While flagship phones can cost more than $2000, you don’t have to spend anywhere near that to get a great display, good battery life and more than adequate camera.
In the mid-tier Android market, priced under $800, the competition is fierce.
Companies such as Samsung, Oppo, Motorola and Google are offering better features each year, including useful artificial intelligence capabilities. Customers expect faster processors to handle everything from gaming and video editing to basic AI features.
Samsung has remained a clear leader in the market and its latest Galaxy A57 and A37 5G models are likely to keep it that way.
The new A57, which we have been testing for the past couple of weeks, is a solid all-rounder.
It is often a popular choice for business owners providing employees with a phone that is both functional and reliable, including in mining, banking and aged care.
It is also popular with younger people buying their first phone and baby boomers who don’t need the latest technology, as well as those upgrading from entry-level A-series devices.
The A57, while dearer than last year’s model, offers plenty of value with improvements to the camera, display and an impressive two-day battery life.
It is thinner and lighter, has a solid build and better protection against damage, dust and water.
Some of the more useful features include transcription on the voice recorder app, which is handy for business meetings or students at lectures.
AI is also more integral to everyday tasks, such as doing a long press on the edge panel to extract text or move images into Samsung Notes or Photo Editor for faster editing. Circle to Search remains a popular option for online shoppers.
In photo editing, the object eraser now works better to remove distractions. On the Galaxy A57, Best Face makes it easier to capture group shots.
The cameras on the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G lack the zoom capabilities of their flagship counterparts, but the 50-megapixel main shooter delivers good photos in a range of scenarios.
While the camera has a digital zoom of up to 10 times, there is noise in lowlight shots.
Phones such as Samsung’s S26 Ultra deliver much better photos when zooming or in lower light.
That said, we took the A57 on a night shoot to compare it with a $3200 flagship folding phone from another company. While the photos were not as good on the Samsung phone, they were certainly not four times worse.
Samsung says there have been improvements to night photography as well as shutter speed to allow users to capture key moments faster. In our testing, from sunrises to well after dark, we were pleasantly surprised by the details captured, though on low light our dogs on the move were just too quick for the A57.
Quick editing options, such as auto edit and a range of filters, mean you can improve everything from portraits of people and pets to sunrise scenes easily.
Samsung says as well as upgraded camera hardware, an improved image signal processor delivers brighter, clearer results.
Both the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G also benefit from AI-based subject recognition and scene optimisation to balance portraits, preserve natural skin tones and create clearer background separation.
The new Galaxy A series uses both an upgraded Bixby and Google’s Gemini to provide more intuitive interactions across native Galaxy apps and selected third-party apps.
On the A57, the super AMOLED+ features better detail and an impressive 1900-nit display, which should be good for tradies in the great outdoors.
The A57, which lacks builtin wireless charging, has a 5000mAh battery that can be charged to 65 per cent in 30 minutes, while it also comes with six years of operating system and security updates.
For parents wanting to purchase a phone for their child or teen, both the A57 and A37 come with the same parental controls as the flagship Samsung devices.
If you don’t need the very best camera setup, the A57 is a very good option, but if you are looking for a better telephoto lens camera, Samsung’s S25FE, while more expensive, is also worth considering.
Pricing in Australia
Samsung Galaxy A57 5G: $749 and $849 for 128GB and 256GB respectively
Samsung Galaxy A37: Starts at $599 for 128GB
