Samsung Galaxy A37 and Galaxy A57: first impressions

Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy A37 and Galaxy A57. These smartphones aim to deliver a flagship-style experience at a sensible price. We’ve had a brief hands-on, and here are our first impressions.

Manufacturers love to shine a spotlight on their premium phones. It’s easy to see why: they represent the peak of a brand’s expertise, and they’re often where new ideas appear first. In reality, though, it’s the less flashy mid-range models that generate the biggest sales volumes. Samsung isn’t stepping away from that crucial category: the Korean brand has now introduced the Galaxy A37 and Galaxy A57 as its latest headliners.

With these devices, Samsung’s objective is clear: offer something that feels premium without the premium price tag. The approach is to avoid cutting corners on look-and-feel and on everyday features-particularly those tied to AI. We spent some time with both models; below are our initial thoughts.

Subscribe to Presse-citron

A premium smartphone design… almost

Design matters more than ever: a phone is a status object, and nobody wants something that feels “cheap” in the hand. Samsung seems to have taken that to heart, putting real effort into how these two look. They borrow design cues from the Galaxy S26 line, including a camera module formed around a raised island. At a glance, you could nearly mistake them for something higher-end.

The Galaxy A57 is the one that feels the most carefully executed. It uses a metal frame and measures just 6.9 mm thick-genuinely slim. In the hand, it’s particularly pleasant, helped by a well-balanced 179 gram weight. We also liked the glossy glass finish and the display’s thin bezels of a little over 1 mm. A seasoned tech eye will quickly spot that it isn’t a true flagship, but most people could easily be fooled. In that sense, Samsung has hit its target.

The Galaxy A37 is less convincing. Samsung has clearly made compromises here, with a plastic frame that feels a bit more budget and noticeably thicker screen borders (and, frankly, not very flattering). It doesn’t keep up the illusion for long-although the overall finish remains perfectly respectable.

Solid specifications for the money

On the spec front, Samsung appears to be aiming for a sensible baseline at this price. Both Galaxy A models come with a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel running at 120 Hz, and a peak HDR brightness of 1900 nits-more than adequate for outdoor use.

	Galaxy A37	Galaxy A57
Dimensions	162,9 x 78,2 x 7,4 mm	161 x 76,8 x 6,9 mm
Weight	196 grammes	179 grammes
Screen	Super AMOLED 6,7 inches 120 Hz 2340 x 1080 pixels 1900 nits (HDR peak)	Super AMOLED 6,7 inches 120 Hz 2340 x 1080 pixels 1900 nits (HDR peak)
Processor	Exynos 1480	Exynos 1680
RAM	6/8 GB	12 GB
Storage	128/256 GB	128/256 GB
OS	Android 16/One UI 8.5	Android 16/One UI 8.5
Camera sensors	+ 50-megapixel wide sensor f/1.8 + 8-megapixel ultra-wide sensor f/2.2 + 5-megapixel macro sensor	+ 50-megapixel wide sensor f/1.8 + 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor f/2.2 + 5-megapixel macro sensor
Selfie camera	12 megapixels	12 megapixels
Biometrics	Under-display fingerprint sensor	Under-display fingerprint sensor
Battery	5000 mAh, fast charging 45 W	5000 mAh, fast charging 45 W
IP certification	IP 68	IP68
Colours	Black, white, green, lavender	Black, grey, blue, lavender

Performance is handled by two Samsung Exynos chips-Exynos 1480 for the A37 and Exynos 1680 for the A57-which, according to the brand, should deliver strong results. For power, both models use a 5000 mAh battery paired with 45 W fast charging, which should comfortably get most people through a full day. On the camera side, there’s no big surprise: both feature a 50-megapixel main sensor. Samsung says it has refined certain areas, including HDR rendering, to produce more convincing shots. We’ll reserve judgement until the full review.

Where Samsung really wants to win people over, though, is in everyday usage. As with its top-tier devices, AI is now positioned as a core part of the Galaxy A experience. That includes Gemini or Bixby, Circle to Search, photo editing, and voice-to-text transcription (via the Recorder app or the Phone app). It’s a toolkit rather than the full Galaxy AI suite, but it should feel close enough for users mainly looking to boost productivity. Finally, both phones run Android 16 with the One UI 8.5 overlay and are promised six years of OS and security updates. In short, you won’t get the very latest Galaxy S extras, but you do get something robust-and, crucially, built to last.

The best in their price bracket?

The Galaxy A37 and A57 are already available. Here are the announced prices:

• Galaxy A37, 128 GB: 449 euros
• Galaxy A37, 256 GB: 529 euros
• Galaxy A57, 128 GB: 549 euros
• Galaxy A57, 256 GB: 599 euros

At these prices, competition is intense. You could point to Nothing, for instance, with the very distinctive Phone (4a) Pro, or Xiaomi with the Redmi Note 15 Pro and Pro+, all of which are highly capable and broadly comparable on specs.

Samsung’s advantage is that it tends to deliver something that feels well judged. These phones don’t introduce major new ideas and they’re not especially original, but they look like sensible buys at the asking price. Choosing a Galaxy A usually means opting for a handset you can rely on-balanced and competent. That’s the theory, at least, and we’ll need proper testing to confirm it.

For now, our early impressions are encouraging-though these 2025 Galaxy A models didn’t surprise us for a second.