For Php25K, two strong contenders are vying for your attention: the brand-new Samsung Galaxy A55 5G versus the realme 12 Pro+ 5G.
Both phones boast impressive yet distinct features that can significantly sway your decision-making in choosing your next daily driver. So, without further ado, here’s our review comparison and we’ll see which one is worth your money.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
At first glance, you would know exactly which phone is which — just based off of their design language. Let’s start with Samsung. The Galaxy A55 continues the iconic design that have been used in many Samsung flagship phones over the past few years.
It just screams of Samsung-coded design. But comparing it to last year’s model, it’s barely different from the Galaxy A54 — at least seeing it from afar. Because as you look into the details, you will start to notice the little design changes that Samsung made in this iteration.
Our unit is in the “Awesome Lilac” colorway and now it shows off this iridescent vibe. Notice the rainbow hues as the light hits it? That is not the case with the Galaxy A54. Other options like the “Awesome Iceblue” or “Awesome Navy” are also available should you need a more muted design.
The phone now comes with that sweet aluminum frame, and in my humble opinion, this gives the Galaxy A55 a more premium look. You will also feel a little bit of texture with the frame’s metallic brushed, semi-gloss finish. However, having a flat frame all around kind of compromises the phone’s ergonomics. Especially if you have smaller hands, holding the phone may get uncomfortable in longer periods of use.
On the other hand, realme is technically doing the same thing. The realme 12 Pro+ retains the previous design language as with the realme 11 Pro Series. But right out of the box, you can easily tell what the differences are.
Despite the same circular camera island, the camera lenses themselves are arranged differently. They’re now aligned in a grid manner, unlike the realme 11 Pro+ 5G’s design. Adding to that is the the camera island’s golden, fluted bezel that definitely adds a more premium vibe into it.
Gone are the decorative (fake) stitches, but it still has a golden-accented, diamond-patterned line that extends across the phone’s rear. The back panel itself is made of vegan leather, adding more prestige to the phone’s overall aesthetics.
One key difference that I find more likable on the realme 12 Pro+ over the Galaxy A55 is its curved edges. While the flat-screen-flat-sides design is more visually pleasing to the eyes, I can’t deny the fact that using a phone with smoother curves is much more comfortable in the hands.
In terms of build quality, Samsung has the edge. They specifically mentioned that both the front and rear panels of the device have Gorilla Glass Victus+. This makes the phone more resilient to scratches and perhaps also improves its longevity.
Meanwhile, realme only mentioned a “0.55mm Double-Reinforced Glass” on top of its display. No details follow, but I would assume it’s also scratch-resistant albeit not at the level of a Gorilla Glass. Design-wise, the realme 12 Pro+ piques more interest, while the Galaxy A55 lacks the same appeal, but offers an edge in durability.
Display
Flipping at the front, both phones also have distinct display specs. And you might have a hint already on where this is going.
Samsung Galaxy A55 5G
The Galaxy A55 sports a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display with 1,000 nits of peak brightness. And the realme 12 Pro+ boast a slightly larger 6.7-inch curved OLED display with 950 nits peak brightness. Both screens offer Full HD+ resolution and support up to a 120Hz refresh rate. Both have hole punch cutouts too housing their own selfie cameras. The Galaxy is a just bit brighter at 1,000 nits but the realme isn’t really that far behind at 950 nits peak brightness.
realme 12 Pro+ 5G
Arguably, I prefer the flat screen on the Galaxy A55 since I won’t be getting those reflective creases at the sides. Its caveat though is the uneven bezels — which kind of look thicker when you stare at it. The realme 12 Pro+ on the other hand looks like it has significantly thinner bezels (perhaps due to the curved screen illusion). And they’re pretty much more uniform to my eyes.
Expect an enjoyable viewing experience on these phones thanks to their dual stereo capability and support for Dolby Atmos. All-in-all, both phones’ displays are on par with each other. Choosing which panel though (be it flat or curved), will be according to your subjective take.
Performance
Now when it comes to performance, on paper, the new Exynos 1480 chip inside the Galaxy A55 is slightly faster than the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 in the realme 12 Pro+.
