What’s going on guys, my name is Wade with
TechDaily. So what if I told you that buying the lesser option of something was actually
the better choice? Like a cheaper car with a smaller engine being faster than a hypercar,
or a medium order of French fries actually having more in the box than an extra large?
You’d probably think I was crazy or that something wasn’t quite right. Well, that’s
sort of the story with this year’s Samsung Galaxy A34. If you seen some of my other Samsung A series
videos already, you know what I’m about to say: basically, this A34 ended up being
better than its higher-tier counterpart, Samsung’s A54, and I don’t really think it was supposed
to be that way. Usually, Samsung differentiates its lesser
A series phones by withholding certain features: a high refresh rate display, certain camera
specs, charging speeds, whatever. But with the A34, not only did Samsung give this phone
everything the A54 has, but they also made the mistake of trying to opt for a less powerful
processor as a way to bring this phone down a notch, but ended up taking an embarrassing
misstep that further cements their longstanding problems with their own in-house hardware. Basically, they thought their own new Exynos
chipset in the A54 would be better than the Mediatek chip inside the A34, but whoops,
that wasn’t actually the case. I’m getting a little ahead of myself though.
And for those of you in the U.S., you may not have even realized the A34 exists. Its
technically not a phone that’s “available” here in the states, at least not through major
carriers like the A54 is, but its an unlocked, GSM, 5G phone all the same, compatible with
AT&T, T-Mobile and their various subsidiaries and you can easily buy it from any third party
retailer like Amazon, or even QVC and HSN sell it which is a little odd. Wherever you buy it from, you shouldn’t
pay more than about $300 bucks for it, I’ve seen Amazon have it listed for under $250
bucks and that makes its at least a hundred dollars cheaper than the A54 - a great deal
for a Samsung smartphone in general, but especially good when you realize what you actually end
up getting. Now, ok, so technically the A34 doesn’t
have *everything* the A54 has. Samsung still went with that dated budget phone design for
this A34 where you get a teardrop shaped notched for the selfie camera and bigger borders surrounding
the display but this phone actually has a larger 6.6 inch screen compared to the A54’s
6.4 inch screen. And its overall physical size isn’t that much bigger, so the screen
to body ratio, for some reason, is better on this A34, you get more screen within its
overall formfactor. So yeah, thus phone may not have the exact same screen size and dimensions
as the A54, but that’s because those aspects are actually better. Around back though, the A34 is still made
of plastic. It was redesigned a little to imitate Samsung’s flagship phones, so the
A series and S series at a glance look identical. But the cheaper material here is pretty obviously.
And on the A54, Samsung did opt for a Gorilla Glass rear cover. The frames of all A series
phones though are plastic and you can see through a few months of use now that I have
quite a few nicks and dents which is a little annoying, if only this phone came with a case
in the box like the A series used to have… Speaking of something phones used to have,
a headphone jack would’ve been nice, and in fact I think I see a a big ol’ spot where
a headphone jack could’ve been - so maybe I’ll drill one out myself. This phone does
still have a microSD card slot though, so that’s nice at least. You get a minimum
of 128GB of built in storage which is a decent amount, but it’s always nice to at least
have the option of adding more. By the way, I should mention that your configuration
options this year for both the A34 and A54 are exactly the same, 128 or 256GB of storage
and 6 or 8GB of RAM, so if you’re keeping tally, that’s an even score there. And this phone also has an in-display fingerprint
sensor, which I believe is the same as what’s on the A54, the A series still doesn’t get
that fancy ultrasonic sensor the flagship phones have but no big deal, it still works
fine and I haven’t had any issues with it. Also, yes, it is well over a hundred degrees
where I live, everyone always asks me how it could be so hot. To keep cool this summer,
I’m still using my AICE3 Portable Neck Fan from channel sponsor RANVOO, a lot of people
here in Las Vegas wear these portable neck fans and according to my affiliate links,
more than 250 of you also got one of these this summer. The AICE 3 is an AI-powered, automated cooling
& heating wearable with additional health & wellness capabilities. It has 4 ICEMAX engines
with 7 upward & downward air ducts that blow a constant stream of cool air right on you.
There’s also 4 cooling semiconductors on the sides - that part that touches your skin
- that gets cold to the touch. And if you’re in a cold environment, the AICE 3 actually
does the opposite - you get a stream of warm air paired with a heated neck band. The AICE3 has a full color touch screen built
in for controlling everything. It also tracks other health metrics like your heat rate,
steps, and blood oxygen level. It’s super smart and it pairs with the MetAura App on
iOS and Android where you have full control over the cooling & heating modes and quick
access to your health & wellness info. And one more thing: the AICE 3 is AI-powered,
so if it senses that you’re warm, or that it’s a bit cold out, it can automatically
start cooling you down or warming you up. It takes into account the ambient temperate
and various body measurements to give you exactly what you need. RANVOO’s AICE 3 is
once again available for 20% off and there’s an additional coupon you can apply as well.
