Samsung Galaxy A55 and A35 Review: Good Enough For Most

There's a reason why Samsung's Galaxy A series smartphones are often on our best-selling smartphones list. In fact, at various points over the last few years, some of these models have been the best-selling Android smartphones in the world.

Samsung has been playing it smart with the A series — these phones tend to  look like the flagship Galaxy S, and their software is quite similar. Performance-wise, you get what you pay for. The experience is generally trouble-free, with decent cameras and excellent battery life, which is exactly what the average buyer really wants.

The new Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 basically remix this mantra to great effect, coupled with the Samsung brand promise, but can they become best-sellers like their predecessors? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy A55

Design and Durability

Samsung Galaxy A35

The Galaxy A55 is chunky, but in an excellent way. It feels like an expensive phone because of its metal frame and glass back. The screen also has symmetrical bezels, though these are HUGE. On the less expensive Galaxy A35, the frame is made out of plastic, but it feels like aluminium. In a way, this is a more durable phone because plastic doesn't get damaged or dented as easily as metal. 

These phones are both IP67 water and dust resistant, making them the most durable Galaxy A series phones yet. Of course, their likeness to the new Galaxy S24 models is very helpful, and Samsung's penchant for pleasant colours always makes things appealing. Are these the most ergonomic phones to use? Perhaps not because their iPhone-like squared off edges dig into the palm of the user.

Display Quality

Samsung's display prowess comes to the fore with these phones. Both have 6.66-inch Super AMOLED screens with a 120Hz refresh rate, Full HD+ resolution, and Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection, and both are delights to view content on. They have up to 1000 nits of brightness, and even under direct sunlight, they were quite decent to use. In fact, what we've experienced in real-world use is that Samsung's displays often outperform the competition which claims higher brightness figures. The only quibbles I'd have are the large bezels and no support for Dolby Vision.

Performance and Software

The A55 and A35 come with different processors. The more premium Galaxy A55 has the excellent new Samsung Exynos 1480, based on a 4nm manufacturing process, and even has a modern Xclipse 530 integrated GPU. On the other hand, the Galaxy A35 uses the less powerful Exynos 1380 SoC, which is not as impressive.

Samsung's Exynos processors have drastically improved in 2024, as witnessed in our reviews of the Galaxy S24 and S24+ with the flagship Exynos 2400 doing surprisingly well. So the Exynos 1480 in the Galaxy A55 is going to fit the bill for most people. It also helps that this phone comes with up to 12GB RAM, while the Galaxy A35 tops out at 8GB. 

When combined with the new One UI 6.1 experience based on Android 14, you get a pretty smooth phone for day-to-day tasks such as browsing the Web, playing light games, sending WhatsApp messages, and making calls. In fact, gaming is quite decent, and I even managed to play Call of Duty Mobile at a decent graphics quality level, and this phone didn't heat up a lot while doing so. 

The same cannot be said about the cheaper Galaxy A35, which uses the older Exynos 1380 with an inferior GPU. If you like gaming, look elsewhere towards options from Xiaomi, Nothing, or OnePlus at this price level. 

The software experience on both phones is also very similar to what you get with the Galaxy S24 models, thanks to the new One UI 6.1 software experience that they run  out of the box. There’s very little bloatware, which is one of the reasons to choose these phones over the competition, many of which ship with a bit of bloat.

Sure, the flagships’ generative AI features aren't present, but it's still early days, and they are a tad gimmicky. The bigger difference is the fact that Samsung isn't promising the same 7 years of software updates. You do get Samsung’s security suite, Knox, on both phones which should help keep your private information safe.

Camera Performance

There is a triple camera array on both these phones. Both primary cameras have 50-megapixel optically stabilised sensors, but the one in the Galaxy A55 is significantly larger than the one in the A35. The A55's primary camera is quite capable when used in good lighting, and takes sharp photos with vibrant colours. As one would expect, performance deteriorates in low light, but again, for the price point, it holds its own with relatively decent performance. 

The A35 is not that good in low light but usable in favourable lighting conditions. With complex or indoor lighting, the camera performance is quite inconsistent on both phones. I believe the Galaxy A55 provides enough for the average user in terms of image quality. 

The 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor on the A55 is quite capable, though the same cannot be said about the 8-megapixel one on the A35. Both phones also have a 5-megapixel macro camera, and for what it's worth, at least this resolution means you can actually take decent macro shots in good lighting, unlike the often pointless  2-megapixel macro cameras that some of the competition uses.

Both phones can shoot 4K video at 30 frames per second, but apart from the odd reel, you wouldn’t want to use either of them for content creation. You'll get usable footage in decent lighting, but in low light, it's a different story. Video stabilisation isn't the best, and you'd either have to hold your hands very still or mount either device on a gimbal for stable enough video. Selfies on the A55 were also quite decent, but again, the A35 has a paltry 13-megapixel front snapper which needs excellent lighting to support it.

Battery Life and Charging

Battery life is the USP of both these phones, with 5,000mAh battery capacities. Thanks to the more efficient 4nm SoC on the Galaxy A55, I noticed it lasted a very long time with medium to heavy use — often more than a day on a single charge. The A35 had slightly inferior battery life, lasting just about a day. 

I also noticed the standby time on the Galaxy A55 was excellent — this meant the phone had quite a bit of juice left, even if I had left it idle for a couple of days. Both phones support 25W charging, so they do take their sweet time to juice up. Also, there is no charger in either phone’s retail package, which means that you'll need to buy one or fall back on whatever you already have.

Other Features

Both phones have very reliable fingerprint scanners, which work in a jiffy. Call and network quality was also quite decent. I tested the Samsung Galaxy A55 and A35 in Delhi NCR on a Jio SIM. Both phones also have decent stereo speakers providing good multimedia experiences. 

Interestingly, these are some of the few phones currently in the market that allow storage expansion with their hybrid microSDXC slots, which is a feature many Indians still like to have, though you’d have to sacrifice being able to use a second SIM. I would categorise the haptic feedback on both these phones as average, and the Samsung keyboard has been tuned  with key tap sounds, making it as responsive as the iPhone keyboard has always been. This offsets the limitations of the haptic feedback. 

Verdict

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A55 and A35 do enough to mimic the high-end S24 series at a much lower cost, though the experience is highly watered-down. These phones don't have the best processors, the best cameras, or even the generative AI snazziness that their flagship siblings do, but they do have good software and hardware for the price. 

Are they the best in their respective segments on any one technical level? Heck no. You can find bettermore performance, better cameras, and more inventive features at these prices. However, both these phones are powerful enough, they’re easy enough to use, and they are capable enough overall for most people — combine that with the Samsung brand, and you have a potent combination.