Galaxy A55 playing Asphalt 9
The Exynos reaches up to 2.75GHz clock speed while the Snapdragon only reaches up to 2.4GHz. This is also something that our benchmark tests have proved. Take AnTuTu results for example, the Galaxy A55 scored 60K points higher than the realme 12 Pro+.
| Benchmark | Samsung Galaxy A55 5G | realme 12 Pro+ 5G |
| AnTuTu V10 | 728,872 | 664,294 |
| AnTuTu Storage Test | 59,639 | 86,931 |
| S.Read Speed | 1,731.7 MB/s | 1,939 MB/s |
| S.Write Speed | 1,009.3MB/s | 1,868 MB/s |
| 3DMark Wild Life | 3,800 | 3,084 |
| Geekbench 6 Single Core | 1,143 | 1,030 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi Core | 3,340 | 2,888 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL) | 3,989 | 1,675 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 performance | 13,174 | 12,600 |
But like always, the experience still varies in real-world use. Even so, expect both devices to deliver smooth performance across the board. With gaming in mind, minor hiccups is bearable, especially on graphic intensive titles such as Genshin Impact. But with low-demanding titles like Asphalt 9 or Mobile Legends, these phones should handle them with ease.
realme 12 Pro+ playing Genshim Impact
Additionally, realme 12 Pro+ adds a 3D vapor chamber cooling system to stay cool even in intense gaming sessions. The Galaxy A55? Well, after just a few minutes of Asphalt 9 gameplay (high quality graphics at 60 frames per second), the phone heated up quite a bit, but it was bearable to say the least.
On storage benchmarks though, the A55 had significantly lower scores and write speeds than the realme, perhaps suggesting it’s using older storage technology. Speaking of storage, the realme 12 Pro+ absolutely has the advantage in this area. It comes with a whopping 512GB on-board storage paired with up to 24GB extended RAM.
The Galaxy A55 is left with only 256GB on-board storage and up to 16GB extended RAM. On the bright side, only the A55 supports storage expansion at up to 1TB via microSD.
Cameras
Moving on to the cameras, this is where the realme 12 Pro+ outshines the Galaxy A55 by a mile.
For starters, both have triple camera system but the realme has more capable, higher-resolution cameras to boot. There’s a 64-megapixel (MP) periscope-slash-portrait camera that can shoot up to 120x “Super Zoom”, along with a 50MP main, and an 8MP ultrawide lenses.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy A55 has an underwhelming set: a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and 5MP macro. At the front, both phones have 32MP selfie shooter.
As expected, the realme 12 Pro+ captures sharp and vibrant images with spot-on color reproduction. The post-processing is also commendable, being able to produce images with good dynamic range and more-than-acceptable contrast (even at night).
Videos are superb with great detail and contrast just like in photos. It supports up to 4K resolution, but the optical image stabilization only applies to 1080p. What I also liked about the realme 12 Pro+ camera capabilities is the ability to get the color scheme of an image, conveniently including up to five dominant colors on the watermark. Neat!
The Galaxy A55, though, given that it showed some improvements compared to its predecessor, the new model leaves a lot to be desired. First off, the noise. Most of the footages and images we took has subtle noise zoomed in, even under well-lit environments. Interestingly, night shots are much better with less apparent noise.
Regardless, color-reproduction is near-accurate and with decent dynamic range. Video capability is also up to 4K and with OIS.
Battery and Charging
Both the Galaxy A55 and realme 12 Pro+ pack the same 5,000mAh battery. But that’s where the similarities end.
Unfortunately, the Galaxy A55 follows the trend we’re seeing more often: ditching the power brick. While this might be an eco-friendly move, it’s a bummer for anyone who doesn’t already have a compatible charger lying around. Plus, the A55 maxes out at a 25W wired charging speed.
The realme 12 Pro+ takes the opposite approach. It throws a 67W fast charger in the box, letting you juice up the phone in roughly an hour. It’s a clear advantage for those who prioritize speedy recharge and not worrying to buy a separate charging brick.
As for battery life itself, both phones hold their own. Our PCMark Work 3.0 test yielded 13 hours and 12 minutes for the A55 and 12 hours and 19 minutes for the realme. These numbers translate to solid all-day performance under normal usage but expect heavy gaming to drain the battery faster.
Connectivity & Other Features
Both phones offer 5G capability, in-screen fingerprint sensor, NFC and varying water and dust protection: IP67 on the Galaxy A55 and IP65 on the realme 12 Pro+.
