Samsung Galaxy A54 5G vs Nothing Phone (3a)

Here we compared two mid-range smartphones: the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (with Exynos 1380) that was released on March 14, 2023, against the Nothing Phone (3a), which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 and came out 2 years after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Waterproof body (IP67 classification)
  • Faster storage type - UFS 3.1 versus UFS 2.2
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
  • Ready for eSIM technology
Reasons to consider the Nothing Phone (3a)
  • Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
  • The rear camera has a 2x optical zoom
  • Shows 15% longer battery life (25:03 vs 21:52 hours)
  • Delivers 29% higher peak brightness (1261 against 974 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • Has a 0.37 inch larger screen size
  • Supports higher wattage charging (50W versus 25W)
  • 35% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1050K versus 779K)
  • The phone is 2 years newer
  • 15% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1158 and 1009 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Nothing Phone (3a) crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 61% Yes
Yes, we think most users will notice the upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy A54 5G to Nothing Phone (3a) makes sense and should feel noticeably better in daily use.
Main improvements: camera, battery life, and display.
Be aware: the newer phone is weaker in connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.4 inches 6.77 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2392 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.9:9
PPI 403 ppi 387 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (60-120 Hz) Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1000 nits 1300 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 3000 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Panda Glass
Screen-to-body ratio 82.8% 87.7%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 99.6% 99.8%
PWM 253 Hz 90 Hz
Response time 1 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Phone (3a)
6.77″ (19.9:9 ratio) = 17.2 in2
Galaxy A54 5G
6.4″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
974 nits
Phone (3a) +29%
1261 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 158.2 mm (6.23 inches) 163.52 mm (6.44 inches)
Width 76.7 mm (3.02 inches) 77.5 mm (3.05 inches)
Thickness 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) 8.35 mm (0.33 inches)
Weight 202 g (7.13 oz) 201 g (7.09 oz)
Waterproof IP67 IP64
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Plastic Plastic
Colors White, Black, Green, Purple White, Black, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability - Average (2.84/5)
Drop resistance - Good (C) · 90 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
87.7%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Nothing Phone (3a)
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 1380 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3
Max clock 2400 MHz 2500 MHz
CPU cores 8 (4 + 4) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo Silver (Cortex-A520)
- 3 cores at 2.4 GHz: Kryo Gold (Cortex-A720)
- 1 core at 2.5 GHz: Kryo Prime (Cortex-A720)
L3 cache 4 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Yes
GPU
Graphics Mali-G68 MP5 Adreno 810
GPU shading units 160 256
GPU clock 949 MHz 1050 MHz
FLOPS ~303.7 GFLOPS ~537.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Nothing Phone (3a)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Phone (3a) +15%
1158
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Phone (3a) +14%
3276
Compute Score (GPU)
Phone (3a) +48%
4435
Compute Score (GPU) 3003 4435
Single-core score 1009 1158
Multi-core score 2865 3276
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
779380
Phone (3a) +35%
1050601
CPU 320379 402549
GPU 91502 179108
Memory 118771 194640
UX 248788 274304
Total score 779380 1050601
Samples [28 tests] [38 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Phone (3a) +36%
379
Stability 97% 98%
Graphics test 2 FPS 3 FPS
Graphics score 278 379
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 99% -
Graphics test 4 FPS -
Graphics score 808 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
12706
12382
Web score 11039 11533
Video editing 7267 6290
Photo editing 25604 20294
Data manipulation 9921 10511
Writing score 15745 16899

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-05 -> Danielfikri98_AnTuTu 12843108
📘 2026-09-08 (Chillorgil)AnTuTu 12856948
📘 2026-06-23 -> samueltailsGeekbench 6 CPU1027 / 3015
📘 2026-06-23 -> samueltailsAnTuTu 11811942
📘 2026-05-27 (Matheus)AnTuTu 11779380
Nothing Phone (3a)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-07-10 -> ratulislam-55CPU Throttle82%
📘 2026-07-10 -> ratulislam-55Geekbench 6 GPU3328
📘 2026-07-10 -> ratulislam-55Geekbench 6 CPU1158 / 3276
📘 2026-06-07 (Aames Ng)AnTuTu 111069149
📘 2026-06-03 (xperz3650)AnTuTu 111065584

Memory

RAM
RAM size 4 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2133 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 2.2
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 8.0 Nothing OS 4.0
OS size 28 GB -
OS updates 4 years 3 years
Security updates 5 years 4 years

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 50 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Bypass charging No No
Fast charging Yes (56% in 30 min) Yes (61% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:03 hr 1:06 hr
Battery cycles - 1400 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:04 hr 08:06 hr
Watching video 14:16 hr 16:25 hr
Gaming 05:24 hr 05:49 hr
Standby 106 hr 131 hr
General battery life
21:52 hr
Phone (3a) +15%
25:03 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8192 x 6144
Zoom Digital Optical, 2x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
3) Macro: 5 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 8 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.9
Focal length 23 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX766 Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN9
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 50 MP
Aperture - f/2.6
Focal length - 50 mm
Sensor - Samsung ISOCELL
Sensor size - 1/2.74" (≈ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size - 0.64 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 15 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3L6 Sony IMX355
Sensor size 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch) 1/4.0" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 5 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Focal length 25 mm -
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Stabilization Digital -

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 55 -
Preview 53 -
Zoom 79 -
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy A54 5G from DxOMark -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 32 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution 6464 x 4864 6560 x 4928
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 22 mm
Sensor Sony IMX616 Samsung ISOCELL
Sensor size 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.44" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 0.8 micron -
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort - No
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes No
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat* 18 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes No
Speakers test
Max loudness
88.7 dB
90.5 dB

Other

Category Mid-range Mid-range
Announced March 2023 March 2025
Release date March 2023 March 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $490 $329
Successor - Samsung Galaxy A57 5G - Nothing Phone (4a)
SAR (head) 0.69 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.34 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on Galaxy A54 5G:
    - Only phones with model numbers SM-A546B and SM-A546E support eSIM.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Nothing Phone (3a) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
3 (25%)
9 (75%)
Total votes: 12

User opinions

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