Not Worth It at Full Price

Seeing the lackluster specs—the same camera, display quality, and battery capacity—and $50 higher price over the previous Galaxy A56 5G, I was dismissive of Samsung’s Galaxy A57 5G when it was announced in March. However, after using it for nearly a week, I can see the minor improvements adding up.

Despite its appealing thin and light design (for a big phone) and certain aspects that are better than its nearest rivals, the Galaxy A57 5G faces tough competition from Samsung’s own phones at discounted prices. Is it worth spending $550 on the Galaxy A57 when the Galaxy S25 FE is available for $500? I don’t think so.

More lightweight big phones, please!

Samsung shrank the size of the Galaxy A57 while retaining the same 6.7-inch display and 5,000mAh battery. The Galaxy A57 measures 6.9mm thick and weighs 179 g, which feels great for a phone with this screen size. It’s thinner and lighter than the smaller Google Pixel 10a (9mm and 183g), the more premium-feeling Nothing Phone 4a Pro (7.95mm and 210g), and the more capable OnePlus 15R (8.1mm and 213g).

If your budget is around $500, you no longer need to settle for a smaller display in a lightweight package compared to more expensive phones.

Like most recent Samsung phones, the Galaxy A57 has flat sides and rounded corners. I usually don’t like flat-sided phones because the edges dig into my hand, but the thin design here helps one-hand usage. Its side and volume buttons are in reachable distance on the right side, but they’re less tactile than my preference.

The new Samsung phone comes in four colors, including Navy (photographed above), Gray, Icyblue and Lilac. The only part I dislike about its design is the glossy back panel. It attracts smudges from everything, making it look cheap. It might not be a problem on lighter shades like Icyblue and Lilac, or if you use a case on your phone. You also get Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both the front and back, as well as flagship-grade IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

The 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display is solid with a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080, a 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+. The slim bezels help it look more premium than other similarly priced midrange phones.

I enjoyed consuming content on this display more than I did on the Pixel 10a, which has noticeably thicker bezels. While it is a highly reflective screen (I wish more phones had an anti-glare coating), I had no problem navigating on Google Maps or taking photos outdoors. The screen is vibrant and gets plenty bright in direct light.

There’s a not-so-quick fingerprint scanner underneath the display for biometric authentication. It recognized my thumb with 100% accuracy, but it wasn’t as fast as similar fingerprint readers on other phones like the OnePlus 15R or Galaxy S-series devices. You need to press and hold your thumb for a second instead of tapping it quickly and expecting the phone to immediately unlock.

New chipset adds marginal gains

The Galaxy A57 is powered by Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1680 chip, which offers slightly better performance than the Galaxy A56’s Exynos 1580. The CPU, GPU, and NPU (neural processing unit, used for AI tasks) improvements might not be noticeable in day-to-day life, but the Exynos 1680 adds a new image signal processor (ISP) that’s responsible for extracting better photos out of the same camera sensors as before. Plus, there’s support for faster DDR5 RAM.

U.S. models are stuck with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage. International versions also come with 12GB of RAM in 256GB and 512GB storage options (depending on your region). I tested the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage version.

I used the Galaxy A57 to stream videos, doomscroll on social media (X, Instagram, and Threads), message my pals and editors (WhatsApp and Slack), take photos, and navigate on Google Maps. I didn’t notice any stutter or lag. It did get warm when I was using the camera actively in the Delhi heat, but its performance remained unaffected.

The 5,000mAh battery has better endurance than before, probably due to the more efficient chip. You can easily go an entire day, unless you’re pushing the phone to its limits. I’m a heavy phone user (8-10 hours of screen time every day) and I had at least 10% battery left by 9 p.m. The Galaxy A57 can fast charge at 45 watts, which is the same as the Galaxy S26+ and faster than the Galaxy S26’s max 25W charging speed. You can expect it to go from 20% to full within an hour.

