No US Galaxy A55 - Samsung leaves gaping mid-range-sized hole in US smartphone lineup for 2024

Samsung's Galaxy A55 recently launched in Europe as a €479 mid-ranger, and while that is a moderate price hike over last year's Galaxy A54 (curr. $347.99 on Amazon), the Galaxy A55 features a number of drastic improvements over its predecessor, including a whopping 12 GB of RAM and an Xclipse 530 GPU based on AMD's RDNA 3 architecture.

Unfortunately, according to a recent statement by Samsung (via CNET), the Galaxy A55 won't make it to the US at all, seemingly in an effort to protect its flagship sales in the US.

We can confirm that Galaxy A35 5G will be coming to the US market and look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks," a representative from Samsung's US branch said in a statement to CNET, adding that it "will not be carrying the Galaxy A55 5G at this time. – Samsung representative (via CNET)

For context, the Galaxy A54 launched in the US at $450, and with the A55's European pricing being around the €479 mark, $450 seems to be about the price it would land at in the US, too. That leaves a rather substantial gap in the US market until you reach the next viable step up in the $609.99 Galaxy S23 FE or the $799.99 Galaxy S24.

At the same time, the €379 (~$415) Samsung Galaxy A35 will make it to US shores, seemingly in short order, lending credence to the idea that Samsung is skipping a US launch for the Galaxy A55 in order to protect its higher-end sales.

This move comes hot on the heels of news of Samsung's failure to capture the top spot in US smartphone sales for 2023, so a switch-up in sales tactics is to be expected as a result.