The best part of the Samsung Galaxy A54 is ruined in the U.S.
When Samsung revealed its next midrange Galaxy A Series phone, the Galaxy A54 5G, I was excited to see it. Not only does the phone resemble the flagship Galaxy S23 series without the flagship prices, but the specs themselves seemed quite respectable too. Though it’s not the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, the Exynos 1380 processor is quite fast and snappy, plus you get a 50MP main shooter, a 5,000mAh battery, and more. And you have some awesome color choices to pick from … as long as you’re not in the U.S., apparently.
One of the most exciting things about the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G for me are the colors. It comes in Awesome Violet or Awesome Lime Green, along with basic black and white colors. Both Awesome shades are vibrant, fun, and look amazing. But don’t get too excited — your options are limited in the U.S.
No colors for you!
When I saw my colleague Andy Boxall get an Awesome Lime Green Galaxy A54 unit for his review, I was hopeful for the review unit of the phone being sent to me. My fingers were crossed for the Awesome Violet shade because that one is stunning (and honestly, what the purple iPhone 14 should have been like).
But when I got my phone, I opened up the box to check the color and, well, I was immediately disappointed. I got the “Awesome Graphite” color, which is just another boring dark gray/black shade like every other phone. Nothing special or “awesome” about it. Then I learned that Samsung only offers the Galaxy A54 in black/graphite when you get it from any of the three major carriers in the U.S. — including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
If you purchase the Galaxy A54 5G directly from Samsung’s website in the U.S., it’s slightly better, as you have a whopping two options to pick from: Awesome Graphite or Awesome Violet. But if you want the lime green or even the white — well, you’re out of luck.
It’s annoying when a company shows off some amazing color options for its phones, but your choices are limited because of where you live.
Everyone deserves colorful phones
Though Apple doesn’t always get its color offerings right, at least it offers all colors everywhere it sells iPhones. Of course, that’s probably because Apple has full control over the process and only releases new phones once a year (with the occasional midcycle refresh featuring a new color).
Samsung, on the other hand, manufactures multiple phone models each year. So the limited color availability may be due to the supply chain, or maybe it’s just more cost-effective for the company to only have certain colors in smaller markets. Whatever the reason may be, it probably makes sense from a business perspective. But still sucks for the consumer.
I’ve been an iPhone user since the original iPhone, and I’ve had every generation of iPhone since. When Apple offers a new color, I usually go with it because black and white are just boring — I like having something unique.
But as I continue testing out Android phones, I’m falling in love with all of these vivid color options from Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, and more. And it’s not just the Samsung Galaxy A54’s Awesome Violet and Lime Green colors either. Have you seen that amazing Burgundy Red color that the Galaxy S9 came in, which was only available in Korea and China? Or the Jupiter Rock OnePlus 11 that was also available only in China?
What about the incredible Huawei P30 Pro that came in the absolutely stunning “Amber Sunrise” and “Breathing Crystal” colors? I will always mention the P30 Pro because those are some of the best colors on any smartphone I have ever seen, and this was a phone that was never available in North America. Can you imagine if there was a phone that did come in beautiful metallic gradients like that in the U.S.? I’d be all over that.
My point is that everyone deserves to have colorful phones if they want to. Everyone having black or white phones is quite boring, and colors help make a statement. It’s pretty disheartening to see all of these amazing colors available in other countries, but you’re unable to easily purchase one just because of where you live.
This problem is not as bad as it was a few years ago with Android phones, but it still exists. Maybe one day we can just get a phone in whatever awesome colors we want without having to go through loopholes.
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