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Hey, what's up, guys? Today, we have a new Samsung mid-ranger. It's the Samsung Galaxy A27, and it brings a few tweaks and changes compared to last year. However, not all of these are exactly upgrades. So, is the Galaxy A27 still worth getting? Let's run it through all of our tests and find out. This year's Galaxy A27 is far from an overhaul over last year's A26. Samsung has decided to make just a few small changes. These include a more refined selfie cutout, a more powerful Snapdragon chipset, and more base RAM.
However, you can also see a couple of downgrades right off the bat. For example, while the A26 had IP67-rated ingress protection, the new model is IP64. That means it's still splash-proof, but it can no longer officially withstand water submersion. Another change is that the ultra-wide camera has gone from 8 megapixels down to 5 megapixels. And for some reason, the Bluetooth has been downgraded, too, from Bluetooth 5.3 to 5.1. The design here is quite familiar. Again, you have a flat back made of Gorilla Glass Victus Plus and a plastic frame. But, this time around, there's a glossy, mirror-like finish.
Like before, the display is a 6.7-in OLED with a 1080p resolution, a 120-Hz refresh rate, and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus protection. The major change is that instead of a teardrop-shaped notch, now there's a punch hole for the selfie cam, which looks more modern. Again, there's no official support for HDR video playback, but that's expected at this price point. The max brightness hasn't really been improved, but it's not bad. We measured up to around 800 nits in automatic mode, and this went up to nearly 1,100 when measuring a smaller portion of the screen. And as far as the refresh rate goes, you
get 120 Hz to smooth out your swiping and scrolling. This can dial down as low as 60 Hz when idling to save power. Just like the previous model, the A27 has only a single bottom-firing speaker for audio. It earned a loudness score of good, but music comes out dull and tinny-sounding. You can check it out for yourself through our comparison tool linked below. Samsung has kept microSD expandable storage around for another generation. That's on top of 128 or 256 gigs on board. And unlike higher-tier Samsung phones which use under-display tech, the fingerprint reader is located on the side within the power button.
Like other current Samsung phones, the Galaxy A27 runs the latest One UI 8.5 interface on top of Android 16. And it contains many of the same features that you'd find on the Samsung flagships. You don't get Samsung's DeX or the full suite of AI-based features. For example, Now Brief, Now Nudge, and natural language photo editing are missing here. But as for the rest, you can find out more in our dedicated One UI 8.5 video. And like before, Samsung offers plenty of support to the A27 to the tune of six major OS updates. One of the more notable changes the A27 brings is a new chipset. Rather than an Exynos chip, this time around is a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. And also, Samsung
has done away with the 4-gig tier of RAM. You'll get 6 or 8 gigs here. In benchmarks, the scores are still quite modest, but in certain tests, they are a bit higher than last year's model. You wouldn't want to get this phone just for the sake of playing games though. And even in the UI, you run into the occasional slowdown here and there. At least since this is a less powerful chipset, you won't have to worry about the thermals. In our prolonged stress test, we saw hardly any throttling. The A27's battery capacity remains the same as last year at 5,000 mA hours. We did see a nice increase in battery life though, with the new model earning an
active use score of 12 hours and 40 minutes. Like last year, the web browsing run time is sub par, but everything else looks solid. As before, there's support for 25-W charging here, but for some reason, the Galaxy A27 charges quite slowly. In fact, it's one of the slowest charging recent Galaxy phones we've tested, reaching 50% after 30 minutes and taking a full 88 minutes to charge to 100%. And as expected, you don't get wireless charging here. Now, the cameras. The 50-megapixel main cam and 2-megapixel macro shooter are the same as last year. And like I mentioned, the ultra-wide has gone down to 5-megapixels this time around.
The main camera does all right in well-lit daytime scenes. Though detail comes out softer when shooting indoors. Human subjects are rendered mostly fine. Skin tones aren't bad, but dynamic range and detail leave more to be desired. With the ultra-wide, there's not a lot of detail, and what there is isn't rendered very nicely. 2-megapixel close-up shots from the macro cam are usable, but curb your expectations. Selfies from the 12-megapixel front-facing cam are quite good for the class.
They're nicely detailed with lifelike skin tones and good dynamic range. When shooting in the dark with the main cam, the results are okay. Detail is soft, but the dynamic range is good, even if highlights can be a little harsh. The Galaxy A27 supports video recording in up to 4K with this main cam, but you only get electronic stabilization in up to 1080p resolution. Lack of stabilization aside, 4K clips from the main cam are okay-ish, but they're a bit soft. The ultra-wide's 1080p clips are nothing to write home about. And the quality from the main cam recording at night is about acceptable for the class.
So, there you have it, the Galaxy A27. Like last year's model, it does a decent job overall. And on top of that, we appreciate the longer battery life we get this time around. However, when you consider that at launch, this phone is actually about the same price as the higher-tier Galaxy A37, and Samsung has included a handful of downgrades in this package, the A27 becomes a bit harder to recommend. The Galaxy A36 seems to offer far better value for as long as its stocks last. But perhaps the A27 will be a more enticing offer once its price does go down.
Thanks for watching, guys. If you're looking for alternatives, you could consider last year's Galaxy A36 or this year's Galaxy A37. Let us know what you think down below and I'll see you on the next one.
