Samsung Galaxy A37 review: Samey but solid

Best Prices Today: Samsung Galaxy A37 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A37 is an inexpensive phone offering up the design language and some of the AI features from the firm’s flagship S series devices.

It’s not designed to blow you away with performance or next-gen tools, but what it does aim to deliver is that quintessential Samsung experience in a cheap package. This is why the Galaxy A-series phones are popular for the value-seeking average Joe.

There’s plenty of competition around the A37’s £399/$449 starting price, with the Honor 600 Lite, Nothing Phone (4a), Moto G86 5G, plus the now-discounted Oppo Reno 13, Google Pixel 9a and Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro all vying for attention.

And if you want a touch more power with a thinner design, Samsung also has the Galaxy A57 if you’re willing to part with a little more cash.

Samsung bills the A37 as a slim smartphone with enhanced cameras over its predecessor, a two-day battery, AI editing tools and the latest One UI 8.5 interface. I’ve put the Galaxy A37 5G to the test for a few weeks with my SIM in it to see if it lives up to the billing.

Note: Our Galaxy A37 review sample was supplied by Three UK, but it had no say in how we reviewed the device.

Design & Build

• Identical design to predecessor
• IP67 dust and water resistance
• Volume key is too high up to be comfortable

You’d be hard-pressed to visually tell the Samsung Galaxy A37 apart from its predecessor (the Galaxy A36), with the new handset borrowing the same design and frame size.

The only discernible differences are an extra gram in weight on the Galaxy A37, which tips the scales at pretty hefty 196g, along with its fresh palette of rather cheesily named colors; Awesome Charcoal, Awesome Lavender, Awesome White, and Awesome Graygreen.

My review unit was the rather muted ‘Awesome Charcoal’, with Lavender and Graygreen looking to be the more interesting hues for those wanting to stand out a little from the crowd.

While Samsung hasn’t wasted any time on a redesign, that’s not totally a bad thing. The Galaxy A37 looks good and is solidly built with Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back, sandwiching a plastic frame that does a reasonable job of imitating metal in the hand – although it certainly lacks the premium polish of the flagship S series.

The raised ridge on the right of the phone that houses the volume and power keys – dubbed Key Island – makes it easy to find them when you slide a finger or thumb up the phone, although the volume key does feel a little too high up the side. Those with smaller hands might find it a bit of a stretch.

Another improvement Samsung has made over the A36 is the water resistance, with the Galaxy A37 offering IP67 protection, allowing the handset to survive a 1.5m dunk for 30 minutes. Bath time scrolling is a-go.

Screen & Speakers

• Colourful 6.7-inch display is great for media
• Not the brightest screen in its category
• Stereo speakers are great for the price

The A37’s large 6.7-inch display is colourful and vibrant with Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology ensuring colours get a boost. It’s the same as the screen used on its predecessor, the A36.

The Full HD resolution (1080 x 2340) gives you a pixel density of 385ppi, there’s a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling, and a brightness of 1200 nits, all of which match its more expensive, A-Series sibling, the Galaxy A57. Not bad considering the A37 is £100/$100 cheaper.

What all this means is you get a display which is bright and colourful enough for texting, streaming, gaming and more. In bright sunlight, it can become a little difficult to see though, with brightness not matching the likes of the Nothing Phone 4a or Moto G86.

Samsung quotes a 1900 nits peak brightness. If you want a phone you can see easily for extended periods in bright sunlight, the A37 might not work for you.

You also get stereo speakers here, located on the short edges of the device. They kick out decent volume and clarity considering the size of the phone and its price point. You won’t be disappointed, but there’s Bluetooth connectivity if you’d rather listen via an external speaker or set of headphones.

Specs & Performance

• Samsung Exynos 1480
• 6GB or 8GB of RAM
• 128GB or 256GB of storage

The Samsung Galaxy A37 uses the brand’s own Exynos 1480 chipset, a change from last year, when the A36 came with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip.

Samsung’s lower mid-range chipset does the job, but the bigger point with the Galaxy A37 is with RAM. My review unit was the pricier 256GB of storage model, which comes with 8GB of storage.

If you’re after the entry-level model, which costs £399/$449.99, you’ll only get 6GB of RAM, and based on my experience with the pricier model, I’d be wary about recommending the cheaper configuration. In fact, Samsung UK doesn’t even sell this option at the time of writing.

