Samsung Galaxy A37 5G Review: Surprisingly Capable for Its Price
May 20, 2026- Performance: Exynos 1480, 12GB RAM
- Main Display: 6.7-inch Super AMOLED
- Weight: 196g
- Storage: 256GB
- OS/Software: Android 16
- Battery: 5,000 mAh
- Features: UHD 4K, 1080p video recording
- Rear Camera: 50 MP Wide + 8MP Ultrawide + 5MP Macro
- Front Camera: 12MP Front Camera, 4K,1080p Video recording
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC
- Colour: Awesome Lavender
- Rating: 4/5
- Price: RM1,899
The mid-range smartphone battleground is more brutal than ever, and Samsung’s latest contender, the Galaxy A37 5G, is fighting dirty.
Instead of chasing gimmicky megapixel numbers, Samsung has doubled down on what matters: a vibrant display, a stellar 50MP primary camera, and a build quality that can genuinely take a splash. Starting at RM1,899, it enters a fiercely competitive market against massive battery giants and flashier processors.
In this review, we break down where the Galaxy A37 shines, where the glossy back panel misses the mark, and whether it’s the reliable daily driver you should buy right now. So, let’s stop wasting time—grab your coffee, and let’s dive straight into the full review.
Design & Build: Flagship Vibes Meets “Smudgeville”
Flip the Galaxy A37 over, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re holding a flagship S-series device. Samsung has completely unified its design language this year, giving the A37 clean, boxy lines and flat edges that let the phone literally stand upright on its own.
The biggest visual shake-up is on the back. Say goodbye to the separate floating camera rings from last year; Samsung has introduced a new vertical, pill-shaped “Ambient Island” to house the triple-camera setup. It features a translucent, frosted border that catches the light beautifully and gives the phone a genuinely sophisticated look.
But what makes this design a true mid-range disruptor is the premium material choices Samsung used to build the body. They didn’t just stop at making it look good; they engineered it to survive.
Premium Sandwich: Glass on Glass
For the first time at this price point, Samsung is giving us a high-end glass sandwich. The front screen and the back panel are both fully protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+. This is flagship-grade glass, meaning the display is heavily armored against scratches from keys in your pocket, and the back won’t easily scuff up.
To hold this glass sandwich together, Samsung uses a polycarbonate (plastic) frame wrapped around the sides. It is coated in a glossy, metallic-paint finish that convincingly mimics glazed ceramic or aluminum. While it’s not real metal, the plastic frame keeps the device lightweight and actually helps absorb shock if the phone takes a nasty tumble onto concrete.
To round out the rugged build, the entire body is tightly sealed, with a proper IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating. Whether you get caught in a sudden Malaysian downpour or accidentally drop it in the pool, this body is built to take a splash and keep on ticking.
The Catch: Beauty Comes with Baggage
Of course, it wouldn’t be a mid-range phone without a few real-world trade-offs.
While that Gorilla Glass Victus+ back panel looks absolutely gorgeous out of the box—especially in striking colors like Awesome Lavender and Awesome Graygreen—the glossy, mirror-like finish welcomes you to Smudgeville within five minutes of use. It is a certified fingerprint magnet and gets slippery even when your hands sweat a little. If you hate grease marks, you’ll be slapping a case on this immediately.
Furthermore, while those sharp, flat glass sides look incredibly modern and premium, they don’t settle into the palm quite as naturally as the curved designs of the past. If you’re a late-night scroller, you might feel those edges digging into your hand after a while.
Performance & Software: The 6-Year Promise Meets Exynos 1480
Under the gorgeous hood of the Galaxy A37 lies a bit of a hardware plot twist. Samsung has outfitted this device with the Exynos 1480 chipset. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because this 4nm silicon is a proven performer across the Galaxy line, packing an AMD-powered Xclipse 530 GPU.
Paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM on the higher spec variant, day-to-day multitasking is absolutely butter. Apps stay open in the background, scrolling through image-heavy feeds is flawless, and the upgraded internal vapor chamber does a fantastic job of keeping the phone cool when you’re multitasking under the hot afternoon sun.
But let’s talk real-world gaming: the Exynos 1480 isn’t a flagship-crushing monster. If you want to max out graphics settings on intensive modern titles, you might hit a few frame drops. Instead of chasing raw benchmarks, Samsung focused this chip’s power exactly where regular users need it: stability, thermal management, and running the brand-new software features smoothly.
One UI 8.5 & “Awesome Intelligence”
The true star of the show isn’t the hardware—it’s the software package. The Galaxy A37 launches out of the box with One UI 8.5 based on Android 16, and it brings deeply integrated AI features right to your fingertips without the flagship price tag.
