So I bought a brand-new Sony Alpha A35

The A35 will do just fine. The sensor is quite good and capable of fantastic pictures.

The camera might have some flaws (e.g. fixed screen) but you won't find something better for a similar price I guess. I think A33/A35/A37/A55 are almost en par with each other and the choice is mostly about personal preference. Every model has features the others don't have but will lack somerthing the others have.

The A35 is the least popular among them because people hated the non-articulated screen and the lower speed but that doesn't make it a bad camera. If you don't need the articulated screen it's clearly a good choice.