Samsung’s strong presence in the mid-range segment is primarily defined by the Galaxy A3x and A5x series, so it’s natural for people to wonder which one suits their needs.
This year’s Galaxy A55 and A35 both bring decent upgrades compared to their predecessors. But despite their considerable price gap, the Galaxy A55 and A35 are more similar than you’d think. So much so that the Galaxy A35 is almost identical to the A55’s predecessor, the A54. Speaking of, we have a versus article on that topic as well.
Table of Contents:
But before we take a deeper dive, let’s compare the specs sheets first, and then feel free to check out our editor’s assessment in the following text.
Size comparison
The Galaxy A55 and A35 are almost identical in size, which is expected given their shared screen diagonal. The difference is within a couple of millimeters, so essentially, the two handsets will feel the same in hand.
That’s especially true considering the design as well. Both are built around the same design language with flat side frames, flat backs and protruding camera lenses.
They are also both IP67-certified against water and dust.
What sets them apart is that Samsung has included higher-grade materials on the Galaxy A55. It has a Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on the front, Gorilla Glass on the back, and an aluminum side frame, whereas the Galaxy A35 settles for a plastic frame and regular glass back. It’s still Gorilla Glass Victus+ that adorns the front for extra peace of mind.
Display comparison
The two handsets feature two identical displays – 6.6″ in size, 1080p+ resolution, and 120Hz refresh rate, and they can both boost up to around 1,000 nits, which is enough for somewhat comfortable outdoor use even on a bright sunny day.
However, the more expensive Galaxy A55 offers HDR10+ video certification as well, which allows you to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube videos in HDR, as long as the content is compliant with the HDR standard, of course.
We feel like the Galaxy A35 could have gotten HDR10+ support as well, but Samsung probably chose to make a notable feature segregation in this department.
Battery life
Regarding battery life, though, we have a clear winner here. The Galaxy A55 offers more hours away from the cord by achieving an Active Use Score of 13:27h, followed closely by the Galaxy A35 with 12:26h.
Both devices share the same 5,000 mAh battery, run on the same software and have what appear to be the same displays, so the better efficiency likely comes courtesy of the new Exynos 1480 chipset inside the Galaxy A55. The A35 settles for the older Exynos 1380 found in last year’s Galaxy A54.
Looking closer at the results from each category, we find something worth mentioning. For instance, the Galaxy A35 lasted longer in our gaming scenario, and it got close to the A55’s web browsing/social network runtime. Still, the Galaxy A55 comes out on top with a significant lead over its cheaper sibling thanks to its longer 4G call times and video playback.
Charging speed
The Galaxy A55 and A35 both support the same charging capabilities – 25W over PD 3.0 with PPS. Neither has a charger included in the retail package, so you’d have to buy one separately from Samsung or use a third-party one that supports 25W charging over Power Delivery. Either way, you will be getting unimpressive charging speeds from both handsets.
Interestingly enough, the Galaxy A55 completes its full charging cycle from 0 to 100% about 23 minutes faster, but the A35 is almost as fast as the A55 at the 15-minute and 30-minute mark.
Speaker test
The two midrangers share the same speaker’s configuration – hybrid setups with one bottom-facing speaker and one that doubles as an earpiece as well.
When it comes to loudness, the two are very close. The Galaxy A55 earns a “Very Good” score with -25.7 LUFS, which is just a tad louder than the “Good” loudness score of -26.1 LUFS. In practice, there’s no noticeable difference.
The tuning is quite different, though. The Galaxy A55 has a fuller sound thanks to the more prominent bass, while the A35’s vocals pop a bit more. Still, we would take the A55’s speakers, which aren’t just better than the A35’s, but they are nice in general.
Performance
The Galaxy A55 this year sports a newer, much more promising Exynos 1480, based on Samsung’s 4nm EUV manufacturing process, while the Galaxy A35 gets to use the predecessor, the Exynos 1380.