Samsung doesn’t appear to have made any great strides with performance versus the A36 this phone replaces. The Galaxy A37 did handle everything I threw at it, but there’s noticeable lag when switching between apps, at times a sluggish interface, and longer wait times (compared to more powerful models) when loading intensive games. I was able to play Call of Duty Mobile on the high graphics setting and still be competitive in matches, though.

You shouldn’t expect flagship speed at this price point, but I’m concerned the lower RAM configuration might make the phone more than a little frustrating to use.

Taking a look at the benchmark results, the 8GB of RAM Galaxy A37 performs similarly to the Phone (4a), though the Nothing handset feels more fluid overall, while both phones outperform the Moto G86.

The Galaxy A37 also packs Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 5, NFC, GPS and dual-SIM capability.

Samsung Galaxy A37 5G benchmarks

Cameras

• 50Mp main sensor
• 8Mp ultrawide
• 5Mp macro
• 12Mp selfie camera

The Samsung Galaxy A37 cameras are very similar to those found on its predecessor. Samsung has stuck with the 50Mp main, 8Mp ultrawide, and 5Mp macro setup on the rear, while round the front we get another 12Mp snapper.

It’s not completely identical, though, as the main 50Mp camera features a couple of small improvements, with a larger sensor size and enhanced ISP (image signal processor) over the A36.

What this means is the Galaxy A37 offers up a solid photography experience for its price bracket, but it doesn’t break any new ground or particularly stand out from the crowd.

You do get bright, clear photos from the main 50Mp snapper, with a good level of detail and colours that pop thanks to Samsung’s image processing.

The 5Mp telephoto allows you to take 2x optical zoom photos while maintaining reasonable quality. You can zoom (digitally) all the way to 10x, but image clarity takes a noticeable dip, so I’d advise against zooming too much if you want to maintain nice shots.

The 4x zoom doesn’t do badly, and I was able to pick out a moving police boat with enough detail to read the lettering on the ship – check it out in the samples below.

Go the opposite way on the zoom bar and you’ll enter the 0.6x, 8Mp ultrawide camera, allowing you to squeeze more of a landscape into your shot. The Galaxy A37 does quite well here, although dynamic range and overall clarity aren’t quite as good in this mode.

Portrait mode does a nice job of blurring backgrounds around a subject, but it can sometimes fail to properly define the outline of some subjects – such as cat ears at 2x zoom.

Slide into the ‘more’ camera modes section of the app and you’ll find a dedicated macro option for close-up shots. The A37 suggests you move the camera within 3 and 5cm of your target subject for the best results – and with some patience and focus assistance, I was able to take a couple of detailed up-close shots.

There were a few which weren’t as good, though, and results will vary depending on lighting, hand steadiness, and the willingness of the focus to play ball.

Like the rear cameras, the selfie camera produces images you’ll be happy with, and its wide-angle mode means you can fit more of your friends in the shot without having to stretch your arm all the way from your body.

Portrait mode on the selfie snapper also does a pretty good job of separating the in-focus person from their blurred background, although less defined edges – such as fuzzy hair – aren’t always crisply defined.

Another upgrade Samsung has given the Galaxy A37 over its predecessor is an optimised Nightography mode with the aim of producing improved low-light shots. And the good news is, it works. A snap of a dingy, graffiti-covered metal door in a dark London side street comes out wonderfully bright, allowing the colours to pop far more than they did with the naked eye.

When it comes to shooting video, the Galaxy A37 can record in up to 4K (3840 x 2160) at 30fps, and at 60fps for a smoother frame rate if you reduce the resolution to Full HD (1080p). As with its predecessor, video recordings are smooth, steady and even.

Battery life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• Comfortably offers a full day of use
• 0-60% charge in as little as 30 minutes

Samsung claims the Galaxy A37 can offer up to two days of battery life between charges, thanks to the sizable 5000mAh battery it’s squeezed inside. However, from my tests, I’ve found this will be very difficult to achieve.

With light usage, I was able to get around a day and a half of use, and with my typical usage (roughly four to six hours of screen on time) the A37 gave me a solid 16 hours (7am – 11pm) of use with between 20% and 30% left in the tank as I climbed into bed.

