Galaxy A35 vs A36 Refurbished: Which Mid-Range Samsung to Buy?

Samsung UK's update dates do most of the deciding here. The refurbished Galaxy A35 5G is listed for security updates until 31 March 2028 and the Galaxy A36 5G until 31 March 2031, so the A35 5G only makes sense if you'll replace it by March 2028, while the A36 5G suits anyone keeping a phone longer. The A36's catch is that it has no microSD slot. A third phone shares its 2031 date for less: at Very Good with 128GB (checked 5 October 2026), the A35 5G costs £136.99, the Galaxy A26 5G £165.99 and the A36 5G £211.99.

Where each phone fits

• The A35 5G fits a budget of about £140, a phone you'll replace by 31 March 2028, and anyone who wants to add a microSD card. £136.99 (Very Good, 128GB) is its lowest listed price.
• The A36 5G fits people who keep phones for three or four years, want 45W charging, or prefer a lighter handset. It's £211.99 at Very Good 128GB. A Fair option is listed from £197.99; the grading page doesn't define it, so ask the team about its condition before ordering.
• Look at the A26 5G instead if you want the A36's 2031 date for less. It costs £165.99 in Very Good condition with 128GB (checked 5 October 2026).
• Check before buying: the RAM (6GB or 8GB on the A35 5G; “depends on the model supplied” on the A36 5G) and the A36's lack of a card slot.

What The Tech Gadgets sells, and what Samsung specified

These are the refurbished options on sale, all international stock, with the lowest listed price for each grade, checked on 5 October 2026. Read across a row to see what each grade step costs.

Samsung's specifications below describe each phone when new. They don't describe the cosmetic condition or battery health of any individual refurbished unit.

Is the Galaxy A36 5G worth £75 more than the A35 5G?

Yes, provided the phone will still be in use after March 2028. The £75.00 gap at Very Good 128GB (£211.99 − £136.99) pays for 36.0 extra months on Samsung UK's update dates, which is £25.00 per year gained (£75.00 ÷ 3.0 years). Faster 45W charging and a 14g lighter body come with it. The rear cameras are unchanged, and the microSD slot goes.

Apart from updates, the A36 5G's gains are comfort upgrades. Its screen is a fraction larger, Samsung quotes it 200 nits brighter in high-brightness mode, and it switches from an Exynos chip to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. None of those alone would justify £75.00 for someone who'll have moved on by March 2028.

Updates are a different matter. Once Samsung's patches stop, newly found software flaws stay unfixed, which is easier to live with on a spare handset than on the one you pay with. For a buyer who keeps a phone until it wears out, three extra years is a large share of its working life.

When does each phone's software support run out?

Samsung UK's spec pages list security updates until 31 March 2028 for the Galaxy A35 5G and 31 March 2031 for the Galaxy A36 5G. The A36's date fits its six-year promise. The A35's doesn't: five years from its March 2024 launch would suggest about March 2029. This guide uses the earlier date, 31 March 2028, in every A35 calculation.

The Tech Gadgets' A35 5G listing quotes March 2029, following Samsung's five-year promise rather than the UK spec page. Samsung's launch release doesn't say when the five years start, so neither date can be confirmed. If the later one proves right, the A35 gains a year. Treat that as a bonus rather than something to bank on.

The table divides each variant's price by the support left, counted in months from 5 October 2026. The A26 5G and A55 5G are included because they're the most likely alternatives at nearby prices.

A supported year on the A36 costs about half what it does on the A35 (£47.11 against £91.33). The A26 5G undercuts both on this measure, which is why it appears in the alternatives below.

Match the phone to your replacement date

Find the row nearest the date you expect to replace this phone, then compare the unsupported months. Prices are the Very Good 128GB from-prices (A35 5G £136.99, A36 5G £211.99). Unsupported months run from Samsung UK's date for each phone.

The A35 5G is cheaper per year of use in every row, but only the first row keeps it inside Samsung UK's date. After that, its saving is paid for in unsupported months: 6.2 by October 2028 and 42.1 by October 2031. If the five-year promise proves right, each figure falls by 12 months, but this guide doesn't base advice on that. The A36 5G stays covered until its fifth year, when it runs 6.2 months past 31 March 2031.

