Updated: November 8, 2024
This is the sixth long-term report of my usage of one Samsung A54 device. I purchased this phone roughly a year ago, as a replacement for my finicky Nokia X10. It's always been a compromise choice. I tried to balance hardware specifications, cost, and long-term support, and in the end, decided to go for this particular model. In retrospect, it's been (mostly) a mistake, for many reasons. All of these are outlined in my previous five reports.
In my last review, I was almost optimistic when it came to the longer-term usage prospects. I thought the phone's annoying ecosystem had finally quieted down, and that I could use the device without having to pay homage to the hyperactive low-IQ mobile hysteria that comprises the touch-based usage mode. Alas, this was not to be. As soon as I published my fifth report, and even since, a barrage of new pointless problems has continued, turning everyday usage into a distraction, a chore, a nuisance. Let's talk about it. In no particular order, the woes and the troubles ...
Display brightness bug, I worked around it
Remember that? On power saving, the display would go totally dark at 5%, and you would need to go into a really dim room to try to semi-blindly figure out where the brightness slider is, and manually increase it to an acceptable level. I toggled off the option to decrease brightness by 10%, and since, the issue has not recurred. So far so good. For the time being.
AI nonsense
In two words: Don't want. There aren't enough words in any language in this world that can describe my utter disdain for the stupidity that passes off as modern consumerism, in every aspect of it, all of it. From ordinary home appliances via "smart" TVs, across the entire range of IoT junk to modern vehicles, anything touch really, I breed resentment like radioactive fungi. Part of my emotional bitterness is reserved for so-called AI, which is just digital assistants 2.0, a bit wordier than before, equally useless, and ten times as annoying when it comes to your private data and habits. Don't want. Don't care.
Lo and behold what I discovered after the latest phone update. In my messages, there was this new "contact". Gemini (plus, above the normal Compose button, a stupid second button to compose messages with it). Did I ask for it? Did I allow a new contact to be added to my device? And even if you don't get tempted to interact with the machine, any ordinary message will show the AI contact in the very first spot. Notice the wording: "Write, plan, learn, and more with Google AI". How about noooo (Dr. Evil style).
Typical MBA-flavored turdonics. Push, shove, sales, marketing, ads. Ugh. Vomit sounds. In Message settings, there's a toggle to show the AI button (preselected, of course). I removed this, but it wasn't enough. The "contact" was still there. And so, I blocked this contact (I didn't report it as spam, and in retrospect, I should have). Enough? Nope. It will "still" show in the list of suggested contacts, regardless. Nope. Don't want.
Now, I tried to see if there's a way to block this globally (like the pointless Google Assistant and Bixby), but no, there's nothing. Also, notice the AMAZING suggestions the phone's keyboard provides for a settings search. Exactly the kind of things you expect to find in a phone's toolbox.
Messages draft bug
To make things even worse, I discovered a bug in Messages. If you open a no-reply message, say like a notification from your cell provider, and inside it, accidentally tap on the banner that says: "You cannot reply to this short code" (or very similar to that) , then that innocent action will generate an invisible, undeletable Draft, containing the last copied text you pasted in Messages. The draft will now show at the top of your messages list, with no option to delete it. If you have multiple such messages, and you tap on the footer in each one, you will generate still more identical drafts.
Search engine noise
Next, the phone asked me to choose - or rather, confirm - my search engine. I did so, but then, it's a useless gesture, as I've disabled Google Search (as an app), and I exclusively use Firefox. I've not even started Chrome once and agreed to its terms, and I also absolutely refuse to use a Samsung account. But whatever.
Play Store
First, some good news in this regard - remember the non-skippable biometrics prompt? Well, that's gone. I can now access the Store without resorting to tricks. The question is, though, why would I do that? Every time I open it, I just get to see more and more 5,000% irrelevant ads, which not only do not appeal to me in any possible human way, they also make me rather sad. It's like whoever has designed this tool and I live on two different planets.
Everyday usage, some good stuff, some really bad stuff
When I'm not being assailed by stupidity, and my privacy and dignity aren't being challenged by the greedy hordes of MBA knights, then the Samsung A54 behaves reasonably well. The mobile antenna works great, and you can get very decent speeds (5G and all that). I can sustain 400-500 Mbps easily, and occasionally burst to 850 Mbps, under ideal circumstances. This, of course, depends on the provider, but the phone plays part, too.
One of the things the A54 can do is manage your storage. It will show you a list of your directories, how much stuff they take, and then, it will even give you a recommendation to save space by removing old files. Take a look at the screenshot below. The recommendation is pure garbage. It says I could save 327 MB of space, which is meaningless when I still have almost 100 GB free, by deleting "old" audio files from the Music folder. What. So what am I supposed to do? Refresh my MP3s every few days? Or use "streaming"? Absolute nonsense.
