Samsung Galaxy A57 review: More premium, more pricey

Finest Costs Right this moment: Samsung Galaxy A57

In a tumultuous yr for the smartphone business, the Galaxy A57 must be a secure harbour for Samsung. Free from the duty to innovate, that is the place the corporate’s peerless manufacturing course of ought to have the ability to end up one other strong, reliable handset with out squeezing its margins.

Elsewhere on this nook of the mid-range smartphone market, Google not too long ago received away with releasing the very same telephone for the second yr operating (kind of) within the Pixel 10a, all whereas holding agency with its pricing.

Samsung has pushed issues just a bit extra. The Galaxy A57 is a leaner, sooner telephone than the Samsung Galaxy A56 – a particular enchancment – however you’ll should pay a bit of extra for these refined enhancements, with one mannequin coming at a stunning value.

Is it nonetheless the perfect Samsung telephone for most individuals? I’ve been testing it for a few weeks to search out out.

Design & Construct

• Even slimmer design
• Considerably lighter
• Upgraded sturdiness

Samsung has retained the look of the Samsung Galaxy A56 (and earlier fashions) right here, however has gone even additional in slimming the A57 down and making it really feel extra premium.

Signature options resembling a pill-shaped digital camera module, supporting three distinct lenses, and a ‘key island’ (containing the ability and quantity buttons) that bulges out from the best aspect of the telephone stay.

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Nonetheless, at 161.5 x 76.8mm, the Galaxy A57 has a fractionally smaller footprint than its predecessor, because of barely slimmer bezels.

However the actually consequential determine right here is 6.9mm. That’s the thickness of the Galaxy A57, which implies that it has shed a big 0.5mm from its waistline.

In trimming right down to this diploma, Samsung has shaved a noticeable 19g from the load of the telephone, bringing it down to simply 179g. Earlier telephones within the vary have felt substantial, if not downright heavy, however the Galaxy A57 feels simply so.

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Regardless of this, the Samsung Galaxy A57 feels each bit as premium as its predecessor, with an aluminium physique and Gorilla Glass Victus+ to the entrance and rear. Certainly, Samsung has really improved the construct high quality with a superior IP68 mud and water resistance score.

My mannequin is available in a barely uninteresting shade referred to as Superior Icyblue, which appears to be like like a white T-shirt that has been put by the wash a couple of too many instances. You too can specify it in Superior Grey, Superior Navy, and Superior Lilac.

Display

• 6.7-inch 120Hz Full HD+ Tremendous AMOLED show
• 1200nits (Excessive Brightness Mode or HBM), 1900nits (peak)
• Optical in-display fingerprint sensor

Samsung hasn’t touched the show of the Galaxy A57 in comparison with final yr, but it surely stays a pleasure to make use of all the identical. It’s a 6.7-inch Tremendous AMOLED with a Full HD+ decision and a 120Hz refresh price.

In contrast to different producers, Samsung doesn’t allow you to pressure that most decision to be energetic on a regular basis, however the firm’s computerized implementation is sweet sufficient that you just received’t discover it stuttering or slowing down.

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The Galaxy A56 launched a newly bolstered most brightness of 1200 nits in excessive brightness mode, and 1900 nits in HDR situations. That is still the case with the Galaxy A57.

It’s not the brightest display screen in its class – each the Pixel 10a and the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion make mincemeat out of it – but it surely’s vivid sufficient usually outside situations, whereas HDR content material appears to be like suitably vibrant.

The in-display fingerprint sensor isn’t the snappiest I’ve used, even for a mid-ranger, however I discovered it to be sufficiently dependable.

Specs & Efficiency

• 4nm Samsung Exynos 1680 chipset
• 13% bigger vapour chamber than A56
• 8 or 12GB of RAM

Samsung’s A-series telephones have by no means precisely been famend for his or her velocity, even throughout the extra modest mid-range class. The Galaxy A57 doesn’t prime any benchmark tables both, but it surely simply warrants the ‘quick sufficient’ description.

The model new Exynos 1680 chip (Samsung’s personal) makes its debut right here, and it’s an honest performer. Benchmark checks recommend a 16% increase in CPU multi-core efficiency and a few 13% increase in GPU efficiency.

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It’s not an enormous increase, but it surely provides beneficial headroom relating to day-to-day operating. Flicking between residence screens and menus isn’t far off flagship-smooth, and leaping between open apps tends to yield solely a minor pause.

As talked about already, the fingerprint unlock system can really feel a bit of ponderous, however the largest signal that you just’re utilizing a less expensive telephone comes with the digital camera app. It takes a beat longer in addition up than the perfect telephones, and night time photographs can require a patience-testing quantity of shutter time.

