Samsung Galaxy A35 review: How good is this $399 phone?

The Samsung Galaxy A35 looks to continue what's been a golden age of sorts for midrange devices from the smartphone giant. In recent years, Samsung has managed to pack some pretty impressive features into its A Series phones while keeping the prices below what you'd have to pay for a flagship device like the Galaxy S24.

But after the Galaxy A54 won rave reviews from me last year, Samsung changed things up in 2024. That phone's follow-up, the Galaxy A55, shipped to the U.K., Australia and other parts of the world, where it received deserved plaudits. Meanwhile, U.S. customers got the Galaxy A35 and its decidedly less impressive specs.

This Samsung Galaxy A35 review looks at whether U.S. smartphone shoppers got the raw end of that deal of if the new model proves to be one of the best Samsung phones for bargain hunters. We'll also consider how Samsung's midrange model stacks up to the rest of the low-cost competition from the likes of Google and OnePlus.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Specs

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Price and availability

The Galaxy A35 has been available from both retailers and phone carriers for a while now. At $399, it's priced well below its primary competition for best cheap phone honors. Google's Pixel 8a — the standard other midrange phones are judged by — costs $100 more at $499. That's the same price as the OnePlus 12R, another well-regarded midrange model that's likely to see a replacement in early 2025.

The $399 price gets you a Galaxy A35 with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. In other parts of the world there's an 8GB/256GB model available, but that doesn't appear to be an option for U.S. shoppers. Elsewhere, the Galaxy A35 costs £339 and AU$549.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Design

If you've seen any recent Samsung phone, you'll recognize the Galaxy A35's design, though Samsung has turned to less polished materials for its midrange phone. The frame is plastic, though the A35 uses a glass back with a glossy finish. That latter feature really picks up fingerprints, so keep a cloth handy to keep your A35 looking clean.

At 7.4 ounces, the Galaxy A35 weighs about what you'd expect for a phone of its size, though it felt a little hefty in my hand. It's certainly more substantial than the 5.9-ounce Galaxy S24 when I held both phones. The Galaxy A35 features Gorilla Glass Victus Plus and an IP67 rating for water resistance, so durability won't be a concern.

I like that Samsung doesn't use a distinct camera array on the back of its phones. Instead, the three rear cameras descend in free-flowing vertical line, with the lenses protruding slightly from the back. The only other design flourish — besides the lack of a headphone jack — is a slightly raised area for the power button and volume toggle on the right side of the phone. It helps set those controls apart, even if they felt higher up the phone's side than I'm used to.

I tested the navy version of the Galaxy A35, which is a little disappointing not only for the fingerprint issue but because my colleague John Velasco loved the way the lilac model shimmered in light when he went hands-on with the phone. Other regions apparently have access to yellow and ice blue color options.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Display

With a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED panel, the Galaxy A35 offers expansive screen space, even if it's not quite as much as the 6.7-inch Galaxy S24 FE, which sells for $250 more. My biggest complaint is that the A35's screen feels a little dark — some of the finer details of a chase scene in "The Fall Guy" didn't look as well lit as I'd seen on other screens. The "Moana 2 trailer" looked a bit brighter and more colorful, though, so perhaps the A35's display fares better with more vivid content.

Whatever the reason, the Galaxy A35 screen is certainly bright enough to use in broad daylight without requiring too much squinting. Our lab measured HDR brightness at 1,317 nits, which is about equal to the Pixel 8a's 1,329-nit reading. For what it's worth, the Galaxy S24 FE can hit 1,516 nits, so Samsung definitely doesn't use as bright a panel on its less expensive phones.

As for color quality, the Galaxy A35 certainly performs well for a midrange phone, with the ocean in "Moana 2" looking blue and inviting, and the eyes of the characters looking glossy and lifelike. In its default Vivid mode, the Galaxy A35 captured 99.2% of the DCI-P color spectrum, compared to 89.6% for the Pixel 8a. Colors were slightly more accurate, too, based on the Galaxy A35's superior Delta-E score.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Cameras

You're obviously not going to get Galaxy S24 camera performance by opting for Samsung's midrange phone, but the phone maker has proven in the past that models like the Galaxy A54 can hold their own when it comes to producing quality photos. The Galaxy A35 looks to live up that standard with a 50MP main camera that matches the specs of a lot of Samsung phones — the Galaxy A54, A55 and even the S24.

It's the ultrawide lens where the Galaxy A35 takes a step back, as Samsung has gone with an 8MP sensor compared to the 12MP shooter on the A55. As with last year, you've got a dedicated macro sensor on the A35, as Samsung reserves telephoto lenses for the Galaxy S series.

