Samsung Galaxy A27 review
One UI 8.5 on top of Android 16
The Galaxy A27 is the typical Samsung affair. It runs One UI 8.5 on top of Android 16. There are plenty of features and settings that come with that combo. One UI is still one of the most feature-dense Android implementations out there. And throughout the years and software generations, more and more features and little bits and pieces have been trickling down, making their way from the Galaxy S flagships to the Galaxy A line.
Samsung also has its excellent software support going for it. You aren't quite getting the full seven years from the Galaxy S series, but the A27 still gets six major OS updates. That's a lot, especially for a budget device.
One thing missing from the A27 is the full Galaxy AI suite. There are some AI features scattered here and there.
Home screen • Quick toggles • Recent apps
One of the more substantial upgrades this year comes in the form of Bixby. Samsung's virtual assistant has become noticeably more capable, with improved natural language understanding and much stronger contextual awareness. It can now perform live web searches and retrieve up-to-date information directly within the Bixby interface.
Perhaps even more useful is its ability to assist with device troubleshooting. Rather than simply telling you which setting to change, Bixby can take you directly to the relevant menu or toggle. You don't even need to know what the setting is called - describing the problem in plain language is usually enough.
For instance, if you tell Bixby, "I'm having trouble hearing my phone when it rings," the assistant will identify the issue and bring up the appropriate ringtone and notification volume controls, saving you from digging through the Settings menu yourself.
Bixby
Samsung has also introduced deeper integration with Perplexity AI. Perplexity seems to have gone through some ups and downs in its integration since we tested it on the A37. It did manage to create a calendar entry for us, but not send an email through Gmail. Now, the Galaxy A27 has no problems doing both.
Perplexity AI
Long-pressing the power key triggers a Gemini interface, which you can type or talk into and even share your screen with.
Gemini integration
Long-pressing the navigation pill at the bottom of the display invokes Google's Circle to Search. The feature can analyze and interact with virtually anything currently on your screen, making it easy to search for text, images, or objects without leaving the app you're using. It also includes a handy built-in translation tool for quickly translating on-screen content.
Now Brief and Now Nudge are both missing from the A27. Those remain a flagship feature, apparently.
Another omission is the enhanced Photo Assist suite introduced with the Galaxy S26 generation. That means you can't simply describe the edits you want and have the AI apply them automatically. Even so, the Gallery app still includes a handful of AI-powered editing tools, such as AI Remaster, Object Eraser, and Erase Reflections, all of which remain useful for quick touch-ups.
AI Gallery tools
Another handy addition to the Gallery app is AI-powered screenshot search. The feature analyzes the contents of your screenshots, allowing you to search for specific objects, text, or other elements rather than relying solely on filenames or dates. The search bar also suggests relevant tags, making it much easier to locate a particular screenshot if you've accumulated a large library over time.
AI-powered screenshot search
While the growing list of Galaxy AI features certainly sounds impressive on paper, their usefulness will ultimately depend on language and regional support. Since many of the tools currently work with only a limited number of languages, the experience may vary significantly depending on where you live.
Intelligent features
Benchmarks and performance
Samsung decided to go with a Qualcomm chip for the A27 instead of Exynos, like last year. As we've already seen in the Galaxy A36, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 is a pretty modest chip performance-wise. Otherwise, it is a fairly modern part, made on a 4nm Samsung node. It also offers pretty modern connectivity and features.
In the CPU department, you are looking at an older-style symmetrical configuration with four Cortex-A78 cores, working at up to 2.2 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores, clocked at up to 1.8 GHz. The GPU is an Adreno 710. The chipset is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Gone is the base 4GB version of the Galaxy A26. For storage, you can either get 128GB or 256GB of expandable storage. Our review unit is the 8GB/256GB one.
Looking at some actual benchmark scores, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 does indeed leave more to be desired. In the CPU department, it is only marginally better than the Exynos 1380 in last year's Galaxy A26 and only in multi-core loads. In AnTuTu, with its more comprehensive set of tests, our 8GB/256GB unit did have a commanding lead over the Galaxy A26 and even the A36, which runs the same chipset but was only tested with 6GB of RAM. The Adreno 710 is quite disappointing; that said, there are worse GPUs out there, and most modern games are well optimized to run even on such modest hardware.
GeekBench 6
- Single-core
- Multi-core
OnePlus Nord 5
Galaxy A26
Galaxy A36
Galaxy A27
Galaxy A17 5G
Infinix Note 50 Pro 4G
Galaxy A07 4G
AnTuTu
- v10
- v11
Infinix GT 50 Pro
Poco M8 Pro
Galaxy A37
Galaxy A27
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite
Galaxy A17 5G
Galaxy A07 4G
3DMark
- Wild Life Extreme (Highest)
- Wild Life Extreme (Lowest)
Infinix GT 50 Pro
Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G
Galaxy A36
Galaxy A27
Poco M8
Galaxy A17 5G
Galaxy A07 4G
Thermal-throttling
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 is clearly not the most powerful chipset around, but on the flip side, it does run quite cool. No matter what we stressed the Galaxy A27 with, it never really thermal-throttled in any meaningful way.
Thermal-throttling
Plus, its surface remained lukewarm at the worst and perfectly comfortable to hold.
Reader comments
- Azeem
- 13 Jul 2026
- CJX
Oppo Reno15 F is similarly priced but is much better choice than Galaxy A27 for countless reasons, including the following: 1. More durable IP68 vs. IP64 water / dust resistance 2. 7000 mAh battery vs. 5000 mAh battery 3. 80W charging vs. 25...
- Anonymous
- 12 Jul 2026
- CcC
Avoid budget or mid rangers from the like of Samsung. They are way overpriced. The sad reality is that some countries simply don't have as many versatile options.
- oo Ruly oo
- 10 Jul 2026
- txp
The possiblity is low. It is when someone does have lack information.