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Samsung's Galaxy A37, A57 New Pricing Tests the Limits of a Plastic Phone

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Why This Matters

Samsung's new Galaxy A37 and A57 smartphones introduce higher pricing for budget-friendly devices, emphasizing design upgrades like water resistance and improved features, but also highlight the ongoing trade-off between cost and build quality. This shift impacts consumers seeking value, as they must now weigh enhanced features against increased prices and plastic construction. For the industry, it signals Samsung's strategy to balance affordability with premium features in its mid-range lineup.

Key Takeaways

Samsung's announcement of the new $450 Galaxy A37 and $550 Galaxy A57 today brings good news and bad news for value-conscious customers looking for a cheaper phone.

Much like we've seen on the flagship-level Galaxy S26, both phones are priced higher than the A36 and A56 they are replacing -- in this case by $50 -- though storage options for both phones still start at 128GB. However, both phones did get a design improvement that features IP68 water resistance and will feature the newly updated Circle to Search, with enhancements like Find the Look for identifying outfits.

Starting with the $450 Galaxy A37, this phone has a 6.7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It runs on Samsung's Exynos 1480 processor and has a 45-watt wired charging speed, which Samsung says will recharge its 5,000-mAh battery from 0% to 65% in 30 minutes.

The lavender edition of the Galaxy A37 is easily my favorite color of the bunch. Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The phone is made from plastic and comes in four colors: charcoal, gray-green, white and -- my favorite -- lavender. (Note: Samsung adds the word "Awesome" in front of all of these color names, but I'm going to save us from this.) The A37 also comes in a 256GB model that costs $540.

The A37's cameras include a 50-megapixel wide, an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 5-megapixel macro on the back, along with a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front. The A37 gets a sampling of Galaxy AI features, including object eraser for editing photos, language translation and an upgraded Bixby assistant.

The Samsung Galaxy A57 includes the Best Face feature for fixing photos where someone is blinking. Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The $550 Galaxy A57 moves up from plastic to a metal body but only comes in navy. It also has a 6.7-inch display, but weighs in at 179 grams, which is markedly lighter than the A56's 198g. During my hands-on time, it was noticeably light, especially for a phone with the larger display size.

The phone runs on Samsung's Exynos 1680 processor. It also gets a few more AI photo editing tools like Best Face for fixing group photos where someone is blinking.

The cameras on the A57 include a 50-megapixel wide, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 5-megapixel macro on the back and, like the A37, includes a 12-megapixel selfie camera. A step-up 256GB model costs $610, but it's worth noting that this price is really close to the $650 Galaxy S25 FE, which includes all of the Galaxy AI features along with a telephoto camera.

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