Midrange Battle: Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35

In addition to their premium S-series line, Samsung also maintains a strong presence in the midrange market via the A-series line. This year, it comes in the form of the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35. Two smartphones, each coming at nearly the same size, and the same design. For a newcomer then, picking the one could be a little confusing.

Should you stick with the more affordable Galaxy A35? Or pay the premium to get the Galaxy A55? We’ve outlined all the major ways they’re different in order to help you choose the right phone for you!

Build Quality

In terms of design and dimensions, the two smartphones should feel quite similar in the hand, given that they only differ in terms of a few millimeters. Both of them also sport an IP67 rating, shielding them against water and dust.

The Galaxy A55 has been given more premium materials though, with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front, and Victus for the back. The Galaxy A35 on the other hand, makes do with a plastic frame and a regular glass back albeit, still with Gorilla Glass Victus+ for the front, which does help with scratch resistance.

Which smartphone to choose based on this criteria therefore, depends on how you use your smartphone. With both sporting a “glass-sandwich” style build, both phones should feel quite premium in the hand. If you’re the type who uses their phone with a case anyway, then maybe the basic glass of the A35 may do. If you want the more superior build option, then the Galaxy A55 is the clear winner.

Of course, we don’t exactly buy smartphones based on durability alone right? Which brings us to…

Cameras: Front and Back

Both phones sport the same 50 MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.8. The Galaxy A55 sports a slightly bigger sensor at 1/1.56” compared to the 1/1.96 on the Galaxy A35. In practice, we didn’t really find any major differences. So if you just use the main camera for everything, opting for the Galaxy A35 should net you the same stills.

The differences lie in the other cameras on the phone. The Galaxy A55 has a higher resolution 12 MP ultrawide compared to just 8 MP on the Galaxy A35. It also has a bigger 32 MP front camera compared to just 13 MP on the Galaxy A35.

So if you take plenty of selfies or sweeping landscape shots, then the Galaxy A55 is your best bet. The better ultrawide on the A55 also allows you to shoot 4K video, which is a big upgrade over the FHD on the Galaxy A35. If you’re not interested in that, then the A35 should be more than enough for your needs.

Performance: Apps, Games, Etc.

Performance differences are quite straightforward, with the Exynos 1480 in the Galaxy A55 taking a lead in most benchmarks and when it comes to gaming. It’s a much newer chipset built on Samsung’s 4nm process and equipped with a much newer AMD Xclipse GPU.

The Galaxy A35 on the other hand, gets the same Exynos 1380 found in the Galaxy A54 from last year. In our experience, this has been quite stable on that model thanks to the many updates Samsung has released for it. Day-to-day use should feel pleasant enough on both phones.

Battery life is a bit better on the Galaxy A55 though, and if you’re a serious multitasker, then the base 8GB of RAM here should offer more headroom for your apps (though you can get the Galaxy A35 with 8GB of RAM too if you wish).

Neither phones are flagship-level in this regard though, so we don’t really anticipate it being able to run the Galaxy AI suite found on the flagship Galaxy S24 from the brand.

And the winner is...

Overall, these two phones are very, very close in terms of their overall offerings so we think it will really boil down to how much you value the performance and camera tech advantage offered by the A55. It is definitely the better performer between the two phones across a number of categories.

Still, if you’re a more basic user then you might want to save a bit by getting the Galaxy A35, using the price difference to get accessories like a fast charger or even new earphones like the Galaxy Buds FE. You still get a very competent performer at the end of the day.

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