Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on review: Awesome potential, but minimal changes
The Samsung Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37 are the two newest additions to Samsung’s mid-range phone line-up. The Galaxy S26 series may have the best of the best, but the A-series aims to make the Samsung experience more accessible and affordable.
You shouldn’t expect flagship performance, but you’re also not paying flagship prices. But be warned that prices have gone up this year, which means Samsung’s best cheap phones don’t feel quite so cheap anymore. But unlike the likes of the Pixel 10a, which are practically identical to their predecessors, Samsung has added some important upgrades that could prove quite useful.
Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on: Cheat Sheet
- What is it? Cheaper Samsung phones that cost less than flagships, but also have less to offer
- Who is it for? People on a strict budget, those who don’t see the point in spending $800+ on a new phone
- What does it cost? The Galaxy A57 starts at $549/£529, the Galaxy A37 starts at $449/£399. You can pick up yours from Samsung’s website.
- What do we like? The colorful and slightly more durable design, plus select premium features like 45W charging and Artificial Intelligence
- What don’t we like? The minimal number of tangible upgrades, the fingerprint-magnet exterior, and the increased price tag compared to last year.
Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on: Specs
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Samsung Galaxy A57 |
Samsung Galaxy A37 |
|
Price |
From $549/£529 |
From $449 / £399 |
|
Display |
6.7-inch, FHD+ Super AMOLED Plus, 120Hz |
6.7-inch, FHD+ Super AMOLED, 120Hz |
|
CPU |
Exynos 1680 |
Exynos 1480 |
|
RAM |
8GB |
6/8GB |
|
Storage |
128/256 (U.S.) / 256/512GB (U.K.) |
128/256GB |
|
Rear cameras |
50MP main, 12MP Ultrawide, 5MP Macro |
50MP main, 8MP Ultrawide, 5MP Macro |
|
Front camera |
12MP |
12MP |
|
Battery |
5,000 mAh |
5,000 mAh |
|
Charging |
45W |
45W |
|
Colors |
Awesome Navy (U.S.) / Awesome Gray, Awesome Navy, Awesome Icyblue, Awesome Lilac (U.K.) |
Awesome Charcoal, Awesome Graygreen, Awesome White, Awesome Lavender |
|
Dimensions |
6.35 x 3.02 x 0.27 inches (161.5 x 76.8 x 6.9mm) |
6.41 x 3.07 x 0.29 inches (162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4mm) |
|
Weight |
6.3 oz (179g) |
6.9 oz (196g) |
Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on: The Ups
Samsung has focused on the fundamentals here — looking at some of the previous pain points, fixing them up, and throwing a lot of AI at them.
45W charging and large batteries
Last year saw Samsung make major changes to charging speed on the Galaxy A56, increasing from 25W to 45W. The Galaxy A57 hasn’t had another speed boost, but the A37 has joined it in the 45W club — with Samsung promising they’ll regain 60% battery in 30 minutes.
Essentially meaning that these two lower-cost Galaxy phones actually offer faster charging than the standard Galaxy S26 model. Which is crazy when you think about it, but not something A-series owners will ever complain about.
Battery capacity has stayed put for another year, but I’m not one to complain about a 5,000 mAh battery on a phone of this price range. We haven’t had a chance to test it yet, but Samsung claims these batteries will be able to last two days on a single charge.
Smart big-screened designs
Both the Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37 offer large 6.7-inch screens that offer FHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The design is also rather easy on the eyes, with a glass-edged camera bump and a premium look that helps both models blend in with the Galaxy S26 series. Though not completely, since Samsung has opted for a glossy and extremely shiny look on the A-series.
The downside is that both phones look so similar to the point that it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart — even if you do know what you are looking for. The crucial differences are that the A57 is lighter, thinner and has narrower bezels, which combine into a slightly more compact frame. They didn’t feel quite as premium in my hand as the Galaxy S26 series does either, even with the A57’s metal chassis.
AI and “Awesome Intelligence”
Awesome Intelligence is back for another generation of A-series phones, this time bringing with it a bunch of major AI upgrades that debuted on the Samsung Galaxy S26. The big addition is agentic AI, and the option to have Gemini control different actions across your apps — regardless of whether they’re Google, Samsung or made by a third party.
Other AI upgrades include Bixby 4.0, which offers natural language communication and web search capabilities, the updated version of Circle to Search, and AI-powered transcription for calls and voice recordings.
AI assistants can be summoned by holding the power button, as with Galaxy S phones, and Samsung promised that there is flexibility in which AI agent you choose — though only specified Bixby and Gemini.
