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The Samsung Galaxy A35 5G is available on Amazon during Labor Day week for just $299 ($100 off), making this already fantastic phone even more affordable.

ZDNET’s key findings

• Samsung’s Samsung Galaxy A35 5G is a good smartphone for $400. It is often available on sale for $300.
• You’ll love the two-day battery life, amazing screen quality, and four years of software updates.
• The biggest problem? Performance varies from day to day and can lead to overheating.

I am surprised how much joy I have with the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G. The latest mid-range phone in Samsung’s lineup isn’t necessarily anything special – it looks like any other Galaxy phone from the past few years and doesn’t have any flashy features. But the mission of mid-range phones isn’t to make waves, it’s to offer a balance between performance, quality and price, and this phone achieves that balance well.

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Some would argue that this isn’t the best $400 phone on the market, but it certainly is one of them, and the screen is one of the reasons why. The Galaxy A35 5G features a Samsung signature Super AMOLED display with a 6.6-inch diagonal. The display has a Full HD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate so everything feels smooth, and 1,000 nits brightness, which makes the screen easy to see even in direct sunlight. Plus, it’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+, which is a nice extra.

One of the best things about the Galaxy A35 is its battery size. At 5,000mAh, the thing easily lasts two days on a full charge. During my testing, I only plugged the phone in three times, and that was with moderate use. Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging capability, and charging speeds are capped at 25W, so it can take some time to reach 100%. Still, it’s nice to have multi-day battery life on any smartphone, let alone one that costs $400.

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Another thing I didn’t expect after spending some time with the A35: the cameras aren’t that bad. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that at least two of them are good, which is almost unheard of for most Android phones under $500.

The 50-megapixel main camera is quite capable of taking some nice pictures. Colors aren’t as over the top as on older Samsung phones, while contrast and exposure generally remain on point. You can tell the A35 retains shadows well, for better or worse, while photo quality generally drops when lighting gets low; it’s by no means terrible, but extra graininess and noise are hard to avoid unless there’s a tonne of external or natural light in the frame.

I also have to give credit to the 13MP selfie camera, which is perfect for taking selfies for Snapchat or your Instagram stories. Unfortunately, the other cameras on the back of the device are disappointing. While the 8MP camera is ultra-wide thanks to its 123-degree field of view, it’s grainy and of poor quality in almost all lighting conditions. The 5MP macro camera, meanwhile, is washed out and it’s impossible to capture anything usable – unless you’re in broad daylight.

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While you can’t expect Spielberg-quality videos when you buy the Galaxy A35 5G, you do at least have the option to film in 4K, albeit at 30 frames per second. I also like Samsung’s camera app, which is well optimized and easy to navigate.

Other notable features include the fast and reliable in-display fingerprint scanner, IP67 certification for water and dust resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the back, and microSD card slot so you can expand your storage at any time.

Performance is where the A35 falls short. The phone isn’t slow, but it’s not always fast either. It’s equipped with an Exynos 1380 octa-core processor, which is fast enough for everyday use, but during my testing the phone sometimes became so slow that it took several seconds to open an app or switch to multitasking.

Additionally, the device sometimes got inexplicably hot during normal use. For example, one time I was scrolling through an article with Spotify playing in the background and the A35 got so hot that I had to put it down.

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This is a known issue with Samsung’s Exynos chips, which have historically fallen behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in terms of performance and efficiency. Thankfully, you can equip the A35 with 6GB, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, so you won’t run out of memory during use – just don’t push the phone too hard.

Samsung Galaxy A35 5G vs Google Pixel 9

Google now offers the Pixel 9, which boasts flagship specs but sells for a relatively high $799 price tag compared to the mid-range. Since the device costs up to $400 more than the Samsung A35 5G, I wouldn’t pit the two as direct competitors. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if customers consider paying for the newer (and definitely better) phone.

You should still buy the Samsung phone if you’re on a budget and prefer the brand’s custom design over Android. If you want a more capable camera phone with seven years of OS upgrades (as opposed to Samsung’s five), the Pixel 9 might be worth the spend.

Buying advice from ZDNET

It is hard to find a mid-range device that balances the smartphone experience well, but the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G does a pretty good job. While performance and camera quality lag in some areas, the rest of the phone (especially the great screen) is good for the price.

If you’re looking to buy this phone, you’re probably also looking at phones like the Pixel 8a or the excellent OnePlus 12R, which are around the same price point. The screen quality on both isn’t as good as the A35, and you won’t get two-day battery life. The cameras are comparable (apart from the Pixel 7a, which beats the A35 and 12R hands down). All in all, I think the A35 is a good choice. It’s not perfect, but if you can live with its quirks, I think you’ll like it.