Samsung Galaxy A36 vs. Samsung Galaxy A35

You’ve decided to buy one of Samsung’s A3X midranger phones and are now wondering if you should go for the new Galaxy A36 or stick with the Galaxy A35 from last year? The two phones are similar in terms of experience, so it’s a valid question.

The Galaxy A36 is the same price as the A35 in the States. Getting the newer model makes sense. If you shop around in the EU, you will find that the A36 is about EUR50 more expensive than A35, even though the MSRP would indicate otherwise.

The A36 is available only in the UK as a 256GB model, while the A35 can only be purchased as a 128GB version. Samsung seems to have a much better grip on the A36 retail price in the UK, so the current difference between the old model and the new one is a whopping PS150. Ouch! Let’s see how much better the A36 is. Table of Contents

:

• Design,
• Screen,
• Chargers and Battery Life
• Speaker Tests
• Performance
• Cameras
• Verdict

You can start by comparing the full specs sheets or continue directly with our editor’s evaluation in the following text.

Size comparison

Both phones have similar dimensions. The A35 is a little thicker and heavier than its predecessor.

The display on the new Galaxy A36 is slightly larger than the A35, going from 6.6 to 6.7 inches. It’s not a big difference in terms of appearance, but it does translate into thinner display bezels for the new model.

The A36 has a more refined look. Both phones are very well-made and feel solid. There is almost no flex in the chassis. Both phones have a plastic frame sandwiched in between two glass sheets, with Gorilla Glass Victus+ applied to the front.

This year, Gorilla Glass Victus+ is also available on the back of the A36.

These two phones have the same excellent IP67 rating for ingress protection, which should allow them survive up to 30 minutes under fresh water up to a meter deep.

Now is a good time to discuss controls and connections. Both phones have the same button layout. Both phones have an optical fingerprint reader under the display, a similar hybrid speaker setup, and unfortunately, virtual proximity sensors. Wireless connectivity is almost identical between the two devices, although the A36 has an additional eSIM slot for a total two, compared with one on the A35, and Bluetooth 5.4 compared with Bluetooth 5.3.

One difference that could be a major one in favor of the Galaxy A35, is the absence of a microSD expansion slot on the Galaxy A36.

Display comparison

In practice, the Galaxy A36’s display is slightly larger. Both phones have the same FullHD+ Resolution and 120Hz Refresh Rate without LTPO, or any other fancy adaptive switch. The maximum display brightness has improved noticeably. The Galaxy A36 has a significantly higher brightness rating. Both phones can be used in sunlight but the A36 feels more comfortable.

Despite the Galaxy A36’s newfound brightness, it still lacks HDR video support.

Battery life

The battery packs of both phones are identical at 5,000 mAh and their overall battery endurance is pretty similar. The A35 from last year has a notable advantage, especially when it comes gaming. The Exynos 1350 in the A35 is able to play for longer with a single charge compared to the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 in the A36.

Charging speed

Samsung’s 45W PD charger is available on the newer Galaxy A36, but the A35 only has the 25W version.

The difference in actual charging speed is not colossal but it does exist and favors A36. According to our tests the A36 charges quicker at the beginning of a charging cycle. It reaches a higher percentage after 15 and 30 minutes, and takes 12 minutes less to reach 100% than the A35.

Both phones come with chargers, but the A36 requires a 5 amp cable if you want to charge it as fast as possible. The one that comes in the box only has a 3 Amp rating.

Speaker test

Both phones have a hybrid stereo system with a bottom-firing speaker and an amplified speaker. It’s inevitable that there will be some output imbalance but it isn’t too bad.

According to our standardized testing, the speakers of the two phones were tuned very similarly. They had clear mids and dialogue with mostly undistorted highs. The A36 may have a slightly improved bass response, but this is not something that you should be able hear or appreciate in real life. The GOOD loudness rating both phones achieved in our testing is a nice feature that can be useful in real-world use.

Performance

Although the two phones use chipsets that are technically very different, they are actually quite similar. The Exynos1380 in the Galaxy A35 has an octacore CPU and is manufactured on a 5nm chip node.

