Samsung's budget phones from its A-series are its true bestseller, and the 2023 Galaxy A34 will undoubtedly sell way more millions than its Galaxy S23 brethren. And it should, given the high refresh display and high-res main camera coupled with a giant battery at a rock bottom price point. Let's preview what the Galaxy A34 brings to the $399 table in 2023!
The 6.6-inch Galaxy A34 5G will be available in four color options at launch - Awesome Lime, Awesome Graphite, Awesome Violet, and Awesome Silver - and the compact design with even bezels makes it look uniform with Samsung's design language from the S-line down. Adding to that impression are the three vertically arranged camera lenses protruding directly from the flat back instead of being houses on a camera island. Just don't expect the same camera sensors as on the Galaxy S23, of course, despite that the A34 mimics its design.
Samsung is done with equipping its affordable handsets with 720p displays and not only does the Galaxy A34 sport a 1080p panel again, but it is also offering a high 120Hz refresh rate, a feat that would've been unthinkable at its price point a couple of generations back. The screen comes with a Vision Booster that ups the peak brightness and the contrast under direct sunlight so that it is easier to peep into the pixels when out and about outdoors.
Samsung hasn't issued any camera upgrades for the Galaxy A34 and it remains with a 48 MP main camera with 1/2.0" sensor and 0.8µm pixels that comes with f/1.8 aperture lens. The main camera offers fast Phase Detection autofocus and is optically stabilized for steadier photos and videos. The 8MP ultrawide sensor has f/2.2 aperture lens and is able to capture 123˚ angle panoramic and group photos, plus it offers larger 1.12 micron pixels.
Last but not least, the 5MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture remains for your closeups, but the useless depth camera is gone, just a need tri-camera setup on the back that you might actually use. The Galaxy A34 is capable of 4K video recording, too, while for the first time on a Galaxy A-series phone "users can also now remove unwanted shadows and reflections, thanks to the enhanced editing tools."
Performance and software
The octa-core processor is built on the 5nm process and delivers plenty of oomph to power the latest Android 13 underneath the freshest Samsung One UI 5.1 coat of paint on top of it.
Samsung starts the cheapest Galaxy A34 option from 6GB RAM paired with 128GB storage, but there is also a microSD card slot for memory expansion, a rarity these days. For more demanding buyers, the Galaxy A34 is offered with an 8GB RAM upgrade and your choice of either 128GB or 256GB storage option, again with a microSD slot to expand it.
Battery life and charging
As has become customary, Samsung equipped even its lowly Galaxy A34 with a giant 5,000mAh battery that will get you through the weekend with normal usage. Topping the huge power unit is relatively slow, though, as Samsung only provides a 25W charging options with it, and that's if you have one of its newer chargers lurking around instead of the previous 15W option that would likely take nearly 3 hours to top up the big battery.
Conclusion
Samsung has upgraded the Galaxy A34 in a few very important aspects this year. Its design now could easily be confused with the body language of its much more expensive siblings from the Galaxy S23 series as Samsung ditched the useless depth camera that was only there for the count and also disposed of the camera island.
Its predecessor made one of the best photos from a phone at this price point, and Samsung wisely decided not to mess with the winning camera formula, leaving the sensors as they were. Where it did upgrade, however, is the display which is now of a higher quality with better refresh rate. When we add the two days on a charge one would get with regular usage, the Galaxy A34 becomes one of the most enticing propositions you can grab in the Android universe this year.
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