One of the biggest upgrades the new Exynos 1480 brings is the new GPU. It’s an Xclipse 530 co-developed with AMD. Notably, this is the first mid-range GPU based on the RDNA 2 architecture, and it replaces the older Mali-G68 MP5 GPU found in the Exynos 1380.
Memory configurations are quite similar, but the base one for the Galaxy A55 has 8GB of RAM, while the A35 offers 6GB by default. The top-tier iterations get up to 12GB/256GB and 8GB/256GB, respectively.
In pure CPU benchmarks, the Exynos 1480 shows about 14% boost in performance, while a combined test shows a considerable 20% jump in performance. In the GPU-heavy workloads, the gap is even bigger, with the Galaxy A55 outperforming the Galaxy A35 by almost 40% (according to 3DMark Wild Life).
And last, but not least, the Galaxy A55 handles heavy and prolonged workloads better than the A35. One would think that the more powerful SoC will cause thermal issues, but the A55 was rock-solid throughout our CPU and GPU stress test and didn’t show any sign of thermal throttling. The Galaxy A35, on the other hand, demonstrated a small dip in performance – still smaller than the older A54’s, which has the same chipset.
Camera comparison
The Galaxy A35 and A55 have similar camera setups. Their primary cameras are both 50MP with f/1.8 aperture. Still, both cameras feature OIS and have solid video stabilization. However, the Galaxy A55 has a bigger 1/1.56″, 1.0µm sensor compared to 1/1.96″ on the A35.
The A55 also has a higher-resolution 12MP ultrawide camera at its disposal, compared to the 8MP unit on the A35. Neither has autofocus, unfortunately.
The third camera on the back of both models is a 5MP macro shooter with fixed focus.
On the front, the A55, once again, has a much higher resolution camera (32MP). The A35 settles for a 13MP one. Neither has autofocus, but both can capture 4K selfie video.
Image quality
The two devices offer similar image quality during the day. Aside from some corner softness observed on our Galaxy A55 unit, the two phones take almost identical stills down to processing, colors, etc. Interestingly enough, the Galaxy A35 takes nicer 2x photos as they are considerably sharper and more detailed, even if slightly noisier.
Galaxy A55: 0.5x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy A35: 0.5x • 1x • 2x
To our surprise, the ultrawide cameras also offer similar quality. The A55 has slightly better contrast, though, and wider field of view.
We came to almost the same conclusions when it comes to nighttime photography. The A55 and A35 show almost identical processing, sharpness, detail, contrast and dynamic range with their main cameras, but the A55 takes slightly better 2x photos. The A35’s 2x samples look bland. The ultrawide on the A55 edges out with a tad better processing as well.
Video quality
In a direct video recording comparison, the A55 is the clear winner. Not only does it produce livelier and sharper videos with its main camera, but the ultrawide shooter supports 4K videos, which look a lot better than the Full HD videos taken with the A35’s ultrawide snapper.
Galaxy A55: 0.5x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy A35: 0.5x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy A55 video: 0.5x • 1x
Galaxy A35 video: 0.5x • 1x
Verdict
It appears Samsung’s new Galaxy A55 and A35 are more alike than different, which in most cases would make it hard to justify the A55’s higher price tag. The duo currently sell at around €100 difference (or INR 10,000 in India) and as in most cases, it depends on what you are looking for.
Get the Galaxy A55 if you are looking for extra horsepower under the hood (better CPU and GPU performance), nicer video recording capabilities, longer battery life and better-sounding stereo speakers.
However, one could argue that the Galaxy A35 can get you pretty close to what you are looking for without breaking the bank. Especially if you are not particularly interested in video recording.
Get the Samsung Galaxy A55 for:
The more premium build.
The longer battery life.
The slightly faster charging.
The nicer speakers.
The better performance.
The better ultrawide camera and video recording.
Get the Samsung Galaxy A35 for:
The lower price.
The longer gaming runtime.