• Buy the A35 5G if your replacement date is 31 March 2028 or earlier and you'd rather keep £75.00.
• Buy the A36 5G if your replacement date falls between April 2028 and March 2031, which covers most people who keep a phone for three or four years.
• Plan to replace either phone by spring 2031. Even the A36 isn't covered for a full five years from today.

Does losing the microSD slot matter to you?

It matters if you keep music, films or years of photos on the phone itself. The A35 5G takes microSD cards up to 1TB, while the A36 5G has no card slot at all. A Very Good 256GB A35 5G costs £152.99, still £59.00 less than a Very Good 128GB A36 5G (£211.99 − £152.99), with twice the storage plus room for a card.

One catch: the A35's tray is hybrid, so the card and a second nano-SIM compete for the same space. Anyone running two physical SIMs has to choose between them.

On the A36, storage is fixed at purchase. To get 256GB you'd pay £248.99 at Very Good, which is £96.00 more than a 256GB A35 (£248.99 − £152.99). If you lean on cloud backup and stream most of your media, 128GB on the A36 is workable and the slot won't be missed. If you move a card from phone to phone, or you record a lot of video, the A35's flexibility is worth real money.

• Choose the 256GB A35 5G when local storage matters more to you than the longer update window.
• Choose the A36 5G when your photos already back up to the cloud and you'll keep the phone for years.

RAM: the detail to confirm before you order

Both phones were sold with different amounts of memory. Samsung lists the A35 5G with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Its UK launch prices were for 8GB models, yet one UK spec page shows 6GB. The A36 5G was sold in the UK with 8GB in its 256GB retail version and 6GB in a 128GB Enterprise Edition.

The Tech Gadgets' listings reflect this. The refurbished A35 5G listing gives 6GB or 8GB, and the Galaxy A36 5G product page says the RAM depends on the model supplied. If you keep lots of apps open or play demanding games, message the team before ordering to confirm the RAM on the unit you'll receive, especially for 128GB A36 units.

Exynos to Snapdragon: does the chip change matter?

For most owners, less than the update window does. The A36 5G uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, which Samsung names officially. The A35 5G uses an Exynos 1380, according to secondary sources. The Tech Gadgets hasn't benchmarked either, so we can't put a figure on the difference, and both run 120Hz screens and Samsung's One UI.

The A36 does start from newer software, Android 15 and One UI 7, against Android 14 and One UI 6.1 on the A35. It also has two more Android upgrades in its promise. Those matter more to a long-term owner than chip names, because they decide how current the phone feels in its later years. If raw performance is your main concern, the A26 vs A36 breakdown discusses the Exynos 1380 against the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, because the A26 uses the same Exynos chip as the A35, according to secondary sources.

Screen, charging, size and cameras

The screens are close: Super AMOLED, FHD+ and 120Hz on both, at 6.6 inches on the A35 5G and 6.7 inches on the A36 5G. Samsung quotes 1,000 nits in high-brightness mode for the A35 and 1,200 for the A36, so the newer phone should be easier to read in strong sun.

Charging is the clearest everyday gain. The A36 5G supports 45W wired charging and the A35 5G 25W. Samsung sells the 45W charger separately, and refurbished phones from The Tech Gadgets ship with a cable but no plug. So the faster speed depends on owning, or buying, a compatible charger. Both have a 5,000mAh battery when new. That's the manufacturer's rating, not the health of the battery in a refurbished unit.

The A36 5G measures 7.4mm and weighs 195g; the A35 5G measures 8.2mm and weighs 209g. So the phone with the slightly larger screen is the lighter one, by 14g.

On cameras, Samsung lists identical rear hardware: a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation, an 8MP ultra-wide and a 5MP macro. The selfie cameras are 13MP on the A35 and 12MP on the A36. We haven't tested either, but on paper there's no camera reason to pay more for the A36.