In terms of its rivals, the Galaxy A57 is roughly equal to the Pixel 10a and Nothing Cellphone (4a) Professional in CPU phrases, however can’t match as much as both with its GPU. Contemplating it’s the costliest of the three, that’s not an awesome look and also you would possibly count on higher gaming prowess from Samsung.

I’m significantly impressed by the Galaxy A57’s efficiency stability, nonetheless. After the Galaxy A56 elevated the dimensions of its vapour chamber by 15%, Samsung has boosted the dimensions by an additional 13%, and it reaps dividends. Operating the prolonged Wild Life Excessive Stress Take a look at, it barely assorted from the primary graphical exercise to the final, indicating an absence of thermal throttling, which even some flagship telephones succumb to.

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In terms of gaming, I couldn’t get my regular first port of name – Future Rising – to run with out crashing the entire telephone, hinting at some potential early driver or stability points. Ubisoft’s The Division Resurgence, nonetheless, ran effectively sufficient on a default mixture of Excessive graphics, Medium decision, and Normal framerate – albeit with a couple of pauses.

Elsewhere on the Galaxy A57 spec sheet, you get Bluetooth 6.0, WiFi 6e, NFC, GPS and dual-SIM functionality (5G, in fact. It’s all fairly customary fare.

Cameras

• 50Mp f/1.8 primary w/ OIS + 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide + 5Mp f/2.4 macro digital camera
• 12Mp f/2.2 selfie digital camera
• As much as 4K/30fps video back and front

It’s considerably disappointing to notice that Samsung hasn’t actually performed something with the Galaxy A57 digital camera system. It’s the identical modest twin digital camera set-up that we noticed within the Galaxy A56, which really dates all the best way again to the Samsung Galaxy A54 from 2023!

There’s the identical 1/1.56″ 50Mp f/1.8 primary digital camera, allied to the identical 12Mp f/2.2 ultra-wide. I’m not counting the 5Mp macro digital camera as a separate concern, as if such parts have been of any critical sensible use, you might be assured that top-end flagship telephones could be utilizing them.

Advances in picture processing and the brand new and improved Exynos 1680 chip imply that there have been enhancements, however they’re comparatively minor.

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The principle digital camera continues to take respectable photographs in good lighting, with strong dynamic vary (for a mid-ranger) and people signature Samsung punched-up blue skies. They’re not probably the most pure photographs, however they’re undoubtedly straightforward on the attention and eminently shareable.

The 12Mp ultra-wide can’t match as much as the primary digital camera on element or dynamic vary – to be anticipated – however Samsung’s picture processing experience ensures a comparatively constant tone between the 2.

Within the absence of a devoted telephoto, the Galaxy A57 has to crop in on that primary sensor for zoomed photographs. This produces tonally constant photographs, although element begins to falter at 4x, and also you in all probability shouldn’t even hassle with 10x.

There’s a 12Mp digital camera round entrance, which seems satisfactory selfie photographs. I discover Samsung’s portrait algorithm to be a bit of iffy at separating topic from background right here, but it surely does a strong job of capturing pure pores and skin tones.

Whereas the AI providing is nowhere close to as intensive as on the Samsung Galaxy S26 vary, Samsung has included a few AI instruments by its Gallery app. You possibly can Remaster photographs to almost-instantly make them clearer and crisper, whereas there’s additionally an honest Object Eraser perform. Simply circle to make objects disappear.

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Video recording extends to a mere 4K at 30fps, which is pretty typical of telephones at this value. Nonetheless, it does place it behind the Pixel 10a and Pixel 9a, each of which may hit 4K at 60fps.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 45W Tremendous Quick Cost 2.0 wired charging
• No wi-fi charging

Samsung might need decreased the scale and weight of its newest mid-range smartphone, however the Galaxy A57 retains the identical 5000mAh battery as earlier than.

That is in peril of dropping under what we’d think about to be a median measurement for a bigger telephone resembling this, amidst a wider development of elevated capacities. It nonetheless proves ample in day by day use, although.

It’s greater than capable of see you thru a full day of fairly heavy utilization with out even threatening to expire of juice. On at some point of comparatively transient (three hours and fifteen minutes of screen-on time) however intensive use, which included an hour and a half of net looking, 50 minutes of gaming, and half-hour of YouTube, I used to be left with 41%.

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With that stated, the Galaxy A57 didn’t precisely set the world alight with its PCMark 3.0 battery check outcomes. It scored greater than an hour worse than the Galaxy A56, in reality, and fell a number of hours shy of the Nothing Cellphone (4a) Professional and the Google Pixel 10a.

