Does Samsung's new Galaxy A35 make your Galaxy A34 obsolete?

Visually speaking, the most striking difference between your Galaxy A34 and Samsung's new Galaxy A35 is that the 2024 model finally adopts an Infinity-O selfie camera design.

So, if you really dislike the Infinity-U cutout, that's probably a good enough reason for you to want to upgrade to the latest model.

But there might be more. Samsung also upgraded the Galaxy A34 with Gorilla Glass Victus+ screen protection and a glass back panel (unknown glass type). Furthermore, the new phone beats your Galaxy A34 in camera, connectivity, and general performance. The performance gaps, however, may or may not be worth it.

Wi-Fi 6, better SoC, improved camera experience

The Galaxy A35 has a new 50MP main camera with OIS and Super HDR Video capabilities. The HDR Video upgrade will lend better colors and dynamic range to your recordings.

Samsung also gave the Galaxy A35 faster Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. So if you really need something better than Wi-Fi 5, it might be time to leave your Galaxy A34 behind. On the other hand, your device and the Galaxy A35 share the same version of Bluetooth, 5.3.

The Galaxy A35 might also be a good choice if you don't like rocking a Samsung phone equipped with a MediaTek chip. The new model replaces the 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC with Samsung's 5nm Exynos 1380 solution.

In essence, the Galaxy A35 rocks the same chip as the Galaxy A54 did last year, which could really work in its favor, given that, by now, Samsung and developers had plenty of time to optimize the Exynos 1380 experience. Samsung says it should deliver 15% GPU and 18% CPU improvements over the MediaTek solution.

And that more or less wraps it up. If you're looking for a conclusion from us, we'd say the Galaxy A35 is a better phone, and you probably should consider upgrading your Galaxy A34 as long as you find a decent trade-in deal or can make it work without spending too much money.

But if you can't, you won't lose out on much, and you probably shouldn't go all-in on this yearly upgrade unless you are certain the Galaxy A35 will really make a difference to your experience.

For some Galaxy A34 users, the Infinity-O cutout might be enough to warrant an upgrade to the A35. Other users might need a bigger incentive, as upgrading to the A35 might not be worth the hassle. And neither side is wrong.