Alternatives at either end of the budget

Galaxy A26 5G, Refurbished. If the A36's update date is what tempts you, the refurbished Galaxy A26 5G reaches the same 31 March 2031 on Samsung UK's page, with six Android upgrades promised. At Very Good 128GB it's £165.99, which is £29.00 more than the A35 (£165.99 − £136.99) and £46.00 less than the A36 (£211.99 − £165.99). It keeps a microSD slot (up to 2TB) and charges at 25W (a secondary-source figure). In return you get a 2MP macro camera instead of 5MP, and Samsung's UK spec lists no eSIM. For a long-term owner on a budget, it's the strongest value of the three on cost per supported year.

Galaxy A55 5G, Refurbished. Stretching from the A35 to the Galaxy A55 5G at Very Good grade costs £43.00 more (£179.99 − £136.99) but buys no extra update time. It shares the A35's promise and its 31 March 2028 UK date. What it adds is hardware: a 12MP ultra-wide, a 32MP selfie camera and a metal frame. Buy it for those, not for longevity.

Galaxy A56 5G, Refurbished. A Very Good 128GB A56 5G is £243.99, £32.00 above the equivalent A36 (£243.99 − £211.99). If you're already set on the A36 and wondering about one more step, our guide to moving up from the A36 to the A56 covers that pair.

Spending more than the A35 is justified when it buys update years you'll use, and the A26 and A36 do. Spending more for the A55 is justified only if you want its cameras or build. For the wider picture, our round-up of refurbished Galaxy A16 to A56 models compares the whole range, and every listing sits among the Samsung Galaxy phones in stock, where conditions vary by listing.

Who shouldn't buy the A35 5G or the A36 5G

Don't buy the A35 5G as a long-term phone for a relative, a teenager or anyone who'll still be using it after March 2028. Its support date arrives too soon.

Don't buy the A36 5G if you depend on a memory card, if you'll replace it by March 2028, or if your ceiling is about £150. The A35 serves that buyer better.

Neither phone fits a buyer who charges on a wireless pad or uses wired headphones. Secondary sources list no wireless charging for either (Samsung's pages don't mention it), and neither has a 3.5mm jack. If you need a phone for wet conditions, read the IP note below first.

Grades, battery health and the first day with your phone

The Tech Gadgets tests and cleans every refurbished phone in Manchester, then grades the cosmetic condition. Like New shows no visible marks. Excellent shows light signs of use that are hard to spot at arm's length. Very Good shows visible marks on the body with the screen in good shape. All three leave with at least 85% battery health, as the grading and testing page explains.

The A36 5G listing also has a Fair option, £14.00 below Very Good at 128GB (£211.99 − £197.99). A Fair option is listed, but the grading page doesn't define it, so ask the team about its condition before ordering. The A35 5G listing has no Fair option.

Your phone arrives with a free USB-C charging cable, a free SIM ejector pin and protective packaging, but no plug and no retail box. In the first few days:

• check the battery health reading in the phone's battery settings
• confirm the model code in Settings › About phone matches the listing, and check the RAM figure if you asked about it
• make calls, use mobile data and test the fingerprint sensor with your own SIM fitted
• check that no previous owner's Google or Samsung account appears

The warranty policy lists battery defects and reduced capacity as exclusions, which is why that battery check matters. A faulty battery within 30 days is still covered by your Consumer Rights Act right to reject.

Samsung rated both phones IP67 when new. Treat that as a design specification only: a refurbished phone's seals may have aged or been disturbed by repair, so it can't be relied on to resist water, and liquid damage is excluded from the warranty.

From 5 October 2026, the A35 5G has 17.8 months of support left on Samsung UK's date and the A36 5G has 53.8 months.

Ordering from The Tech Gadgets

Both phones are unlocked and work on EE, O2, Vodafone, Three and other UK networks, and 5G depends on your network and plan. Each comes with a 12-month warranty from The Tech Gadgets, starting on delivery, covering faults that develop in normal use (not accidental or liquid damage). Both phones are international stock: the model code may differ from UK units, and Samsung UK may not carry out manufacturer warranty repairs on non-UK units, so that warranty is your cover. If you rely on Wi-Fi Calling or 4G Calling (VoLTE) on a particular network, ask the team before ordering. The refund policy sets out the warranty and return conditions.