45W Tremendous Quick Cost 2.0 quick charging makes a return, making this one of many speedier chargers within the Samsung line-up. I used to be capable of get the Galaxy A57 from empty to 65% in half-hour.

You received’t be getting wi-fi charging right here, nonetheless. This nonetheless isn’t a typical characteristic within the sub-£500/$500 class, but it surely’s one which key rival Google affords with the Pixel 10a and Pixel 9a.

Software program & Apps

• One UI 8.5 with Android 16
• 6 years of OS & safety replace assist
• ‘Superior Intelligence’ rather than Galaxy AI

At a time when homeowners of older Galaxy S telephones have been complaining in regards to the delay in getting the newest One UI 8.5 replace, it’s gratifying to see the Galaxy A57 delivery with Samsung’s newest UI proper out of the field.

This sits atop Android 16, offering the telephone with most (however not all) of the options and UI components of the Samsung Galaxy S26 vary.

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Samsung’s UI is without doubt one of the freshest and sharpest-looking in the marketplace, reflecting the corporate’s long-term dedication to the Android platform and shut relationship with Google.

I significantly just like the sharp, vibrant widgets that populate the primary House Display, although it’s a disgrace that there’s nonetheless no signal of the handy Now Transient software from the Galaxy S collection. The lock display screen Now Bar widget that we get right here isn’t fairly the identical factor, regardless of the shared nomenclature.

One other factor that’s lacking is Samsung’s much-vaunted Galaxy AI suite of machine studying instruments. Instead is what the corporate calls ‘Superior Intelligence’ – a leaner, easier roster of AI-enhanced options.

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AI Choose provides you a collection of context-sensitive actions based mostly on the current contents of the display screen, Learn Aloud supplies a text-to-speech perform for net pages, and Voice Transcription does the other for voice and name recordings.

Samsung has maintained its admirable streak of intensive software program assist guarantees, with solely Google’s Pixel collection capable of beat its six-year assure.

Worth & Availability

It might be a strong refinement of the Galaxy A56, however these minor enhancements should be thought of throughout the context of an unwelcome value rise.

The baseline 256GB mannequin of the Samsung Galaxy A57 begins from £529, which is a £30 improve over the 2025 mannequin. This positions the telephone between the Google Pixel 10a (£499) and the iPhone 17e (£599).

This time round, you may also bump that capability as much as 512GB, which additionally provides you further reminiscence at 12GB of RAM, however you’ll should pay the considerably ridiculous value of £699 for the privilege.

Over within the US, the storage provision is barely completely different. There’s a 128GB mannequin for $549.99, or a 256GB mannequin for $609.99.

You should purchase it from the likes of Samsung, Amazon and loads of different retailers.

As we famous in our hands-on preview, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE begins from £649, so that you’d actually have to want that further capability over the latter’s superior-everything-else to make it worthwhile.

Verify our information to the perfect mid-range telephones to see our present prime 10 suggestions.

Do you have to purchase the Samsung Galaxy A57?

Samsung has created its most premium mid-range telephone but within the Galaxy A57. Design enhancements make it a extra pleasing telephone to stay with than any earlier mannequin, bringing it even nearer (in really feel at the least) to the flagship Galaxy S vary.

With that stated, that is one other case of refinement over innovation. It’s a disgrace there hasn’t been extra consideration paid to the telephone’s stagnant digital camera system, specifically, in addition to its battery – even when it’s a reasonably strong performer in each respects.

We’re not thrilled with Samsung bumping up the value, given the relative lack of development and the existence of better-performing or extra thrilling rivals for much less cash.

An terrible lot of individuals merely need the perfect Samsung telephone inside their price range, nonetheless, and it’s by no means been simpler to suggest the highest Galaxy A mannequin because the one which most individuals ought to get.

If you wish to get monetary savings, look to the Galaxy A37 as an alternative.

Specs

• Android 16, One UI 8.5
• 6.7in, FHD+, OLED, 120Hz, flat show
• In-display optical fingerprint sensor
• Exynos 1680
• 8GB/12GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/512GB storage
• 50Mp, f/1.8 primary digital camera
• 12Mp macro digital camera
• As much as 4K @ 30fps rear video
• 12Mp front-facing digital camera
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e
• Bluetooth 6.0
• 5000mAh battery
• 45W charging
• 161.5 x 76.8 x 6.9 mm
• 179g
• Launch colors: Superior Navy, Superior Grey, Superior Icyblue, Superior Lilac