What’s the problem?
of Samsung Galaxy A35 5G You can get it for just $299 ($100 off) on Amazon this Labor Day week, making this already very good phone even more of a bargain.
ZDNET Key Takeaways
- Samsung Galaxy A35 5G It’s a great all-around smartphone that you can buy for $400, and frequently sells for $300.
- You’ll love the two-day battery life, great screen quality, and four years of software updates.
- The biggest problem is that performance tends to vary from day to day and can lead to overheating.
I was surprised at how much fun it was to use. Samsung Galaxy A35 5GSamsung’s latest mid-range phone in the lineup isn’t exactly special. It looks like any other Galaxy phone from recent years and doesn’t offer any fancy features. That said, a mid-range phone’s mission isn’t to make waves, but to offer a balance of performance, quality, and price, and this phone hits that balance nicely.
View on Amazon
Some might argue that this isn’t the best $400 phone on the market, but it certainly is one of the best, and one of the reasons for this is its screen. The Galaxy A35 5G comes with Samsung’s proprietary Super AMOLED display that measures 6.6 inches diagonally. The display has a Full HD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate to keep everything smooth, and 1,000 nits of brightness makes the screen easy to see even in direct sunlight. As an added bonus, it’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.
One of the Galaxy A35’s biggest advantages is its battery capacity. At 5,000mAh, the device will easily last two days on a full charge. During testing, I only plugged the phone in three times, and that was with moderate usage. Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging and charging speeds are limited to 25W, so it can take a while to get to 100%. Still, it’s nice to have days of battery life on any smartphone, not just one that costs $400.
Plus: Why the $799 Google Pixel 9 is the true star of this year’s Android smartphone lineup
Another thing I never thought I’d say after using the A35 for a while is that the cameras aren’t that bad. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that at least two of the cameras are good, which is something that’s nearly impossible to achieve on most Android phones under $500.
The main 50MP camera is good enough to take some great photos. Colours aren’t as over the top as on older Samsung phones, and contrast and exposure are generally on point. I’ve found that the A35 has no trouble preserving shadows, for better or worse, but photo quality generally suffers as the light gets lower. It’s not terrible by any means, but there’s some excess grain and noise that can be noticeable. Ton External light or natural light within the frame.
We also appreciate the 13MP selfie camera, which is perfect for taking selfies for Snapchat or Instagram Stories. Unfortunately, the other cameras on the back of the device are disappointing: the 8MP is ultra-wide thanks to a 123-degree field of view, but it’s grainy and low-quality in almost all lighting conditions, while the 5MP macro camera is washed out and impossible to capture anything usable except in bright daylight.
And forget about the Pixel 8a: the $399 Android phone might just be your best budget choice.
You can’t buy a Galaxy A35 5G and expect Spielberg-quality video, but you do get the option to shoot in 4K (albeit at 30 frames per second). Plus, we like Samsung’s camera app because it’s optimized and easy to use.
Other notable features include a fast and reliable in-display fingerprint scanner, IP67 certification for water and dust resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the back, and a microSD card slot for expanding storage whenever you need it.
But the A35 stumbles on the performance front. The phone isn’t slow, but it’s not always fast either. It’s powered by an Exynos 1380 octa-core processor that’s fast enough for everyday use, but when I tested it, the phone slowed down excessively, sometimes taking several seconds to open an app or start multitasking.
The device would also inexplicably heat up at times during normal use – for example, at one point I was scrolling through an article with Spotify playing in the background and the A35 got so warm I had to put it down.
And even though I upgrade my iPhone every year, the iPhone 16 worries me, and here’s why.
This is a known issue with Samsung’s Exynos chips, which have historically lagged behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in terms of performance and efficiency. Luckily, the A35 can be equipped with 6GB, 8GB, or 12GB of RAM, so you won’t run out of memory while using it. Just be sure not to push the phone too hard.
Samsung Galaxy A35 5G vs Google Pixel 9
Google currently offers the flagship-spec Pixel 9 at a relatively high price point of $799, which is higher than the mid-range price range. It’s $400 more than the Samsung A35 5G, so you can’t really compare the two as direct competitors. Still, it’s no surprise that customers are considering buying a new (and admittedly better) phone.
If you’re on a budget and prefer the brand’s custom skins over Android, you should still buy a Samsung phone. If you want a better camera phone with seven years of operating system upgrades (Samsung offers five), the Pixel 9 might be worth the splurge.
ZDNET BUYING ADVICE
It’s hard to find a mid-range device that offers a balanced smartphone experience. Samsung Galaxy A35 5G It’s pretty good, and while the performance and camera quality are a bit off in some areas, the rest of the phone (especially that gorgeous screen) is excellent for the price.
Of course, if you were to buy this phone, you’d probably also be looking at similarly priced phones like the Pixel 8a or the excellent OnePlus 12R. Neither of them offer as good a screen quality as the A35, nor do they offer the two-day battery life, and their cameras are comparable (though the Pixel 7a trumps the A35 and 12R). Overall, the A35 is a good choice. It’s not perfect, but if you can live with its quirks, you’ll like it.
