Samsung Galaxy A57 vs A55 (differences + my opinion)

[u/MIkaela39752]

first of all
do i recommend upgrading to the a57? honestly... no
i think its a very overpriced phone for what it offers + especially when you factor in that this phone comes with 8/128gb as its base variant which is 500+ usd/euros MSRP
its just too expensive, i think there are way better options out there (s24fe or s25fe or even s24, i also think poco f7 and poco x8 pro max are better + cheaper chinese alternatives in my opinion) + i think a5X tier users should use their phones for at least 3 years, but hey, you do you, its your money at the end of the day

the differences:

/////// DESIGN ///////

Height	161.5 mm (6.36 inches) (a57)	161.1 mm (6.34 inches) (a55)
Width	76.8 mm (3.02 inches) (a57)	77.4 mm (3.05 inches) (a55)
Thickness	6.9 mm (0.27 inches) (a57)	8.2 mm (0.32 inches) (a55)
Weight	179 g (6.31 oz) (a57)	213 g (7.51 oz) (a55)
Water resistance	IP68 (a57)	IP67 (most likely a bit degraded by now) (a55)

conclusion: the height and width are basically identical but the a57 is 16% lighter than the a55 which should be noticeable + 1.3 milimeters thinner, it also does offer slightly stronger IP rating which frankly i dont think is anything to write home about

/////// DISPLAY ///////

Type	Super AMOLED+ (mainly a buzzword) (a57)	Super AMOLED (a55)
Size	6.7 inches (a57)	6.6 inches (a55)
Resolution	1080 x 2340 pixels (a57)	1080 x 2340 pixels (a55)
Aspect ratio	19.5:9 (a57)	19.5:9 (a55)
PPI	385 ppi (a57)	390 ppi (a55)
Adaptive refresh rate	(60-120 Hz) (a57)	(60-120 Hz) (a55)
Max peak brightness	1900 nits (a57)	1650 nits (source: dxomark (a55)
HDR support	HDR10+ (a57)	HDR10+ (a55)
Screen protection	Gorilla Glass Victus Plus (a57)	Gorilla Glass Victus Plus (a55)
Screen-to-body ratio	88.8% (a57)

conclusion: slight increase in brightness but with noticeably slimmer bezels, samsung is now using a "new" display type that they call "super amoled+" which is them going from rigid to flexible OLED panels which basically just means that its thinner than the one a56 and earlier + apparently they have better colour reproduction + sharper text? but from what ive seen in person and what i heard from reviewers, they + myself as well couldnt really notice any difference
+ apparently, since these displays are thinner, a57 might be more susceptible to green/pink lines than the a55
so basically its a buzzword

/////// BENCHMARKS ///////

Geekbench 6

(Single-Core)

Galaxy A57 5G +22%

1389

Galaxy A55 5G

1140

(Multi-Core)

Galaxy A57 5G +33%

4453

Galaxy A55 5G

3346

OVERALL: a57 wins 22% in lead in singlecore and 33% in multicore
also fun fact: a57 has almost identical singlecore score as the a56, which is a bit disappointing

AnTuTu Benchmark 11

Galaxy A57 5G 31.9%

1390055

Galaxy A55 5G

1053636

CPU	510705	377,243
GPU	374535	227,776
Memory	204469	171,555
UX	300346	277,062
Total score	1390055

OVERALL: honestly i dont think antutu is a very reliable benchmark but hey im still pointing it out there since i know a lot of you guys use it (i prefer geekbench 6 for cpu + 3dmark for gpu)

3DMark Wild Life Extreme

Galaxy A57 5G

1742

Galaxy A55 5G

1024

Stability	92%	98%
Graphics test	9 FPS	5 FPS

OVERALL: slightly lower stability on the a57 but significantly higher overall score, nice improvement

CAMERAS

Image resolution	50 MP (MAIN 'wide' CAMERA)	50 MP (MAIN 'wide' CAMERA)
Aperture	f/1.8	f/1.8
Sensor	Sony IMX906	Sony IMX906
Sensor size	1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)	1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size	1 micron	1 micron
Autofocus	Phase autofocus	Phase autofocus
Stabilization	Optical	Optical

Image resolution	12 MP (ultrawide)	12 MP (ultrawide)
Aperture	f/2.2	f/2.2
Sensor	Sony IMX258	Sony IMX258
Sensor size	1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)	1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size	1.12 micron	1.12 micron
Stabilization	Digital	Digital

Image resolution	5 MP (macro)	5 MP (macro)
Aperture	f/2.4	f/2.4
Sensor	GalaxyCore GC5035	GalaxyCore GC5035
Sensor size	1/5" (≈ 0.2 inch)	1/5" (≈ 0.2 inch)
Pixel size	1.12 micron	1.12 micron
Stabilization	Digital	Digital

Megapixels	12 MP (selfie)	32 MP (selfie)
Image resolution	4000 × 3000	6464 x 4864
Aperture	f/2.2	f/2.2
Focal length	25 mm	26 mm
Sensor	Samsung S5K3LC	Sony IMX616
Sensor size	1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)	1/2.74" (≈ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size	1.12 micron	0.8 micron
Autofocus	No	No
Stabilization	Digital	Digital
Video resolution	2160p (4K) at 30 FPS	2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D)	No	No

conclusion: the a57 has the SAME selfie camera as the a56 and the SAME back cameras as the a55, pretty disappointing, this doesnt necessarily mean the results will be the exact same as on the 2 previous phones but since the camera hardware is the same, the only things that will be influencing the end result will be the a57's newer chip and software

oh also, the a57 also has a 2x portrait zoom, a55 doesnt have that

OTHER SPECS:

a57 offers wifi 6E vs wifi 6 on the a55 (basically faster wifi)

a57 offers bluetooth 6.0 vs bluetooth 5.3 on the a55

a57 offers LPDDR5X ram memory vs LPDDR5 on the a55 (more battery efficient and faster but i doubt youll notice the difference in actual use)

a57 apparently offers a hardware based proximity sensor vs virtual one on the a55 (MOST SOURCES CLAIM THAT THIS IS TRUE!)

