We tested the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G and A35 5G, the economic successors to two of the world’s best-selling mobile phones.

Although the A55 is clearly in the higher range, as evidenced by its €529 price compared to its brother’s €448, both feature a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED screen and a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s everything you could want from a screen that, thanks to its refresh rate, ensures a smooth experience, especially if you love playing video games on your mobile phone.

It’s not the best panel on the market, but it’s one of the best we’ve tested in the midrange. Gorilla Glass Victus protection ensures durability and impact resistance.

The design will surely attract the attention of many. While it’s very reminiscent of the old iPhone with its flat edges and rounded corners, and it’s not that original, it does feel different. In addition, Samsung has chosen very bright pastel colors for these devices, targeting a younger audience. Both are IP67 certified against water and dust.

Differences under the skin

The first difference between both terminals is in the heart of the device. In the A55, we see an Exynos 1480 chipset with AMD GPU, along with 8GB of RAM, expandable by 128GB or 256GB via microSD card. If we compare the Exynos 1480 with the widely used 2021 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, Antutu tells us that the older Qualcomm chip is 63% faster despite being 3 years old.

On the other hand, in the more modest A35 we have the Exynos 1280 with 6 or 8 gigabytes of RAM, whose performance is very similar to the famous Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G, widely used in the mid-range.

Samsung chose to use its own processors in these two terminals, rather than offering Qualcomm’s own processors or “recycling” some older high-end processors. Both processors provide more than enough power to run any app or game, but the performance is nowhere near that of, say, a high-end processor over three years old like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Cameras

The A55 has a triple camera setup with a 50MP main sensor with OIS, a 12MP wide-angle and a 5MP macro. This is a classic middle class combination. We don’t support the macro camera, which is more of a selling point for adding a third lens.

The A35 has a 48-megapixel camera without optical stabilization and an eight-megapixel wide-angle camera. Not only does the A35 lose OIS and some megapixels, but the resulting photos differ in color balance; if you compare two photos taken in the same location, you can see that the A55 offers more vibrant colors than the A35.

The front cameras also vary: from 32 MP for the A55 to 13 MP for the A35. Both are better than what we can find in the mid-range, but it’s clear that the A55 is far superior to the A35’s image quality.

Both have a 5000 mAh battery, providing more than 24 hours of battery life, 25 W fast charging. The package also does not include a charger.

Which one is worth more?

Both the Galaxy A55 5G and Galaxy A35 5G are solid mid-range offerings with good design and a large screen. The differences in camera and processor between both models are significant enough to justify the extra cost, so if you can afford it, we’d go with the A55.