The Samsung Galaxy F55 5G has been introduced in India as the ‘most premium F-series smartphone’ to date. The handset features a sleek and stylish design, complete with a vegan leather finish that aligns with the latest industry trends. It also boasts impressive specifications, including a Super AMOLED+ display, Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC, 50MP camera, and 45W fast charging capability. Do these features make the Samsung Galaxy F55 5G a leading contender in the sub-Rs 30,000 segment? Find out in this review.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy F55 5G shares a stark similarity with the Galaxy M55 (review), which is an Amazon exclusive. The new F-series phone, meanwhile, is available online via Flipkart and surpasses the M-series in terms of design. The F55’s vegan leather back is particularly commendable. Additionally, the phone delivers respectable performance across most aspects.
Design and display
The design of the Galaxy F55 5G truly stands out. The handset, particularly in the Apricot Crush colour variant, is striking with its vegan leather back in a vibrant orange shade and contrasting golden edges. Additionally, the back panel features a stitch pattern that enhances its premium appeal and provides a good in-hand feel. The rear cameras are set in individual rings that protrude slightly from the frame, adorned with golden accents around the edges to enhance their appeal.
The phone is tall, but quite lightweight — coming in at just 180 grams, ensuring you don’t get wrist fatigue while holding the device for prolonged usage. It boasts an in-display fingerprint scanner, which unlocks the device in a jiffy. However, reaching for the scanner on the bottom part of the screen might require some finger gymnastics. Moving on, there is a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge, along with a speaker grille. The handset is equipped with a secondary speaker too up top, helping provide stereo output.
As for the display of the Galaxy F55 5G, it is a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus Infinity-O screen with FHD+ resolution, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and 1,000 nits of peak brightness. While the brightness is slightly underwhelming and might be challenging to view directly under the sun during this scorching summer, it offers a pleasing indoor viewing experience. The colours are punchy and vibrant, with high contrast even at an angle. The adaptive 120Hz refresh rate performs well across the UI and supported apps. Additionally, for those who enjoy streaming, the handset is Widevine L1 certified, allowing you to watch FHD content from Netflix and other OTT platforms.
While I wish it had a few colour customisation options and higher peak brightness, the display should get the job done for most people.
Cameras
For photography, the Samsung Galaxy F55 5G relies on a 50MP primary camera with OIS. This is paired with an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 2MP macro unit. The front camera of the device is a 50MP snapper housed in the punch-hole setup atop the screen. When it comes to quality, the 50MP snappers seem to be a likeable job in well-lit environments.
Both the main and the selfie cameras capture images with sufficient detailing with good dynamic range. The colours are a tad boosted, but they are still close to reality and appear pleasing to the eye. The phone also outputs images with near-accurate skin tones. As for the portraits, they have a nice separation of background from the foreground with minimum warping around the edges of the frame. The bokeh effect looks quite natural too.
However, the performance of the auxiliary cameras leaves a bit to be desired. The 2MP macro sensor is average and only functions well with ample lighting, which can be challenging when shooting close to the subject. The 8MP ultrawide lens also falls short in terms of detail. Additionally, there is a noticeable difference in colour accuracy and dynamic range between the ultrawide and primary lenses.
The lowlight performance of the smartphone is good, but it suffers from the same long exposure issue, which we faced on its rebranded Galaxy M55 smartphone so far. The handset takes roughly 8 seconds to click images in dimly lit environments. This could lead to slightly shaky results at times, despite the presence of OIS on the main camera.
Comparing the camera performance with one of its closest rivals POCO X6 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy M55 5G performs admirably well. The daylight shot with the primary camera (above) looks much more detailed on the Samsung smartphone compared to the POCO device. The latter overexposes the sky and even leaves out highlights around the shadowy areas.
The Samsung Galaxy F55 camera performance is superior to that of the POCO X6 Pro. The latter outputs results with underwhelming details and oversaturated colours. Conversely, the Galaxy F55 can be credited with capturing more detailed and colour-accurate information. The dynamic range remains impressive on the Samsung offering.
Performance and software
On the performance front, the Samsung Galaxy F55 5G rocks the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset under the hood. This is aided by up to 12GB RAM and 512GB user-expandable storage. In benchmark tests, the handset scored 522,931 on AnTuTu and achieved 953 in the single-core and 2,391 in the multi-core tests on Geekbench. The performance of the smartphone throttled to 67.8 percent of its peak performance in the Burnout test. Some rivals within the segment can deliver superior synthetic performance, but if you are looking for a device for regular usage, the Galaxy F55 5G appears as a reliable choice.
In the real world, the handset smoothly managed basic activities such as browsing, social media scrolling, messaging, and multitasking. The phone can even handle games such as BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3. The gaming experience is nothing but satisfactory. However, the thermals and battery management could have been better optimised. The handset tends to warm up by roughly 7 degrees on average after playing these games, which could lead to occasional frame drops.
Software-wise, the Samsung Galaxy F55 5G boots OneUI 6.1 layered atop Android 14 out of the box. The handset comes with an array of apps pre-installed, including a few third-party ones such as Snapchat and Amazon, which are quite popular in the Indian app marketplace. These third-party apps are removable post-setup.
As for the UI, it is notably user-friendly and intuitive. The phone also comes with several customisation options and Samsung’s native apps, which can be highly useful and versatile for those embedded in the Samsung ecosystem. The company guarantees four years of software and an additional year of security updates, surpassing the standard 3+1 years of updates within the segment.
Battery and charging
The Samsung Galaxy F55 5G houses a 5,000mAh battery, offering comparable battery life to its competitors. In the PC Mark test, the handset lasted 10 hours and 7 minutes. Our 30-minute YouTube video playback test, conducted at 50 percent brightness and volume, consumed just 5 percent of the battery. This indicates that the phone should easily last a full day between charges, providing around 7-8 hours of screen time. However, for gaming enthusiasts, more frequent charging might be necessary. A 30-minute session of BGMI, for instance, could consume 11 percent of the battery, which is relatively high.
The Samsung Galaxy F55 5G supports 45W fast charging, which takes approximately an hour to achieve a full charge from 20 percent to 100 percent. However, the charger needs to be purchased separately. A Samsung PD charger with 45W charging support is currently selling at Rs 3,499 on the official website.
Final verdict
The Samsung Galaxy F55 5G retails in India starting at Rs 26,999. However, with bank discounts, the handset can be bought for as low as Rs 24,999. For the asking price, the F55 seems to be a compelling package for its sleek vegan leather design, which exudes premiumness. The handset also delivers a respectable performance, vibrant display, and respectable cameras in daylight. While the phone excels in day-to-day usage and casual gaming, it could have benefitted from better battery optimisation.
The alternatives include Nothing Phone (2a) (review), OnePlus Nord CE4 (review), POCO X6 Pro (review), Vivo V30e (review), and more. While all these smartphones might seem better in various aspects, none surpasses Samsung’s software update cycle. With up to five software and security updates, the Samsung Galaxy F55 5G will remain relevant longer than most of its competitors. So, if you’re someone who values long-term investment in a smartphone, the F55 emerges as a strong contender in the sub-Rs 30,000 segment, especially for those integrated into the Samsung ecosystem.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Reasons to buy
- The handset features a stylish design with a vegan leather back.
- The display offers vibrant colours, high contrast, and a smooth viewing experience.
- The 50MP OIS primary and selfie cameras offer good performance in daylight.
Reasons not to buy
- Charger is not included in the box.
- Long exposure shots in low light could lead to shaky results.
Tested by: Aditya Pandey
