Samsung Galaxy A34 5G specs: Everything you need to know

Samsung releases many Galaxy A series smartphones in a year, but only a select few reach the United States. For instance, the Galaxy A32 5G made its way to the US, but the Galaxy A33 5G did not. In 2023, Samsung launched the Galaxy A34 5G in several regions like the UK and India, but the US was skipped once again. If you’re curious about what this device actually entails, here are all the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G!

It’s worth noting that the Galaxy A35 5G was launched as a successor to the A34 in March 2024. It’s actually available in the US too.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G specs

The Samsung Galaxy A34 5G focuses on improving three key talking points from its predecessor: the design, the display, and the processor. The rest of the phone is surprisingly untouched, which isn’t a bad thing either, as the Galaxy A33 had managed to make a good name for itself thanks to its practicality.

Starting with the design, the Galaxy A34 5G changes the looks of the Galaxy A33. It streamlines Samsung’s budget design philosophy to be in line with the wider S-series looks. So instead of the plateaued camera island, we now get a flat rear with individual camera lenses popping up. The corners also have a more gradual curve now. We wouldn’t even blame you if you confused this Galaxy A34 5G’s rear with that of the Galaxy S23.

The Galaxy A34 5G also increases all of its dimensions, so it is taller, wider, slightly thicker, and heavier than the Galaxy A33. This allowed Samsung to increase the display diagonal to 6.6 inches. The display is still an FHD+ Super AMOLED panel, but it refreshes at 120Hz instead of 90Hz.

There’s a waterdrop notch to house the front camera, which Samsung calls the Infinity U display. Most people don’t particularly pay attention to the notch either way.

For the processor, Samsung is using the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC instead of the Exynos 1280 on the Galaxy A33. Despite the change, you aren’t really going to be seeing any real changes since both the processors are fairly similar to each other.

The Dimensity 1080 is built on a 6nm process and has 2x Cortex-A78 performance cores clocked at 2.6GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2GHz. In comparison, the Exynos 1280 is built on a 5nm process and has the exact same core setup, with just the performance cores clocked a little lower at 2.4GHz. Going from a 5nm manufacturing process to a 6nm process means you lose out on efficiency by a small margin. But beyond that, you’d be pressed to find more differences. Both SoCs have the same Arm Mali-G68 GPU, though we do not have information on the clock speeds.

Other smaller changes on the Galaxy A34 5G are the omission of the 2MP depth sensor (to which we say good riddance) and the switch up to Bluetooth 5.3. The phone retains its IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. You also get Samsung’s excellent software update promise of four platform updates and five years of security updates, which makes this a beast for its price.

The Galaxy A34 5G is available in the UK starting at £349 (~$425) for the 128GB version and £399 (~$485) for the 256GB model.

The Galaxy A34 5G was launched alongside the Galaxy A54, which shares several specifications but is a bit more expensive. You can check out the differences between the two phones in this Galaxy A54 vs Galaxy A34 5G comparison.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G specs vs. the competition: How does it compare?

The Galaxy A34 5G is not on sale in the US, so we are comparing it to options available in the UK in the £300-£400 price range. For its price, we do think the Galaxy A34 5G pulls its weight, especially when you consider the ease of use, after-sales service, longevity, and brand value. Nonetheless, here is how the Galaxy A34 5G stacks up against some of its primary competition smartphones.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite

The OnePlus Nord 2T is well positioned to compete against the Galaxy A34 5G, even though the Nord 2T was launched in May 2022. With a £349 price tag these days, it sits squarely against the Galaxy A34 5G.

The Nord 2T does not have a 120Hz refresh rate display. But its 90Hz display has HDR10+ support, which is a big plus for multimedia consumption. The device is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC, which is more powerful than the Dimensity 1080 and has a better GPU too. You also get more RAM on the OnePlus phone, but you do lose out on microSD expansion.

The OnePlus Nord 2T has a smaller battery at 4,500mAh, but it charges significantly quicker with 80W fast charging. The 50MP primary rear camera on the OnePlus Nord 2T is better than the 48MP primary rear camera on the Galaxy A34 5G. However, the secondary cameras are not that great on the Nord, so you can stick with the Galaxy A34 5G if you want more versatility. The selfie camera is a 32MP shooter on the Nord 2T, which we appreciate.

One big positive for the Galaxy A34 5G against the Nord 2T is Samsung’s update promise. OnePlus only promises two years of Android platform updates and three years of security — almost two years have already passed. You’ll definitely be getting more longevity out of your Samsung phone vs the Nord 2T.

Nothing Phone 2a

One of the most recent rivals to the Galaxy A34 5G is the Nothing Phone 2a. This is the brand’s first squarely budget release, and the £319 price tag makes it one of the best cheap phones in the UK.

The Nothing Phone 2a has a few advantages over the Samsung phone, namely a significantly faster Dimensity 7200 Ultra chip, more base RAM, 45W wired charging, and better rear camera hardware. It also brings a flashier design (literally) thanks to the Glyph lighting.

Nothing’s phone isn’t quite as good as the Galaxy A34 5G when it comes to software updates, though, although you’re still getting three major OS updates and four years of security patches. Furthermore, the Nothing phone only brings splash resistance rather than water resistance like the A34 5G. It’s nevertheless still worth a look if you want a different budget proposition.

POCO X6

The POCO X6 is another recent rival to Samsung’s Galaxy A series, and it brings plenty of features for the £319 price tag. The phone beats the Galaxy A34 5G in a number of areas, such as screen quality, performance, and charging speed (67W). It even brings 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the base model.

Samsung’s phone has a couple of advantages over the POCO X6, though, namely water resistance and a long update commitment. One UI is also considered by many enthusiasts to be better than MIUI and Hyper OS.

This is also one of the few phones on the market with a 3.5mm port. So audiophiles and fans of the aux cable should definitely keep this phone in mind.

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