Okay, time to stop being surprised by how good sub-$1000 phones can be.

I've done too many reviews of too many decent ones to fall into that trap again.

However, Samsung has now taken things a step further with this year's A-Series range. At first glance, most of these phones look identical. And they look good. Large displays, modern camera modules and high-fashion colours and finishes.

So how to choose? And why would you ever pay more than $800 for a phone ever again?...

For the sake of comparison, I've been trialling both the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G and the A54 5G - the first thing you might have noticed is in the name; both these handsets are 5G-capable and I've been surprised by how quickly the networks have expanded their 5G coverage - I'm starting to see that little logo at the top of my screen almost everywhere I go these days.

Unfortunately, although these devices come in some pretty cool colours in other markets, we're only getting two options per phone here in New Zealand; Awesome Graphite and Awesome Violet for the A34 and Aeesome Graphite and Awesome White for the A54. The white one is actually pretty awesome.

Another big selling point with both phones is storage; both ship with 128GB of internal space, not to mention the option of adding a microSD (assuming you're not utilising the second available sim tray instead). The 2023 A-Series phones also feature "RAM Plus" - this actually draws on available internal storage to enhance the installed physical RAM (8GB in the A54 and 6GB in the A34).

The result is both these phones work much more smoothly and reliably than similar models of just a few years ago. Most of us have experienced the compromised performance of a "cheap" phone with not enough storage or power. That's simply not the case anymore - not with these two, anyway.

In fact, (although I said I wasn't going to be surprised anymore) I've been surprised how much using both these phones feels just like using a more "high-end" Samsung device. One big part of this is the FHD+ Super AMOLED displays - in true Samsung style colours are vibrant and bright, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes for an extremely responsive screen, although the extra processing power and slight bump in RAM on the A54 gives it a noticeable advantage over the A34 in this regard. Meanwhile the A34's display is technically a bit bigger; 6.6-inches compared with 6.4 - this is because the aspect ratio is slightly wider.

That high refresh rate is far from a given in this price range - nor are other perks like NFC, IP67 dust and water resistance, digital image stabilisation and on-screen fingerprint sensors - the last of which perform extremely reliably and quickly - as opposed to the face-unlock function which I found to be much less consistent, especially on the A34.

This may be something to do with the major difference between these two handsets; camera performance. The camera setups on both phones are very good, it's just that the hardware on the A54 is significantly "gooder". Both phones sport a triple-lens, macro/main/ultra-wide rear camera configuration but the A54 sensors are higher specced and do a better job, particularly in low light. Guess which camera took this shot?...

Actually, it was the A34. Still pretty cool right? But if we take a look at this shot I took last night, just after sunset, you'll see how the A54 captures more detail still - in challenging lighting...

The car coming down the hill was pretty much blinding me with its headlights yet the A54 has done a great job balancing the darkest of the dark with the lightest of the light.

Perhaps the thing that is most "flagship-like" about these two handsets is Samsung's operating system, One UI 5.1. This is such a full-featured, yet user-friendly way to make a phone work. I love it on the big guns and it seems to function just as well on these ones. For example, even the camera app offers options you simply won't find on other mid-range phones - including editing tools like draw-over effects and shadow removal.

One photo feature only the A54 offers is its Auto Focus camera system. It can also auto-frame when videoing, keeping the subject front and centre. Certainly the 32MP selfie-cam is a huge step up from the 13MP front-facer on the A34. I also feel like the mic performance is superior on my A54 videos too.

If there's one feature I do miss on both these phones it's wireless charging. I know I'm always banging on about this and if you don't use it, you certainly don't care - but I do. So I do. Okay? At least battery life is good (both devices run a respectable 5,000mAh cell) and both support 25W fast charging.

There seems to be a bit of oneupmanship going on between phone makers when it comes to software updates these days and I'm not complaining, Samsung is promising four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates so these phones are certainly built to last, inside and out.

And genuinely great value. At NZ$649.00 for the A34 and NZ$799.00 for the A54, unless you're determined to have the absolute best camera on the market, or a flashy folding phone, I don't know why you'd pay more. I'd be inclined to splurge the extra $150 for the superior photo performance of the A54 but neither of these handsets will disappoint. Unless you're addicted to wireless charging. But that might just be me.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G.