Samsung’s “Awesome Intelligence” suite makes a massive debut here:
Enhanced Circle to Search: It’s no longer just for looking up items; it easily scans text, translates on the fly, and helps map out your tasks.
AI Select & Photo Editor: Want to clean up a shot? The built-in Object Eraser handles background clutter or a random passerby in a crowded café with incredibly natural results. You can even drag and drop images directly across a multi-window layout right into your notes.
The Ultimate Mid-Range Flex: Built to Last
But here is the absolute mic-drop feature of the Galaxy A37 software package: 6 generations of major Android OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches.
Let that sink in. Starting at RM1,899, you are getting a mid-range phone that Samsung promises to officially support all the way until 2032. In a market segment where rivals usually drop software support after two years, this level of future-proofing is virtually unheard of. It means your phone will still feel secure, modern, and packed with the latest features years down the road.
Software & AI: Meet “Awesome Intelligence”
Samsung’s biggest pitch for the Galaxy A37 5G isn’t the hardware—it’s the smarts. Running on the latest One UI 8.5 (built on Android 16), the phone makes a massive splash by introducing “Awesome Intelligence.” Thanks to a heavily upgraded Neural Processing Unit (NPU) inside the Exynos 1480 chipset, this phone delivers a 162% boost in AI processing over its predecessor, allowing it to handle complex machine learning tasks directly on the device.
Here is a breakdown of every key AI feature packed into this mid-ranger, alongside what Samsung intentionally left behind.
The Headliners: Everyday Productivity
Google Circle to Search: Long-pressing the navigation bar brings up Google’s premier visual search engine. On the A37, this tool has been upgraded to scan and cross-reference multiple objects within a single image simultaneously. It also handles instant on-screen text translation and tasks smoothly.
The Multi-Assistant Ecosystem: Moving away from a rigid single-assistant setup, One UI 8.5 allows you to seamlessly bounce between a deeply integrated Google Gemini (triggered via the power key, complete with screen-sharing capabilities), Perplexity AI for deep web research, and an upgraded Bixby that can now intuitively navigate your system settings if you describe a problem.
Smart Capture with AI Select: Using the Edge Panel, you can draw a circle around any piece of your screen to extract text instantly, pin the image to your home screen, or use Sketch to Image to convert a quick doodle into a clean illustration.
The Camera & Audio Smarts
Gallery AI Editing Tools: While it misses out on full text-to-image generative media synthesis, the Gallery app retains the highly essential Object Eraser and Erase Reflections. Photobombs, stray shadows, or reflections on glass can be zapped away with incredibly natural-looking AI background fills.
AI Screenshot Search: If your gallery is cluttered with screenshots, the system automatically analyzes and tags the visual content of your images, allowing you to type keywords into the search bar to pull up a specific receipt or text snippet instantly.
Voice Focus & Call Captions: For calling in loud environments, the device utilizes AI to actively isolate and filter out ambient background noise. Simultaneously, Call Captions can transcribe your phone calls into real-time text right on your screen.
The AI Catch: What’s Missing?
While the feature list is impressive, Samsung has strictly segmented its software to protect its premium tiers. Content creators and power users should keep these omissions in mind:
No “Best Face” or “Auto Trim“: Camera-centric smart tools—like combining multiple frames of a group photo to pick the perfect smile for up to five people—are completely stripped from the A37 and locked exclusively to the higher-end Galaxy A57 5G.
No Live Translate for Phone Calls: The highly praised real-time, two-way voice translation during live cellular calls remains a premium flagship luxury and did not make the cut here.
Meet the Cameras Behind Every Shot
| Camera Type | Resolution | Key Specifications | What’s Best For |
| Main (Wide) Camera | 50 MP | f/1.8 aperture, 1/1.56″ sensor, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), PDAF | Everyday crisp shots, stable 4K video, and low-light shooting (Nightography). |
| Ultrawide Camera | 8 MP | f/2.2 aperture, 123° Field of View (16mm equivalent) | Group shots, wide landscapes, and architecture. |
| Macro Camera | 5 MP | f/2.4 aperture, fixed focus | Super close-ups like details on flowers, fabric, or textures. |
| Front (Selfie) Camera | 12 MP | f/2.2 aperture, Super HDR video support | High-quality TikToks, Reels, video calls, and clean portrait selfies. |
The Day Shots
Although it is not a flagship smartphone, it does take surprisingly good daylight shots where editing is barely required. The camera delivers natural colours, solid dynamic range, and enough sharpness for everyday social media uploads.