Software-wise, you’re getting Samsung’s usual One UI 8.5 (based on Android 16) and six years of guaranteed major OS upgrades. I like One UI’s fluidity and smooth animations. There’s nothing to complain about with the software, except for bloatware, like a bunch of Samsung apps (Samsung Shop, TV, News, My Galaxy), Microsoft apps (M365 Copilot, Outlook, LinkedIn), and Facebook.

You can reject most of the other additional apps during the initial setup process, but some of it always seeps through. For example, I didn’t turn on Glance, a lock screen feature that uses AI to automatically display content, but it kept showing up by changing my lock screen wallpaper and displaying news. Although I’m glad most of this bloatware can be disabled or uninstalled.

Of course, I can’t talk about a 2026 phone without mentioning AI features. There’s Google Gemini and Samsung Bixby support for your AI virtual assistant needs. I often use Bixby to toggle settings with my voice that I don’t want to look for. However, it needs an internet connection to turn on basic things like dark mode, which is silly; it should be something the assistant can do locally on-device.

Other AI features (that are worth using) include Object Eraser to quickly remove unwanted things like photobombers or trash from your photos, Live Transcribe for calls, and Gemini Live to ask questions about your surroundings. For example, I pointed my phone at Pokémon figures in the local market and asked Gemini to tell me if they were part of a special edition series. Another day, I asked it to help me declutter my desk. The Pokémon information was correct, while the added context for what objects were recyclable on my desk was helpful.

Extracting more out of the same camera hardware

As I mentioned earlier, the Exynos 1680 chip includes better camera processing. The Galaxy A57 has the same cameras as the Galaxy A56, so you get a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 5-megapixel macro. While I’m disappointed there’s no telephoto lens again, the A57 cameras do a decent job.

The main shooter does most of the heavy lifting. It captures rich colors with good dynamic range and a decent amount of details. If you like well-saturated photos with vibrancy, you’re going to like this camera. You also get plenty of filters to play around with and customize your shots.

The ultrawide sensor is similarly capable and delivers better detail and color reproduction than on the Galaxy A56. As for the macro sensor, it is mostly useless. I’d recommend using the 4x zoom in the 50-megapixel camera mode instead of switching to the macro camera. It’ll give you a nicer bokeh (background blur) and greater detail.

You might be disappointed by the Galaxy A57’s tendency to overprocess or botch photos in tough lighting situations. For example, I captured the above two photos against direct light within two seconds of each other, but only one of them processed correctly while the other blew out the background. It’s not a Samsung-only problem, as I’ve noticed this unreliable pattern on several Android phones, such as the OnePlus 15, Google Pixel 10, and Nothing Phone 4a Pro.

On the front, you get a 12-megapixel selfie shooter, which takes satisfactory shots and mostly accurate skin tones, at least for my face. The photos look soft, but the camera captured plenty of details on my face and didn’t brighten my skin artificially like on OnePlus phones.

Overall, the Galaxy A57 has a good camera system. It can take great shots and captures faster than the Google Pixel 10a. I just wish the macro camera was a telephoto, like on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro.

Tough competition from now-discounted 2025 phones

The Samsung Galaxy A57 is a good phone but not the same value as its predecessor. It would have been easier to recommend at the old price. At $550 for the model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, it is on the expensive side, especially when a similarly specced Galaxy A56 now costs less than $400.

The phone also faces tough competition from Nothing’s Phone 4a Pro, which gives you a more versatile camera setup and a quirky design, and the now-discounted Google Pixel 10 ($549 on Amazon), which has a brighter screen and flagship-grade hardware. For Samsung fans, the Galaxy S25 FE now costs $500 and provides a more versatile camera setup alongside more powerful performance. However, none of these phones can beat the Galaxy A57 on the overall big screen and hand-feel experience.

I’d recommend waiting for a price cut, which usually happens within a couple of months after launch. The Galaxy A57 will be a much better value then.