The Galaxy M35, as you may have guessed if you're a long-time Samsung fan, is designed to offer some of the best specs of an A-series phone, the A35 in this case, at a cheaper price. To sweeten the deal, the M35 boasts a 6,000 mAh battery, 1,000 mAh larger than the A35.
As always, the M-series variant has a different and less premium design, and it also misses out on features like water and dust resistance. But it's considerably cheaper as well, and in this review, you will find out if the complete package is worth your hard-earned cash.
Design
Samsung hasn't made any attempts to make the Galaxy M35 stand out from a design standpoint or try and slim it down. It is thick and heavy, even for a phone with a 6,000 mAh battery.
The M34 had a 6,000 mAh battery as well, but it was 0.3mm thinner and around 15 grams lighter. I assume the M35's larger vapor cooling chamber (more on that later) and the slightly larger display (6.6 inches vs 6.5 inches on the M34) may have something to do with the increased thickness and weight.
The footprint of the phone is also large, mostly because of the big bezels, which are par for the course for Samsung's mid-range phones, even premium ones like the Galaxy A55.
All of these shortcomings can be forgiven because of the phone's aggressive price, but still, it would have been nice if Samsung had put in a little effort to make the design feel less cookie cutter and cumbersome.
The design's one saving grace is the back of the phone, which has a chequered texture that is nice to look at. However, that isn't something you will notice in day-to-day use, not unless you have the habit of placing your phone front side down when it isn't in use.
Display and audio
The viewing experience is an area where the Galaxy M35 punches above its weight. The display on this phone has the same specs as the Galaxy A35. It's a 120Hz Super AMOLED panel with punchy but not overly vivid colors, wide viewing angles, and the same 1000 nits of maximum brightness.
That's not all. The M35 has Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus+ for display protection. Again, that's the same glass as the A35 and even the nearly-twice-as-expensive Galaxy A55. Victus+ is almost twice as tough and four times more scratch resistant than the Gorilla Glass 5 used on the Galaxy M34.
The viewing experience is an area where the Galaxy M35 punches above its weight
The huge bezels are the only blemish on the otherwise excellent viewing experience you get on this phone. It also misses out on HDR certification, but that was to be expected as the A35 doesn't have an HDR-certified display either.
While the M35 does away with the 3.5mm headphone port, it has stereo speakers, an upgrade from a single speaker on its predecessors. The speakers sound nice for the occasional YouTube video without headphones or earbuds, though they aren't as loud as the speakers on Samsung's more expensive phones.
Camera
The Galaxy M35 has some impressive features for the price, but impressive cameras are not on the list. Daylight outdoor pictures from the 50MP primary shooter and the 8MP ultrawide camera are decent, though the latter can't resolve a lot of detail.
Lack of detail isn't a problem with the primary camera, which also has fairly good dynamic range in both stills and videos. It is also decent in low-light conditions, particularly when Night mode is activated. Night mode is a must for the ultrawide camera once the sun has gone down.
Check out some photos from the primary and ultrawide cameras in the gallery below.
For the 50MP rear camera, the Galaxy M35 includes a lot of the shooting modes found on costlier devices, such as a Pro mode for both images and videos, slow motion and super slow motion, hyperlapse, and Single Take.
Portrait mode is available as well and does a good job of separating the background and subject. You can see a couple of rear camera portrait shots in the gallery below.
There's a 2MP macro camera on the Galaxy M35, and whether it's daylight or nighttime, macro pictures are borderline unusable. Years after Samsung introduced macro cameras to Galaxy smartphones, they remain a gimmick designed to increase the total number of cameras on the spec sheet.
The 13MP front-facing camera gets the job done during the day but struggles to keep noise under check or resolve a lot of detail in low-light conditions. Night mode and using the display as a flash can help, but not by a huge margin.
Performance
The Galaxy M35 is powered by the Exynos 1380 chipset, which was introduced with the Galaxy A54 last year and is also used on the Galaxy A35. It was paired with 8GB of RAM on our review unit, and overall, the Galaxy M35 performs well.
The user interface is generally smooth and quick, and gaming performance is good for the price. Thanks to a larger vapor cooling chamber, something that has become a trend on both mid-range and flagship Samsung smartphones these days, temperatures are kept in check and the chipset isn't throttled as quickly during long gaming sessions as older devices.
Considering the M35's price tag, buyers won't have any complaints about its performance
Some lag and stutter creeps in from time to time in both gaming and non-gaming use, but that's normal for a Galaxy smartphone that isn't a flagship. And, frankly, considering the M35's price tag, buyers won't have any complaints about its performance.
For what it costs, the M35 is well equipped connectivity-wise. It supports 5G, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.3. Call quality was more than acceptable, though call volume was a little on the lower side.
Software
The Galaxy M35 comes running Android 14 and One UI 6.1 out of the box, and it has most of the software features found on Samsung's flagship phones. Just don't expect any Galaxy AI features.
While Samsung brought the Google Circle to Search feature to the Galaxy A35 and a couple of other A-series phones, the rest of the Galaxy AI experience is exclusive to flagship devices and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
As for software updates, Samsung promises four major Android OS upgrades and security updates for five years, which is impressive and not something the competition can match.
Check out our Galaxy A35 review for more details on the software experience that you get on the M35.
Battery life
The Galaxy M35 has excellent battery life, as you would expect from a phone with a 6,000 mAh battery. It can last a full day even with lots of gaming and use of 5G mobile data. Over the course of the review period, I never had to charge the phone before early afternoon on the second day.
However, the Exynos 1380 chipset lacks the efficiency of newer mid-range Exynos chips and the latest flagship Snapdragon processors. Samsung claims up to two days of battery life, but the M35 doesn't live up to those claims. Or at least it didn't for me.
The M35 supports 25W charging if you have the right charger (Samsung doesn't offer any charger in the box, unsurprisingly), and a full charge can take anywhere from 90 to 100 minutes. Half an hour of charging takes the battery from 0 to around 45%.
Verdict
The Galaxy M35 offers great value. It has an excellent display, stronger Gorilla Glass protection, good performance (and good cooling thanks to a large vapor chamber), great battery life, and a promise of four major OS upgrades.
The design and camera quality are nothing to write home about. The display bezels are too big, and battery life is not as fantastic as it should be for a 6,000 mAh battery. But none of that is a deal breaker for the asking price. The positives outweigh the negatives, and you should give the M35 serious consideration if you're in the market for a new mid-range phone and have a limited budget.
