Samsung Galaxy A36 5G vs Galaxy A35 5G: Main differences to expect

Intro

It’s once again that time of the year again: Samsung’s yearly product refresh is now done and dusted, so it’s finally time to turn our heads to the upcoming 2025. 

With the flagship lineup largely settled, we now turn to the mid-range segment, where the Galaxy A36 5G aims to impress by building on the strong performance of the Galaxy A35.

How will Samsung improve on the winning formula? 

Design and Size

Change for the sake of change

The most important new change that might befall the Galaxy A36 5G is a diet. Yes, Samsung will be slimming down the Galaxy A36 to a thinness of just 7.4mm, nearly a full millimeter thinner than the Galaxy A35’s 8.2mm.

Aside from that, the design will only change just a little. 

The biggest intergenerational change will be at the back, where Samsung will be moving from the separate camera lens design on the Galaxy A35 and will employ a unified camera island comprising all three camera lenses at the rear. Not a design change that might have been done with any particular reason in mind, but hey, it looks different enough.

Aside from that, we don’t expect any other major changes between the Galaxy A36 and the Galaxy A35. The Key Island design element, which unifies the power and volume keys, is here to stay.

Display Differences

There’s an ever so slight screen size increase: the new phone will have a 6.64-inch screen, while the Galaxy A35 had a 6.60-inch display, but this change is very incremental. 

We expect the Galaxy A36 to retain the Super AMOLED screen. It will feature dynamic refresh rate, but there’s no way of telling if it will adopt the Galaxy A35’s 60-120Hz screen or adopt a smoother 10-120Hz refresh rate.

We could probably see a slightly brighter display on the Galaxy A36, too. Other than that, our guess is as good as yours as to what might be coming.

Performance and Software

Many potential changes

The jury is still out, so it’s uncertain if the Galaxy A36 will use the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 or Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, though the former is a bit more likely to make the rounds. 

This return to the Qualcomm fold will be another generational change after Samsung went from the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 with the Galaxy A34 to the Exynos 1380 with the Galaxy A35. It’s now Qualcomm’s turn once again in the driver’s seat, though with some uncertainties involved.

Other than that, we will likely get either 6GB or 8GB as the bare minimum and a souped-up 12GB RAM version. Storage will likely start from 128GB and go up to 256GB in the higher tiers. A 512GB version is likely out of the question: that feels a bit too premium for a mid-range phone. 

There will most likely be a microSD card slot on board the Galaxy A36.

In terms of software support, we will likely get four years of support for this upcoming midranger. We know Samsung has committed to seven years of software support for its more premium phones, but this policy didn’t apply to the Galaxy A35/A55, so there are many reasons to believe the Galaxy A36 won’t be supported for seven years, too.

Camera

Room for improvement

Aside from the design change at the rear, we probably won’t get any substantial updates in terms of the hardware underneath the three cameras.

We might get a 50MP main, an 8MP ultrawide (a possible upgrade to 13MP is possible), and finally, a 5MP macro is sadly completing the camera setup. 

The Galaxy A35 had that 50MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and 5MP macro camera, which does the job, but doesn’t impress with anything in particular. 

Battery Life and Charging

5,000mAh or smaller?

The Galaxy A35 had a standard 5,000mAh battery, which is great, but the thinner Galaxy A36 might not have that much room inside, so we’d probably see slightly smaller battery. Of course, we could be wrong, and Samsung could find a way to fit a 5,000mAh battery inside the Galaxy A36.

Charging-wise, we’ll likely get 25W wired charging once again. 

Specs Comparison

Summary

Samsung definitely won’t try to change a winning team with the Galaxy A36 5G. 

It will reiterate the seemingly winning formula behind the Galaxy A series, which the Galaxy A35 reiterates perfectly. 

We are expecting it to arrive next March.