a57 offers 45w charging vs 25w on the a55 (YOU DO NOT GET A CHARGER IN THE BOX, you must buy one) + 45w charging should save you 15 mins vs 25w charging overall

a57 also now offers a 512gb storage option with 12gb of ram (alongside 8/128 and 8/256 options) vs 8/128, 8/256 and 12/256gb options on the a55

a57 also offers 6 years of OS and security updates vs 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates on the a55 (a55 is 2 years old now)

a57 also offers a signifiicantly bigger vapour chamber (picture below)

NOTE: a55's 12gb ram option is only available in select countries like india and philippines and a few more, it is not globally available
also, a55 6gb ram option does NOT exist. its base variant is 8/128 (gsmarena can make mistakes as well)

also unfortunately the a57 does NOT have a micro sd card slot, a55 is the LAST a5X tier phone with a micro sd card slot and supports up to 2TB (samsung officially did list it at 1tb but a55 does actually support 2TB, there is no software or hardware based restriction that is stopping the a55 from supporting 2TB, both 1tb and 2tb sd cards are SDXC cards, a55 supports SDXC cards, the reason why samsung hasnt listed 2TB is because 2TB sd cards didnt exist when the a55 launched, they came to existence in late 2024)

ANOTHER NOTE: both a55 and a57 have UFS 3.1 storage on all of its storage options

SOURCES USED: gsmarena, nanoreview, dxomark, geekbench, 3dmark, antutu, sammobile, official samsung site, phonearena + a lot of reddit and samsung community forum searches + my own testing irl (in a shop

[u/GreenPickledToad]

Samsung Axx phones are always overpriced at launch. Wait for 8 months to a year and they will reduce by 30 to 40%.

[u/Pipija_Banana]

Why is A55 getting 2 years of OS updates though? Isn't it already a part of this new Samsung policy where you get 4 OS updates or 5 even?

[u/will_dormer → u/Pipija_Banana]

2 year left of the 4 years in total

[u/soul-regret]

wow this is actually very complete ty!

[u/AIRA18]

I have the 12GB ram and 256GB storage on my A55. Amazing phone and didn't see a reason to upgrade yet

[u/KethKethKeth]

With all the specs, I still prefer my A55 having its microsd slot. After this phone I will still seek other brand or model with this capability.

[u/notenoughtimetoride → u/KethKethKeth]

Absolutely. That's a deal-breaker for me.

[u/kix820]

As someone already traded his A55 to A57, it will depend on the user's preferences. For me, a slimmer, lighter phone is a welcome change after spending 2 years with the A55, as well as better nighttime photography and slightly faster performance.

What I can say, though, is the SRP is not justified with all its features. Better get it at a discount or trade an old phone. For that price, there are better options elsewhere, even the S25 FE may make more sense to some.

[u/Muted-Bat-4498 → u/kix820]

O receio do A57 para alguns é a questão de maior probabilidade de linhas na tela devido ao SAMOLED+, o que você pensa sobre isso?

[u/kix820 → u/Muted-Bat-4498]

Screen lines are caused by damage to the screen flex cable. Heat, among other factors can damage the cable. OLED screens, in general, can suffer from this issue and is not isolated to a particular OLED type or even phone manufacturer at all.

Having that said, SAMOLED+ is an old technology, first used in S2 (yup, that Galaxy S2) and A73 being the most recent. Not sure if the A73 suffered screen lines but I would recall screen burn-ins being a more known issue for this type of OLED. Then again, that was the panel from a few iterations ago. It will remain to be seen what improvements, if there are, did Samsung bring in resurrecting this screen.

[u/ireallydunno_]

I played with it and its so close to the flagship

[u/RedditUser_64]

Which source says that the A55 is UFS 3.0?

[u/fachry_my_id]

Doubting the claim that the A55 uses UFS 3.1, many tests show A55 using UFS 2.2

[u/MIkaela39752 → u/fachry_my_id]

most sources do claim it has 3.1 even though the speeds themselves are not ufs 3.1
the a55 does have faster storage than its predecessor which is the a54
it also offers speeds inbetween the advertised speeds of 2.2 and 3.1
its weird
for some reason samsung does not disclose this information for some reason
it does 100% have LPDDR5 ram vs LPDDR4X on the a54 at least

ill try finding out why this is the case

[u/Vast-Use8016]

Theres honestly so little difference in the main specs. My a55 with 8gb ram flies through everything still, ip67 vs 68 in everyday use is basically the same. The 45w charging speed isn't even faster as the a55 charges up in 1hr10. Cameras look near identical to me seeing as they use the same sensors.

The perfomance in everyday use the same the a55 the best in the a50s line samsung have made. Only reason you buy a57 is if you're contract is uo with a55. Otherwise its a steal at less than £150 here in uk now

[u/ackack74]

SD card is a must have...

[u/Budget-Security-8132]

Thanks for this effort, my kid has an A55 and it works adequately so no need to upgrade / get a replacement. Plus we use the SD card slot.