Which Mid-Range Phone is the Best

Is Samsung thinking something by not explicitly naming its own Exynos processor for either the A55 or A35? Be that as it may, we find the Exynos 1380 in the Galaxy A35, which still powered the Galaxy A54 last year. The A55, on the other hand, is equipped with the new Exynos 1480, which should significantly boost performance, especially in terms of graphics.

While general usage in messaging, social media, and streaming apps won’t show many differences between the A55 and A35—and also their predecessors—, gaming is a differentiating factor for the Galaxy A55, with a 40% increase in graphics performance. That can give you better performance and/or better image quality, or potentially better battery life if you choose to play in lower graphical settings.

Both the Galaxy A35 and A55 are capable of playing the latest mainstream games, but the A55 is better equipped to run future titles, with its considerably faster Radeon GPU core.

If you don’t care much about games, as mentioned, the performance of both phones will be equivalent, with equally smooth animations and transitions in browsing, similar app opening times, and an almost imperceptible advantage for the Galaxy A55 when applying image effects.

Another look at the hardware reveals the memory options: Both models offer us the choice between 128 and 256 GB of memory expandable via microSD, whereby the small memory variant of the Galaxy A35 is equipped with 6 GB of RAM, while the rest comes with 8 GB of RAM.

Incidentally, Samsung is making very prominent mention of the Knox Vault, which is making its way into the mid-range. Samsung is therefore focusing on security and ensuring that important data such as your PIN is better protected by a secure environment that is separate from the main processor and memory.

We don’t see much spectacular on the connectivity front: both offer Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and of course NFC. The one difference between the A35 and A55 is eSIM support, only found on the Galaxy A55.

There is nothing new to report in terms of battery life: Samsung continues to install 5,000 mAh batteries in its mid-range phones and does not include a charger. Charging is done with compatible adapters with up to a modest 25 W.

This quote comes from my esteemed colleague Rubens, who wrote exactly these sentences last year about the A34 and A54. If Samsung is unimaginative, doesn’t work on capacity or charging speed, and continues to not stuff chargers in the box, I don’t see why I should bother with this section anymore.

In practice, expect a tiny bit better battery life from the Galaxy A55, both compared to the A35 and their predecessors, but nothing really noticeable in real life. Both phones can offer up to two days of battery life with moderate usage, and a single day with heavy GPS and screen time.

Charging times will obviously depend on the power adapter available. In the best-case scenario with a 25 W charger, you will need between 1h15 and 1h30 for a full charge, with a 50% battery capacity reached after 30 minutes of charging according to our reviews.

So, finally, a category that you can start with a real change: Namely, both smartphones have become cheaper, at least in Europe. It’s not a spectacular price reduction, but at least the Galaxy A35 (from 379 euros) and the Galaxy A55 (from 479 euros) are each reasonably cheaper than the 2023 models. Pricing and availability in the US, meanwhile, is still unknown, with no signs of Samsung even selling the phones in North America.

A more cynical version of me might have greeted you at the beginning with a sentence like “Same, same, but different”. Because there are simply a lot of things that haven’t evolved or haven’t changed significantly, in Samsung’s new mid-range. But this is the mellow and chastened version writing here, and it believes that we can’t expect a product to make huge technological leaps every year.

After all, we want to use the devices for longer and become more sustainable—so we can look forward to five years of security updates and four major Android versions. That’s healthier than if we had to be annoyed today that the mid-range models we bought a year ago are now devalued by significantly more powerful phones.

The upgrades are small not only between the Galaxy A55 and A35 but also in comparison to their predecessors, with nothing sticking out as a reason to upgrade. It is true that the Galaxy A55 can be faster in certain tasks—particularly in gaming—but our reviewers didn’t feel it was a good enough argument—together with its metal frame—to justify the price difference.