While other parts of the world will get their hands on the Galaxy A56 later this month, phone shoppers in the U.S. will have two other midrange Samsung phones to choose from if they're looking for devices that offer a few premium features without lofty flagship price tags. The Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 hit retail shelves at the end of March, and they seem designed to give value-minded customers a chance to experience AI-powered features for less.
Artificial intelligence has been a major focus for phone makers in general and Samsung in particular. So far, Samsung has focused its Galaxy AI efforts on flagship devices like the recently released Galaxy S25 range, while limiting midrange Galaxy A phones to a handful of AI tools like Circle to Search. That's changing in a big way with this year's Galaxy A models, starting with the U.S. release of the Galaxy A36 and A26.
The phones offer other improvements over previous Galaxy A offerings, including camera enhancements, brighter displays and extended software support. Here's what you need to know about the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26, which Samsung announced alongside the Galaxy A56 ahead of this week's Mobile World Congress 2025 event in Barcelona.
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Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 pricing and availability
The Galaxy A36 is the pricier of these two midrange phones, but only relatively so — it will cost $399, which is the same price as the Galaxy A35 it replaces. You'll be able to buy the phone on March 26 when it goes on sale at Best Buy. Available colors include black, lavender and lime.
The Galaxy A26 goes on sale two days later on March 28, and it costs $100 less than the A36. The $299 phone features a single black option.
UK and Australian pricing for the Galaxy A36 is £399 and AU$549, respectively. The Galaxy A26 costs £299 and AU$499 in those countries.
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 AI features
The biggest excitement around the Galaxy A36 and A26 are the additional AI features Samsung is bringing to its cheaper phones. AI tools have been common on other midrange models, such as the Pixel 8a and more recently the iPhone 16e, but last year, Samsung only supported Circle to Search capabilities on devices like the Galaxy A55 and A35.
Circle to Search is back on the new phones, but Samsung is extending the search tool's capabilities, much like it did with the Galaxy S25 release earlier this year. As before, you'll be able to search for anything just by long-pressing the navigation bar on the Galaxy A36 or A26 and then tapping or circling whatever on the phone's screen, you want more information about. But now Circle to Search can do things like look up phone numbers, URLs and email addresses; it can also recognize songs playing and give you information about the title and artist.
Other AI features are more focused on photo editing. A My Filter tool on the Galaxy A36 and A26 will let you create custom filters when you select a photo that you like by copying the colors and styles from that image; you can apply that customized filter to other photos going forward.
Both phones also get an Object Eraser tool that will let you remove unwanted people and objects from images. As with the Magic Eraser tool on Google's Pixel phones, you can either select what you want removed or make your changes based on auto-generated selections.
The Galaxy A36 gets an Edit Suggest feature, which taps into AI to analyze photos and suggests enhancements you can make. That's not available on the Galaxy A26. Both the A36 and A26 miss out on a Best Face feature available on the Galaxy A56 that lets you swap in different faces for up to five people in a shot to make sure that everyone's looking their best.
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 specs
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Samsung Galaxy A36 | Samsung Galaxy A26 |
Price | $399/£399/AU$549 | $299/£299/AU$499 |
Screen size | 6.7-inch AMOLED (FHD+, 120Hz) | 6.7-inch AMOLED (FHD+, 120Hz) |
Chipset | Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 | Exynos 1380 |
RAM | 6GB | 6GB |
Storage | 128GB | 128GB |
Rear cameras | 50MP main (f/1.8), 8MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 5MP macro (f/2.4) | 50MP main (f/1.8), 8MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 2MP macro (f/2.4) |
Front camera | 12MP (f/2.2) | 13MP (f/2.2) |
Battery size | 5,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh |
Size | 6.4 x 3.1 x 0.29 inches / 162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4mm | 6.5 x 3.1 x 0.3 inches / 164 x 77.5 x 7.7mm |
Colors | Awesome Lavender, Awesome Black, Awesome Lime | Awesome Black |
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 design and display
The Galaxy A lineup is getting a new look this year that diverges from Samsung's Galaxy S flagships, after a couple of years of uniform design among Samsung's different offerings. The camera arrays on the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 still feature a vertical column of lenses, only now they're set apart in their own island.
Samsung has slimmed down the Galaxy A36 from its predecessor — the new phone is 7.4mm thin, compared to 8.2mm on the Galaxy A35. The Galaxy A26 is a little thicker at 7.7mm, but it's still a pretty slender frame.
Samsung isn't sacrificing durability to make its phones thinner. Both the Galaxy A36 and A26 offer IP67 water resistance, so there shouldn't be an issue if they get dunked into a meter of water. That's a particularly noteworthy feature for the Galaxy A26, as you don't typically find that level of waterproofing among sub-$300 phones.
Both phones have 6.7-inch AMOLED screens, with Samsung promising 1,200 nits in high brightness mode. The Galaxy A36, in particular, can reportedly reach a peak brightness of 1,900 nits, which would be an improvement over the 1,317-nit reading we got when we tested the Galaxy A35 last year.
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 cameras
The Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 come equipped with triple camera arrays on the back, with both phones featuring a 50MP main camera and 8MP ultrawide shooter. The Galaxy A36 offers a 5MP macro lens while you get a 2MP macro sensor with the Galaxy A26.
The front cameras differ, too, as the Galaxy A36 has a 12MP selfie cam, compared to 13MP on the A26. Despite the lower megapixel rating, Samsung says the front camera on the Galaxy A36 is an improvement over the Galaxy A35; both the front and ultrawide cameras on the A36 support video HDR capture.
In addition, Samsung promises night photos shot on the Galaxy A36 will be clear and bright.
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 performance and battery life
The Galaxy A36 runs on a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, which should deliver improved performance over the Exynos 1380 that powered the Galaxy A35. That older Exynos chip now finds its way into Galaxy A26.
Both new Galaxy A phones come with 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage.
Samsung uses a 5,000 mAh battery across the updated Galaxy A lineup, which is also unchanged from the power pack inside the Galaxy A35. We're interested to see if these new phones can improve upon the 11 hour and 9 minute result that the A35 posted on our battery test — a better-than-average result for when we have phones surf the web continuously until they run out of power.
The Galaxy A36 supports 45W wired charging, an improvement over the Galaxy A35's 25W speed. However, you'll need to buy a 45W charger separately.
Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 software support
Samsung's One UI 7 software based on Android 15 ships with the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26. You'll miss out on the Now Brief and Now Bar features that are part of that software update for the Galaxy S25, as those require the Personal Data Engine included on Samsung's flagships. However, other One UI 7 improvements like the new look interface are very much in evidence on these midrange phones.
The bigger news is extended software support for Samsung's Galaxy A models, which used to enjoy four years of Android updates, plus an additional year of security support. With the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26, Samsung is extending that to six years of software and security updates.
What about the Galaxy A56?
We're focusing on the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 as the U.S. launch of those phones is imminent. But the Galaxy A56 is the more fully featured offering in Samsung's midrange lineup, and it's already got release dates for the U.K. and Australia.
With last year's Galaxy A55 never reaching the U.S., you might be worried that the Galaxy A56 might face a similar fate. However, Samsung has confirmed that the A56 is coming to the U.S. later this year, with a $499 starting price.
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