Samsung Galaxy M35 Review: Budget Star

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Samsung’s Galaxy M series is known for being affordable while also offering good value for money. The latest M series phone from Samsung, the Galaxy M35 5G, continues that tradition. Compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy M34 5G, the new handset offers some hardware upgrades and a few design changes. You also get the longest Android software upgrade commitment in the segment. However, with the new inclusions come a higher price tag as well. I’ve used the Galaxy M35 5G to find out if the phone is a good all-rounder for the price. Read on to find out.

Talking about price, the base variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at Rs. 19,999. The 8GB + 128GB and 8GB + 256GB variants of the Galaxy M35 5G are priced at Rs. 21,499 and Rs. 24,299, respectively. We were sent the 8GB + 128GB variant for review in the Daybreak Blue colour option.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Design: Minor changes

• Dimensions – 162.3 x 78.6 x 9.1
• Weight – 222g
• Colours – Dark Blue, Gray, Light Blue

Samsung has used polycarbonate for the rear panel and the frame on the Galaxy M35 5G. It gets a familiar triple rear camera setup as seen on the predecessor, but the camera rings are now slightly more prominent. The pattern on the rear panel is also different from last year’s phone, as are the colour options.

The phone lacks a headphone jack, which was present on the predecessor

This is a thick phone and heavier than most phones in its segment, including the Galaxy M34. The rear panel has a tapered edge, but it’s all flat on the front and the sides. The back is also quite slippery, but luckily, it’s not a fingerprint magnet. It’s definitely a two-handed phone unless you’re the Great Khali.

You’ll find the SIM tray slot on the left side, the volume and power/fingerprint scanner buttons on the right, a microphone at the top, and a USB Type-C port, speaker, and another mic at the bottom. Samsung has removed the 3.5mm headphone port from the Galaxy M35 5G, which is disappointing. There’s no IP rating on the phone, and I didn’t find any gasket in the SIM tray either, so I’d recommend keeping this away from the pool.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Display: Good for content consumption

• Size – 6.6-inch full-HD+, 120Hz
• Type- Super AMOLED
• Display protection – Gorilla Glass Victus+

Turning the phone over, it reveals a large display with thick bezels. However, the bezels are more uniform and slimmer than the older Galaxy M34 5G. You also get a hole-punch display this time around instead of the water drop notch. The display is slightly bigger than before, but the rest of the specifications remain mostly the same. You get good brightness (1,000 nits peak), making the screen readable indoors and outdoors. You can choose between an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz or stick to 60Hz, and there are two display colour options: Vivid and Natural.

The display offers 1,000nits of peak brightness

Samsung has upgraded the display protection on the Galaxy M35 5G with Gorilla Glass Victus+, which is rare in this price segment. Overall, the display is excellent for watching videos and playing games, and there’s good colour reproduction and Widevine L1 support for full HD content on streaming apps.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Software: Mostly smooth

• UI – One UI 6.1
• OS version – Android 14
• Latest security patch – July 1

One UI is one of my favourite Android skins, and Samsung continues to keep the bloatware to a minimum. Of course, you’ll find some pre-installed apps and the usual Glance lock screen, but all the unwanted apps can be removed. The app drawer also features a Discover tab that recommends apps for you, but I’d say it’s best to just search the Play Store to download whatever app you need.

As for software features, you get things like the Edge panel, which offers quick access to apps, contacts, and more via a slide-out panel on the edge. You also get Quick Share, Modes and Routines, Always on Display (AOD), and the most common One UI 6.1 features.

Samsung has promised four years of Android OS updates and five years of security patches. This is incredible as no other manufacturer offers this kind of software support in this price segment.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Performance: Gets the job done

• Processor – Exynos 1380 (5nm)
• RAM – Up to 8GB
• Storage – Up to 256GB

Let’s talk about the performance. The Exynos 1380 SoC on the Galaxy M35 5G is an octa-core chipset that offers a minor performance bump over last year’s chipset. It’s a good budget chip that gets the job done. I had no issues multitasking on the phone or playing games. What’s also nice is the inclusion of a vapour-cooling chamber, which is something you won’t find in this category. During my time with the phone, I never faced any heating issues, even when I was gaming for an hour. Games like BGMI and Asphalt 9 ran without hiccups and at high graphics settings. It’s a good phone for gaming.

