Samsung Galaxy A56 review: Slimmed down, smartened up

The newest revision of Samsung’s mid-range trio has arrived, with the Galaxy A56 main the cost as probably the most succesful entry within the line.

It builds on the Galaxy A55, with a markedly thinner design, a brand new chipset, a bigger show and quicker charging being probably the most notable upgrades. In the meantime, a revised replace dedication locations Samsung’s 2025 A-series close to the highest of the mid-range pile when it comes to long-term worth.

Try our hands-on of the Galaxy A36, if you happen to’re in search of an identical however extra reasonably priced expertise.

Design & Construct

• Thinnest Galaxy A-series telephone since 2016
• IP67-rated mud and water safety
• New linear camera-defined aesthetic

The minimalist “One Mass” design language Samsung debuted with the Galaxy S24 sequence was outlined by its flat again and sides, and lack of ornamentation. Daring and clear, this aesthetic quickly carried throughout to final 12 months’s Galaxy A55 and has, for probably the most half, merely been refined to create the look of the brand new Galaxy A56.

You get a fractionally bigger show, however any notion of this era being bulkier in consequence is offset however a considerably thinner profile; with Samsung having slimmed the A56 down from 8.2 to 7.4mm (that’s solely 0.1mm thicker than the similarly-sized flagship Galaxy S25+). This implies the A56 is the thinnest an A-series telephone has been for the reason that firm’s 2016 entries (all of which possessed markedly smaller batteries).

Regardless of slimming down, the A56 feels something however flimsy, with reliable IP67 certification towards mud and water ingress, Gorilla Glass Victus+ back and front, and a brushed metallic body, with flat sides; save for a raised space surrounding the ability and quantity keys excessive on the telephone’s proper facet. I miss the marginally softer really feel of the Galaxy A54‘s rounded rails, however the A56’s squared look is on-trend and premium.

Even with a bigger show this 12 months, the A56 can be lighter than its latest predecessors (the A55 weighed 213g); managing to duck under the 200g threshold (198g) the place telephones begin to really feel uncomfortable within the hand after prolonged use.

Samsung has opted for a brand new linear digital camera design for this era of A-series (constant throughout the brand new Galaxy A26, A36 and A56), protruding prominently from the telephone’s again, with a black outer face and a pill-shaped metallic encompass; no matter which colourway of A56 you resolve to select up.

I examined the Superior Graphite end (pictured) however the telephone additionally is available in Superior Olive, Superior Pink and Superior Lightgrey.

In fact, the entire A56’s finishes look fairly drab and uninspired, particularly when so many different producers appear extra keen to take dangers with their mid-range telephones, aesthetically talking. Why the extra modest A36’s design features a pop of iridescence that the A56 loses out on is past me, however right here’s hoping that Samsung will rethink the palette of the A57 line.

Display & Audio system

• 6.7-inch 120Hz Full HD+ Tremendous AMOLED show
• 1200nits (Excessive Brightness Mode or HBM), 1900nits (peak)
• Optical in-display fingerprint sensor

One of many extra incremental enhancements for this era, apart from being a fraction bigger (now matching the display measurement of the S25+), the A56’s 6.7-inch Tremendous AMOLED show is now a welcome diploma brighter; each when it comes to HBM and the place peak brightness is worried.

This implies higher out of doors visibility and larger distinction when HDR content material, however I want Samsung had gone additional.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Even with this brighter panel, the corporate’s newest mid-ranger nonetheless lags behind extra reasonably priced rivals – just like the latest Nothing Cellphone (3a) and Xiaomi Poco X7 and X7 Professional – in terms of output and visibility towards shiny environment.

The display is in any other case inoffensively nice, with the pure distinction and vibrance advantages an OLED panel affords, paired with the working system’s default ‘Vivid’ color profile. You possibly can change to ‘Pure’ if you happen to’d somewhat have a softer look, whereas the settings menu gives up fine-grain management over color area and temperature, in addition to toggles for refresh fee (60Hz mounted or adaptive as much as 120Hz), a blue gentle filter, contact sensitivity and extra.

