Skip to main content

Samsung just launched a $400 phone in the U.S., and it looks great

A render of the Samsung Galaxy A35.
Digital Trends

A little over a month ago, Samsung announced two new entries in its Galaxy A family — the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35. Both phones made their way to the U.K. and Europe, but we’ve been left waiting for a U.S. release. Thankfully, that waiting has now come to an end.

Recommended Videos

As of April 18, the Galaxy A35 is now available for purchase in the U.S. from Samsung.com, Samsung’s retail stores, and at “major carriers and retailers.” Regardless of where you buy the phone, it’s available in your choice of two colors: Awesome Navy and Awesome Lilac. The starting price is a penny shy of $400, putting it well below the Galaxy S24 that launched earlier this year. Interestingly, the Galaxy A55 is not coming to the U.S. at this time.

So, what do you get from a $400 Samsung phone in 2024? As it turns out, quite a lot, actually.

A render of the Samsung Galaxy A35.
Samsung

On the front of the Galaxy A35 is a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED panel with a Full HD+ resolution and up to a 120Hz refresh rate. Around the back is a trio of cameras — including a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 5MP macro camera. For all of your selfie duties, you get a 13MP front camera.

What about the internal specs? There’s an Exynos 1380 chipset (the same one used in the Galaxy A54), 6GB RAM, 128GB of storage (expandable up to 1TB), and a 5,000 mAh battery with up to 25-watt wired charging. There’s also an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, Android 14 is available out of the box, and Samsung promises four major Android updates, plus five years of security updates. For a $400 smartphone, that’s a pretty solid package.

At $400, the Galaxy A35 is a bit cheaper than some of our other favorite budget phones available today — such as the $500 OnePlus 12R and Google Pixel 7a (which will soon be replaced by the Google Pixel 8a). It’s nice to have an even cheaper option to consider, and although we still need to test the A35 for ourselves, the spec sheet sounds promising.

A render of the Samsung Galaxy A35.
Digital Trends

If you’re interested in picking up the Galaxy A35 for yourself, Samsung has a couple of promos to make the phone even more affordable. For a “limited time,” buying the Galaxy A35 will give you a 30% discount on the Galaxy Buds FE. Alternatively, you can trade in your current phone for up to a $150 credit toward your A35 purchase.

Joe Maring
Joe Maring has been the Section Editor of Digital Trends' Mobile team since June 2022. He leads a team of 13 writers and…
Samsung will fix Now Bar for Galaxy Z Flip phones, but not anytime soon
Someone holding the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, showing the cover screen turned on.

Samsung's Now Bar is one of the most attractive features of One UI 7. The pill-shaped interface on the lock screen and dynamically adjusts based on the most important activities on your phone, much like the iPhone's Dynamic Island. The feature, however, looks a bit under-cooked on foldables, especially Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip series phones, being limited to only the internal screen. Thankfully, Samsung is working to fix this, though the patch may take some time.

The fix supposedly comes not as part of the existing One UI 7 but Samsung's next platform upgrade -- One UI 8 based on Android 16. An account by the username @Gamer0mega on social media X shared a video preview of Now Bar in action. Instead of the inner screen, the clip shows Now Bar running on the cover screen of a Galaxy Z Flip 6 or Flip 5.

Read more
Galaxy S25 Edge leak reveals a look that’s almost iPhone Air like
Galaxy S25 Edge

Two highly anticipated smartphone models are set to launch before the end of the year: Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge and Apple’s iPhone 17 Air. Newly released images of the Galaxy S25 Edge, scheduled to arrive this month, reveal a striking resemblance to rumored images of the iPhone 17 Air, which is expected to hit the market in September.

The Galaxy S25 Edge, which Samsung teased earlier this year, will arrive on May 13. When the phone launches, it’s expected to be one of the thinnest smartphones in the world.

Read more
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge could have a surprisingly solid camera
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Dummy Video

One of Samsung's upcoming best smartphones is getting closer and closer to its rumored release date, and as we get there, more and more specs begin to leak out. Today, we learned that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge might have a camera that will rival some of its much larger rivals.

The leak comes from SammyGuru, which managed to spot an interesting detail on a Samsung shipping manifest. According to the publication's findings, the S25 Edge will have the same selfie camera as other phones in the S25 lineup, which would spell good news for the Android flagship. After all, being more compact, one might expect the camera to take a hit, but so far, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Read more