Samsung on Monday unveiled the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35, just as expected. The two new mid-rangers are virtually identical, though the A55 variant has slightly better specs. Samsung has not revealed prices, but they leaked a few days ago, indicating that Samsung wouldn’t beat the Nothing Phone 2a’s great $349 price. Both the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 will be slightly more expensive than that.
But that might be a price some Samsung buyers will be ready to pay. The Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 will be more exciting than any of their predecessors. The main reason is that the Galaxy A series is getting support for Samsung Knox for the first time.
Also interesting is the fact that the Galaxy A55 comes in a variant with 12GB of RAM. That’s more than the base Galaxy S24 version, which only packs 8GB of memory. However, don’t expect Galaxy AI features on the new Galaxy A-series phones. Samsung isn’t ready to bring generative AI features to its more affordable handsets.
From a distance, the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 look a lot like the Galaxy S24. They feature hole-punch 6.6-inch displays on the front that are OLED panels with 120Hz support. Also, the bezels are almost symmetrical. On the back, we have triple-lens camera modules, with each camera protruding through the back independently.
Other common specs and features:
- The storage (128GB or 256GB)
- The 5,000 mAh battery
- The main rear camera (50-megapixel, F1.8, AF, OIS)
- The macro camera (5-megapixel, F2.4)
- Android 14 with OneUI 6.1 and Samsung Knox
- Four years of Android upgrades
- Five years of security upgrades
The Galaxy A55 has the better chip, the new Exynos 1480, compared to the Galaxy A54’s Exynos 1380 that now powers the Galaxy A35.
Moreover, the Galaxy A55 gets 8GB or 12GB of RAM compared to 6GB or 8GB for the Galaxy A35. The more expensive handset also rocks the better overall camera hardware. In addition to the 50-megapixel main camera, it has a 12-megapixel ultra-wide F2.2 camera. The Galaxy A35 has an 8-megapixel ultra-wide F2.2 lens. Similarly, the A55 has a better selfie cam: 32-megapixel F2.2 compared to 13-megapixel F2.2.
The main selling points for the two mid-range handsets are the camera and Samsung Knox security. The Galaxy A55 features enhanced Nightography, according to Samsung. Thanks to the phone’s “advanced AI Image Signal Processing (ISP),” the Galaxy A55 produces “stunning low-light images never seen before on Galaxy A series.”
Equally important, I’d say, is the built-in Knox security that Samsung is ready to bring to its mid-range phones for the first time ever.
Samsung Knox Vault is a hardware-based and tamper-resistant security solution. This lets Samsung build a secure execution environment physically isolated from the processor and memory. Knox Vault will protect sensitive data, like lock screen credentials and device encryption keys. It’ll encrypt the data stored on the device, too.
If the device is lost or stolen, only someone with access to the lock screen password will be able to access the data.
All of that will be available for under $500 (Galaxy A55) or $400 (Galaxy A35). Samsung will probably announce price details as the phones hit various markets. For the US market, I’d expect the Galaxy A55 to be available in the coming weeks/months. The Galaxy A35 will probably be restricted to emerging markets.
