Affordable smartphone season remains in full swing, with Samsung entering the ring with its own affordable set of Android devices. The budget-priced Galaxy A36 and A26 were teased earlier this month alongside a third device. The phones are now available online and through participating carriers, starting at $400 and $300, respectively. Both devices feature mid-range specifications and Samsung’s “Awesome Intelligence” suite—essentially Galaxy AI, pared down for its affordable smartphones.
If it’s a bright, vibrant screen you want under $500, Samsung is the way to go. The Galaxy A36 and the Galaxy A26 both feature a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum 1,200 nits of brightness. Both phones have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processors with 6GB of RAM. They’re both limited to a middling 128GB of storage, so you’ll want an active cloud account if you’re looking to hoard photos and files.
The Samsung Galaxy A36 has a better-equipped camera system, with a triple-array rear camera with an 8-MP ultra-wide camera, a 50-MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture and OIS, and a 5-MP macro camera. There’s also a 12-MP front-facing camera for selfies. The Galaxy A26 has most of the same camera specs, save for a 2-MP macro camera on the rear and a 13-MP front-facing camera.
If you’re into artificial intelligence, the Galaxy A36 and A26 have some of Samsung’s fancy AI features, though they had to be pared down for this particular set of specifications. That’s why it’s called Awesome Intelligence instead of Galaxy AI. The abilities you’ll have access to through these devices include Circle to Search, which is mainly tied to Google’s Gemini, and Samsung’s AI-driven Object Eraser, which nixes distracting subjects from your photos. It’s enough of a taste of Samsung’s AI that maybe you’ll spring for the full-priced thing.
Samsung’s Galaxy A36 is available in black, lavender, and a unique lime color at Best Buy starting at $400. Samsung’s Galaxy A26 only comes in black and starts at $300. Samsung’s Galaxy A-series devices aren’t the best deal in the business. For instance, Google’s Pixel 9a, which was announced but remains delayed, features two more gigs of RAM and more of Google’s Gemini features, since it runs natively on Google’s Tensor processors. But it’s delayed and still technically $100 more than the Galaxy A36. With a Samsung phone, you should get a big, bright screen for a decent price—maybe free, if your carrier will subsidize it.
