Samsung Galaxy A36 5G vs Galaxy S24 FE: Main differences
Intro
The Galaxy A36 is here, and Samsung is surely hoping that it will become its mid-range success story in 2025. The phone features a slightly different design language, much faster charging, some AI features, a new Qualcomm chipset, and a straightforward to stomach $400 price tag.
However, Samsung has another device with a pretty decent value proposition right now––the Galaxy S24 FE is still excellent value, cutting just a few corners in comparison with the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25, delivering what's best described as an affordable flagship experience.
Should you go for the Galaxy A36 or the Galaxy S24 FE? That's the question we're trying to answer in this comparison.
Galaxy A36 vs Galaxy S24 FE differences:
| Galaxy A36 5G | Galaxy S24 FE |
|---|---|
| 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass Victus | A larger 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass Victus Plus |
| Thinner 7.4mm plastic body | Slightly thicker at 8mm, with aluminum frame |
| Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip (5nm) | Samsung Exynos 2400e chipset (4nm) on deck |
| Optical in-display fingerprint scanner | Also optical fingerprint scanner |
| Triple camera system with macro | Triple camera system with 3X telephoto |
| Larger 5,000mAh battery | 4,700mAh battery on board |
| 45W wired charging, no wireless charging | 25W wired charging, 15 wireless charging and reverse wireless charging supported |
| $400 starting price | $650 starting price |
| Awesome Intelligence (Circle to Search, Object Eraser) | Galaxy AI (A more powerful and comprehensive AI suite) |
| Six years of software updates | Seven years of software updates |
Table of Contents:
Read more:
- Galaxy A36 and A56 expected features, prices, specs, and upgrades
- Galaxy S24 FE Review: The best Fan Edition yet
- Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Galaxy A36 preview: Almost the same phone
- Samsung Galaxy A36 5G vs Galaxy S25: Can the mid-ranger potentially stand a chance?
- Samsung Galaxy A36 5G vs Galaxy A16 5G: Twice the price, double the phone?
- Samsung Galaxy A36 5G vs Galaxy A35 5G: Main differences to expect
Design and Size
The Galaxy A36 5G generally boasts the same design language as its predecessor, following the now signature Galaxy styling with a flat frame and flat display. The phone is 7.4mm thin, which is decent for a mid-ranger and makes it delightfully compact. However, to keep costs down, the Galaxy A36 features a plastic frame.
An elongated camera island, combining all three camera lenses at the rear into one uniform entity, is certainly the most considerable design change here. Most Galaxy phones these days have separate camera lenses, but the Galaxy A36 has moved into a new direction that kind of sets it apart from just about any other Galaxy phone in the current roster (except for the Galaxy A56, which has also adopted this change).
The Key Island, which houses the hardware buttons, remains a staple on the right side of the phone.
In comparison, the Galaxy S24 FE, on the other hand, has an aluminum frame and could end up being slightly narrower and thicker than the Galaxy A36. It follows the design language of the Galaxy S24 lineup pretty closely, but has no differentiating features.
There's no Key Island here: the right-hand side of the phone is flush, which is definitely a more premium flagship-like feature.
Colors-wise, the Galaxy S24 FE is available in Blue, Graphite, Gray, Yellow, and Mint colors. The Galaxy A36 5G, on the other hand, comes in Awesome Lavender, Awesome Black, Awesome White, and Awesome Lime colors. Aside from the black one, all the others are subtle pastel hues.
Display Differences
The Galaxy A36 5G's screen has grown to 6.7 inches, an improvement compared to the Galaxy A35's 6.60-inch screen. It's also a Super AMOLED screen with a 60/120Hz refresh rate, which is smooth but not as sophisticated as flagship-level devices that can tone it down to 10 or even 1Hz.
The peak brightness is 1,200 nits here, which is great and makes sure you will have no issues with legibility.
The Galaxy S24 FE comes with a very similar 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen, with the only major difference being the refresh rate, which can go lower than 60Hz for battery-saving purposes. From a quality perspective, it's a pretty decent AMOLED screen, like most of Samsung's previous ones.
One area where the Galaxy A36 might surprisingly take the lead is peak brightness. The new mid-ranger comes with 1,200 nits of peak brightness as advertised by Samsung, while the Galaxy S24 FE can only hit a 100 nits less.
The Galaxy S24 FE has an optical fingerprint scanner, and we expect the Galaxy A36 to follow suit. In the hierarchy, those are a step below ultrasonic fingerprint sensors, which are both faster and more accurate.
