Samsung Galaxy A57 review

Solid main camera, decent ultrawide, macro camera lives on

The Galaxy A57 has a sort of a triple camera system on its back - one of those configurations that marketing teams can work with, and us reviewers tend to hate on. What you get is a wide primary camera, an ultrawide camera, and a dedicated macro unit on the back - that last one is what typically irks us. Of course, a front facing camera completes the setup.

The A57 appears to be reusing the A56's hardware unchanged, though this new model doesn't list the camera sensor models in hardware apps, so we're not exactly sure. The key specs are available though.

The main camera features a 1/1.56" type sensor (the old model had the Sony IMX 906), which is the same optical format as the one found in the S26 - that's a good thing from the A57's perspective. The stabilized lens has a 23mm equivalent focal length and an f/1.8 aperture.

The ultrawide camera uses a conventional Bayer RGB sensor with a 12MP resolution (Sony IMX 258 on the A56). It's got a fixed-focus lens which is on the ultrawide-r end of the ultrawide spectrum, at 13mm.

The selfie camera is based on another 12MP sensor (Samsung S5K 3LC last year). There's no autofocus on this one either.

• Wide (main): 50MP (1/1.56", 1.0µm-2.0µm); 23mm, f/1.8, OIS, PDAF (9cm - ∞); 4K30/1080p60 video recording.
• Ultrawide: 12MP (1/3.06", 1.12µm); 13mm, f/2.2, fixed focus; 4K30.
• Macro: 5MP; 25mm, f/2.4, fixed focus; no video recording.
• Front camera: 12MP (1/3.06", 1.12µm); 25mm, f/2.2, fixed focus; 4K30.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

With what appears to be last year's hardware on board, we expected last year's results, and while that's true to some extent, you could argue there are improvements here and there. Detail is generally good and sharpness has taken a step in the right direction, though random textures particularly in the shadows remain on the soft side. Dynamic range is pretty great even in sharp midday sunlight. The auto white balance showed no odd tendencies, and the vibrant colors are quite likeable.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

Human subjects are rendered nicely too, with lifelike skin tones and very good detail - last year's shots were softer. Portrait mode does okay and produces believable background blur, but it's still prone to missteps with subject detection.

Human subjects, main camera (1x): Photo mode • Portrait mode

The 50MP full-res photos from the main camera are quite soft but they don't have that upscaled look you often get - so you just might be able to process them to your liking and squeeze some extra detail compared to the out-of-camera default 12.5MP results.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

2x zoom results are not particularly sharp in isolation, but pretty okay in the context of the A57's potential competition.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x)

2x people shots are also of about average quality in terms of detail, so you won't be seeing each and every strand of hair. You do get the benefit of the better perspective or tighter framing. Global properties remain hard to fault.

Human subjects, main camera (2x): Photo mode • Portrait mode

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera's photos are good for the class, and even though they're a notch below ideal sharpness, they're still an improvement over the previous model's results. Dynamic range is good, colors are on point. There's no going around the fact that the fixed focus will mean blurry nearby subjects, though.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Close-ups

That said, you have several options for capturing nearby subjects. The obvious one is the 5MP 'macro' camera, and while it does produce usable photos, it can't escape its overall cheap camera look. Additionally, the 3.5-5cm working distance poses all sorts of issues with casting shadows and disturbing the subject.

Close-up samples, 'macro' camera

A much better idea is to use the main camera's 2x zoom, which may not deliver pin-sharp images, but it's still producing superior quality shots than the 5MP macro camera can. The 9cm minimum focusing distance is good enough to solve both proximity-related issues you get with the macro camera, while also allowing for large subject reproduction.

Close-up samples, main camera, 2x

Low-light photo quality

Main camera

The Galaxy A57's low-light photos from its main camera are very good, especially for the class, and, well, particularly for a Samsung. If anything, some scenes look better out of the A57 than what we got from the S26, though the A57 is by no means flawless.

Detail is very good and noise performance is solid, at least as midrangers go. Dynamic range is excellent and even difficult scenes are developed well. What can be off more often than we'd like is the color rendition - some of our city scenes exhibit pinkish tendencies.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

The A57's Night mode can hurt more than it can help - the highlights in scenes 1 and 3 are harsher, detail is coarser.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode

Zooming in to 2x, quality isn't half bad - it's nowhere near the best in the business, but in its own context, the A57 is among the better ones.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x)

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide isn't too happy at night, its photos being on the softer side of average. The softness is also mixed in with a liberal amount of grain. These are not the most detailed ultrawide photos, no. Dynamic range is not particularly wide but decent still, while colors are alright most of the time, but there's the occasional white balance mishap and saturation could use a nudge in general.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Selfies

The A57's selfies hover around the very good to excellent mark depending on your lighting. In well-lit scenes you get great detail and even though it turns softer in dimmer situations, it doesn't do so too dramatically. Colors are great too, with nice skin tones and good saturation overall. Dynamic range is quite wide too. Of course, the fixed focus is a bit of a setback if you like to shoot from closer distrances.

Selfie samples

Video quality

The Galaxy A57 can record video up to 4K resolution with all three of its rear cameras. The main one on the back can also shoot in 1080p60, but the ultrawide and the selfie camera don;'t support 60fps capture. The Pro video mode doesn't allow for 24fps recording like the S-series Galaxies do.

You get to choose between the h.264 and h.265 (HEVC) codecs. There's no HDR recording capability. Video stabilization is enabled or disabled globally from settings and it's there for you in all quality settings. There's no Horizon lock - you need to get one of the S26s for that.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples or watch the playlist on YouTube.

Main camera 1x videos are very good on the A57, with great contrast and dynamic range, vibrant colors and good detail, if a bit high on the sharpening. The 2x zoom level has quite strong sharpening halos and isn't too detailed but is usable. The ultrawide's footage is perhaps a touch too contrasty for its own good and it's on the soft side, though it's still alright for a midrange ultrawide.

Video screengrabs, daylight: 0.6x • 1x • 2x

In the dark, the main camera shows good dynamic range and accurate colors, alongside good detail levels at 1x, while 2x detail is pretty soft. The ultrawide's low-light clips are soft throughout and have limited dynamic range.

Video screengrabs, low light: 0.6x • 1x • 2x

Stabilization is properly great on the A57. The main camera irons out walking shake with no sweat, and its clips from a stationary position are super stable. The ultrawide camera is also nicely stable when pointed in one direction, and both cameras pan smoothly with abrupt transitions at either end of the pan.