The Samsung Galaxy A55 is a high quality mid-ranger – however the Galaxy S23 FE is an nearly flagship. How come they value the identical? As we word in our evaluation, the A55 is hard to suggest at its present worth.
And that worth is £440 for an 8/128GB unit, £50 extra if you need double the storage. Now, the telephone simply launched and we’re certain it can come down in worth earlier than lengthy. In writing these posts, we’ve seen the Galaxy A54 on sale week after week and now we have little question that the A55 will ultimately comply with the identical path.
However should you want a telephone proper now, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is barely £10 extra for the 8/128GB mannequin and precisely the identical worth for the 256GB one. You get the extra highly effective Exynos 2200 chipset, however word that the A55 has expandable storage and the FE doesn’t. Additionally, the S23 FE helps DeX. Each telephones will get the identical software program help (4 OS updates, 5 years of patches), however because the S23 FE is older, it began with an older Android model.
The A55 now has a bigger show, 6.6” vs. 6.4” (each 120Hz FHD+ OLEDs). Within the division, the 50MP fundamental cameras and the 12MP extremely wides are comparable sufficient, however the S23 FE has the sting with its 8MP 3x tele digital camera. Each telephones have aluminum frames with glass back and front panels, however the S-phone has higher water resistance – IP68 vs. IP67. Sadly, its smaller battery (4,500mAh vs. 5,000mAh) and older chipset make for poor battery life. The A55 is fairly nice on this respect and whereas the S23 FE has wi-fi charging, that doesn’t fairly make up for having to cost extra usually.
One other new Samsung gadget is the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024). Sure, a second re-release. We admire the change in chipset, however would have most well-liked one thing a bit higher than the Exynos 1280 (the 1380 would have been high quality). And that £350 price ticket for a 4/64GB slate is tough to justify.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ has a greater show – 11” 90Hz LCD vs. 10.4” 60Hz LCD. And whereas the Snapdragon 695 actually isn’t our high choose for a chipset, you might be solely paying £240 for a 4/64GB slate. And should you pay £50 extra, you get not solely double the storage, but in addition 8GB of RAM. The S6 Lite has sat on 4GB RAM since 2020.
If you would like one thing smaller or cheaper – or each – take a look on the vanilla Galaxy Tab A9. It has an 8.7” LCD (60Hz, 1,340 x 800px) and a Helio G99, plus a tiny 5,100mAh battery with 15W charging. Nothing to put in writing dwelling about, however the 4/64GB mannequin is simply £140.
Going again to the Tab S6 Lite (2024), a 4/128GB model prices £390. Add £10 to that and you should purchase a 6/128GB Galaxy Tab S9 FE. It’s straightforward to see that the FE is the higher pill – it does have the Exynos 1380 (with extra RAM), for starters. The ten.9” 90Hz IPS LCD has a better decision (2,304 x 1,440px vs. 2,000 x 1,200px).
You additionally get an even bigger 8,000mAh battery with 45W charging (vs. 7,040mAh and 15W). The FE even has an IP68 score, whereas the S6 Lite has no official mud or water resistance. We predict this is identical state of affairs because the A55, the Tab S6 Lite (2024) is a high quality gadget, however the worth wants to come back method down earlier than it is smart.
There’s, in fact, the bigger Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ with a 12.4” IPS LCD (90Hz, 2,560 x 1,600px) and a bigger 1,090mAh battery. The 8/128GB mannequin will not be a nasty deal at £600, however not an incredible one both. And we actually can’t suggest the 8/256GB model at £700.
That’s as a result of final yr’s flagship pill, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Extremely is all the way down to £750 – that is for the 12/512GB mannequin. It’s no contest between the 2, the Extremely has an enormous 14.6” 120Hz OLED show (2,960 x 1,848px) and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with an 11,200mAh battery with 45W charging. It nonetheless has a microSD slot, in case the 512GB inner storage isn’t sufficient.
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