Increased durability
Durability has hit a plateau on flagship phones, but on cheaper devices? There’s still room for improvement. Both the Galaxy A37 and Galaxy A57 retain the Gorilla Glass Victus Plus glass panels on both sides of the phone, but there’s a little more on offer this year, too.
The A37 now joins the A57 with IP68 water and dust resistance, which Samsung says will allow both phones to last up to half an hour in 1.5 meters of water. The A57 also swapped out its plastic frame for metal, offering a more premium feel and better durability than the plastic that was used before.
6 years of software updates
Why should flagship phones get all the longevity? Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37 will receive guaranteed updates for six years. That includes six years of security updates, which help keep your phone safe, and six generations of Android OS updates — regardless of how long they take to roll out.
Both phones come running One UI 8.5 (based on Android 16) out of the box. So this pledge means that you’ll get all major OS updates up to (and including) the release of Android 22 — whenever that release.
Security support until 2032 also means that you can keep using the phone for an extended period, and not have to worry about putting yourself and your data at risk.
Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on: The Downs
Modest upgrades aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but they can feel disappointing if you put a price hike on them.
The price has gone up
We should have seen it coming, especially after the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus rose in price, but it seems the same has happened with the A57 and A37. The Galaxy A57 now starts at $549 for a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space.
The Galaxy A37, which starts at $449 and gets you a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage — or $539 for 8GB and 256GB of storage. Both phones have been subject to a $50 price hike compared to last year. U.K. buyers haven’t come off quite as badly, which suggests that there may be extenuating circumstances for the U.S. market — like tariffs.
The Galaxy A57 starts at £529 in the U.K., a £30 price hike, but this nets you a model with 256GB of storage. There’s also a 512GB variant available for £699, which hasn’t been an option in the past. The Galaxy A37 starts at £399, which is the same price as the Galaxy A36.
Both phones are fingerprint magnets
As much as I can admire and appreciate a shiny, glass phone exterior, it has come with some downsides. Mainly, the Galaxy A57 and A37 are fingerprint magnets, and every last little smudge or speck of dust shows up like a flare in the wilderness. Admittedly, this issue is not exclusive to the new A-series phones, and there are countless devices that suffer the same issue.
It’s just a shame that, as much as Samsung seems to have tried to make the A57 and A37 not look cheap, the constant addition of fingerprints and dust is only going to dampen the overall look of the phones.
The macro camera
I’ll admit that I’m very much against including camera lenses for the sake of padding numbers, and not even Samsung is immune to that particular sin. While it’s incredibly rare to see phones with telephoto lenses at this price point, there doesn’t necessarily have to be a different camera to make up for it.
But what I want hasn’t stopped Samsung from including two 5MP macro lenses on both the Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37. It’s an addition that’s disappointing on two levels: the first being that a 5MP macro lens’s performance is going to be about as impressive as you’d expect.
The second is that ultrawide camera lenses can operate as macro cameras as well. I’d much rather have two good cameras and skip the mediocre one altogether, even if it means there are only two lenses on the back of my phone.
Minimal upgrades
Sadly, like a lot of phones this year, the Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37 have both fallen into the trap of not actually changing very much. The cameras remain more or less the same, and while there have been a slew of useful upgrades (like the faster Exynos 1480 and 1680 chips), there isn’t a whole lot to get excited about — even though Samsung increased the price of both phones in the U.S.
That said, we can be grateful that Samsung did offer something of note, and we didn’t end up in a situation like the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e, where the upgrades were so minimal I wondered why a new phone was even released. Still, it’s just another example of a fairly mediocre smartphone evolution that we’ve all come to expect.
Samsung Galaxy A57 & Galaxy A37 hands-on: Verdict
There’s a lot to like about both the Galaxy A57 and the Galaxy A37. Both are smart-looking phones with large batteries, fast charging and some solid camera hardware hiding under the surface. Not to mention the fact that Samsung has added a lot of new AI features that you would otherwise only be able to get on the Galaxy S26 series.
The fact that Samsung has increased the price still stings, especially since it seems to be affecting the American market more than the U.K. For the extra money, you’d hope Samsung would offer a little bit more of a substantial upgrade, but that isn’t the case, especially not for the Galaxy A57.
However, our limited time with both phones means there’s still a lot we haven’t uncovered about both phones. So we’ll be back with full reviews once we’ve done some actual testing of the camera, battery, performance and more. Watch this space.
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