After making their debut at Cellular World Congress2025 in Barcelona, Samsung‘s Galaxy A26 and A36 phones are genuinely on hand to amass in the US. The A26 begins at $300, whereas the A36 begins at $400. The company also unveiled the $500 A56 earlier this month, nonetheless that mobile phone’s slated to launch later this year.
All three devices admire greater displays, extra extremely effective processors and, inevitably, novel AI facets. I purchased a first glimpse at the phones one day of MWC, and my first impact used to be that they felt impressively extra premium than their decal ticket, due to the their shiny displays, glass backing and disclose of Samsung’s most smartly-liked One UI 7.
Eye this: Galaxy A Sequence First Judge: Three Current Phones Below $500
Arriving on the heels of the $599 iPhone 16EApple’s conception of an cheap mobile phone that’s removed from low-priceall three novel Samsung Galaxy A phones appear to expose a mobile phone-maker can unruffled kind a low-price mobile phonethat’s if reality be told cheap and flexes novel facets admire Android 15and Google’s Circle to Search tool. The total phones are built to final you a whereas, with six years of OS and security updates, Samsung’s Knox Vault for tool security and privateness and an IP67 ranking for dust and water resistance.
Right here is all the pieces to hang regarding the Galaxy A36, A26 and A56.
Learn extra: MWC 2025: The total Phones, Wearables, Robots and AI Stay From Barcelona
Samsung Galaxy A36: $400
The Galaxy A36 5G bills $400.
SamsungAt 8.2mm thick and 196 grams, the Galaxy A36 5G is thinner and lighter than final year’s Galaxy A35 5Gwhich used to be 7.4mm thick and weighed 209 grams. Bask in final year, the mobile phone packs a 5,000-mAh battery nonetheless now facets forty five-watt mountainous quick charging, which Samsung says can fee the mobile phone nearly about 70% in 30 minutes. (CNET will take a look at this once we receive the devices in for evaluate, so dwell tuned.)
Thinner bezels bump the tag to 6.7 inches, in comparison with the A35’s 6.6 inches. The A36 facets a 120Hz refresh rate, and an elevated high brightness of 1,900 nits, ideally making it more uncomplicated to glimpse the show even whereas you occur to’re in a brightly lit atmosphere. Both the entrance and attend characteristic Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, which Samsung says improves durability. The company says they’re all “FHD+” resolution, which most regularly means 2,220×1,080 pixels.
In particular person, the tag appeared good and shiny, and the bezels are unruffled intellectual noticeable, nonetheless no longer glaring. There may be barely ample heft to the mobile phone to inspire it feel extra premium than its ticket suggests, nonetheless or no longer it is unruffled gentle-weight altogether.
Cameras receive an toughen, too, with toughen for HDR video recording on the 50-megapixel predominant digital camera. Bask in final year’s mobile phone, the A36 also facets an 8-megapixel ultrawide and 5-megapixel macro digital camera. The entrance digital camera goes from 13 to 12 megapixels, nonetheless supports 10-bit HDR video recording. It be price noting that extra megapixels doesn’t automatically point out a greater digital camera.
HDR toughen can inspire photos and videos admire a significant broader dynamic fluctuate (the contrast between the brightest blueprint of an image and the darkest blueprint) and glimpse extra detailed and shimmering. For center of the evening shots, Samsung says greater pixels again up sharper, extra brilliant photos with minimal noise, even in extraordinarily low gentle — greater pixels can procure extra gentle and admire less image noise. Preserve tuned to CNET’s assessments to glimpse how the digital camera performs.
The Galaxy A36 5G runs Android 15 and One UI 7.
SamsungYou are going to stumble on AI facets on the A36 admire Google’s Circle to Search, that will now also translate on-show text and title music. Samsung debuted these novel capabilities on its flagship Galaxy S25 lineup in January. AI-powered photograph enhancing tools consist of an enhanced Object Eraser that now lets in you to make a choice multiple objects to be eliminated, and a Filter characteristic that lets in you to receive a personalised filter based totally on any photograph. Shall we embrace, whereas you occur to’ve got got a shot of a sunset and also you admire the tone of the image, it is probably going you’ll possibly utter that filter to diverse photos, too. Edit Recommendation will disclose AI to evaluate an image and again up suggestions to toughen it, admire taking out shadows or reflections.
