Samsung Galaxy A55 (Exynos 1480) Performance Review!

Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A55, and find out how well the Exynos 1380 performs against the competition!

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Powered By Exynos 1480

The Samsung Galaxy A55 is built around the new Samsung Exynos 1480 mobile platform that officially launched on 11 March 2024.

Fabricated on Samsung’s own 4 nm EUV process technology, the Exynos 1480 comes with a Samsung Xclipse 530 GPU, an improved 6K MAC NPU, as well as eight CPU cores arranged in two performance clusters:

• four Arm Cortex-A78 high-performance cores, and
• four Arm Cortex-A55 low-power cores.

The Samsung Exynos 1480 has an integrated 5G modem that supports Sub-6GHz and mmWave standards, as well as LTE Cat.18 uploads and downloads for current 4G networks.

It also supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, as well as the four main GPS networks – GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.

On paper, this is a powerful mid-range mobile platform, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!

Recommended : Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy A55 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra	Galaxy A55	Galaxy A54	S22 Ultra	Galaxy A73
Mobile Platform	SD 8 Gen 2	Exynos 1480	Exynos 1380	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 778G
Performance Score	16408	13583	13523	12860	12522
Web Browsing	15680	11453	10659	10442	11736
Video Editing	7879	7393	7363	7444	7082
Writing	22257	17915	17485	15471	14796
Photo Editing	35533	25962	28805	30177	26340
Data Manipulation	12171	11742	11443	9691	9502

Look at that – the Samsung Exynos 1480 was virtually identical in performance as last year’s Exynos 1380, that powered the Galaxy A54. Perhaps that’s not surprising since they both use the same A78 and A55 cores.

The Exynos 1480 has its four A78 high-performance cores running at 2.75 GHz, instead of 2.4 GHz, but it appears that work applications don’t need all that much performance so the 14.5% higher clock speed did not matter.

Even so, the Samsung Exynos 1480 remains a fast mid-range mobile SoC, coming within 17.5% of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC, which powers the Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship smartphone!

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy A55 using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Galaxy A55	Galaxy A54	Galaxy A73
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 1480	Exynos 1380	SD 778G
Sling Shot	16344	11094	9058	6195	6620
Sling Shot Extreme	13904	7291	6908	4943	5358
Wild Life	14554	9106	3996	2860	2487
Wild Life Extreme	3814	2220	954	799	689

This is where the Samsung Galaxy A55’s Exynos 1480 improved the most – it’s much better at gaming than the Exynos 1380, outperforming it by 19% to 46%. Very impressive!

Just in case you are wondering – no, the Xclipse 530 GPU used in the Exynos 1480 does not support ray-tracing.

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy A55 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Galaxy A55	Galaxy A73	Galaxy A54
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 1480	SD 778G	Exynos 1380
AnTuTu Score	1212174	889167	720595	523209	522411
CPU	261886	203090	234309	159238	153230
GPU	538823	402617	177275	159364	149596
Memory	236163	146002	148103	88705	86578
UX	175302	137458	160908	115902	133007

Look at that! AnTuTu shows that the Samsung Exynos 1480 is 38% faster than both the Galaxy A73, and the Galaxy A54!

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Performance Summary

When I tested last year’s Galaxy A54, I pointed out that while the Exynos 1380 has a fast CPU, it has a weak GPU That changed with the new Exynos 1480 – it retains the same fast CPU, but has a much more powerful Xclipse 530 GPU.

In addition to snappy performance in web browsing and work applications, the Exynos 1480 now offers much improved gaming performance, making it a great all-rounder mid-range mobile platform.

 

Samsung Galaxy A55 : Price + Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A55 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and either 128 GB or 256 GB of storage, with the option to add a microSD card in the hybrid SIM tray. It is covered by a 2-year warranty, with the following launch prices:

• 8 GB + 128 GB : £439 / A$699 / S$618
• 8 GB + 256 GB : RM1,999 / £489 / S$698

Surprisingly, Samsung decided not to bring the Galaxy A55 to the United States, and suggested that customers consider the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 FE instead. However, it is possible to purchase Latin American unlocked devices in the US (see below).

There are four colour options, which are not available in all countries – Awesome Iceblue, Awesome Lilac, Awesome Lemon, and Awesome Navy.

Here are online purchase options (we may get commission from your purchase) :

• MY : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
• SG : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
• US : Awesome Iceblue | Awesome Lilac
• UK : Iceblue | Lemon | Lilac | Navy
• AU : Awesome Lilac | Awesome Navy

 

 

Recommended Reading

• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Charging Speed @ 15W, 25W, 45W!
• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!
• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Battery Life + Charging Review!
• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (SD8 Gen 3) Performance Review!
• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : All 4 Colours Compared!

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