The optical in-display fingerprint sensor works as you’d anticipate, however proved gradual and inconsistent throughout evaluation; one thing I don’t recall with the A54 (the final A-series entry I personally reviewed), highlighting simply how a lot better the ultrasonic sensors utilized in lots of the finest Samsung telephones are.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Optical over ultrasonic additionally signifies that the brand new Now Bar (extra on that later), needs to be positioned unusually excessive on the lock display, in comparison with ultrasonic-toting Galaxy S telephones, whereas the A56’s panel, though robust, doesn’t include a pre-fitted display protector (like loads of different telephones these days), nor has Samsung bothered to encompass that Tremendous AMOLED with equally-sized bezels, even when they’re a tad thinner this era (once more, one thing that extra reasonably priced rivals just like the Nothing Cellphone (3a) have already nailed down).

As for audio, past Bluetooth 5.3 dealing with wi-fi connectivity, the A56 is in possession of a stereo speaker pair; one within the earpiece and one down-firing alongside the telephone’s backside edge. They collectively dish out sound with good readability and respectable total loudness, however aren’t something to jot down house about.

They’re missing within the mids and lows, and there isn’t a lot in the best way of separation both. At most quantity, excessive frequencies begin to distort too. Whereas useful, even the cheaper Nothing Cellphone 3a I needed to hand put them to disgrace.

Specs & Efficiency

• 4nm Samsung Exynos 1580 chipset
• 15% bigger vapour chamber than predecessor
• RAM growth as much as a further 8GB

Timing locations the A56 squarely within the ring with some high-profile alternate options, just like the iPhone 16e and the Google Pixel 9a, each of which sport the identical (or not less than very related) chipsets to their flagship-class kin. That’s not the case with the A56 (nor has it ever been for the A-series).

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Whereas the present S25 vary is sitting fairly on a ‘for Galaxy’ tuned model of Qualcomm’s present top-tier Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Galaxy A56 as an alternative opts for Samsung’s personal much more modest 4nm octa-core Exynos 1580 silicon. The corporate’s personal figures declare 18% higher CPU, 17% higher GPU and 12% improved NPU efficiency, in comparison with the 1480 inside final 12 months’s A55.

So far as synthetic benchmarks go, it delivers CPU efficiency on an identical degree to the likes of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (which Samsung used solely inside 2022’s Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4) or Google’s Tensor G3, which powered the Pixel 8 sequence throughout 2023 and 2024.

Samsung Galaxy A56 benchmarks

As for gaming, regardless of the telephone’s 15% bigger vapour chamber – now reportedly on par with the one contained in the Galaxy S24+ – doing its job, you’ll probably run into stutters and slow-downs on extra demanding video games. Zenless Zone Zero defaults to low graphical settings and even then nonetheless drops frames haphazardly throughout fast-paced motion.

For on a regular basis use and productiveness, nonetheless, there’s little that journeys up the Exynos 1580. App load instances are respectably fast and responsiveness on the telephone’s peak 120Hz is nice and unencumbered. With the shortage of headroom, nonetheless, I do marvel what efficiency degradation on the A56 seems like after a few years of use.

Cameras

• 50Mp f/1.8 foremost w/ OIS + 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide + 5Mp f/2.4 macro digital camera
• 12Mp f/2.2 selfie digital camera
• As much as 4K/30fps video back and front

That linear rear digital camera array performs host to a few sensors, with the {hardware} seemingly unchanged for the reason that A54. The principle bodily improve is the change to a brand new 12Mp selfie snapper, that really performs very effectively. Paired with Samsung’s ‘Nightography’ efforts, you’ll be able to snap usable selfies even in low gentle.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

The principle 50Mp sensor (which pixel bins right down to 12Mp stills, by default) dishes out pleasing pictures, with good dynamic vary for a telephone of this calibre. Simply bear in mind that if you happen to’re new to Samsung, its telephones’ cameras are likely to adorn photographs with heavy processing, most evident with components like face brightening and punchy blue skies. It’s not for these after a extra pure look.

