Samsung’s Galaxy A57 gets thinner, faster, and more expensive

Both it and the A37 arrive in the US with a $50 price bump.Both it and the A37 arrive in the US with a $50 price bump.Samsung has announced its two newest midrange phones, the Galaxy A57 and A37. Both phones benefit from a jump to IP68 water-resistance and some improved AI features, but the bigger upgrades are reserved for the A57, which is now thinner, lighter, and has a slimmer bezel around the display. The downside? They both also cost $50 more than last year’s equivalents.The $549.99 Galaxy A57 is Samsung’s direct rival to the $499 Google Pixel 10A and $599 iPhone 17E. To help it compete, Samsung has slimmed the phone to just 6.9mm thick, noticeably thinner than either alternative, while dropping the weight to 179g. That’s been achieved without giving up either the Gorilla Glass Victus+ body or the metal frame. The result is a phone that feels slim and slick, even if I don’t think anyone would mistake it for a flagship. In the US Samsung has made the dull decision to only launch the phone in navy blue, though other markets will also get gray, light blue, and lilac.Samsung has also enhanced the A57’s water-resistance, with a small bump from IP67 in last year’s A56 to IP68 now, and slimmed the bezel around the display, which helps contribute to the premium aesthetic. The internal spec upgrades are minimal though, like a larger cooling chamber or a jump from the Exynos 1580 chip to the more recent 1680. That should bring faster performance and small improvements to photo processing, but the phone’s other specs remain much the same.The A57 is joined by the $449.99 Galaxy A37. This hasn’t had the same nip and tuck, so is still 7.4mm thick — fairly slim regardless — and 196g. It’s otherwise remarkably hard to differentiate from the A57 aesthetically: the biggest giveaways are the slightly thicker body and the lack of antenna lines, a perk of this phone’s cheaper plastic frame.The A37 is launching in its full suite of colors in the US, with charcoal, gray-green, white, and lavender versions of the phone. It’s had a few spec bumps too, with a new Exynos 1480 chipset; a jump to the same 50-megapixel, 1/1.56-inch main camera as the A57; and a 1900 nit peak brightness display that also matches the A57.Both phones have 5,000mAh batteries, 45W charging (faster than Samsung’s flagship S26, believe it or not, though the trade-off is a total lack of wireless charging), and pair their main cameras with basic ultrawide, macro, and selfie options. Both will receive six years of Android OS upgrades, and six years of security patches.They’ll also both enjoy the same upgraded AI features from launch: a choice between the Bixby and Gemini assistants, upgraded Circle to Search, and AI transcription in the recorder app and voicemail. At least for now though, neither is getting the task automation upgrade that allows Gemini to book you an Uber or order groceries, which just rolled out on the S26 and Pixel 10 phones.The new Galaxy phones will go on sale in the US on April 9th, and the UK from April 10th. The A37 starts at $449.99 / £399 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, rising to $539.99 / £459 for 8+256GB. The A57 has different configurations between markets, costing $549.99 for 8+128GB, $609.99 / £529 for 8+256GB, and £699 for 12+512GB.Photography by Dominic Preston / The VergeA free daily digest of the news that matters most.This is the title for the native ad