Samsung Galaxy A35 review

Display

The Samsung Galaxy A35 uses a similar display panel as the Galaxy A34 - a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED with 2,340 x 1,080 pixels (390ppi), 120Hz refresh rate, 8-bit color depth and up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness. There is no official HDR certification.

We have finished our display measurements on the Galaxy A35, and they are in line with the A34 and A54. The maximum manual brightness we got was 441 nits, while the maximum automatic brightness we captured was 1,024 nits.

The minimum brightness at point white was just 1.5 nit.

The Galaxy A35 supports both DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces.

Refresh rate

The AMOLED screen of the Galaxy A35 supports up to 120Hz refresh rate. There are two Motion Smoothness modes - Adaptive and Standard.

The Adaptive mode drops the refresh rate down to 60Hz when the screen is static/idling/AOD and for incompatible HRR apps like Camera and Maps.

HDR and streaming

The Galaxy A35 is not listed as an HDR10-capable device, so some popular streaming apps like Netflix will only deliver standard Full HD content. On the other hand, YouTube offers HDR10 streaming on the A35, pushing the screen's limits when playing HDR10 content. It can decode HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG content, but there is no Dolby Vision. It is also certified for the highest possible Widevine L1 DRM.

Battery life

The Galaxy A35 is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery. We expected it to offer a battery life similar to the Galaxy A54, but we were pleasantly surprised as it scored even better!

The Galaxy A35 achieved an Active Use Score of 12:26h. It did great across the call test, video test and even gaming, but the web time is somewhat average.

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

Charging speed

The entire Samsung Galaxy A lineup supports up to 25W fast wired charging, and so does the Galaxy A35. It ships without a charger, as usual. You can use any 25W PD+PPS charger, as it will reach the maximum charging power supported by the phone.

We carried out our charging test with Samsung's own 25W PD/PPS charger.

It recharged 26% of the Galaxy A35 battery in 15 minutes, while another 15 minutes will get you to 52%. A full charge requires 86 minutes.

This charging speed is in line with the rest of the 25W-capable Galaxy A phones we've tested so far.

A battery protection option is available - if enabled, it will adjust the charging behavior in different ways, so it can prolong the overall lifespan of the cell.

Speakers

The Galaxy A35 has a stereo speaker system of the hybrid variety where the earpiece acts as a second loudspeaker. Naturally, the earpiece is quieter and lacks thump, but it is front-facing, and the overall sound balance is very good.

The speakers on the Galaxy A35 scored a Good mark on our loudness test. The audio quality is great - we can hear bass, rich vocals, and solid high-frequency presentation.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

The Galaxy A35 has Dolby Atmos support as well as a built-in UHQ upscaler and a basic equalizer.

Connectivity

The Galaxy A35 is a 5G device with SA/NSA Sub-6 support on both Nano-SIM slots simultaneously. The phone also supports eSIM. GPS (no L5), GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS and QZSS are supported for positioning.

Local connectivity is covered by dual-band Wi-Fi 6 ax as well as Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support. There is NFC on board in some markets. Make sure to check with your local vendor. There is no FM radio or 3.5mm audio jack, though.

The USB Type-C port is backed up by a basic USB 2.0 data connection, with a maximum transfer rate of 480 Mbps. There is USB Host/OTG support but nothing else fancy, like video output over Alt mode.

In terms of sensors, you get a TDK Invensense ICM42632M accelerometer and gyroscope combo, an Asahi Kasei Microdevices AK09918C magnetometer and compass combo, a Sitronix STK31610 light sensor. There is no barometer on board.

Regarding the proximity sensor, the phone reports that it has a Samsung-branded Ear Hover Proximity Sensor (ProToS) sensor. This is one of Samsung's virtual proximity sensors, and it behaves as such. That is to say that there is no hardware proximity sensor, and no data is reported to third-party apps. Still, the A35 does a decent job of turning off the display automatically during calls through software approximation using the device's other sensors. Regardless, seeing a virtual proximity sensor on the A35 is a bit disappointing.