Last month, Samsung jacked up the price of two of its flagship smartphones by $100. Now, its two new midrange models—the Galaxy A37 5G and Galaxy A57 5G—are getting $50 price bumps, despite minor hardware updates over last year’s Galaxy A36 and A56. Samsung has also trimmed the lineup—there’s no successor to the Galaxy A26 this year, at least not yet.
These price increases may be indicative of the economic climate, what with tariffs, higher oil prices due to the war in Iran, and the memory shortage that has driven up RAM and storage costs across the board. If a phone’s price doesn’t go up, it could still mean fewer meaningful hardware upgrades to keep costs down, very much like the recent Google Pixel 10a. (The outlier is the iPhone 17e, which managed to add features like MagSafe and a new processor, along with a few other upgrades, without a change to the price over the iPhone 16e.)
“Price increases or ‘down‑speccing’ have become the norm,” writes Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC, in an email to WIRED. “Unfortunately, consumers will need to adjust to this new reality. The biggest bottleneck for brands right now is memory, with suppliers facing tight availability and significantly higher costs than in past years.” Ubrani says that while geopolitical factors haven’t yet affected hardware pricing, they are adding uncertainty that could increase costs in the future.
Samsung did not comment on exactly what is driving the price bump. However, it says consumers eyeing its A-series phones prioritize upgrading out of necessity—maybe their current phone just broke or is really old—and they don’t care much for AI features. Value for money is the number one purchase driver, above performance and battery life. So it’s a little odd to see the company raise prices, though Samsung hopes the improvements are compelling.
The Galaxy A57 5G costs $550 with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, and $610 if you bump storage to 256 GB. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A37 5G starts at $450 for 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, or $540 for 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. They both officially go on sale on April 9.
Small Updates
Processor upgrades are the main highlight for these phones. The Galaxy A37 is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 1480, which should offer 14 percent better CPU performance, 24 percent better graphics, and, perhaps shockingly, 167 percent better neural processing performance—helpful for AI tasks. That’s compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip in last year’s Galaxy A36.
The Galaxy A57 sports the Exynos 1680, which isn’t a huge leap over the Exynos 1580 in the Galaxy A56, but still offers a nice lift: 10 percent better CPU performance, 7 percent faster graphics, and 42 percent improved neural processing. Both of these phones still have the same 5,000-mAh battery capacity and charging speeds. (There’s no wireless charging, despite competing phones like the iPhone 17e or Google Pixel 10a offering the feature.)
Both have 6.7-inch screens as before, though the Galaxy A57 has slimmer bezels around the display for a more modern look. Speaking of, the glass on these phones is glossy with a ceramic-like finish. Uniquely, the A57 has a notable reduction in size and weight over its predecessor—it’s 0.5 mm thinner and 18 grams lighter. It feels much less cumbersome compared to the A37.
The A37 can hit 1,900 nits at peak brightness—matching the Galaxy A57—making it easy to read the screen in sunny conditions. However, compare this stat with the Pixel 10a’s peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and you’ll feel shortchanged. Also improved is the dust and water resistance for both phones, now at the gold-standard IP68 rating (it was IP67 before).
There are small improvements to the camera system. The A37’s main 50-MP sensor now features larger pixels, so you get brighter and sharper images and even HDR video. Samsung says it has improved image signal processing (ISP) algorithms, and notably, you can snap photos twice as fast as before. Portrait mode has also been souped up with artificial intelligence—AI segmentation helps detect the background, person, and sky to create a greater depth effect. Oh, and Samsung’s Object Eraser feature, which removes unwanted objects from your photos, works faster, too.
While the Galaxy A57 doesn’t have any hardware changes to its cameras over its predecessor, Samsung says the ISP has been updated to deliver better ultrawide and nighttime images and video with less noise. Photos snap slightly faster, and there’s also less of an awkward transition when you switch lenses.
Connectivity improvements are exclusive to the Galaxy A57, with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6.0 support. Software-wise, both phones enjoy the same new Circle to Search “Find the Look” update as the latest Galaxy S26 series, where if you draw a circle around an entire outfit in an image, Google’s AI can now identify every article of clothing instead of just picking one. And in Samsung’s Voice Recorder app, your recordings can be transcribed and translated into other languages.
You also get the upgraded Bixby experience, where you can ask Samsung’s voice assistant about your phone’s device settings in natural language, and it can help adjust them. Sadly, these midrange phones don’t support some newer software features Samsung just added to the S26 series, like Gemini’s Task Automation or the file-sharing feature that lets you easily send files and photos to iPhones using Quick Share to AirDrop. At least they both will receive six years of software updates.
These two Samsung phones are facing stiff competition. Motorola is expected to debut the Moto G Stylus 2026 soon, which will give both handsets a run for their money. There’s also the new Nothing Phone (4a) Pro ($499), which has a stronger triple-camera system that includes a telephoto zoom. And there’s the aforementioned Google Pixel 10a, which has more helpful software features and extra perks like wireless charging.
But Samsung’s phones often see deep discounts during sale events, like Prime Day, and carrier promotions, and that’s when their value shines.
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