It’s the season for mid-range smartphone launches — smartphones that can still get the job done without the high-priced cutting-edge camera arrays and chipsets. If you’re just looking for a no-frills phone that gets the job done day to day — with solid battery life to match — these are the kinds of devices you’re looking for. The latest device to hit the market is the Samsung Galaxy A36, which finally is seeing a United States release today at $400.
That’s a competitive price for the specs, but what we’re even more intrigued by is the six-year security upgrade and OS guarantee. $400 is pretty attractive for a mid-range phone that would last us two or three years — the prospect of stretching that $400 out over six years puts the Galaxy A36 on our short list.
Although the Samsung Galaxy A36 is a mid-range phone, it’s not altogether lacking in premium features, like a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display and a large 5,000mAh battery that should get through you a full day reliably. That’s a fairly large display, so despite the price, the Galaxy A36 isn’t in the class of smaller, cheaper phones like the Google Pixel 9a. The Galaxy A36 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, a solid mid-range option that enables the phone to handle basic AI features, like removing unwanted objects from photos.
The rear camera array includes a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 5MP macro camera, and a 12MP selfie camera, a serviceable slate that should make the Galaxy A36 a solid option for quick photos on the go. An IP67 rating means that the phone can survive an accidental spill into water, which also helps to ensure the phone will last for years — and isn’t something we always see in mid-range phones.
But, at the mid-range level, the value of the Galaxy A36 really comes from the six-year OS and security upgrade guarantee. Samsung regularly has some of the longest upgrade guarantees, ensuring that the phone will be supported for much longer than other comparable Android smartphones around this price. The Samsung Galaxy A36 might not be the cheapest mid-range smartphone on the market, but when this guarantee is considered, it might well be the best deal if you can stretch the phone’s life out to five or six years.
The Samsung Galaxy A36 is available starting today for $400 directly from Samsung in black or lavender, configured with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Samsung is also offering up to $150 off with a qualified trade-in, which does include quite a few devices that are as many as three or four years old. Samsung is also taking 50% off the Galaxy Fit 3 smartwatch and the Galaxy Buds FE for folks buying the Galaxy A36 at launch.