lasts longer. It’s not quite the 2-day phone Samsung says it is, but its excellent power management meant we’d usually finish a day at 11pm somewhere around the 40 per cent mark, having taken the phone off charge at 8am. Pixel 6a with the same usage was usually somewhere around 30 per cent. This is with about 2-3 hours of social media, gaming, WhatsApp messaging, music listening and web browsing.
None of this is any real surprise, the Samsung’s 5000mAh capacity is considerably higher than the Pixel’s 4410mAh. Neither has particularly fast charging though, with Samsung’s 25W wired solution – with the right charger – taking more than an hour for a full charge. Pixel’s 18W limit is slower still.
Cameras
Okay, so let’s talk cameras for a bit, because for a lot of people the question when buying phones is “which has the best camera?”. And there’s no simple answer to that, because they both have strengths and weaknesses.
Both phones have a primary and ultrawide camera. Pixel has two 12-megapixel sensors, Samsung has a 50-megapixel main and 12-megapixel ultrawide. Samsung also has a low-resolution 5-megapixel macro sensor, but it’s difficult to get good images from that.
A lot of what you see in still photos from the two depends more on the computational photography and processing of colours, and there’s a clear difference between them most of the time. Samsung’s photos – generally speaking – are brighter and more colour-rich. Which is good in some ways, in that it lifts more light out of the shadows than the Pixel. In other ways it’s bad because in the brighter highlights of the images, Samsung’s phone blows out and loses some of the detail.
Pixel’s photos tend to even out those bright highlights more effectively, allowing you to see the colour and texture – dropping the exposure to deliver those with more colour and texture, but it can leave photos looking a little bit darker and more crushed. It still has a slightly oversaturated look to the colours – but most of the time the colours were a closer representation of the actual colours of the subject.
Samsung’s ability to draw in more light from the primary camera does benefit it in lower-light situations. Generally delivering slightly brighter shots where there’s not as much light available. But when you switch to the ultrawide it’s considerably poorer than the main camera, and struggles to retain sharpness and detail. The ultrawide on the Pixel was better at retaining that detail, and was much better at matching the colour, contrast and look of the primary sensor than Samsung’s.
As a whole system, we prefer to have that consistency, and – even though Samsung pictures are brighter and more vibrant – its tendency to blow out highlights and lose that detail in daylight, meant we would much rather have the slightly darker images from the Pixel.
Conclusion
In the end there are a couple of things that stand out for us comparing these two phones. If you care most about having the best display and best battery life, the Galaxy A54 is the one to go for. It’s also got one excellent camera and copes better with extended use, and doesn’t get too warm.
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
Our top choice
The Galaxy A54 is very much a Galaxy S23 ‘Lite’, offering a minimal, but sturdy design. In performance terms it’s the display and battery life that make it a compelling option as does the long software support.
The other thing worth noting is that it has a microSD card slot, so you can expand the storage, where you can’t on the Pixel. It’s also going to be supported for longer with software updates because it’s a newer phone. So for most people, on balance, the Galaxy A54 is probably the best phone.
However, we do really like the Pixel 6a. It’s smaller, lighter, has lighter stock software, plus the camera system is more consistent, delivering similar results across both lenses. Where Samsung has one lens that’s clearly better than the other.
Google / Pocket-lint
Google Pixel 6a
$329.49 $449 Save $119.51
The Pixel 6a is Google’s latest affordable phone, taking much of the Pixel 6 experience and condensing it down to a more affordable package.
Trending Products
