Samsung has announced two new mid-range Android smartphones soon to hit the UK that take the design and software of the Galaxy S24 series but offer it at more budget-friendly prices. The long-rumoured £339 Samsung Galaxy A35 5G and £439 Galaxy A55 5G will go on sale on 20 March and could prove to be two of the bestselling phones of the year.
The Galaxy A55 is the latest phone in Samsung’s incredibly popular A series, a range of smartphones that tends to outsell its pricier S series. The A55 boasts a large 6.6-inch OLED screen with smooth 120Hz refresh rate and triple rear cameras with a 50MP main lens leading the way – Samsung says it has improved night time photography to take clearer snaps in low light.
“Galaxy A55 5G’s advanced AI Image Signal Processing (ISP) produces stunning low-light images never seen before on Galaxy A series,” the company said in a press release. “It’s not just scenery that looks amazing. Night Portrait mode and 12-bit HDR video ensure the people in every image look great so that capturing memories with friends and family is never dependent on the perfect lighting.”
Available in Awesome Ice Blue, Awesome Lemon, Awesome Lilac and Awesome Navy colours, the A55 stands out more than the plain colours of the more expensive Galaxy S24, while packing in a huge 5,000mAh battery that should ensure you never run out of juice before the end of the day. The £439 phone comes with 128GB storage, or you can get a £489 version that bumps that up to 256GB, ideal if you take loads of photos, download your music, or have hundreds of apps.
The even cheaper Galaxy A35 will set you back £339 but comes in all the same colours and has the same size display and same main 50MP camera. In fact, a lot of the specs are identical on paper, so you might not see much difference and could save yourself £100. The A55 is likely to have a more premium build quality and better chipset, the latter of which Samsung has not immediately specified for either phone.
Both the A55 and A35 have Samsung’s Knox Vault feature built in, the first time it’s been seen on any A series phone. It’s a special subsystem within the phone you can store sensitive information and files, Samsung says, completely securely.
“A hardware-based and tamper-resistant security solution, Samsung Knox Vault offers comprehensive protection against both hardware and software attacks by constructing a secure execution environment that is physically isolated from the system’s main processor and memory. It can help protect the most critical data on a device, including lock screen credentials, such as PIN codes, passwords and patterns.”
The phones run Android 14 with Samsung’s One UI software over the top. Samsung says it will provide four generations of updates to take both phones to Android 18, plus five years of security updates to keep the devices up to date until 2029.
If you want a new Android phone but can’t stretch to more than £1,000 for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, these new Galaxy A phones could be the answer. They face competition from the excellent £449 Google Pixel 7a with its outstanding cameras, and the recently-launched £319 Nothing Phone 2a that has great design and software.