Performance and Software
The Galaxy A36 5G uses the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3chip, a 5nm mid-range affair which aims to strike a balance between performance and battery life on a tight budget. This would be yet another chipset change for the Galaxy A36, as its predecessors switch up between Exynos and MediaTek chips each year.
Samsung has also thrown some AI features on the Galaxy A36. Dubbed Awesome Intelligence, these include Circle to Search and an Object Eraser in the Gallery app.
The Galaxy A36 features just 6GB of RAM which might be the reason for the limited AI capabilities in comparison with the Galaxy S24 FE. That, and the price tag, of course. You get the full Galaxy AI experience with the Galaxy S24 FE, and once One UI 7 comes along, the phone will be enjoying even more Galaxy features.
Galaxy A36 users will be enjoying six years of software updates.
In the other corner, the Galaxy S24 FE relies on an in-house chipset: the Exynos 2400e, which is a very potent chipset with pretty impressive graphics performance. It's just a tad slower than the Exynos 2400 inside Samsung's Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, so it's definitely nearly flagship-grade.
The Fan Edition has some 8GB of RAM, which gives it access to most AI features that are also available on the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25.
The Galaxy S24 FE will be supported for seven years, just like the company's proper Galaxy S24 flagship lineup. Great!
Camera
The Galaxy A36 5G boasts a mostly unchanged camera system in comparison with the Galaxy A35. We get a 50MP main camera, 8MP ultrawide, and a 5MP macro camera, which is a gimmicky addition. The main camera also allows you to take 2X photos with great quality thanks to sensor cropping.
Not a particularly exciting camera setup, but it will do the job for the occasional photo, just don't count on the quality being in the same ballpark as the Galaxy S24 FE.
The latter comes with a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and an 8MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom, which is a drastically more versatile and usable setup. Quality-wise, we expect the Galaxy S24 FE to ultimately be the superior phone.
Judging from our experience with how the Galaxy A35 compared against the Galaxy S24 FE in our in-house camera test, we'd expect the Galaxy A36 to slightly improve the overall photographic capabilities, but ultimately yield to the Galaxy S24 FE, which happens to have a great camera.
Battery Life and Charging
There's a large 5,000mAh battery inside the Galaxy A36, which means it's as potent as the Galaxy S25 Ultra in this regard. Impressive, and also holding the potential for a good battery life in comparison with previous Galaxies.
The Galaxy S24 FE, on the other hand, boasts a 4,700mAh battery, slightly smaller but still probably in the same ballpark in terms of overall battery life thanks to the faster chip on board.
If this happens to be the case, we'd expect the faster chipset to ultimately decide which one's the more durable device, and if our expectations pan out, then the Galaxy S24 FE could ultimately happen to be the battery king.
Surprisingly, we get 45W wired charging with the Galaxy A36. Incredible! That's as much as Samsung's best flagships support, and better than the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 FE's 25W wired charging.
However, the Galaxy A36 5G doesn't have wireless charging, but the Galaxy S24 FE supports that, as well as reverse wireless charging.
Specs Comparison
How does the Galaxy A36 compare against the Galaxy S24 FE? Here we compare the Galaxy S24 FE vs Galaxy A36 5G specs:
| Samsung Galaxy A36 5G | Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | |
|---|---|---|
| Size, weight | 162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4 mm | 162 x 77.3 x 8 mm, 213gr |
| Screen | 6.7" Super AMOLED 60-120Hz 1200 nits brightness | 6.6" Dynamic AMOLED 2X 60-120Hz 1100 nit brightness |
| Processor | Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 (5nm) | Exynos 2400e (4nm) |
| RAM, Storage | 6GB/128GB 6GB/256GB | 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB |
| Cameras | 50MP main 8MP ultrawide 5MP macro 12MP front | 50MP main 12MP ultrawide 8MP 3X telephoto 10MP front |
| Battery | 5,000mAh | 4,700mAh |
| Charging | USB-C 45W wired | USB-C 25W wired 15W wireless Reverse wireless |
Summary
So, is the Galaxy A36 5G the phone that could ultimately beat the Galaxy S24 FE in value?
Launching at $400 in the US, there's definitely potential for speculation to be made that it could undercut the Galaxy S24 FE, which starts at $650.
Ultimately, however, you get what you pay for, and the much lower price of the mid-ranger is pretty telling. It will certainly end up being slower, not as powerful, and with less impressive camera than the Galaxy S24 FE.
If that's something you can live with, then few phones will likely be able to match the potential value of the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G.
Popular stories
Latest News
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: