Samsung Galaxy A35 review
Android 14 with One UI 6.1
The Galaxy A35 runs Samsung's One UI 6.1 on top of the latest Android 14. Technically, this is the latest One UI version the Korean giant has to offer and is the same one running on the flagship S24 series, with some omissions.
In case you were wondering, Samsung's new Galaxy AI isn't present on the A35 either. It is still relegated to the S24 family and will soon come to some older flagship devices. Another thing that Samsung still needs to extend to its lower-end models is the seven-year software support.
It's not all that bad since the Galaxy A35 is eligible for four years of major OS updates and five years of security patches. That's definitely better than other lesser Galaxy phones, like the A15 5G.
Some of the notable One UI 6 novelties include a redesigned Quick Panel, better notification visualization, an improved and simplified camera app, and more powerful gallery and editing tools, among others.
The Galaxy A35 gets a pretty feature-complete version of One UI 6.1. You are getting the same general UX and even most of the features of the Galaxy S series. The A35 even has Always On Display.
The good news to all Galaxy users is that the list of software features reserved for the flagships has been shrinking in recent years and currently includes niche things like Samsung DeX.
Everything else is typical One UI - lockscreen, homescreen, widgets and icons, theme handling, multi-tasking (available in both pop-up and split-screen state), and default apps.
You can read more details about OneUI 6 in our Galaxy A25 review.
Unfortunately, there is no FM radio support on the Galaxy A35, so there is no FM app here.
Benchmarks and performance
The Galaxy A35 is based on the Samsung Exynos 1380 chip - a familiar piece of silicon that is now effectively "trickling down" for this generation since it used to power last year's Galaxy A54 and its "derivatives" - the Galaxy F54 and M54 as well. It is not a bad chip per se. It offers 5G connectivity and modern connectivity features such as Bluetooth 5.3 and dual-band Wi-Fi 6.
Don't expect too much in the way of raw performance, though. The CPU setup consists of four Cortex-A78 cores, clocked at up to 2.4 GHz and another four Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 2.0 GHz. The GPU is a 950 MHz Mali-G68 MP5 unit.
The Galaxy A35 is available in a trio of storage and memory options - 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB.
Our review unit is the base 6GB/128GB one, and the speeds that storage benchmarks return suggest it uses UFS 2.1 chips.
Let's look at some benchmark numbers, kicking things off with CPU tests and GeekBench. The Exynos 1380 is a pretty "middle-of-the-line" chip when it comes to single-threaded performance.
It is interesting to see that Samsung has managed to squeeze a bit more performance out of the chip compared to the same silicon working inside the Galaxy A54, but the difference won't be noticeable in practice.
Overall, the Exynos 1380 has about as much single-core power as the Dimensity 1080 and 7030 and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
Poco X6 Pro
Poco F5
Pixel 7a
Motorola Edge 40
Poco X6
Galaxy A35
Honor 90
The Exynos 1380 seems to hold up even better in multi-core scenarios. It is still about on par with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 but notably outperforms the Dimensity 1080 and 7030. Even the Dimensity 7200 (Pro/Ultra) can't quite keep up. Again, the differences aren't enough to translate into real-world performance benefits.
Speaking of the Dimensity 7200 and its variants, it makes up a lot of lost ground through its Mali-G610 MC4 GPU setup, which is much more powerful than the Mali-G68 MP5 inside the Exynos 1380. AnTuTu reflects this nicely with its compound set of tests. Even so, the Exynos 1380 remains nicely competitive with its price peers.
AnTuTu
- v9
- v10
Poco F5
Honor 90
Realme 12 Pro+
Poco X6
Redmi Note 13 Pro
Galaxy A35
Motorola Edge 40 Neo
That being said, you can certainly get a lot more "bang for your buck" in terms of raw performance in the price range by going for a Dimensity 720-equipped phone, as we mentioned already or even the clear outlier here - the Poco X6 Pro with its Dimensity 8300 Ultra, which is in a league of its own.
In terms of GPU, the Mali-G68 MP5 setup is all right but is nothing to write home about. It offers "middle of the road" performance in its price class. Once again, it is comparable to the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 and the Dimensity 1080 and 7030.
3DMark (offscreen)
- Wild Life (1440p)
- Wild Life Extreme (2160p)
Poco F5
Redmi Note 13 Pro
Realme 12 Pro+
Poco X6
Galaxy A54
Galaxy A35
Motorola Edge 40 Neo
We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.
As we already mentioned, the Dimensity 7200 offers much better GPU performance for around the same price tag, not to mention outliers like the Google Tensor G2 and the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2.
In more practical terms, the Galaxy A35 runs perfectly smoothly with no hiccups or slowdowns. We hope this remains the case with long-term use, too, since we've seen some of Samsung's mid-range and lower-end phones slow down with prolonged use.
Overall, however, at the time of reviewing, the Galaxy A35 offers perfectly adequate performance for its class.
Thermal-throttling
The Galaxy A35 handles heat quite masterfully. The Exynos 1380 isn't known to run particularly hot, to begin with, but whatever heat does get generated doesn't seem to affect sustained performance all that much, even with hour-long torture testing.
Thermal-throttling
The phone's surface also remains perfectly comfortable to the touch and lukewarm at worst.
Reader comments
- A35 user
- 18 Dec 2024
- dMa
It doesn't. I took a picture of my friend at night, but in pro Mode, and it looks awesome at least. Learn what is shutter speed, ISO and white balance, and you get a gre.at piece
- Anonymous
- 08 Dec 2024
- avJ
its a great phone, but if you take a photo at night, compared to photos taken in a well lit place look like they were taken on a potato
- Anonymous
- 23 Nov 2024
- NsC
At first I wasn't a very big fan of samsung until I switched to the a35, and damn. Everything is just so smooth, the camera quality, the battery, the performances ,and the space. There's a lot I could say about this phone but I am most de...