Samsung Galaxy A35 5G review, we spot a familiar recipe

In 2024 Samsung appears to follow a working recipe in an effort to maintain its goal towards net zero, and looking at the latest Samsung Galaxy A35 5G smartphone, one can quickly spot similar design structures when we compare this latest to its predecessor.

Samsung’s history is filled with frustration against the lack of innovation with the solution being to leapfrog forward in ingenuity and innovation in an attempt to stay not only relevant but ahead of the curve.

We now know and understand the thinking behind no charging adapter (charging brick) from Samsung, and no headphones unless you’re in another region of the world.  This is all in following one particular vision, save the planet.

While the Samsung A 35 5G has made its way into the South African market, its design is nothing special for the A series. The design remains safe and features a fingerprint magnet of a plastic back with a glossy finish.

The grip remains comfortable and the usual rectangular camera look and feel plus three camera bumps on the rear, are something we’ve seen before.

Camera

The rear houses a quad camera system, a usual staple for the Samsung, housing a 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 50 MP wide-angle camera and a 5MP Macro camera. The front selfie brings in a 13MP sensor with a wide aperture speed of f/2.2

Battery

The battery sits at 5 000mAh, powerful enough to push users for two days with the addition of super-fast charging.

Security

Samsung brought in Samsung Knox Vault system as protection in the A35 which is cleverly responsible for security features such as your password, PIN, and security pattern. This is all encrypted and can be completely isolated and separated from the main operating system. which we think is futuristic thinking from Samsung.

At a weight of 209 grams, the Samsung A 35 comes with a 2.4 GHz processor.

Body and display

 

While the A35 looks like the A34, the glass-looking design sees a 6.6-inch AMOLED display alongside a 120 Hz refresh rate. An IP 67 rating for dust and water resistance and an Exynos 1380 processor.

While it runs on Android 14 with One UI 6.1, the Samsung Galaxy A35 measures 161.7x78x8.2mm.

The aspect ratio sits at 19.5:9 with memory ranging between 128GB and 6GB RAM 128, 8GB RAM and the 256GB, 8GB RAM option, alongside expandable memory in the form of a micro SD slot next to the sim slot.

South African users only get to see the 128GB and 256GB of storage versions.

Colour

Colors come in Iceblue, Lilac, Lemon, and Navy.

We appreciated the fingerprint reader under the front display and the smartphone’s decent stereo speakers.

In the box, you’ll find a USB type-C cable, the phone, and a SIM card extraction pin.

Overall

Samsung said the Galaxy A35 was a meatier device, affordable with premium features. It brings in the iconic Samsung design, a plastic frame, and some night image smarts in the form of what Samsung has dubbed Samsung nightography.

While images in low light are no longer a challenge for Samsung smartphones post covid, it was interesting to spot how the A35 maintained dark colour shots. We did spot more detail, especially in capturing videos.

The Galaxy A35 comes in during a very competitive time for smartphones and thanks to some Samsung AI features such as the multi-task control, the A35 makes a worthy attempt at being competitive.

We did pick up that the Galaxy A35 reminded us of the A34 and looking at the overall shape there was the thought that a similar body for this Samsung upgrade was necessary as it reminded us that there could be more done on shape and colour.

Our low was how much the rear attracted fingerprints, but the upshot was understanding how Samsung was moving towards devices that were intelligent and AI-competent. You get a device that is not only meatier and price-worthy but intelligent as well, on a budget.

This Galaxy A35 does make a noble attempt, yet overall, when looking at its shape, this is a recipe that Samsung could get in trouble for in the near future, a recipe that today has also bitten the likes of Apple for bringing in a recurring design with better software.

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