If the phone isn't what you expected, change-of-mind returns are accepted within 30 days if the phone is unused and complete (you pay return postage), plus your 14-day right to cancel. Orders placed by 3pm Monday to Friday are dispatched the same day from Manchester. Standard delivery is 1–3 working days and free over £50, which covers either phone.

Galaxy A35 5G vs Galaxy A36 5G: your questions

Does the Galaxy A35 5G take a memory card?

Yes. Samsung's UK spec lists microSD support up to 1TB on the A35 5G, so a 128GB model can grow later instead of being replaced. Because the tray is hybrid, a card takes the place of a second nano-SIM. The Galaxy A36 5G has no card support of any kind, so its storage is fixed on the day you buy it. That makes the A36's 128GB-or-256GB choice more important.

Will the A35 5G keep working after its updates end?

Yes. Nothing switches off on 31 March 2028: calls, the camera and installed apps carry on. What changes is that Samsung stops issuing fixes for security flaws found after that date, and app developers gradually raise the minimum software they support. Samsung's five-year promise would suggest about March 2029, but this guide treats 31 March 2028 as the date to plan around.

Is the A36 5G's camera better than the A35 5G's?

Not on Samsung's specifications. Both have a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation, an 8MP ultra-wide and a 5MP macro. The front cameras differ slightly, at 13MP on the A35 5G and 12MP on the A36 5G. The phones use different chips and launched on different One UI versions, which can affect processing, but we haven't tested them, so we don't rank their photos.

How much RAM will a refurbished A35 5G or A36 5G have?

It depends on the unit. Samsung sold the A35 5G with 6GB or 8GB. In the UK, the A36 5G came with 8GB at 256GB and 6GB in its 128GB Enterprise Edition. The Tech Gadgets' listings give 6GB or 8GB for the A35 and “depends on the model supplied” for the A36, noting that Samsung lists 6GB, 8GB and 12GB versions. Message the team before ordering if a specific amount matters to you.

I'll keep it in a case. Which grade makes sense on each phone?

A case covers the back and frame, which is where Very Good's visible marks are, and the screen is in good shape at that grade. On the A35 5G the steps up are small: Excellent costs £8.00 more (£144.99 − £136.99) and Like New £16.00 more (£152.99 − £136.99). On the A36 5G they're £18.01 (£230.00 − £211.99) and £41.00 (£252.99 − £211.99). The 85% battery minimum is the same across those three grades, so a higher grade buys looks, not battery.

Is a Fair-grade A36 5G a sensible way to save £14?

Possibly, but you can't judge it from the website. The Fair option on the A36 5G listing is £197.99 for 128GB, £14.00 less than Very Good. The grading page doesn't define Fair or state a battery health minimum for it. Ask the team what a Fair unit looks like and what its battery reads before you order. Without those answers, you'd be comparing a known standard with an unknown one.

Can I run two phone numbers on the A35 5G or A36 5G?

Yes, in different ways. Samsung UK lists a nano-SIM plus eSIM for the A35 5G, and its hybrid tray can take a second nano-SIM instead of a memory card. For the A36 5G, Samsung UK lists two physical SIMs, one SIM plus an eSIM, or two eSIMs. eSIM depends on your network supporting it, so check with your provider before moving a number across.

The verdict: pay for the A36 5G's 2031 date, or keep £75 with the A35 5G

The Galaxy A36 5G is the recommendation for most buyers, because its Samsung UK update date sits three years beyond the A35's. At Very Good 128GB that's £75.00 ÷ 3.0 years, or £25.00 for each added year, and 45W charging and a 14g lighter body come with it. The camera hardware is the same, and the card slot is gone.

The Galaxy A35 5G earns its place when the phone will be replaced by 31 March 2028, when microSD storage is non-negotiable, or when £136.99 is the ceiling. Its 256GB version still undercuts a 128GB A36 by £59.00. Buyers who want the 2031 date without the A36's price should look at the refurbished Galaxy A26 5G. Neither phone offers wireless charging, and neither refurbished phone should be trusted around water.