The identical strong edge detection and pleasing bokeh in portrait mode that we’ve come to anticipate from the corporate’s higher-end units additionally trickles right down to the A56, that means it’s usually nice at snapping individuals.

The ultrawide delivers an identical look to the principle digital camera in good lighting however falls aside by comparability in low-light capturing eventualities. In the meantime, that 5Mp macro snapper is a novelty that may ship worthwhile pictures, however probably gained’t see use all that always, particularly as pictures go gentle the second pure gentle is missing.

Dip into Samsung’s native Gallery app and also you’ll discover a few AI-enhanced picture modifying instruments. There’s a reliable sufficient object eraser (see under) that places Apple’s equal to disgrace, alongside a remaster software; constructed to enhance color, sharpness and the like inside current photographs.

As on the S25 sequence, you may also use the color profile of a donor picture to create distinctive filters to use to different pictures, whereas Auto-Trim makes the leap too, mechanically collating particular person movies into an edited remaining product, all by setting the size of the output video and including (included) music, as desired.

Extra highly effective Galaxy AI imaging options, like Sketch to Picture, stay out of the A56’s attain, nonetheless.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 45W Tremendous Quick Cost 2.0 wired charging
• No energy adapter within the field

Though the A56 possesses the identical 5000mAh capability battery as the previous few entries within the A5X line, it does get one welcome improve that places even the bottom Galaxy S25 to disgrace: 45W quick charging (up from 25W). The truth that Samsung has match the same-sized cell on this era’s considerably thinner physique ought to be praised too.

Whereas there’s no energy adapter in-box, as long as you’ll be able to supply one, anticipate to refill the A56’s battery by greater than two-thirds in half-hour, with a full cost taking just below 75 minutes (1 hour 12, to be particular).

Primary Qi wi-fi charging would have been a pleasant generational improve too, however at this value level, its inclusion isn’t a given.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

As for utilization, 7.5 hours of screen-on time in real-world use – together with 20 minutes of gaming on Zenless Zone Zero – suggests most individuals will get via a day of use comfortably; with headroom for the occasional higher-drain job, like in depth digital camera or hotspot utilization.

Past Samsung’s personal entries, corporations like Oppo, OnePlus and Xiaomi supply extra reasonably priced rivals with considerably quick charging speeds, to not point out our rundown of the most effective battery life telephones consists of entries with higher total longevity too.

Software program & Apps

• One UI 7.0 15 over Android 15
• ‘Superior Intelligence’ options embrace AI Choose & Learn Aloud
• Improved 6 years of OS & safety replace assist

One other perk that the A56 will get to lord over a number of the firm’s flagships, is that it launches operating the most recent and biggest One UI 7.0 person expertise, forward of the likes of the Galaxy S24 sequence.

This latest revision of One UI (operating atop the most recent Android 15) gives a tweaked aesthetic and deeper AI integration than earlier than. Samsung is eager to differentiate between the ‘Galaxy AI’ expertise because it seems on its top-tier entries and the ‘Superior Intelligence’ expertise (get it? “A.I.”… by no means thoughts) that its latest mid-rangers possess.

Past the AI-supported imaging instruments already touched on, Samsung’s AI Choose sits alongside Google’s native Circle to Search, with an identical (however barely totally different) characteristic set, designed to assist pull data from – or manipulate – textual content and pictures on-screen.

In addition to Learn Aloud (inside Samsung’s native net browser) which, as you might need guessed, can learn on-screen copy out loud; albeit with Bixby’s somewhat stilted supply, when in comparison with the voices of immediately’s prime digital assistants.

