Samsung released the Galaxy M55 in India a couple of days ago, and with it, the company may have set a new standard for its budget phones. At first glance, Galaxy M55 looks like a great value proposition, and as you would expect, it is superior to its predecessor in many ways.
We will be reviewing the Galaxy M55 in great detail soon, but for now, let's have a quick look at the seven ways in which the new M55 beats the old M54.
A Snapdragon chip
Samsung's new Galaxy M55 is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip, and although it is an older SoC than the Exynos 1380 powering the M54, benchmarks (via Notebook Check) suggest that Qualcomm's solution might offer better performance in some areas, particularly when it comes to gaming.
The Exynos 1380 is no slouch and does beat the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in a handful of benchmarks. Nevertheless, customers have greater faith in Qualcomm than they do Exynos, and usually, mobile game developers pay closer attention to optimizing Qualcomm chips.
At the end of the day, even though the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 itself isn't a very popular chip and hasn't been used in many phones, the Galaxy M55 might offer a better experience than the M54 thanks to its choice of chipset.
More memory options
The Galaxy M55 is the first M-branded phone to offer a 12GB RAM option. In contrast, the Galaxy M54 was offered only with 8GB of RAM.
Having more RAM means the Galaxy M55 is technically superior at multitasking, as it can keep more recent apps in memory before it needs to clear them up.
In theory, the Galaxy M55 should offer a smoother, faster One UI experience when switching apps compared to the M54.
A higher-resolution selfie camera
A higher resolution doesn't always mean a better camera. In fact, the Galaxy M55's 50MP primary shooter might be better than the M54's 108MP sensor. We'll have to test and see. More on that later.
However, it is worth noting that the Galaxy M55's selfie camera boasts a 50MP resolution, up from 32MP. And more than that, it is capable of recording 1080p @60fps videos. It also has a smaller f/2.4 aperture, which could give it a better depth of field characteristic.
Brighter screen
The Galaxy M55 shares many display characteristics with the M54. It features a Super AMOLED+ 6.7-inch panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a resolution of 1080 x 2400.
However, aside from these similarities, the Galaxy M55 has a brighter panel that can reach 1000 nits of brightness, up from 800 nits. It should make the display easier to read in bright outdoor conditions.
In-display fingerprint sensor
Although side-mounted fingerprint sensors are faster than in-display sensors, there's no denying that the latter solution has a higher cool factor and, in most cases, is more practical.
Surprisingly, Samsung's new Galaxy M55 has transitioned from a side-mounted to an in-display fingerprint sensor of the optical kind.
Faster charging
As far as battery specifications go, the Galaxy M55 is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the new M55 has a smaller 5,000mAh battery than the M54's 6,000mAh unit. On the other hand, the M55's battery charges faster.
The Galaxy M55 is Samsung's first mid-range phone with 45W charging capabilities. And even though it doesn't ship with a charger, it does come with a USB-C cable that supports 45W.
Newer OS means longer firmware support
Last but not least, the Galaxy M55 ships with a newer OS version than the M54, namely Android 14 and One UI 5.1 instead of Android 13 and One UI 5.1. Neither phone has Galaxy AI.
Although Galaxy M54 users can update to One UI 6.0 and will likely get One UI 6.1 eventually, the fact that the newer M55 ships with Android 14 means it will benefit from firmware support for longer.
All in all, the Galaxy M55 is an interesting upgrade to say the least, as it blurs the lines between mid-range and high-end like no Galaxy M phone that came before.
