Samsung's latest mid-range phones, the Galaxy A35 and the Galaxy A55, have finally gone official. The A55, the more premium model of the two, brings some key upgrades over its predecessor.
Those upgrades include Samsung's first mid-range Exynos chip with a GPU based on the AMD RDNA graphics architecture, similar to the Exynos 2200 and Exynos 2400 that power Samsung's flagship Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S24 smartphones. The A55 is also the first mid-range phone from the Korean giant to come with 12GB of RAM, something you don't get even on the Galaxy S24.
Galaxy A55 and A35 come with One UI 6.1 and promise of four major OS upgrdes
On the software side, the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 get the distinction of running version 6.1 of One UI out of the box (with Android 14 as the base), just like the Galaxy S24 lineup. But will they be getting the same solid software support as Samsung's 2024 flagship?
The answer is no, they won't. The Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra continue to be the only smartphones as of March 2024 that are eligible for OS and security updates for seven years. The A55 and A35 will receive four major OS upgrades and five years of security updates like their predecessors.
Four major OS upgrades are still higher than what mid-range phones from other manufacturers get, so we won't hold it against Samsung's newest mid-rangers, though perhaps the company could have considered adding a fifth major OS upgrade to the list, at least for the Galaxy A55.
For those wondering, the A35 and A55 also miss out on the AI features that are a huge selling point of the Galaxy S24 lineup. However, that is understandable considering the processing power those AI features require for a satisfactory experience, and we can't rule out the possibility of Samsung bringing some AI features to these two handsets with a software update later on.
