3 things Samsung needs to fix with Galaxy A series phones in 2024

Samsung’s Galaxy A series of budget devices are among the better cheap phones on the market. These smartphones tend to deliver a solid list of specs, reasonable price tags, and wide availability.

The Galaxy A phones aren’t perfect, though, as our time with them proved. So here are all the essential improvements we want to see from the Samsung Galaxy A series in 2024.

Fix the camera shutter lag

Is shutter lag the worst thing about the Galaxy A phones right now? It’s tough to argue otherwise, as fellow colleague Ryan Haines and I both suffered from this issue during our time with Samsung’s mid-rangers.

More specifically, phones like the Galaxy A34 and Galaxy A54 see horrendous camera shutter lag in low-light conditions. In our reviews, we frequently found that tapping the shutter on these phones would result in a massive delay in darker environments. This delay often got to the point where we’d start putting the phone down, only to see the image capture process finally starting on the viewfinder. Naturally, you’re left with a blurry mess of a picture because you didn’t keep still while waiting for the camera to capture the scene.

We really really want Samsung to fix this problem in 2024, as the one thing worse than a dark, noisy image is a completely blurry, unusable image. This shouldn’t be a problem with modern smartphones.

More premium designs

Samsung’s 2023 Galaxy A phones offer a couple of design elements derived from the flagship S series, such as similar rear camera cutouts and rounded edges. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

For one, we decried the use of a cheap plastic frame on both the A34 and A54. We also weren’t big fans of the substantial bezels, while the A34 still retains an archaic waterdrop notch. We’ve got our fingers crossed for Samsung to offer more upmarket designs in 2024. Fortunately, a recent Galaxy A55 leak suggests we could be in for a premium approach to build quality.

It’s not all bad on the design front, though, as Samsung’s cheap phones still stand out thanks to the presence of an IP67 rating; you don’t see the likes of Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, or Motorola offering this level of water and dust resistance on their mid-rangers.

Faster wired charging

Samsung isn’t exactly known for offering blazing-fast charging speeds, so we can’t be surprised to hear that the company’s mid-range phones offer long charging times.

It’s still regrettable that the Galaxy A54 took 85 minutes to charge while the Galaxy A34 topped up in roughly 100 minutes. We’re not calling for 65W+ charging here, but Samsung could greatly reduce top-up times if the phones spent more time pulling peak 25W speeds.

These are the three biggest improvements we’d like to see from Samsung’s Galaxy A series in 2024, but what about you? Do you think Samsung should upgrade one of these aspects or are you looking forward to other enhancements in the A series?