3 Cheap Android Phones More Powerful Than The Samsung Galaxy A37

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The Galaxy A37 is the newest mid-range entrant in Samsung's smartphone lineup. It features a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 5,000mAh battery, and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. It's powered by the Exynos 1480 SoC and runs on Android 16 with One UI 8.5 on top. More importantly, the phone is set to receive Android OS and security updates for six years, which is excellent for a mid-range smartphone. It goes on sale starting at $450 in the U.S. via Samsung's physical stores, the company website, various wireless carriers, and Amazon. While early hands-on reports indicate that the Galaxy A37 is a decent mid-ranger, it doesn't pack any notable upgrades over the Galaxy A36, which is already among the best budget gaming phones and even the best budget smartphones for frequent travelers.

The only major change is the new Exynos processor, which is kind of a downer as the A37 is $50 more expensive than its predecessor. Although the price increase is likely because of the increase in component pricing, it makes the phone not as great a value pick. So, if you want to explore all your options and are looking for similarly priced phones that are capable of delivering better performance with their beefier internals, you are in luck. There are several budget or mid-range Android phones that you can consider over the Galaxy A37. Here's a look at three of the top options.

Although $50 more expensive than the base variant of the Galaxy A37, the Pixel 10a is a more powerful and capable smartphone, thanks to its flagship-grade Tensor G4 chip and 8GB of RAM. It's also widely recommended as one of the best, if not the best, value-for-money Android phones, and features among our picks for affordable smartphones that are ridiculously overpowered. The Pixel 10a also comes with an aluminum frame, a brighter display at 3,000 nits, and is set to receive an additional year of Android updates.

While the Pixel lacks the third rear camera, Google phones have long been known for their superior computational photography skills, as noted in multiple expert reviews. Other highlights of the Google phone include Wi-Fi 6e for faster connectivity, dual-frequency GPS for better location tracking in dense environments, a more capable USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, and support for wireless charging. You can buy the Pixel 10a starting at $500 from Amazon, Best Buy, the Google Store, and major carriers.

The Galaxy A56 is another smartphone that you can consider over the Galaxy A37. Although it was launched at a starting price of $500 in 2025, it's now selling for a significant discount, and its base variant can be purchased for as low as $385 on Amazon — $65 less than the starting price of the A37. More importantly, the A56 packs most of the same features and specifications as the Galaxy A37, but it has a more powerful Exynos 1580 SoC, a higher resolution ultrawide camera, and an aluminum frame.

All of this makes the A56 a much more compelling alternative to the Galaxy A37. The only notable downside is that you'll receive one less year of Android updates, as it comes with Android 15 out of the box and is set to get six years of updates. Otherwise, it's the same software, the same brand, which is considered the best in terms of customer satisfaction, and the same overall experience. You can buy the Galaxy A56 from Amazon, Samsung, and major wireless carriers in the U.S.

Although Nothing isn't as big or as recognizable a brand as Google or Samsung, it's producing some pretty interesting devices, and the Phone 4a Pro in its portfolio is certainly worth a look if you are in the market for a mid-range Android phone. It would require you to extend your budget to $500, but you would certainly receive excellent value for your money. It features a 6.83-inch OLED display with 5,000 nits of peak brightness and a 144Hz refresh rate, both of which are the highest among our recommendations. Another of its highlights is the all-metal unibody design, which, although a bit different from other phones because of the integrated Glyph Matrix, does feel premium. The Glyph Matrix, for the uninitiated, is a mini-LED array on the back of the phone that shows information like the battery status, notifications, and more.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 SoC, which generally delivers better performance than the Galaxy A37's Exynos 1480, and the Nothing phone also benefits from the presence of 8 GB of RAM. In other features, the Phone 4a Pro runs on Android 16 out of the box. However, it's only promised to receive three major Android updates, which is not a lot in 2026. There is a 5,080mAh battery onboard with support for 50W wired charging, but there's no wireless charging support. Moreover, there are three rear cameras, including a 50MP wide-angle primary shooter and a 50MP telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom, which is another feature that you typically see on phones in this price range. You can buy the Nothing Phone 4a Pro from Amazon.

The Galaxy A37 joins the Samsung portfolio as a brand-new mid-range phone. However, its iterative upgrades and increased starting price are slightly disappointing. So, while picking up budget phones that offer better value than the Samsung device, we looked at the portfolios of all major smartphone brands in the U.S. and chose phones that cost $500 or less. We then filtered phones that have features that beat the Galaxy A37, considering expert reviews, raw specifications, and benchmark results. All our recommendations are widely available and deliver good value for money.