What’s great about the Galaxy A55 is it supports eSIM capability. This means you can slap in dual SIM without sacrificing storage expansion.
Another one of my subjective takes is my preference on OneUI since it comes with less bloatware now compared to other Android skins except Pixel UI. Both phones run Android 14 out of the box with OneUI 6.1 on the A55 and realme UI 5.0 on the 12 Pro+.
Dynamic Island? realme has its own take, the Flash Capsule. While it isn’t 1:1 copy, it still acts like a dynamic notification UI that pops up on the upper left side of the screen. I wonder when will Samsung adopt such a feature?
Other than that, software experience should be fast and snappy on both phones. Still, this boils down to which Android skin you would prefer. But personally, I would say Samsung takes the bacon here. Not to mention, they promised to bring four major OS upgrades and five years security patch for the A55 — similar treatment to their flagship devices.
Which one should you get?
Now we go back to the question, which one is worth the price? In our comparison, we saw that the realme 12 Pro+ 5G offers more to the table with its gorgeous design that’ll turn heads, a camera system that punches above its weight, and bigger storage. This makes it a compelling choice in the upper mid-range segment, disrupting the competition.
The Samsung Galaxy A55 5G takes a more understated approach. Sure, the cameras aren’t class-leading, but it makes up for it with smooth performance, a clean software experience, and a feature set that builds on the success of its predecessor. It’s the all-rounder with a familiar feel, for those who prioritize a balanced experience.
Interestingly, the realme 12 Pro+ costs a thousand pesos more at PHP 25,999 (12GB+512GB) compared to the PHP 24,999 (8GB+256GB) starting price on the Galaxy A55. That explains the higher storage capacity, but the price might be attributed to other factors like the cameras.
Ultimately, both phones offer something unique. The realme pushes boundaries, while the Galaxy refines a proven formula. The choice is yours.
Samsung Galaxy A55 5G vs realme 12 Pro+ 5G specs
| Samsung Galaxy A55 5G | realme 12 Pro+ 5G |
|---|---|
| 6.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display | 6.7-inch FHD+ curved OLED |
| 1080 x 2340 pixels, 120Hz, 1000 nits (peak) | 2412 x 1080 pixels, 120Hz, 950 nits (peak) |
| Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ | 0.55mm Double-Reinforced Glass |
| Samsung Exynos 1480 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 |
| 8-cores, up to 2.75GHz | 4nm, 8-cores, up to 2.4GHz |
| 8GB RAM (+8GB extended memory) | 12GB RAM (+12GB extended memory) |
| 256GB storage | 512GB storage |
| Expandable up to 1TB via microSD (hybrid slot) | (No microSD slot) |
| Triple rear cameras: | Triple rear cameras: |
| - 50MP f/1.8 main, OIS | - 50MP f/1.8 main Sony IMX890, OIS |
| - 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide | - 64MP f/2.8 OmniVision OV64B periscope/ portrait |
| - 5MP f/2.4 macro | - 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 112-degree FoV |
| 32MP selfie shooter (hole punch notch) | 32MP selfie shooter (hole punch notch) |
| Dual nano-SIM + eSIM | Dual nano-SIM |
| 5G, 4G LTE | 5G, 4G LTE |
| Wi-Fi 6 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax | Wi-Fi 6 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax |
| Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.2 |
| GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | Beidou, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS |
| USB Type-C (USB 2.0) | USB Type-C |
| NFC | NFC |
| In-screen fingerprint sensor, face unlock | In-screen fingerprint sensor, face unlock |
| IP67 water and dust resistance | IP65 water and dust resistance |
| Dual stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos | Dual stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos |
| OneUI 6.1 (Android 14) | realme UI 5.0 (Android 14) |
| 5000mAh battery | 5000mAh battery |
| 25W wired charging | 67W SuperVOOC |
| 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2 mm | 161.47 x 74.02 x ~8.75 mm |
| 213g | ~196g |
| Awesome Iceblue, Navy, Lilac, Lemon | Submarine Blue, Navigator Beige |
| PHP 24,999 | 8GB+256GB | PHP 25,999 | 12GB+512GB |
The writer didn’t even mention how long each company supports device, this is where Samsung beats every chinese phone out there. Realme only offers 2 OS updates and 3 years security updates, Samsung offers 4 years OS updates and an additional year for security updates.