Samsung Galaxy A35 vs. Samsung Galaxy A54
So, you find yourself looking for a Samsung midranger. At around â¬480, the Galaxy A55 is admittedly quite pricy and you notice that the Galaxy A35 gets you a lot of the way there at a more reasonable starting price of â¬380.
But do some digging, and you will notice that last year's Galaxy A54 is also worth considering in this price range. It has depreciated quite nicely (from consumer's point of view) and can be found selling for less than the A35 on average.
So that's an interesting conundrum right there. There are certainly positives and negatives to going either way, and we'll do our best to cover them in this comparison.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following video or in the following text.
Size comparison
Despite Samsung's slightly confusing numbering scheme, the Galaxy A35 is the bigger device of the two. It has a larger 6.6-inch display, compared to 6.4 inches on the A54, and that sort of difference is certainly noticeable.
The new A35 is not that dissimilar to its Galaxy A34 in terms of dimensions, but it has become notably heavier, tipping the scale at 209 grams this year. That also makes the A35 heavier than the A54, which weighs in at 202 grams. Of course, this is not an appreciable difference in practice, but it is still worth pointing out since it indicates the updated bill of materials.
Indeed, the Galaxy A35 has gotten a more premium build this year. The back is now made of glass instead of plastic. The front glass has been upgraded to Gorilla Glass Victus+. While far from the most premium hardened glass Corning has to offer, it is definitely an upgrade over the Gorilla Glass 5 that both the Galaxy A54 and A34 are rocking. Regarding durability, we should mention that both the A35 and the A54 offer the same IP67 ingress protection rating, so there is no difference there.
We should talk about the design briefly. The Galaxy A34 and A54 are rocking last year's design, which is noticeably rounder, especially when it comes to the uniform middle frame.
In contrast, the Galaxy A35 has a new and updated look, including flatter sides and an elevated portion of the middle frame where the buttons reside.
Also, as part of the new look, the Galaxy A35 no longer has its predecessor's teardrop notch stile camera. It has been swapped for a punch-hole style unit, which arguably makes for a more premium look, in line with the higher-end Galaxy 5X family. That means that visually, from the front, there isn't much of a difference between the A35 and A54. The display bezels are slightly thinner on the A35, but not by a lot.
In terms of color options, the choice is definitely going to depend on personal preference. The A54 arguably has some more "traditional" color options in there. It is available in Lime, Graphite, Violet and White. The A35 can be found in Iceblue, Lilac, Navy, and Lemon.
As we said, the A35 and A54 are very similar in terms of controls and layout. Both have stereo speaker setups and optical under-display fingerprint readers. NFC is available on both models in most markets. Both also have expandable storage via a microSD slot, shared with the second nano-SIM slot. Neither model has a 3.5mm audio jack or an onboard FM radio receiver. It is also worth noting that despite their different relative market positioning, both, unfortunately, are equipped with proximity sensors of the virtual type.
Display comparison
Not much has changed about the display on the Galaxy A35 coming from the A34. In fact, it might even be the same 6.6-inch, 120Hz Super AMOLED panel. The Galaxy A54 has a slightly smaller 6.4-inch display but with the same 1080 x 2340-pixel resolution. The refresh rate is the same at 120Hz, and it's handled in the same fashion.
In our testing, we measured similar brightness levels on the Galaxy A54 and the A35. Neither is industry-leading, but both are good enough to be usable outdoors.
The only noteworthy difference is that the Galaxy A54 is officially certified for HDR10+, while the A35 lacks any formal HDR certification. Some apps, notably YouTube, will still offer HDR streams to the A35 and will max out its brightness during playback. Still, there is no official HDR support and apps like Netflix don't offer HDR streams.