First impressions of the RM1,699 Samsung Galaxy A35 that has improved cameras & performance

It’s been a while since I set my hands on an A Series phone from Samsung, but from what I remember, they’ve always been reliable and solid phones for their price points.

The Galaxy A35 has just launched in Malaysia, and right off the bat, I have to say the phone looks really nice. We have the IceBlue version, and if we didn’t know better, we would’ve said this was a flagship model.

It has a nice heft, and the back is kept nice and clean with the three camera lenses lined up in a vertical row on the top left.

It’s not clear what glass is used on the back of the phone, but the front is Gorilla Glass Victus+, and the side panel with curved corners is made of plastic. The phone weighs 209g.

Looking good

The 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, along with Vision Booster to improve performance when directly under sunny skies.

There’s also an IP67 rating, which means it’s protected against dust and water, lasting up to 30 minutes in water of a 1-metre depth.

The A35 has an Exynos 1380 (5 nm) chipset. I downloaded Honkai: Star Rail, which is said to be quite a demanding mobile game, and it was able to play decently so far, with little screen tearing. I’ve yet to see how it handles sustained gaming sessions.

Battery life looks good too, the phone comes with a 5,00mAh battery, and I don’t think quick battery drainage will be an issue considering the specs.

Improved performance and security

For the cameras, you get a 50MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 5MP macro, and a 13MP selfie camera.

They deliver sufficiently nice-looking photos, and Samsung says that the A35 has been equipped with enriched nightography for clearer photos in the dark too.

Something worth taking note of is also the fact that Samsung Knox Vault has appeared for the first time in the brand’s midrange phones through the A35 and A55.

To explain it simply, Knox Vault protects against hardware and software attacks by creating a secure execution environment that is physically isolated from the system’s main processor and memory.

This means that even if your phone is lost or stolen, your personal data like passwords, patterns, PINs, and biometric data will remain secured, according to Samsung.

Along with this, Samsung has also included other security features in the A35 such as:

All in all, Samsung has taken steps to ensure that the new A Series phones hold their own when it comes to daily use and modern security needs.

The recommended retail price for the A35 is RM1,699, and we’ll be doing a more in-depth review of the phone to see how it fares against its price point soon, so stay tuned.