If the Galaxy A35 is going to impress, it's got to keep up with the Pixel 8a, our current pick for the best camera phone under $500. If you've read my 200-photo Galaxy A35 vs. Pixel 8a face-off, you already know how the two camera phones measure up, but let's revisit a few of the photo comparisons to see what you can expect from the Galaxy A35.

Outside in favorable lighting, the Galaxy A35 matches up well with Pixel 8a, like in this photo of a Blue Hawaii cocktail next to a tiki mug. The A35 tends to favor brighter colors, sometimes to the point of oversaturation. But here, everything's kept in balance, and the brighter tones show off swirl of citrus juice in the drink in a way the Pixel 8a photos obscures in darkness. The Galaxy A35 makes the tiki mug look a little too vivid, but I find the overall tone of the shot much more pleasing than the darker cast the Pixel 8a has put on the scene.

The Galaxy A35's love of color doesn't always serve it well, though. A bowl of pho is brightened too aggressively with that pepper on the top taking on an otherworldly glow. The Pixel 8a's effort is not only more true-to-life, but its richer tones emphasize the color of the broth without pumping up the greens in the photo to almost comical extremes.

Dynamic range proved to be a challenge for the Galaxy A35 throughout my time taking pictures with the phone, and this shot of a ferris wheel underscores that. I took the photo in the golden hour, and the Pixel 8a really did a great job of reflecting the sunlight beaming down on the ferris wheel. Contrast that with the Galaxy A35, which brightens the yellow ferris wheel while also trying to minimize the shadows on the trees in the foreground. The end result lacks the depth that the Pixel 8a brings to the scene.

I've had success using Galaxy A phones in low-light settings before, but the Galaxy A35 is out of its depth at night. The stuffed animals assembled on bench with minimal ambient lighting from the right looks too shadowy when the Galaxy A35 photographs them. Once again, the phone has brightened some colors — look at the flowers in the vase next to the leopard — at the expensive of other things in the frame.

You contrast that with the Pixel 8a's photo, where things are considerably lighter to the point where you can make out more details of the stuffed animals. The flowers are accurately colored and in focus, too, something the Galaxy A35 can't claim.

I did try out the marco mode on the Galaxy A35, which produced decent if not spectacular results when I got up close to an apple growing my backyard. I've gotten better results from other phones like the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024), a device that costs just as much as the Galaxy A35 and sports less well-regarded photo features.

I go back and forth when comparing the Galaxy A35's ultrawide lens with the Pixel 8a's. On the one hand, the Galaxy A35 did a much better job of highlighting the blue in sky over the football stadium; the Pixel 8a's sky looks too washed out. But there's an overly blue cast to the rest of the Galaxy A35 photo, particularly on the fans in the stands. The colors in the Pixel 8a shot appear much more natural, blank sky notwithstanding.

Without a zoom lens on the Galaxy A35, you're entirely reliant on a digital zoom, which can increase noise the further in you zoom. That was the case when I shot a 4x zoom of a clock tower, with the Galaxy A35 clearly struggling with sharpness. The Pixel 8a has an edge with a Super Res Zoom capability that minimizes the ill effects of digital zooms with the help of computational photography. At any rate, the Pixel 8a's photo is lot more focused and the details of the clock tower are much clearer.

I actually think the portrait photography feature on the Galaxy A35 performs pretty well, even if it did struggle with the glasses my friend Jason is wearing in the above shot. But his skin tone looks quite natural, and background blur is pretty thorough, even if the overall image looks a little flatter than the Pixel 8a effort. My problem with the Pixel shot is Google's tendency to over-smooth faces, which is definitely evident here. Botched glasses aside, the A35 produced the better portrait.

Turning to the Galaxy A35's 13MP front camera, I think this selfie of me looks pretty good, even if my hat is overly bright, thanks to Samsung's love of oversaturated colors. I'll take brighter colors over unnaturally smooth faces, though, as the Pixel 8a has once again smoothed out wrinkles and blemishes, creating an unnatural cast to my face.

I stuck with the selfie cam to test out the A35 Camera app's "Fun" mode, because I have no dignity. Fun mode features a handful of Snapchat like filters that superimpose AR effects on you face. The above sample has fitted me with glasses and a beanie while "Beautiful Mind"-style math equations appear in the background. It's a sign of who Samsung thinks this phone is for — younger people who might get a kick out of taking and sharing these sorts of photos with friends. If that's your thing, well bless you. The A35 does handles image effects well enough, but with third-party apps out there that do the same thing, I'm guessing this feature isn't going to sway potential buyers that much.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Performance

The Galaxy A35 uses an Exynos 1380 system-on-chip — the same silicon Samsung turned to last year for the Galaxy A54. That's not necessarily a step in the right direction, as the A54 wasn't exactly a speed demon, even among midrange phones.

