Updated: July 1, 2026
Hullo, hullo. It is time for Mr. Grumpy boomer fingers to write another smartphone report. Long story short for those not in the mood to read the previous eleven reports plus the original review, I have a Samsung A54 mid-range device, and I use it, daily, much to my chagrin. I mean, it's got excellent hardware, two physical SIM slots, superb display and excellent audio. Everything you want from a phone, right. Then, there's "modern" Android on top of it, and it makes everything meh. Samsung adds its own flavor of nonsense into the mix.
Well, I want to persevere. I respect money, which is why I didn't blowtorch this phone early on. Also, buying anything else simply means more pain of a different kind. It's not like I'm going to grab some other Android and go: oh golly, what a pleasant experience! Hint, I will allude to this later on in the article, but for now, no spoilers. Anyway, it's been a while since I last ranted, there's been some big news and changes on the A54, lots of updates, lots of visual polish. Let's commence to discuss these, with high spirits and optimism in our hearts.
Everyday stuff and tons of new annoyances
It hasn't been that long since I posted my last update, but the crap factor is growing exponentially. I'm going to complain and rant quite some. So have at it. For instance, after a monthly update recently, I noticed a new option under Security - Inactivity restart. Of course, Apple does it, and now everyone else does it, too. However, here, at least, you can toggle this option off and move on with your non-Jason-Bourne life. Not interested.
It seems the overlords are fanatically keen on knowing everything you do. It's pure brazen banditry. There's not even a facade of cutesy techbroness about it anymore. As I went through my phone's settings, as I do every single time following an update, I discovered tons more fresh stupidity added to the A54.
A fresh bunch of total crap to disable or remove. Of course. There's always, always more. It will never end until you totally surrender to the Borg. You get something called "Game Booster", which already sounds stupid to me, and you can't disable it, it seems. Then, I noticed I had Galaxy Buds installed, much like the unnecessary Pixel Buds app, as I showed you in my recent Pixel 8 Pro review. You can't uninstall it, only disable it. I'm not buying Bluetooth-enabled headset. EVER. Next, something called Galaxy editing service can access all media. More profiling, more data analysis, more nonsense for idiots and their stickers and such. Editor Lite, yet ANOTHER crap.
Then, I discovered another gem. Web content, not sure under which setting. Here you can decide what to filter. With Samsung Internet only, of course. Much like any other tool-specific option, you immediately know it's pointless. Advanced Web protection in Chrome, nope, not interested. Another wild example, not related to Samsung in any way, Windows 10 ESU updates but only for people signed in with their Microsoft account, nope, not interested in the slightest. That means it's not a security concern first and foremost. Back on topic, yes, you can filter "explicit" content. And what's that you ask? Ah, of course! It's the usual Hollywood prudishness stuff. Because woe us for seeing nudity, as it may corrupt our moral mettle. But political propaganda, social media cancer, low-IQ dross and crap and misinformation? Not on the list, it seems. This is Samsung's equivalent to Google's SafetyCore, it seems. Yet another mechanism to take you back to the Victorian era morals. GTFO.
Samsung Visual Cloud Core. What does it do? The words Visual, Cloud and Core tell me I don't want it. But you can't remove it. So at best, you can disable some permissions and data here and there. Still, it's a total and utter travesty.
No background usage, nope.
If you want to check your Google Account, by default, it opens with the shitty dark theme. Not only is this annoying, it's not how my system is set. Miss me with your fads. And then, if you check your devices and alike, there's a bug, where it shows your current session twice. Even if you sign out of it, it will be added again, two entries. Nonsense. At least the "Crisis Alerts" section is colored a bit better than the Fairphone or the Pixel, as I mentioned recently. Not much, but better still. Indeed.
Then, there's call spam detection. The concept is reasonable. If a non-savvy person receives a call impersonating an important institution, you want to stop the scam early on. The problem is, you are opted into a service called Hiya. And it has its own terms of conditions and whatnot. Nope. Nope. Not interested. I'm not giving away my personal data, voice no less, to yet another entity out there that will train its AI or who knows what with my biometrics. Nopety nope. It can be done on-device, but hey!
But how do you solve the problem, Dedo, you ask. Well, like I outlined in my article against passkeys, the model is broken. You have this profitable hyperactive Internet, which works as intended, it's impulsive and geared for stupidity, and no wonder it's being abused. Adding technology won't fix it. Removing technology is the key. The telcos need to do more hard work. That's it.
And then, a big update ...
One UI 8.5 changes and such
After a routine monthly patch, which went quite quickly, there it was, the big one. 2.6 GB worth of data. It went smoothly. With my battery at about 40%, plus battery saved turned on, the system patched itself in about 10 minutes, with two reboots, and a quick subsequent Samsung apps update. P.S. I only get these after patches, or if I trigger them manually, because I refuse to use yet another account (Samsung) to be able to use the Samsung Store and install relevant apps. Nope.
