So, the Galaxy A55 is Samsung's latest mid-range smartphone. Its launch price was around £440, while the Samsung flagship S24 is nearly double that price.

But just because it's twice as much, does that make the S24 twice as good? Or is the smart money better spent on the Samsung Galaxy A55.

It all depends on several factors, some of which you should definitely think about and some of which...maybe you couldn't care less about. So I know what you want.

And the truth is what you’ll get here. And there is one very important difference that if you don’t know about before spending your money, it could end up being a very costly mistake.

The Unboxing

But first, let's run through the essential tech specs everyone should know before buying a new phone. Like what's in the box?

The unboxing experience is not out of this world. It's pretty simple: the phone, the cable and some paperwork. No charger.

The optimal charging speed for both devices is 25w, ideally with a PD3.0 charging brick. The official Samsung charger with cable on Samsung.com is currently priced at around £20.

The first big difference between these two phones is that the Galaxy S24 supports 15W Qi wireless charging and reverse wireless charging at 4.5W.

The A55 doesn't support wireless charging at all, but if you're the type of person who never uses it anyway, this won't be a deal breaker.

Design Differences

When you compare these phones side by side, you'll first notice that the A55 is a bigger phone with slightly thicker bezels than the S24. The screen-to-body ratio on the A55 is around 86%, and the S24 is just over 90%.

There is also a weight difference between them. Naturally, the bigger phone weighs more, 46 grams heavier, to be quite precise.

The A55 is also slightly thicker than the S24 by 6mm.

The appearance on the back of the A55 is almost identical to the S24. So, if looks are something you care about.

You don't have to pay more for that iconic Samsung Galaxy look. You'll be happy to know that the frame on the A55 is not plastic, it is aluminium.

The S24 is also aluminium but a more robust variety. It is actually Armour Aluminium 2, which offers better drop and scratch resistance.

So, if you don't like to rock a case, this upgrade could be important.

But if you're the type of guy or girl who instantly throws on a case, maybe, like the rock says. It doesn't matter how tough the aluminium is.

A55 Advantage

And here's a big win for the A55: the SIM tray allows for 2 SIMS or 1 SIM and expandable memory up to 1TB. With the S24, the memory is what it is, and price jumps are more expensive than an SD card.

The advantage of the SD card is that you can transfer and backup data to the SD card and then transfer it to a computer.

While we are on that topic, the USB C ports look the same at a glance, but not all USB C ports are created equal. The A55 uses a USB 2.0 port, and the S24 has the newer UBC 3.2. Even though this doesn't offer an advantage in charging speeds, the S24's data transfer speeds via a wire will be significantly faster, and it also unlocks a very powerful feature, which I'll come back to.

The Display

Now, let's talk about Samsung's display. Samsung is the best in the business when it comes to phone screens. They even make the displays for the iPhone.

So, as you would expect, both are top-notch. However, there is a difference in screen size: 6.6" on the A55 and 6.2" on the S24. The screen resolution is the same, which naturally makes the smaller S24 panel a little more pixel-dense...but it's not really that noticeable.

Both support up to 120Hz refresh rate and have an HDR10+ rating. And in regular lighting conditions, it's hard to see a difference, but there are three things you need to know about these screens.

The S24 display is an LTPO AMOLED, meaning it can control and adjust the refresh rates down to 1 hertz when needed, which makes it more power efficient. It's also considerably brighter. The A55 tops out at 1000 nits, and the peak brightness on the S24 is 2600 nits, which is bright enough to give you a sun tan.

And the third difference is the glass on top of the display. Both are very premium Gorilla Glass, with the A55 using Victus+ and the S24 using the slightly newer Victus 2. The difference is not massive and completely irrelevant if you plan to use a screen protector...but at least now you know. The S24 glass is ever so slightly more robust.

Both phones' Amoled display means the always-on display is supported, and because they are on Samsung's One UI, the customisation options are excellent. I do have a few videos on that. I'll link them at the end.

Both phones use the in-display biometric fingerprint scanner. And they are swift, but there is a difference in the technology. The A55 uses the optical method, which is solid, but the Qualcomm ultrasonic scanner on the S24 is more advanced and slightly quicker.

The Camera

Okay, everyone loves a good photo...of themselves, and Samsung knows this and has upgraded the sensor on the A55 Selfie camera. It uses a 32mp sensor with an f.2.2 wide-angle lens, and the S24 uses a 12mp F.2.2.

More megapixels only sometimes mean better results. So, I'll let you be the judge of these. If I could have avoided putting my ugly mug in this video, I would have. So, apologies for that. Both selfie cameras are also capable of up to 4K 60fps video.

The rear cameras look the same on the surface but are actually quite different. The primary and most important camera on both is exactly the same. It's a 50MP sensor F1.8, 24mm equivalent. And it does have Optical image stabilisation.

The ultra wides are 12mp but do not have the same sensor and optics. The A55 actually has a slightly wider field of view. The third camera is the biggest difference. The S24 has a 10MP telephoto, and the A55 has the opposite: a 5MP macro camera... So that's something to consider.

Do you prefer better close-up photography, or do you prioritise taking photos from further away?
Or is neither here nor there...

The A55's video quality tops out at 4K 30fps, while the S24 can do 4K 60. It's also got HDR10+ support, and the S24 seems to have better 4K video stabilisation. I am working on a camera comparison between these two, so keep an eye out for that one. For a more in-depth look at the camera capabilities here.

Power and Speed

Now, let's talk about power and speed. The A55 has an impressive 5000mAh battery, compared to the S24s 4000mAh. Charge speeds are similar, but the A55's larger battery size means it'll take a bit longer to reach 100%. The bigger battery isn't necessarily an instant win for the A55, but it could be. I'll show you how it performs compared to the S24 in a moment.

But first, there is still the most important thing that I eluded to in the intro that you need to factor in before making your ultimate decision.

The Chipset

Its efficiency can dramatically impact battery life and, of course, performance. And when I bought this, I must have thought this was America.

Because I was expecting Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the S24. They call it the titan of AI; it's arguably the most powerful Android chip on the market. However, in the UK the S24 models except for the Uktra have Samsung's own version of this. It's called the Exynos 2400 and it is still powerful, but just a little bit behind the performance of the Snapdragon version.

The A55 also has Samsung's own Exynos 1480, and even though it's a 4nm chip, just like the Snapdragon & Exynos 2400, it's not as powerful.

You can see the difference in performance between these two Exynos chips here. You can also see how the battery holds up under a sustained heavy gaming simulation.

Both RAM and ROM are available in 8GB or 16. However, the ROM and device storage are significantly different. The S24 uses a faster version, which means faster read and write and slightly quicker load times. Honestly, we're not talking about days or hours. In most cases, it's fractions of a second, and for heavier gaming titles, a few seconds.

So, if you're not a gamer and you don't use any graphically demanding apps, you could save a lot of money in exchange for a few fractions of a second with the A55. It’s a very good point a to point b phone. It’s good in all areas. But if you care about speed and power and take comfort in knowing you have this year's cutting-edge tech, and the frames in the games you play are important to you... well then the S24 is faster and more powerful.

It also supports WiFi 6E connectivity and has a USB C 3.2 port, which means you can turn the S24 into a desktop computer...with Samsung Dex. If you need to know what DEX is, you should check out the thumbnail on the screen now.