Indeed, the Galaxy A35 clearly trails comparable midrange models in our benchmark testing. With Geekbench 6, Samsung's phone turns in single and multicore scores of 1,017 and 2,950, respectively. Those fall well behind the Pixel 8a's 1,581 and 4,093 results on the same tests, and the Tensor G3 chip powering the Pixel is built for AI features and not speed. The OnePlus 12R, with its high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 silicon, blows the Galaxy A35 away with scores of 1,553 and 5,135.

It's the same story with graphics, where the Galaxy A35 managed 16.8 frames per second on the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited test. That result is well behind what the Pixel 8a (53.8) and OnePlus 12R (84.5) averaged. The Galaxy A35 also needed 1 minute and 9 seconds to transcode a video clip in Adobe Premiere Rush — a task the Pixel 8a completed in 56 seconds.

That transcoding test indicates a real-world lag in the Galaxy A35's performance, though I found the phone to be peppy enough when launching apps and switching between tasks. I played PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy A35 without suffering any stutters or dropped frames, so I think the phone is capable of handling all but the most processor-intensive tasks.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Battery life and charging

The Galaxy A35 averaged 11 hours and 9 minutes on our battery test, in which we set a phone's display to 150 nits and then have it surf the web over cellular until it runs out of power. That time is about an hour better than the average smartphone, though I would have expected more from the 5,000 mAh battery that powers the A35.

We got that time with the Galaxy A35's display on its default setting, with the adaptive refresh rate turned on. Locking the rate at 60Hz actually lowered the average result by 11 minutes — curious since faster refresh rates tend to put a hit on battery life. The good news, then, is that you can keep the high refresh rate turned on without any fear that your Galaxy A35 battery life is going to be adversely affected.

The Galaxy A35's time on our battery test was in line with the 11 hours and 22 minutes that the Pixel 8a registered. Both phones can't keep up with the OnePlus 12R, which lasts an astonishing 18-plus hours, though it benefits from the power management features of its Snapdragon 8 series silicon.

In every day usage, the Galaxy A35 provided decent battery life. A four-hour photo session with the phone still left me with plenty of a charge, but a more intensive gaming session dropped the battery by 10% after 30 minutes of usage.

When you do recharge the phone, you can count on 25W charging speeds, which matches what the Galaxy S24 flagship offers. That got the A35's drained battery to 53% after 30 minutes of charging, which is about what you'd expect. You won't find wireless charging here like you would on the Pixel 8a.

Samsung Galaxy A35 review: Software

Samsung's four years of software updates plus an additional year of security support for the Galaxy A35 would have been quite generous for a midrange phone back in the day. But we're now living in an era where Pixel 8a users are getting seven years of updates, so Samsung's support policy, while better than most, isn't the most extensive you'll find.

Pixel 8a owners get something else that will elude you if you opt for the Galaxy A35 — a suite of AI-powered features. Galaxy AI is largely reserved for Samsung's flagship phones and premium foldable devices, though the A series isn't completely shut out. The Galaxy A35 supports Circle to Search, one of the better Galaxy AI tools.

All you have to do is press and hold on the home button to summon Circle to Search, which lets you circle tap any image to find out more about it. Circle to Search works across multiple apps — I've used it in Gallery as well as Chrome — and it's a clever way of looking up information on landmarks or doing a little online shopping by letting your fingers do the searching.

Otherwise, the software experience on the Galaxy A35 is pretty similar to what you'd get on other Samsung phones. That includes the One UI 6.1 interface built on Android 14, as Galaxy A35 owners are waiting for Samsung's One UI 7 update, just like everyone else.

Samsung Galaxy A35: Verdict

The Galaxy A35 is a solid choice if you want a cheap phone that doesn't let you down in key areas like power, performance and looks. The only problem, though. is there are better options out there. The Pixel 8a takes better photos and offers more AI features. The OnePlus 12R lasts longer on a charge and offer more processing oomph. (You'd imagine its successor will too.) If any of those capabilities are especially important to you, it would justify digging up the extra $100 to cover the higher cost of those phones — or seeking out one of the best Black Friday phone deals that put those prices on more level terms.

That said, in a world of more sophisticated premium phones, the Galaxy A35 makes a good account of itself. It's got a nicely sized bright screen, more AI capabilities than you typically find on a sub-$400 phone and cameras that get the job done. If money is an object — and it definitely is for a a lot of us — the Galaxy A35 provides a decently priced option with few significant sacrifices.