6 incredible Samsung Galaxy A35 5G features every owner should know

23 Sep 2024, 00:16 by Zach Gray-Traverso · Android Police

The budget smartphone market is becoming more competitive. While there used to be only a few players, great budget smartphones are available at almost every price point. Samsung's Galaxy A35 5G is one of the best for around $400, and many features make it compelling.

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6 A stylish and functional design

The Galaxy A35 has a beautiful design using glass and metal to make up the phone. The feel and look of the phone are similar to the more expensive Samsung Galaxy S24 line of phones, which makes it feel more expensive than it is. It comes in two colors: Awesome Navy and Awesome Lilac, giving you the option of a muted or a standout color. Android Police writer Job Gilbert mentioned that the Awesome Lilac version "did an excellent job of reflecting rainbows," which is a neat visual effect for that colorway.

In addition to the great build quality, the design is functional. It may be a little slippery due to the glass, which can be fixed with a great case. However, the raised hump for the power and volume buttons provides an easy place to hold the phone. Jon thought the hump "served as an excellent thumb rest when holding the phone," which makes it easier and more comfortable to hold.

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5 A beautiful screen

In addition to a great design, the A35 is equipped with a beautiful screen. The screen is a 6.6-inch 120Hz Super AMOLED display with a 1,000 nit peak brightness. These specs mean that everything you look at on the phone looks beautiful and crisp, and scrolling is smooth. Since it's an OLED screen, blacks look very good on this screen. Additionally, the bezels on the screen are minimal, so it is functional and looks great.

4 Great cameras for great photos

In addition to a great design, the A35 sports a great set of cameras. The A35 is equipped with a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 5MP macro camera on the back, and a 13MP front-facing camera. This setup makes for some great photos that punch above its weight class.

While it may not produce the incredible photos the $1,000+ flagships do, it takes great photos that look similar as long as you have good lighting. This is good enough to take great day-to-day photos and avoid much of the processing many complain about in modern flagships.

3 A battery that lasts all day long

One concern for most people when buying a phone is how long the battery lasts. Flagship phones come with all the bells and whistles. These features suck up battery power, so they may not have the best battery life. Budget phones, like the Galaxy A35, often have better battery life because they have a better balance of features and battery size.

Since the A35 has a massive 5,000mAh battery and a less power-hungry processor than the S24 line, it has phenomenal battery life. Jon noted that after some social media, video watching, and gaming, the phone had 30% of its battery life at the end of the day. This result is for fairly high usage on the phone. You'll get better battery life when you only use it to scroll social media or other basic items.

2 Expandable storage

People need more storage on their phones since photos contain more data and apps are getting larger. Smartphone manufacturers have mostly removed the ability to add expandable storage to your phone, so you don't have to rely on what's soldered to the motherboard. The A35 still includes this feature in the SIM card tray. You can add a microSD card of up to 1TB to increase the phone's internal memory. It's another feature that prolongs the life of this phone.

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1 Updates and security

Purchasing a phone is not cheap. Make sure the phone will last a long time when you buy it and has long software and security update support. The A35 has great support. It comes with up to four years of Android OS updates and up to five years of security updates. This means you'll have the newest versions of Android for four years and security updates for five years.

The A35 is the first A-series phone equipped with Samsung Knox Vault. Knox Vault gives you the best security for your data that Samsung offers. It provides all the following features to protect your data and ward off hackers and bad actors:

Real-time Kernel Protection (RKP)
Trusted Boot
Device Health Attestation
Certificate Management
Sensitive Data Protection (SDP)
Network Platform Analytics (NPA)
Hardware Root of Trust

The complete budget package

The Samsung Galaxy A35 has numerous features that make it a compelling buy. From the beautiful design and gorgeous screen to the long update support, numerous things make this device a great contender in the budget phone space. If you pick one up, here are some tips and tricks to maximize your experience.