After the update complete, there was the usual "nudge" to get me to use the Samsung account. Nope. It's not the "only" account I need, is it, on Android. Then, a second "nudge" to set up something called Discover. Personalizes updates powered by Gemini. Oh, so not interested! Basically, everyone is reinventing their own AI-powered Web, when all you need is Firefox with UBlock Origin for a nice, clean, ad-free experience. I can't tell you how much I hate these gushy, overly happy announcements and posters. Nothing depresses me more than this empty fake take on life.
All right, so what's new? Let me summarize it for you:
- I didn't "discover" any new crap apps or surprises of this nature.
- The permissions and settings were untouched, save for one or two fresh annoyances.
- The visuals are a bit better, but also worse. You have this "light" transparency, a-la Liquid Glass, except even if you reduce transparency in Accessibility, you still get some. Basically, visual noise that brings nothing useful to the table.
- You get reduced ergonomics. For instance, Do Not Disturb now prompts you for duration. Because you can't have the plebes not seeing notifications and interacting with the system for too long, can we? Instead of having the thing set and done, you need to go into settings and disable the "Ask every time" prompt. Hyperactive nonsense for the modern audiences with the attention span of a gnat. I also have no idea what "calls and notifications will be allowed to alert" means. What? But then, look at what the main view says: they will be muted, except those you specifically choose to allow. So the first prompt makes no sense.
The One UI update also broke a few things. Some of the Google services sections don't work. They show empty or malformed. The screenshot flash - the visual cue you took one - stopped working, and I had to restart the device to get it back. If you want to hear it, you can turn System UI sounds on, but that also turns the camera shutter on. You can't have them activated separately. Then, the phone number verification menu shows rather empty.
There's more theft protection, including offline and snatch. Okay, I understand the world isn't a peaceful place, so this can be useful in most locations. You can't turn off Digital Wellbeing, which is an oxymoron, and I hate it. Just look at that sentence: Build healthy digital habits. Sure! Except the phone comes preloaded with hyperactive crap (addictive to lesser minds), and the entire ecosystem is designed for endless use. GTFO.
I found yet more things to disable. All Files access, Modify system settings, and so on. With glee, I disallowed Bixby access to all files (even though it's disabled), and then added a bunch more to the list. I also felt joy toggling off settings for Samsung Intelligence Service and Visual Cloud Core, among others. And below, you can also see the transparency effect, which only adds clutter. But Apple did it, so everyone else must, too.
There's a new section - Recommended Apps. Nope. Totally not interested. Lastly, you can also send calls directly to voicemail. But if you read the fine print, it needs mobile data. Why? Seems like the entire industry is trying to MAKE you use data. First RCS over SMS, but the former needs data, and now some new type of voicemail, which also needs data. No. Calls and text don't require data, and that's how it should be.
And now for something completely ...
We finally get into the usual stuff. Once I've undone all the recent nonsense, which, to be fair, arrived mostly before One UI 8.5, I was able to go back to my everyday phone usage. Lightweight consumption of content, no modern nonsense. So far so okay, but we shall see. I was enthusiastic after my last One UI update, and then I jinxed it. There were tons of problems in the months since. Therefore, this time around, I'm being more cautious.
Battery wise, it seems like I'm getting a bit more juice than before, but it could also be the
ambient temperature factor. Overall, though, the in-between-charges times have dropped a lot since I
got the device. Nothing to brag about. Enough, no?
Conclusion
We have reached the end of another happy report. And by happy, I mean, not. Using this A54 has always been a chore, from day one. My resentment had dipped a bit recently, if you read my recent reports, but now, it seems, it ought to spike up again. To Samsung's credit, after I did my Android 16 testing on both the Fairphone and the Pixel, Samsung's wild games and nonsense feel a bit less wild than before. But that's like saying losing one leg in a freak badger accident is better than losing two legs. No winning there. That said, Samsung offers a prettier UI than other Android vendors, it gives you security features earlier, and you get toggles for some options that others don't do. Then it ruins these good things with an avalanche of pointless apps and AI dystopia. But really, the non-Samsung Android experience made me dislike Samsung's work less. Yeah.
All in all, the A54 remains consistent - I don't like it. One UI 8.5 is okayish, sort of, but the transparency thingie is so yesterday, and I have no desire for anything AI or such. The performance remains good and unchanged compared to the early days, which is great - can't say the same for the battery. The visuals and the audio are excellent. Ah, such a tragic duality. But there's no winning in the smartphone space. You are a plebe and you must suffer. With these words of enlightenment, I bid you farewell.
Cheers.