Samsung is already in the process of developing the Galaxy A36, which will succeed the Galaxy A35 that launched in March. Recently, a prototype of the Galaxy A36 appeared on Geekbench, and the results revealed an unexpected detail—it is being tested with Android 15. This is notable since Google just launched Android 15 for its Pixel devices, and Samsung is expected to roll it out with the Galaxy S25 series in January of next year.
The fact that the A36 is being tested with Android 15 suggests that its release may come after the launch of the Galaxy S25 if it is to run Android 15 from day one. Interestingly, Samsung has committed to providing six major Android updates for the lower-end Galaxy A16 5G, so the Galaxy A36 is expected to follow suit. If it launches with Android 15, it could be supported up to Android 21.

The Galaxy A36 will likely be powered by either the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 or Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, based on its GPU. The prototype tested had 6GB of RAM, though more memory configurations may be available at launch. Interestingly, this model will be switching from the Exynos 1380 chipset, used in the Galaxy A35, to a different supplier for its processor.