We got both the Galaxy A37 and A57 at the same time about a week ago, and I’ve been busy testing these two phones. We’ll start with reviewing the Galaxy A57 first since I think this phone is more exciting and I also discovered some… weird quirks about this phone. For all I can say, this is definitely not a copy-paste from the A56 from last year as there are quite a lot of changes.
Display
On paper, this is a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels and also goes up to 120Hz refresh rate. From our test, the maximum brightness can reach around 1130 nits and the minimum brightness is about 1.86 nits. Quite a good range, I’d say.
Before we test the color gamut coverage, we just cranked it up to the maximum vividness to push the display to its fullest – and we can achieve 99.51% of sRGB and 96.92% of DCI-P3, and the average ΔE number remains to be very low. That maximum ΔE number should only be a random spike somewhere and we can safely ignore it since the average is so low.
Outside of the specs, the Galaxy A57 actually has a tinier bezel compared to the predecessor, but it’s still big compared to other phones of this category. Better than the Pixel 10a for sure, though.
Camera
Let’s then jump to the cameras. They’re practically the same on paper when compared to the previous generation. Triple cameras, and the last one is a dedicated 5MP macro lens. However, Samsung did change the processing – so does the A57 take good pics?
To have a look at all the pictures and videos taken with the Samsung Galaxy A57, watch our video at the top of this review.
Software
Then, the software. The A57 comes with One UI 8.5 on top of Android 16, and the feature set is pretty similar compared to what we have on the S26 series.
We have the entire suite of customizations via Good Lock, all the automation that we can ask for through Modes and Routines, and my personal favorite – Samsung Wallet is also present here. Yeah, the A57 has NFC so we can make payments or unlock doors with the keycards we saved.
However, the Samsung’s A series will install some games that no one asked. In this case, we have Shopee, Tile Explorer, and Vita Mahjong. Shopee is indeed useful but both the games are… why?
Luckily, we can just easily uninstall them, and also uninstall or disable many other apps that come with the phone. Even Bixby can be disabled.
Also, Samsung’s new box design of the Galaxy A series directly tells us that this phone will receive 6 generations of Android OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches.
Performance
Now, it’s time to talk about the performance. Like its predecessors, it’ll come with the latest mid-range Exynos chipset. In this case, the A57 is powered by the Exynos 1680. It’s using a combination of Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520 CPU cores, and paired with the Xclipse 550 GPU.
This Exynos 1680 is actually a very good mid-range chipet for gaming. However, the caveat is that the Exynos 1680 still needs to do shader caching. For example, Zenless Zone Zero had lots of stutters when we are doing the actions the first time, because it needs to do shader caching. Once the shaders are cached, the frame rate is actually way better than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 by about 10fps. The gaming performance is actually very good.
Even in Genshin Impact, it can maintain around 40-ish FPS while in combat after the shaders are compiled.
Wuthering Waves is around 20-ish FPS during the intensive nest fight, and that’s actually very surprising given that other phones of this category were getting like 10fps only. But again, only when the shaders are compiled.
So that got me wondering… what does the “compiling shaders” screen actually do since we still have to go through all these stutters for shader compilation? I have no idea about that.
And surprisingly, there is no heating issue on the A57 despite it taking in like 5-6W average through these games that we’ve tested. It never once thermal throttled, and the temperatures are very well-controlled. I have no idea what sort of magic Samsung did on the A57, since this phone is so thin as well.
If you want to have a look at all the frame rate data, the frame times, the wattage, temperature, all of that stuff – then watch our full gaming test video of the A57 down below.
Battery life
Next up, we have to talk about the battery life. Despite it having a 5,000mAh battery – no idea what’s the Wh value because mAh is a very dumb way to measure battery capacity – the A57 can last for quite a long time. Using our standardized battery life test, we clocked in 15 hours and 34 minutes. Compared to the Galaxy A56 from last year, it managed to squeeze out another half hour from the test that we use.
Remember, the battery capacity remains the same as before.
Charging speed
Now, the charging speed. On paper, the Galaxy A57 can take in up to 45W of wired fast charging, just like before. However, this time, things are different – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It can charge from 15% to completion in around 68-ish minutes, not too bad there I’d say but it could be better because look at the red line. That’s the temperature of the battery during the charging cycle.
From the data we gathered, the Galaxy A57 will only take in around 41W at most for a short while. During that 41W charging speed time period, the maximum temperature doesn’t even reach anywhere near 35°C, and it has already slowed down the charging speed.
Other smartphones that we’ve tested can actually go up all the way until 45°C before throttling the charging speed.
What I’m trying to convey here is that since the temperature of the battery on the A57 is so low, it can definitely be charged at a high wattage for a longer period to reach 100% faster, and it’ll still be safe. But, I don’t know if it’s due to efficiency that Samsung is doing this. Either way, the temperature here is insanely good.
Thinness at no cost?
And Samsung achieved all of that while having such a superbly thin design. Look at this phone. It’s only 6.9mm – haha, nice, and if we look at it this way with my thumb in the shot – you can see just how thin it is. I know this might be difficult to judge, so here’s a comparison with the S26 Ultra.
And I am very surprised that Samsung didn’t compromise anything for the A57 despite its thinness. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery – again, no idea what’s the Wh value – and it is the same battery capacity as the S26 Ultra. That means Samsung increased the lithium battery’s energy density – the Wh/liter. That’s how they manage to achieve to fit in a 5,000mAh battery while being much thinner than the S26 series.
That got me wondering – what went wrong with the S26 and the S26+? They could’ve been thinner, but Samsung didn’t make it so. Granted, the Galaxy A-series doesn’t have wireless charging – but my point still stands.
Design
Oh – the design of phone is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s basically the same as the previous generation and it still looks great, especially since the phone is so thin. We have it in the Navy color here which is extremely dark and I hope you can see it in the video.
I’m personally not a fan of this super glossy glass back as it is a fingerprint magnet and it’s also super slippery. I’m not a fan of this design – but can easily be solved by slapping a case on it anyway.
Oh, speaking of that – having such a thin phone means that I can slap a case on it, and it’ll be just as thick as the S26 Ultra bare naked.
A few more things to mention
And we have a few more things to go through with the Galaxy A57. It has a USB 2 port at the bottom, and also no display output capability.
It also has dual SIM card slot – at least for our region, and also eSIM support. Yes, we’re adding eSIM support in this section of our reviews too since it’s becoming an important part of our devices.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A57?
So, the question then becomes… should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A57? Well, let’s take a look at it in the big picture. For the 256GB variant, the Galaxy A56 was RM1,999, while the new A57 is at RM2,249 during the promotional period. But… Samsung phone prices are always very different in the retail market.
So, when we look Shopee, one of the many e-commerce platforms we have in Malaysia, is already down to around like RM1,900 already. Or, you can also get the 512GB variant at only RM2,100.
Remember, it’s a brand new launch. Comparing this retail price with other phones that are in this category, the A57 suddenly becomes a fairly good deal.
But then again, the Galaxy S25 FE. It’s basically better in every way and yet the S25 FE is available at only around RM2,200, though the listings seem a bit sussy.
Either way, the Samsung Galaxy A57 is a surprisingly good phone and the retail price is also rather enticing, but the S25 FE’s price has dropped so much that we can’t ignore it.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
The post Samsung Galaxy A57 review – actually a good deal? appeared first on Nasi Lemak Tech.
