Samsung Galaxy A36 review: A solid device to see out the 20s

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It’s remarkable how much smartphone you get for around $500 these days. Samsung’s A36 is a little over that price point at $549, but it offers performance roughly on par with the Galaxy S20.

You also get a pretty impressive camera, a robust build with Gorilla Glass Victus+ front and back, and a stunning Samsung Super AMOLED display.

Samsung has been making excellent smartphones for over a decade now, so it’s a safe bet that the A36 won’t disappoint too much.

The bigger question is precisely where this phone fits into Samsung’s lineup. The A56 has a lot of the same specs, but costs $150 more, while the A26 this year is $50 cheaper, yet sacrifices a fair amount for that measly price difference.

What is the Galaxy A36 offering?

Samsung’s A series is all about value. While the S series is the flagship, and the Z series is foldable, the A series is about delivering solid performance at a pretty attractive price.

For the A36, that means a phone build around the 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display. Samsung’s Super AMOLEDs are some of the best in the business, and this particular screen supports a 120Hz refresh rate and a FHD+ resolution (1080×2340 pixels).

It also boosts the brightness this year to 1,200 nits, where the A25 last year topped out at 500 nits.

The front and back of the phone are made from Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus+, which promises to offer a better level of protection against everything from keys in your pocket to being dropped on the floor. It’s not invulnerable to damage, though, so I wouldn’t recommend testing that out on a device you spend $500+ on.

Powering the A36 is the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor and 6 GB RAM. You get 128 GB of on-board storage, without any expandable memory card support, unfortunately.

Samsung has stuck a triple camera array on the back of the A36, led by a 50 MP wide-angle lens and partnered with an 8 MP ultra-wide and a 5 MP macro lens. You get a hole punch 12 MP lens on the front.

More impressively though, Samsung has committed to six years of OS updates with the A36. That means in 2031, you should still be able to get updates to the core Android platform, as well as security updates to protect your phone. That’s a really solid offer for a phone at this price, and effectively guarantees its life until the end of the decade, at least.

So all in all, a reasonably well-specced device for a $549 phone. But let’s take a closer look at how it compares to the rest of this year’s A-Series lineup.

None of the A series offers wireless charging, though the A36 and A56 both offer 45W fast charging if you have a compatible charger (it’s not supplied in the box.

The A56 offers an aluminium frame, a higher megapixel count on the ultra-wide lens, and double the internal storage, but the two phones are otherwise remarkably similar.

What does the Galaxy A36 do well?

Don’t expect to be wowed by the A36. This isn’t a phone designed to blow you away with exceptional performance or brilliant photography or never-ending battery life.

Instead, it’s a phone that does everything you ask of it in a prompt, efficient manner.

If we start with benchmark scores, you can see that the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor running the show offers solid performance compared to similarly priced smartphones I’ve tested:

The camera does a pretty good job of capturing detail, and does a decent job with its macro focusing, though you need to manually put the camera into macro mode, which is a bit of a pain.

Colours are vibrant and don’t feel to be too over saturated for my taste, and portrait mode does a pretty good job on the selfie camera with capturing detail and natural skin tones.

Mind you, you have to turn off the “skin smoothness” feature if you want your photo to accurately reflect your actual skin. I know kids today prefer their photos to look like their face is flawless like a doll, but it’s not for me.

The six years of software updates is exceptional, and Samsung should be lauded for its commitment to smartphone longevity. B

Battery life is also decent, with the 5,000 mAh capacity giving you enough juice for about 1–2 days of average use. What is average use? Well, for me, it’s email, web browsing and the occasional game, but for you, it might be different.

What could the Galaxy A36 improve?

I don’t understand why Samsung ditched the microSD slot on the A36, yet kept it on the A26. For a certain customer, that makes the cheaper model more attractive than the more expensive versions.

I guess in today’s streaming age where you don’t have to store all your music, photos, or videos on a device, 128 GB is probably enough for plenty of people, but it’s still a disappointing loss.

I also hate the fact that the A36 supports 45W fast charging, but you have to fork out for the charger that allows those faster charging speeds. Just pack it in the box, Samsung, and be done with it.

And on the topic of charging, I know wireless charging typically doesn’t appear at this price point, but it’s still something I’ve come to rely on every day, so I missed it during this review period.

Verdict

The A36 is a perfectly fine smartphone that will serve any potential owners well. The six years of OS and security updates is exceptional value, and could sway you towards it if you’re on the fence.

But I still feel confused at the A series lineup. There’s not really enough differentiation between the three core models (there’s also an A16 model, which further confuses things.)

I haven’t tested any of the other models in the 2025 A Series lineup yet to see if there’s any substantial performance difference that makes one model stand apart more than the others. But for me, the prices and specs are too similar to make the decision clear.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy A36 online

Samsung Galaxy A36 5G

RRP: $549

Check Price @ Samsung

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