In a WhatsApp call with a friend, the A54 annoyed me by telling me how to hide my background. This does not seem to be a WhatsApp thing, as I've used the app on multiple devices, and never once seen this prompt. More pseudo-AI turdonics. Stop bothering me, miss me with this hyperactive nonsense.
You think that would be it, but no. In a completely different call, when I swiped the menu down, I noticed that the device was using 4 effects. I asked for none, and I want none, stop violating my privacy and processing data that does not belong to you. Also, notice the bottom of the menu. The brightness slider text and whatever else is shown there sticks out just a tiny bit above the menu bar. You might excuse this if the menu was open on a generic laptop where you cannot control or guarantee resolution and DPI so GUI elements might get truncated here and there. But on a phone? This is just sloppy design. And recently, lots of "modern" software has been suffering from these unprofessional glitches, because testing isn't "modern", and besides most people don't have enough brain cell to notice the ugly result, no matter how jarring.
The alarm functionality is also silly. I needed to set a very "near future" alarm - I could have used a timer, but I decided to go with a proper alarm clock thingie. So I set it up, perhaps 10-15 minutes from now or so. And what did the phone do? It asked me if to turn off an upcoming alarm, which I've set maybe a second earlier. Complete and utter nonsense. Awful logic, and just shows how badly tested "modern" software is.
I was listening to some music using headphones - a regular 1-dollar 3.5mm audio jack plus a relevant USB adapter, as I have zero intention on buying any "buds". I also hate the word buds, I hate anything that connects via Bluetooth, and I hate the phone telling me that loud audio can harm hearing.
Once, I accidentally pressed the home button a bit too long. The phone told me I needed to enable the Google app first. Well, at least, some of my settings work and stay respected across updates.
Finally, some dirt got into the USB port, and this made the phone think there was a connection. Blowing air helped clear whatever was in there, and the issue did not happen since.
Privacy games, software updates
Then, I went down the rabbit hole of tweaking permissions yet again. I was testing the data saver functionality, with focus on background data and unrestricted data and such, and then I realized that my phone had a whole bunch of extra "services" that I didn't want.
For example, Gaming Hub was still enabled, even though I tried to get rid of it a while back. Under system, there's something called Meta Services, which, the search engines and forums say, is related to Facebook or some such. What? Why do I need this? I am seriously considering sitting down for a day, doing a thorough search on EVERY single item in every app list, and try to neuter anything and everything that makes no sense. If the phone breaks as a consequence, so be it. I might as well root it, or simply destroy it with a hammer. The urge is there.
One things you can't really fault the A54, it's the updates mechanism. Its over-complicated as Samsung stuff does its own patching, Google does its own patching, but overall, it works. Since I completely ignore the Samsung side of things, it was interesting to see the phone asking whether to update over mobile data. The good thing about this is, even if you don't use a Samsung account (as I refuse to do), you will still get updates for the other half of the ecosystem, in addition to new phone firmware and patches (which are frequent), and the usual Play Store app updates. Not bad, at least this.
Conclusion
There you go. A lot has happened since my last report. I didn't expect to encounter so many fresh bugs, so much nonsense, so many new aggressive in-yer-face marketing tricks. The brief glimmer of hope that the A54 has settled down and won't bother me anymore is gone, evaporated. I am now quite convinced I will hate this phone until I decide to get rid of it. This might happen before the natural demise of this device, be its support cycle or its hardware longevity.
A year later, the A54 is still ... A54. The hardware is solid, the phone feels durable, the camera is pleasant, the audio is good (and proper stereo and all that), and the battery can hold 3-4 days if you don't use your phone like a modern touch-inspired chimp. But on the software side, it's the Wild West. Total nonsense, in every sense. Hyperactive, ad-heavy usage model, pointless apps, pointless bugs. The more I have to interact with the apps designed for clueless idiots, the more I hate them. I really don't know what my future phone should be. A different Android, which might be less annoying? Unlikely, given the AI frenzy. Would iPhone be the answer? 'Tis an expensive, gilded cage, but at least you know what you're getting.
Anyway, here we are. I am still quite unhappy with the A54. Now and then, I forget the tribulations, and in those moments, the phone delivers a reasonable punch. But every time I let my guard down, a sucker punch comes my way, delivering a solid blow of disappointment. Yes, I could simply succumb to the stupidity, and use the phone like a random ape. But I don't want to. For now, I'm still willing to endure the pointless rituals, but my patience is wearing thin. This brings me to the end of my article, take what you will from it. Bye bye.
Cheers.