Samsung Galaxy A37 review

Design, build quality, handling

The Galaxy A37 is your typical Samsung device through and through. This design language is very familiar, and it has arguably become even more ubiquitous now that the S26 Ultra is also rocking a variant of it.

There is nothing special or flashy about the back design. The camera island does have this nice semi-transparent look to it, like all recent Galaxies, but other than that, it's as ordinary-looking as they come.

One small note, we do kind of wish Samsung made the round camera modules flush with the island surface, since in the current design, they have these extremely small gaps between them that collect lint and dirt and are extremely difficult to clean. On the plus side, at least the actual back doesn't smudge easily.

The phone's back is made of Gorilla Glass Victus+, just like the front. So, you are looking at pretty decent durability. As for the middle frame, it is made of plastic. You have to step up to the A57 to get an aluminum frame. Still, as we've said in the past, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with plastic as a phone building material - it is light and pretty tough and does not scratch or bend quite like aluminum.

In any case, the Galaxy A37 feels solid through and through. There is no flex to the chassis and hollowness to the back either. The A37 feels very snug in the hand, in no small part thanks to its wide and mostly flat sides.

When we say mostly flat, Samsung's signature "button island" instantly springs to mind. The area on the right where the power button and volume rocker reside is noticeably raised, presumably for added comfort. This is yet another signature Samsung design element.

Samsung Galaxy A37

While on the topic of controls, the A37 has a bog-standard set. The buttons on the right are comfortable to use with plenty of tactile feedback. There is nothing on the opposite side of the frame, not even antenna lines, since you don't need them on a plastic frame.

The top frame has a couple of small holes, presumably for microphones. On the bottom, there is the main bottom-firing speaker, the main microphone, the SIM tray and the Type-C port.

There are no visible controls on the front. Everything is nicely tucked away underneath the display and in the pretty sizable display bezels. To be fair, they are not too bad, but they do come with the more budget territory. The A37 has around an 86.5% screen to body ratio.

On a more positive note, the selfie punch hole is pretty reasonably-sized in our opinion. Also, the aggressively curved corners and display make for a pretty modern look. This is kind of the trend these days.

The Galaxy A37 has an under-display fingerprint reader. It is the typical optical kind and is both speedy and accurate. We have no complaints about it.

As we mentioned, Samsung has some new color options this year. The Galaxy A37 comes in Graygreen, Charkoal, White or Light Violet.

The Galaxy A37 is well protected. Beyond the Gorilla Glass Victus+ that it has on both sides, which we already mentioned, the phone is also pretty well-sealed against the elements. It has an IP68 ingress protection rating, up from IP67 on the Galaxy A36. Not that that makes a huge practical difference. The A37 should be able to survive a dip in up to 1.5 meters of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.