When Samsung announced the Galaxy A34 a year ago, it made the Galaxy A33 look pretty bad. The A34 was the first in the A3x line to adopt Samsung's modern design based on flat surfaces and no camera housing.
The same phone also brought various improvements to the display, both through hardware and the inclusion of Vision Booster. Camera processing was superior with better stabilization and low-light capabilities, and Voice Focus technology was introduced for better background noise cancellation during phone calls.
However, the time for the A34 to shine is gone. The Galaxy A35 was announced not long ago, and as you'd expect expect, it is a better phone in many areas, including display, camera, connectivity, and build quality.
It might not be worth throwing away the Galaxy A34 for the newer Galaxy A35, but you probably will want to leave the A34 behind sooner rather than later, even if you won't upgrade this year. I'm afraid the costlier A55 might be giving us some clues that the Galaxy A34 will not age like fine wine.
Your Galaxy A34 won't get better with age
As cool as the Galaxy A34 may have been at launch, this phone might not age gracefully moving forward. Samsung's trickle down effect across the Galaxy A series is very real, and the new Galaxy A55 most likely offers a glimpse of how ill-equipped the A34 might look like within a year.
Similar to how the Galaxy A35 borrowed from the Galaxy A54, some features found on the new Galaxy A55 will likely trickle down to the future Galaxy A36 model next year.
Nothing is confirmed, but chances are that the Galaxy A36 will boast the Exynos 1480 chip, which so far has been surprisingly good and vastly superior to the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC found inside your Galaxy A34.
And since the Galaxy A55 offers a staggering 12GB of RAM option, the Galaxy A36 might boast at least 8GB. It could also feature the same Gorilla Glass protection as the A35, and maybe even an aluminum frame, which would be the final nail in the A34's coffin.
Of course, we're only speculating, as it is too early to tell exactly how Samsung's Galaxy A lineup will look a year from now. But judging by how the Galaxy A55 evolved, and considering the trickle-down effect that often happens with the Galaxy A series, a theoretical Galaxy A36 might make the A34 look ancient in comparison.
Worse, even the Galaxy A26 might end up looking like a better value proposition than the A34. All in all, if you don't want to upgrade your A34 to the new A35, you're still in the clear for now. But if things continue evolving at the current rate, you probably will want to happily leave the 2023 model behind within a year.