The Galaxy A37 did score better than the previous two generations of phone (the A36 and A35) in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, scoring a respectable time of 13 hours and 36 minutes – a two hour improvement over the A36. However, this is still nothing to write home about in that benchmark.

While you’ll be lucky to get two full days from the A37 on a single charge, the battery does last a full day with juice left in a tank – although you’ll still be charging it nightly.

The 45W charging remains (although you’ll need to provide our own compatible charging adapter), allowing you to top up the A37 reasonably fast (0-60% in 30 minutes, Samsung claims) when you do need more juice. Yet I didn’t see these speeds when using my 45W GAN charger. Instead, I got 10% every 10 minutes.

There is no wireless charging option here, which isn’t a surprise on this lower mid-range phone. Look to the Pixel 9a if this is a must.

Software & Apps

• One UI 8.5
• Android 16
• 6 years of OS and security updates

The Samsung Galaxy A37 arrives with the firm’s One UI 8.5 interface, which sits on top of Android 16. If you’ve used a Samsung phone from the past couple of years, it’ll have a familiar look and feel, but if you’re transitioning from another Android or an iPhone, things are a little different.

First up, there’s the slightly frustrating duplication of apps, with Google’s suite of applications present alongside Samsung’s own implementations for things like Calendar and the web browser.

Samsung will understandably push you towards using its apps by default, but you can switch this to Google (or others) if you prefer.

One UI is feature-packed, however, with plenty of customisation options and settings allowing you to fine-tune the experience to your preference, which can make the phone feel more natural.

Like its predecessor, the Galaxy A37 doesn’t benefit from the array of Galaxy AI tools found on the firm’s flagship S series devices, which means there’s no Now Bar, Now Brief and so on.

It’s not devoid of AI, though, with simpler tools such as the object eraser function in the gallery app for removing unwanted photo-bombers, the ability to create custom camera filters, and an AI select tool allowing you to highlight part of your screen for AI to analyse and then suggest actions – such as providing an option to set an image as your wallpaper.

And of course, Google’s Gemini assistant, along with Samsung’s own Bixby, are both present if you find yourself wanting to converse with your phone.

The Galaxy A37 does come with a number of pre-loaded apps and games out of the box – aka bloatware – but they can be uninstalled if you like to keep your app drawer looking clean.

A positive point for the Galaxy A37 is that it arrives with decent longevity, with Samsung committing to six years of operating system (OS) updates and security upgrades.

There’s nothing here which is going to blow you away, but One UI 8.5 offers everything you need on a phone at the level of the A37.

Price & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A37 price starts at £399/$449.99 for the 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage configuration. That’s $50 more than the A36 it replaces, but the price stays the same in the UK (unlike the Galaxy A57).

It’s good to see Samsung hold pricing here, and for those who want a little more power – and this is the model I’d recommend – £459/$539.99 gets you the 8GB / 256GB model.

You can pick up the Galaxy A37 directly from Samsung UK (but only the more expensive model) and Samsung US, and from a number of retailers and carriers, after the phone went on sale on 10 April 2026. These include Amazon US, Argos, Currys and Three, which supplied the sample for this review.

Check out our current crop of the best mid-range phones for our top recommendations.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A37 5G?

The Samsung Galaxy A37 5G is an excellent gateway phone to the Samsung brand for those on a budget. It offers up a good feel of the Samsung experience, from its One UI 8.5 interface to its camera processing and AI integration.

It has what you’d expect from a smartphone at this price: solid battery life, decent display, capable cameras, and enough power to run the apps and games you want – yet it does it without wowing.

This functionally makes the Galaxy A37 a dependable mid-range smartphone, but there are more intriguing handsets on the market if you’re not loyal to Samsung and after originality and excitement.

Specs

• One UI 8.5, based on Android 16
• 6.7-inch, FHD+, Super AMOLED, 120Hz, 1900 nits peak brightness
• Fingerprint scanner
• Samsung Exynos 1480
• 6GB / 8GB RAM
• 128GB / 256GB
• Cameras:
• 50Mp main sensor
• 8Mp ultrawide
• 5Mp macro
• 12Mp selfie camera
• Up to 4K @ 30fps rear video
• Stereo speakers
• SIM 1 + eSIM / Dual eSIM
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5,000mAh battery
• 162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4 mm
• IP68 certified
• 196g
• Colours: Awesome Charcoal, Awesome Lavender, Awesome White, Awesome Graygreen