Samsung’s Affordable Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 Will Get 6 Years of Software Updates – WIRED

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDIt’s budget phone season, and it’s Samsung’s turn to announce its crop of affordable smartphones for 2025. Kicking off a wave of upcoming mobile news at Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual tech tradeshow held in Barcelona, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A36 5G and Galaxy A26 5G—sequels to last year’s Galaxy A35 and A25.The Galaxy A36 is the premier of the two and costs $400, whereas the Galaxy A26 starts at $300, rivaling Motorola’s new Moto G Power 2025. The announcement is bookended by the launch of Apple’s “cheap” iPhone—the iPhone 16e—which isn’t all that cheap at $599, and Nothing’s Phone (3a) series, the successor to the company’s well-received Phone (2a), set to debut on March 4.Samsung says the Galaxy A36 will be available for order in the US on March 26, with the Galaxy A26 to follow on March 28. There’s also the Galaxy A56 5G, which the company teased as a $500 smartphone that will arrive later this year in the US. Here’s what they’re all about.The highlight of this year’s Galaxy A-series is that these devices will receive 6 years of updates, a jump from the previous offering of four Android OS updates and 5 years of security updates. That makes them some of the only smartphones in this price bracket to offer such extensive software support—you’ll continue getting new Android features and your phone will be more secure.Samsung is also touting the small design refresh—there’s now a distinct camera module housing the linear lens layout, plus the phones are slimmer and lighter with a glossy finish on the back. All three devices have Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ for better scratch and shatter resistance, first employed on phones like Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S22 series from 2022. They’re also IP67-rated for water resistance, so they can be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes and still work fine.The trio share many more specs, like how they all have a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a 120-Hz refresh rate, a 5,000-mAh battery capacity, and they even have the same camera types that consist of a main 50-megapixel sensor, an ultrawide, and a macro lens, though the megapixel counts change for some of these. Three cameras on the back might sound impressive at these prices, but the ultrawide and macro cameras on budget phones are typically not very good, so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case yet again here or if these cameras will prove useful.It’s not just about megapixels though. Samsung specifically calls out the A36 selfie camera (and likely the A56’s)—they may have fewer megapixels than the A26, but this 12-megapixel shooter is capable of 10-bit HDR footage up to 4K at 30 frames per second. That just means it’ll do a better job representing colors in selfie videos.Samsung says the A36 and A56 have a larger vapor chamber cooling system for better heat dissipation during intense processing activities like gaming, and that this system is nearly the same size as last year’s Galaxy S24+. They also support 45-watt fast charging, which should get you up to 70 percent in 30 minutes.The main area where they all differentiate is performance. The A26 5G and A56 5G make use of Samsung’s own Exynos processors, specifically the Exynos 1380 with 6 GB of RAM and Exynos 1580 with 8 GB of RAM, respectively. The Galaxy A26’s configuration seems to be the same as last year’s Galaxy A35 5G, which had decent performance but was still somewhat stuttery. But that phone launched at $400 whereas the A26 is $100 less.Samsung Galaxy A36 (left) and A26 (right)Only the Galaxy A36 5G has a Qualcomm chipset, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, a new chipset announced late last year, though performance should be similar to the Snapdragon 7S Gen 2 found in many international phones, like the Poco X6.And, naturally, there’s a small dose of Galaxy AI upgrades in these A-series phones. For starters, Samsung says these devices will be able to take advantage of the enhanced Circle to Search that debuted earlier this year in the Galaxy S25 phones, allowing users to translate what’s on the screen and even identify music—whether it’s playing from the phone or a speaker nearby.They’re also privy to the upgraded Object Eraser feature—it was available in previous models but Samsung beefed up the capability with the Galaxy S25 launch. It lets you manually or automatically select subjects or objects to remove in the background of your photos. It’s now a common-place feature on most phones—Apple calls it “Clean Up” and Google’s is “Magic Eraser.”The Galaxy A36 5G and Galaxy A26 5G arrive at the end of March, and the A56 is expected later this year. With Apple exiting the sub-$500 market with the iPhone 16e, it’ll be interesting to see if companies like Samsung can gain more ground and fill the void.Join the WIRED community to add comments.In your inbox: WIRED’s most ambitious, future-defining storiesDOGE takeover: Elon Musk’s toxicity could spell disaster for TeslaBig Story: A crypto crimefighter’s descent into Nigerian prisonI dated multiple AI partners at once. It got real weirdSummer Lab: Explore the future of tech with WIREDMore From WIREDReviews and Guides© 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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