As AI is the new development in cell at present, it is sensible that Samsung’s newest mid-ranger will get a stripped-back model of its flagship telephones’ AI toolset. I simply want Now Temporary had made the leap too.

The dynamic widget pulls knowledge out of your upcoming occasions and duties, music and podcasts, information sources, messaging and extra; the closest the A56 comes is the awkwardly positioned Now Bar on the lock display, which might solely pull a fraction of that knowledge, behaving extra like Apple’s Dynamic Island as regards to media controls, timers and navigation.

So far as worth goes, the A56 does earn factors due to an improved replace dedication from Samsung of six years of each OS and safety updates (seven for enterprise enterprise customers); a determine that solely Apple’s and Google’s mid-range alternate options trump with roughly seven years of assist.

Value & Availability

A bit beneath a 12 months on from the Galaxy A55’s launch, Samsung dropped its 2025 A-series entries; together with the Galaxy A26, A36 and A56. The latter went on sale within the UK on 1 March.

As with its predecessors, whereas it’s a brand new contender within the UK, European and Indian mid-range cell markets, it isn’t destined for the US; with solely the lesser A26 and A36 launching within the area, on 28 March and 26 March respectively.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Within the UK, the Galaxy A56 is available in only one configuration: 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, costing £499. That’s £10 greater than the equal A55 final 12 months, however justified throughout the context of Samsung’s personal product lineup, proper now. You possibly can seize it straight from Samsung, in addition to widespread retailers like Amazon, John Lewis, Very, Argos, and Currys.

On the time of writing, there’s additionally a launch bundle that features a charger and a Galaxy Match 3 health tracker.

The place that pricing comes aside is within the context of the broader market. It’s arguably tougher to buy a mid-range telephone these days than it’s a flagship. Not solely do you’ve different devoted mid-rangers to contemplate, however there are extra succesful almost-flagships, just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, the Honor 200 Professional and the Xiaomi 14T, which have fallen in value while serving up superior specs.

To not point out the depreciated flagships that boast extra performance and nonetheless have loads of life left in them, such because the S23 Extremely and Pixel 8 Professional, each of which might now be snapped up refurbished for across the identical value because the A56.

Do you have to purchase the Samsung Galaxy A56?

Samsung is easing its mid-range line into the AI period in a fashion that I believe is sensible for these after a telephone on this class. Upgrades such because the slimmer design, brighter show, new chipset, quicker charging and longer software program assist all appear like massive inexperienced examine marks that ought to make the corporate’s newest prime A-series entry straightforward to advocate, but it surely isn’t.

For those who’re dedicated to the Samsung ecosystem and like the particular mix of options the A56 has to supply, then go for it, however I’d wager you’d discover extra profit from a fractionally older Samsung flagship on the identical value, or any variety of rival mid-rangers that boast vital traits akin to extra energy, higher cameras and/or quicker charging for a similar or much less.

General, the Samsung Galaxy A56 would be the proper telephone for somebody, but it surely it doesn’t fairly have the identical mass-market enchantment as different Galaxy A telephones.

Specs

• One UI 7.0 atop Android 15
• 6.7-inch, 19.5:9, 60-120Hz, Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) Tremendous AMOLED
• Optical in-display fingerprint sensor
• Samsung Exynos 1580 chipset
• 8GB / 12GB RAM (LPDDR5)
• 128GB (Enterprise) / 256GB (client) storage (UFS 3.1)
• Cameras:
  • 50Mp 1/1.56-inch f/1.8 foremost w/ OIS
  • 12Mp 1/3.06-inch f/2.2 123˚ ultrawide
  • 5Mp f/2.4 macro (3 to 5cm)
  • 12Mp f/2.2 selfie digital camera
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5000mAh battery
• 45W Tremendous Quick Cost 2.0 wired charging
• 162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4mm
• IP67 licensed
• 198 grams
• Colors: Superior Graphite, Superior Lightgrey, Superior Olive, Superior Pink