Updated: December 12, 2025
Ah, I jinxed it. Mega jinxed it. Remember my ninth report, basically the big One UI 8.0 update? Well, that one went most smoothly, and I had no negative things to report whatsoever. Smooth sailing all the way. Alas, as it turns out, too much optimism and hope can be detrimental to one's mood. Especially if there's a sudden squall of fresh problems.
Happy go lucky me, I had not planned on writing a new Samsung A54 report that soon, but as it turns out, I must. Within days of the Android 16 update, I encountered a whole bunch of new issues on this device. From my most positive experience with this smartphone yet, to a rather ragged state of affairs. But enough teasers. Come with me, dear fellas, and feast your eyes.
Google Play Store keeps stopping
Yup, that's a big one. For no reason whatsoever, the Play Store keeps crashing on the main page/view of the app. Open it, and it will close within a second. I have figured a nice workaround, which lets you still use the store, though. Similar to my payment verification trick. Now, while my sagacity is great and all that, this is a horrendous and inexcusable problem. Of all the different apps on the system, the Play Store ranks probably the most important, if you actually want an up-to-date Google ecosystem. I don't know what broke it, or when exactly it broke, as I don't normally open the store that often. Was it before or after the One UI 8.0 patch? No idea really. But that's where we stand. Fixed since, by Google.
Big drop in battery times
For me, the Samsung A54 always offered close to four days of juice. If you recall, I even wrote a guide on how to extend your battery charge times. Everything was great and all that until just days back. For some reason, the issue more or less coincides with the Play Store problem above. But, in a nutshell, my battery time has gone down by almost 50%.
While I can account for some variation in usage, ambient temperature and some small, natural degradation in the battery cell, 50% sounds like a big deal. Perhaps the battery pack has gone bad? No idea, but it would be awful, as the phone is barely two years old. Maybe it's software un-optimization, which can happen with modern software? Still no idea.
I did enable some battery protection tweaks, so we will see how that pans out. But I am quite disappointed. Whatever is the actual case, having your autonomy halved by whatever magical powers exist in the phone is totally unacceptable, from either usability or quality perspective. Take it any which way you like.
Surreptitious AI stuff
I told you how the One UI 8.0 update didn't really change anything. Gemini is disabled and all that. Well, there's now a "new" category under sound management. An entire toggle for AI. In addition to system, notifications, ringtone and all that, you also have an option to separately tweak the AI assistant volume. Except, I don't use any. Why should I even have this option then? I like the flexibility, in that if you want to silence the digital parrot, you can. But I don't want have it in the first place.
To be on the safe side, I triple-checked that there's no AI nonsense enabled anywhere. But the mere fact the user must be on their toes for potential stupidity additions to their ecosystem is aggravating in its own right. I don't want to have to waste my time on these silly games.
Other things
I reviewed the security options, and suddenly, I discovered that Google is set to manage passwords, which is absolutely what I don't want. And of course, not to be bested, Samsung wants it share of the pie.
No, it's not the preferred service, nor did I ever set one. Stop being so grabby about my data.
There was also that quick edit nonsense cropping up again [sic]. Except, whenever you toggle it off, it toggles itself back on. And in the typical fragmented Android fashion, the same functionality exists in two or three different menus, same same but different but still same. This has become more than tiring.
Conclusion
You see? When it rains, it pours. After a few weeks of tranquility, modern stupidity is back in all its multi-dimensional glory. Bugs, untoggle-able toggles, apps that crash with zero indication as to what may have gone wrong, settings for tools I explicitly don't want to use, and then some. The low-IQ fest continues. Worst of all, even though I still use this device under moderate duress so to speak, as I value money and don't feel like blowtorching it just yet, the battery has decided to go a-wonk on me. Or the software is making the battery look bad. Either way, not good.
I had hopes for the A54 after the One UI 7.0 and 8.0 updates, especially the later. I thought that I had finally turned a corner, and my smartphone would become a useful tool, not something that I constantly need to fight against. Alas, I was mistaken. But perhaps this isn't such a bad thing. After all, if the A54 dies early, I can then switch to something else, and never think about it again, as I promised. There you go. The joys of the 21st Century Dystopia. Ah, such a warm, fuzzy feeling. Oh yeah honey, digital me some more.
Cheers.