What impressed me the most was how consistent the results were under good lighting conditions. From food shots to outdoor scenery, the images come out looking vibrant and clean straight from the camera. I personally felt satisfied with the overall quality, especially considering the price category of the smartphone.
Here are some of the daylight shots captured using the device.
The Night Shots
As for the night shots, the camera can still deliver good-looking photos as long as the lighting conditions are decent. Areas with street lights, building lights, or brighter environments help the camera capture better details and colours.
One thing I would personally advise is not to zoom too much at night. If you want the best quality image, it is better to shoot without zooming because noise becomes more visible in darker conditions. We also have to understand that this is still a Galaxy A series smartphone and not a flagship device with advanced low-light zoom capabilities.
Do not underestimate the portrait mode as well. As long as the portrait shots are taken under good lighting conditions, the results can actually look very impressive with clean edge detection and natural background blur. The skin tones also look pleasing straight from the camera without needing heavy editing.
Again, I would like to stress that people should not simply listen to rumours or negative comments surrounding the Galaxy A series. Every smartphone has its own pros and cons, even flagship models. What matters most is the overall user experience, and honestly, the Galaxy A series still delivers a very solid camera experience for everyday users, content creators, and social media uploads.
For the price category, Samsung has done a good job balancing camera quality, usability, and reliability. Here are some shots taken at different times of the night and evening.
Battery & Charging: Flagship Endurance with a Catch
If there is one area where the Galaxy A37 5G absolutely throws down the gauntlet to its competitors, it’s battery endurance. Samsung has packed a 5,000mAh battery inside its slim 7.4mm chassis. Combined with the highly power-efficient 4nm Exynos 1480 chipset and the smart battery optimization of One UI 8.5, this phone is an absolute marathon runner.
In real-world testing—scrolling through social media, streaming YouTube videos over Wi-Fi, shooting casual photos, and handling messaging apps throughout the day—the Galaxy A37 easily cruises through a full day and a half of normal usage. Even in intensive video streaming tests at full brightness, it managed nearly 16 hours of continuous playback, easily beating out rivals like the Pixel 10a and even outlasting Samsung’s own premium S26 Ultra. If you are a casual user, skipping a charge overnight and plugging it in at lunchtime the next day is a very realistic routine.
The Upgraded 45W Charging Speed
For the longest time, Samsung kept its budget-tier buyers trapped in the 25W charging slow lane. Thankfully, the Galaxy A37 officially inherits flagship-grade 45W Super Fast Charging.
When paired with a compatible 45W Power Delivery (PD) adapter, the charging speeds are highly respectable:
15 Minutes: Juices up from dead zero to roughly 35%.
30 Minutes: Gets you to 67%—more than enough power to survive a frantic evening out.
Full Charge (0-100%): Takes just around 1 hour and 10 minutes.
While it might not match the blazing-fast 65W+ speeds seen on some Chinese mid-range competitors, it is a massive and welcome step up for Samsung’s lineup.
The Finale: Verdict & Is It Worth Your Money?
So, at the end of the day, should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A37 5G?
If you are looking for raw, flagship-crushing horsepower, you might want to look elsewhere. But if your daily priorities are a stunningly long-lasting battery and a truly dependable photography experience, the Galaxy A37 easily steps up to the plate.
Let’s talk about the real highlight: the cameras.
While it won’t entirely kick a high-end flagship off its throne, the photography experience on the A37 is genuinely excellent for its class. Samsung gave this phone a major hardware boost by packing a much larger 50MP main sensor equipped with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). In bright daylight, the photos pop with vibrant, social-media-ready colors, sharp details, and a fantastic dynamic range.
When the sun goes down, the improved Image Signal Processor (ISP) inside the Exynos chip works wonders. Low-light images retain great contrast and natural skin tones without turning into a blurry, grainy mess. The 12MP selfie camera is equally sharp at arm’s length and can even shoot stable 4K video. Yes, the 8MP ultrawide is a bit soft around the edges and the 5MP macro lens is mostly marketing filler—but the main shooter is where it counts, and it delivers beautifully.
The Final Verdict: Worth It (Berbaloi-lah!)
When you pair that impressive main camera with a massive 5,000mAh battery that easily sprints through a day and a half of use, a rugged IP68 waterproof body, and an unprecedented 6-year software update guarantee, the value proposition becomes clear.
Starting at RM1,899, it isn’t the cheapest mid-ranger on the block, and the glossy back panel will require a case if you want to avoid fingerprint chaos. But for the everyday user, content creator on a budget, or casual photographer, it hits a beautiful sweet spot. It is a highly reliable, future-proof daily driver that feels premium where it matters most. It is absolutely berbaloi and well worth the price.