The vapour cooling chamber does its job well

The UI is smooth most of the time, with animations and apps not taking too long to load. The camera app also loads quite fast, although you may see some lag if several apps are running in the background. I ran some synthetic benchmarks on the phone to see how it performed against some of its competition.

As you can see, the phone does quite well in the benchmark tests. Of course, you shouldn’t completely rely on the results, as real-world performance may vary. That being said, I didn’t face any major lag or app crashes when using the phone to browse, watch videos, play games, run multiple apps, and take photos.

The phone comes with a hybrid stereo speaker setup with one main speaker at the bottom doing most of the work and the earpiece acting as the second speaker. The speakers offer good separation and are loud but not the loudest. There’s some bass, though, and I didn’t hear any crackling, even at full volume. The microphones also do a good job during calls and the earpiece is clear.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Cameras: Not bad at all

• Main camera – 50-megapixel, f/1.8, OIS
• Ultra-wide + depth – 8-megapixel + 2-megapixel
• Selfie – 13-megapixel, f/2.2

Samsung has included a triple rear camera setup on the Galaxy M35 5G, and they’re not bad at all. The camera app is also pretty straightforward and has all the main modes within easy reach.

The triple-camera setup has only two usable sensors

The primary 50-megapixel rear camera takes good photos in daylight conditions. I found the pictures to have good details, with a hint of over-saturation present in the skies and greenery, which is common in Samsung phones. The photos are otherwise quite colour-accurate with good HDR and white balance. Some noise starts to creep in in low light conditions, but you still get good details and colours thanks to the auto night mode.

Daylight and lowlight shots from the primary camera at 1x [Tap to expand]

Samsung’s 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera also performs decently well in both daylight and lowlight conditions. However, the lowlight photos have a lot more noise than the main camera. The colour accuracy between the primary and ultrawide cameras is pretty good.

Ultrawide shots from the 8-megapixel sensor [Tap to Expand]

The third sensor is a depth unit and aids in portrait photos, which are not too bad. The edge detection is fine for a phone at this price, but the Portrait mode doesn’t let you zoom in or out, which means that the photos are always taken at the standard 1x.

Selfies from the Galaxy M35 are decent in daylight conditions, although the skin tones aren’t very accurate. In low light, there’s a lot of noise in selfies.

Coming to the video performance, the rear main camera can shoot at 4K resolution at 30fps. The footage in daylight conditions is mostly clean with slightly saturated colours, but you will notice some choppiness if moving around. Night video performance is also not too bad, but you’ll see plenty of noise. There is a Super Steady mode that produces better-stabilised footage, but it’s locked at 1080p 30fps.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Battery: Monster performance

• Battery capacity – 6,000mAh
• Fast charging – 18W
• Charger – Not included

Although I anticipated the phone to perform quite well in our battery life test, I didn’t expect it to meet the 2-day advertised battery claim. The phone lasted 47 hours and 17 mins in our HD video loop test. None of the phones in its price segment got even close to that number. Of course, daily usage numbers will be lower, but you can easily get the phone to last one and a half days or more with all kinds of usage.

Samsung doesn’t include a charger in the box

Charging is relatively slow, though. There’s no charger provided in the box, so you’ll need to get one. I’d recommend a 20W charger, at least. I used a 30W adapter, and the phone took about 2 hours to go from 0 to 100 percent.

Samsung Galaxy M35 Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy M35 faces competition from phones such as the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite (Review), CMF Phone 1 (Review), the Motorola G85 (Review), and so on. If you look at our benchmark results, the phone performed better than all of its competition except the Motorola G85. If you’re looking for a phone with a better design, then the CMF Phone 1 or the Moto G85 could be a better choice. All of the phones I mentioned will also offer a slimmer and lighter build. You may not get the same battery life, but you’ll get faster charging, while camera performance is mostly the same across the devices.

If you’re looking for a phone under Rs. 20,000 with a good display, simple design, excellent battery life, good performance with almost no heating issues, a good set of cameras, and brilliant software support, then the Galaxy M35 5G is something to definitely check out. It is a budget star!