The freshly announced Samsung Galaxy A55 may not launch in the U.S. after all, with Samsung instead selling the cheaper Galaxy A35 in the American market.
"We can confirm that Galaxy A35 5G will be coming to the US market and look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks," reads a statement from Samsung given to CNET, continuing to say that it "will not be carrying the Galaxy A55 5G at this time."
This is both disappointing and confusing news. Disappointing because the Galaxy A55 has superior specs to the A35, although the A35 is £100/AU$120 cheaper as a result. The confusion comes from the fact that this is the opposite way around to the past few years, where when Samsung launches new Galaxy A30 series and A50 series models, the A5x model is the one that goes on sale in the U.S., like we saw with the Galaxy A54 last year.
This perhaps has something to do with the Galaxy S23 FE, and the assumed Galaxy S24 FE that will replace it later this year. It has considerable overlap with the Galaxy A55, so perhaps Samsung wants to avoid cannibalizing its own sales by keeping its U.S. phone line-up as simple as possible. Although why this doesn't apply in other markets around the world we don't know.
A consolation prize
The two new Galaxy A series phones have a fair amount in common. The Galaxy A35 and A55 are both 6.6-inch devices with FHD OLED 120Hz displays, 50MP main cameras, 5,000 mAh batteries and a new design featuring a prominent "Key Island" bump on the side rail to house the power and volume buttons, and four color options. However, the Galaxy A55 gets metal side rails, higher-resolution ultrawide and selfie cameras, a more powerful chipset and higher RAM capacity options on top of this.
Whether the U.S. does end up with the A55 or the A35, it's got a chance of becoming one of the best cheap phones we've tested this year. But with the OnePlus 12R, Google Pixel 7a (and rumored upcoming Pixel 8a), Nothing Phone 2a and the iPhone SE 2022 all on sale for similar prices, the Galaxy A35 and A55 have their work cut out for when they launch later in March.
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