The Galaxy A36 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip. It is manufactured on a more efficient 4nm node, but it has a CPU configuration that is remarkably similar.

There are three storage and memory options for the Galaxy A35 – 6GB/128GB (8GB/128GB) and 8GB/256GB. Storage benchmarks indicate that it uses UFS chips.

Galaxy A36 comes in a wide range of versions, including 6GB LPDDR4X, 128GB UFS storage, and 8GB +256GB storage. There is a limited version with 12GB of RAM.

We would like to reiterate that the Galaxy A35 offers expandable storage while the A36 doesn’t.

The Galaxy A36 was launched with the latest One UI 7 combined with Android 15 and six major OS upgrades in the future. As of this writing, the Galaxy A35 still runs One UI 6.1 with Android 14, and has only promised four major OS updates. Software and support are definitely in favor of the Galaxy A36. Benchmark performance

The Galaxy A36 has roughly the same performance burst as the Galaxy A35 with only a slight increase in GPU scores.

Both smartphones offer excellent sustained performance, and they manage heat very well. Even though their respective chipsets are not particularly hot to begin with, the surface of these phones is rarely more than lukewarm after intensive stress testing.

Camera comparison

Samsung changed the camera setup a little bit on the new Galaxy A36 in comparison to its A35 predecessor. The basic setup is the same as the A35: a 50MP main camera, an 8MP Ultrawide, and a dedicated 5MP macro as the third cam. The 13MP selfie camera from the A35 has been replaced by a 12MP one.

Quality of images

When comparing the main cameras on both phones, it’s hard to see any significant differences. Samsung has tweaked the processing a bit, but the quality of the cameras is still neck-to-neck. Both cameras are not what you would call “flagship grade”but they have solid quality, with lots of detail, a nice dynamic range, and good color reproduction.

In terms of differences in processing, the A36 tends towards a more sharpened and contrasted aesthetic than the A35. The shadows of the Galaxy A36 photos are often darker.

The ultrawide camera on both phones is the same, as mentioned. The quality of the images it captures is also expected. There are small differences in the processing. The Galaxy A36 appears to have a less aggressive processing method and tends to leave more noise than the A35. However, it also leaves more fine detail.

Samsung Galaxy A36: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Samsung Galaxy A35: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x

The cameras on the Galaxy A36 do slightly better in low-light conditions. The difference once again isn’t massive, but the A36 seems to have more detail. Its dynamic range is also seemingly a bit better, and so is the contrast.

Samsung Galaxy A36: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Samsung Galaxy A35: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 0.5x • 1x • 2x

While the selfie camera on the A36, we’d give the nod to the Galaxy A35 selfie camera. We like both the level of detail and the skin tones and hair rendition better. The difference is not massive but it’s there, especially if you are into pixel peeping.

Samsung Galaxy A36: selfies

Samsung Galaxy A35: selfies

As for the selfie cameras in low light, it’s a bit of a toss-up. We tend to like the detail on the A35 a bit better, but the A36 certainly has the better colors and dynamic range.

Video quality

Both phones can capture 4K video from their main cameras and can only do 2x digital zoom and ultrawide video at 1080p. Honestly, the overall quality across the samples we got is very similar. We can’t definitively point to one of the phones and give it even a slight edge over the other.

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.

Samsung Galaxy A36: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • low-light

Samsung Galaxy A35: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • low-light

Verdict

Both the Galaxy A36 and A35 are excellent, well rounded mid-range smartphones. Over the years, Samsung Galaxy A3X has become the best value proposition in Samsung’s lineup.

There are no significant differences between the Galaxy A36 and A35. Samsung hasn’t changed the formula much this year. The only upgrade is a brighter screen, which is nice, but not revolutionary. The upgrade from 25W charging to 45W is useful but marginal. The change in the chipset is also marginal, offering only a slight improvement in GPU performance at the expense of battery life. For what it’s really worth, the A36 also has a longer software support.

Considering the confusing pricing situation, we would say the following. If the Galaxy A36’s price is similar or equal to that of the A35 in your market, we would say go for it – unless you are a microSD slot zealot.

If there is a large price difference between the two phones, the A35 would be a better deal. It offers the same performance and experience for less money.