It took some doing, but Samsung’s mid-range Galaxy A57 and A37 have finally emerged from the shadows. Perhaps “shadows” isn’t accurate. It implies Samsung’s new devices were shrouded in mystery. As usual, when it comes to the company’s gadgets, that wasn’t the case — with leaks revealing key specs in February.
The biggest question mark at the time was price, with some concerned that the RAMpocalypse™ would impact even the budget and mid-range market and alienate customers for good. That hasn’t happened, with listings for both the Galaxy A37 and A57 already live in SA. First up is the Galaxy A37, landing for R8,000 on Vodacom’s site — the same as last year. The same is true for the decidedly mid-range Galaxy A57, which starts at R11,000.
Same price, new Exynos power
Anybody keeping up with the rumours these past weeks will likely already know about the chipset shake-up. That’s right, Snapdragon is out, and Exynos is in. The cheaper Galaxy A37 makes do with an Exynos 1480 chip, while the A57 packs in the Exynos 1680, with an 8/256GB RAM and storage flavour. It’s unclear whether the A37 will follow in its footsteps in that regard, with its listing only confirming 256GB storage. Expect 6GB RAM.
No changes have been made to the display, with Samsung still touting the same ol’ 6.7in FHD+ AMOLED display that’s 120Hz-capable. Stick with what works, we guess. The 5,000mAh battery has also been recycled, as has the 45W charging spec. In-display fingerprint scanners are sticking around, too. Thank goodness.
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We were hopeful that the Galaxy A37 would at least see a minor bump to its camera lineup, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, it’s sticking to the 50MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and 5MP macro shooters we’ve seen time and again. The same goes for the Galaxy A57, which retains the same specs but swaps out the 8MP ultrawide for a 12MP one. Samsung reckons that, despite the same hardware, the software can handle itself better at night.
Interestingly, Samsung’s announcement mentions a release date of 10 April in “select markets”. South Africa, on the other hand, reckons customers will have their new devices in as few as two to five working days. Samsung’s local presence has yet to confirm the devices, so perhaps it’ll turn up there on the ‘correct’ date. We do seem to have a decent range of colours, going from drab grey to dark blue to light violet.