The hot days are sticking around a little longer for me so I’m glad to have the AICE
3 keeping me cool, and thanks so much to RANVOO for sponsoring the channel this summer. So one other aspect of this phone that’s
the same as the A54 this year is the actual display itself, the viewing experience, and
this is really interesting for two reasons: one, it is an upgraded display from last year’s
A33, its brighter, its a 120hz refresh rate instead of 90, thats all great, but more importantly,
the core specs of this display on this phone and on the A54 by extension are almost the
same now as what you’d get on Samsung’s $800 S23 flagship - seriously. And I believe
thats a result of Samsung essentially not upgrading the S23 for the last couple of years,
and Samsung also being sort of stuck with the inability to significantly upgrade these
A series phones without actually exceeding their own flagship lineup. It’s a weird
problem to have, all these phones are so close in specs & features now, but that just means
this sub $300 phone gives you a nearly identical viewing experience at almost 1/3 the price.
It’s a bold, bright and super responsive 120hz screen that it is probably the stand
out feature for the A34 in particular when you consider its price, and there isn’t
a single thing that was sacrificed. It’s even a 1080 resolution display, and I say
that only because sometimes that’s where Samsung’s compromises, but no it has the
trifecta of screen features as I like to say: 1080 resolution, 120hz and AMOLED, its got
it all and then some, and not only is treason enough to just get this phone in general,
but its one more reason to not even bother with the A54 - you get the same exact display
for less money. Alright now let’s get into the point of
this whole video: performance. So essentially what Samsung did here is they took what was
supposed to be their new higher spec mid-tier Exynos chipset and stuck it into the A54,
and this A34 got the Mediatek Dimensity 1080, a nearly 1 year old, seemingly less powerful
processor. What they didn’t bank on is that this older Mediatek processor is better than
their own newer Exynos chip. How do I know that? Well, I’ve done a ton of speed and
performance tests with both phones now, and not only does the A34 almost always keep up
with the A54, a lot of times the A34 is literally just the faster device when it launches and
loads very apps. And whether it’s a minor speed difference or an inconsistent result,
I don’t think that matters. What does matter is the simple fact that Samsung can’t technically
say that the A54 is faster or performs better than the A34 - it’s objectively not true,
at least not always true. This is great news for the A34 because, one again it means for
less money, you get as good or better of a device. Performance isn’t a reason to jump
up to the A54 and spend an additional $150 bucks. Also like I mentioned earlier, you
can’t even spec the A54 any higher than the A34. So there’s nothing you can do to
get any more performance or value from the A54, there’s no justification in opting
for it. You also get the same software updates for the same number of years, so longevity-wise,
the A34 will feel fresh and new for the same amount of time, Samsung won’t leave you
hanging if you get this phone instead of the more expensive one. And this again showcases
the most pivotal issues facing Samsung’s smartphone lineup: the phones right now are
just way too similar, and their highest end phones aren’t being upgraded enough. In
my opinion, there’s never been a better time to not get a high end Samsung smartphone.
And with this A34 being so close to the A54, for the first time ever I wouldn’t even
get the highest end A series phone either. And it doesn’t end with performance, my
A34 lasts longer and has more juice left at the end of each day compared to the A54, usually
by 10 or 15%. This in my opinion may be due to Samsung’s Exynos processor simply being
not as well optimized or perhaps requiring more power just to function. Exynos chipsets
are known to overheat, they’re known to be poor performers, its a shame to say that,
I think the stigma continues to be somewhat justified, and it is the biggest reason why
the A34 this year is the better buy. And one final point I want to make. As far
as the camera setup and picture & video samples, besides the selfie camera which weirdly enough
is a lot better on the A54 and actually wasn’t upgraded from last year’s A33, the rear
lens setup isn’t that far off and the features and functions on this phone are the same as
any other mid-tier or upper-tier samsung devices you’ve experienced. The main lens is a 48mp
f1.8 aperture shooter, the ultrawide lens is a very useful 8mp camera, there’s a 5mp
macro for up close pictures, and in my time using this phone, the way I would describe
the actual results would be decisively budget - just like I said with the A54. If there’s
one thing Samsung hasn’t adequately upgraded on these A series phones it is the camera
setup and the shooting capabilities, these pictures with their shallow dynamic range,
consistent over exposure and lack of much detail are consistent with what you’d expect
on a sub $300 phone. That’s not to say these are bad pictures, but the standard for smartphone
photography is so high now that its very obvious this phone doesn’t do a comparable job,
and if there were any reason at all to opt for specially a Samsung flagship - not the
A54 mind you, that also takes sub-par pictures - this would be it. Flagship phones continue
to be worth the money in the camera department, but I think most people still just quickly
snap a regular old picture of their friends or their dog without much though, and this
phone will be more than fine for that anyway. To Samsung’s credit, I honestly think this
A34 is the best phone in their entire lineup right now. Just based on everything you get
for the money - the nice design, the great display, the specs, it is far and away the
best overall value, the best bang for you buck at well under $300 dollars. But I honestly
don’t think that was their intention. I think Samsung just has too many devices now
that are too similar, and I think it was an unfortunate mistake opting for an Exynos processor
in what was supposed to be the better A54. Overall, it’s not really the better device,
certainly not for $100 or $150 more, and aside from the fact that maybe the A34 is a little
more difficult to acquire depending on where you live, I think it will easily outsell the
A54 when people really do some comparing. I guess that was sort of the whole point of
this video, but what do you guys think? Am I missing something? Is the A34 really that
good? Let me know in the comments down below, Id love to hear your thoughts of course especially
if you have this phone yourself. But hopefully you guys did enjoy this video. Be sure to
follow TechDaily on twitter and subscribe to the TechDaily YouTube channel if you haven’t
already and I’ll see you guys later.