The A36 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, versus the Exynos 1380 featured on the Galaxy A35. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Samsung says there may be also a greater cooling system to better dissipate heat and optimize for gameplay and streaming.
The Galaxy A36 is on hand in black and lavender. An irregular lime model is also on hand through Finest Aquire.
Learn extra: Finest Android Cellular phone for 2025
Samsung Galaxy A26: $300
The Galaxy A26 5G bills $300.
SamsungThe (even more cost effective) Galaxy A26 is also thinner than its predecessor, measuring at 7.7mm in comparison with the Galaxy A25‘s 8.3mm. It also gets a greater FHD+ tag, due to the reduced bezels, matching the A36’s 6.5 inches. It shares a 120Hz refresh rate.
The bezels on the A36 are extra obvious than on the A26 and A56, particularly alongside the bottom of the mobile phone and across the digital camera. The tag is also relatively dimmer.
Whereas final year’s A25 featured a pitcher entrance and plastic attend, the A26 steps things up with Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on every the entrance and attend, honest admire the A36. The frame remains plastic. Despite the toughen to a pitcher backing, the A26 doesn’t admire the identical premium, heftier feel in hand as the A36 and A56. However it has a fragile interface and is extremely responsive, honest admire its A sequence sisters.
Bask in final year’s mannequin, the A26 facets a 50-megapixel large-angle digital camera, 8-megapixel ultrawide digital camera and 2-megapixel macro digital camera, in addition to to a 13-megapixel selfie digital camera.
The Galaxy A26 5G is the most price-effective of the three novel A sequence phones from Samsung.
SamsungDespite the more cost effective ticket, it is probably going you’ll unruffled receive AI facets admire Photo Edit Recommendation and Object Eraser, in addition to to Circle to Search. The A26 runs the Exynos 1380 chipset, and springs with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It also has expandable reminiscence as a lot as 2TB, and packs a 5,000 mAh battery.
The A26 is handiest on hand in black.
Learn extra:These Are the Finest Camera Phones for 2025
For 2025, the Galaxy A sequence has three gadgets: the Galaxy A36 (left), the Galaxy A26 (factual) and the Galaxy A56 (no longer pictured).
SamsungSamsung Galaxy A56: $500
To full the trio, the Galaxy A56 has a 6.7-creep tag and a 5,000 mAh battery, which, admire the A36, supports forty five-watt charging. The A56 is powered by the Exynos 1580 chipset and also has a greater vapor chamber to make it more uncomplicated to play games and peep videos for longer.
The A56 has a 50-megapixel large digital camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera and a 5-megapixel macro digital camera. The selfie digital camera has a 12-megapixel sensor in comparison with the Galaxy A55’s 32-megapixel entrance-going through digital camera, which took either 12- or 8-megapixel photos after pixel binning. The selfie digital camera also gets 10-bit HDR toughen, and a Low Noise Mode helps to take sharper low-gentle photos, Samsung says.
A characteristic handiest on hand on the A56 is named Finest Face, that will make it more uncomplicated to nail a community photograph by deciding on the finest expressions on as a lot as 5 folks after which combining them into one image. Right here is comparable — in title and in execution — to Google’s Finest Take characteristic on the Pixel sequence. The A56 also gets an enhanced Object Eraser and Filter capabilities.
Samsung hasn’t yet shared color choices for the A56, nonetheless the model I purchased a quick glimpse at used to be white. It feels comparable to the A36 in the case of weight, thickness and feel, and the show brightness is also comparable.
The A56 will likely be on hand later this year.
Samsung Galaxy A sequence comparison
Samsung Galaxy A56, A36 and A26 specs
