Samsung hasn’t improved every aspect of the Galaxy A55 in the Galaxy A56 – but it’s made changes where it counts, leading to a much better mid-range phone.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good general performance at this price | Limited set of AI features relative to premium Galaxy phones |
| Decent battery life | Lacks wireless charging |
| Six years of Android OS and security updates | Cameras aren’t much changed from the Galaxy A55 |
Score: 4/5
 |
Buy The Samsung Galaxy A56! | Buy On Amazon |
Ethical disclaimer: The Galaxy A56 phone used in this review was loaned to me for a two week period by Samsung Australia. That gets it reviewed, nothing more.
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Samsung does not have any editorial control over my review process, which is as it should be. Yes, disclaimers aren’t exciting when you want to get to the review, but they’re important, and lots of “reviews” tend to skip over them. Draw your own conclusions.
In this review
Samsung Galaxy A56 Specifications
Samsung Galaxy A56 Design
Samsung Galaxy A56 Camera
Samsung Galaxy A56 Performance
Samsung Galaxy A56 Battery
Samsung Galaxy A56 Conclusion
2024’s Samsung Galaxy A55 was a decent enough phone, but as I noted at the time, it didn’t quite do enough to merit its price or position at the top of Samsung’s more affordable Galaxy A series of phones.
Also read:
Samsung Galaxy A55 review
My opinion last year was that the Galaxy A35 was the better buy, and I kind of expected that to flow through to this year’s Galaxy A36 as well.
Also read:
Samsung Galaxy A36 Review
That didn’t happen, because I ultimately found the Galaxy A36 to be a tad underpowered for its price. Enter the Galaxy A56, a phone that seemingly has a lot to prove.
What’s it proved to me is that it is a decent all-round phone, even though Samsung’s not made huge changes over its predecessor.
Design
The Galaxy A56 is built around a 6.7 inch 1080×2340 pixel Super AMOLED display with support for 120Hz refresh rates. Like most Samsung phones you get a simple binary choice for refresh rates at either a fixed 60hz, or an adaptive rate that can peak up to 120Hz for some content types, though this isn’t an LTPO display, so it’s essentially 60Hz or 120Hz only.
As was the case for the Galaxy A55, the Galaxy A56’s larger display still has visible bezels around the sides of the screen, though how much that fusses you is entirely a personal affair. Doesn’t fuss me, but it does seem to be a dealbreaker for some people, and that’s fine too.
The Galaxy A56 sells in Australia in Awesome Olive and Awesome Graphite finishes only; the model Samsung loaned me was the Awesome Olive version.
Two colours on offer in Australia… but there are others…
That’s only a half sample of A56 colours, however, with other international locations also getting the Galaxy A56 in Awesome Lightgrey and Awesome Pink finishes. Personally I’ve never quite been sold on paler green colours for phones, but then if this was my daily driver, I’d be throwing it into a case anyway, so the point is perhaps moot.
Controls are kept simple with a power button/assistant button sitting below the volume keys on the right hand side.
The Galaxy A56 supports dual Nano SIM plus eSIM, but like the Galaxy A36, there’s no support for microSD expansion. This is an odd choice on Samsung’s part, because the considerably less expensive Galaxy A26 (which I’m yet to get in at the time of writing this review, but I am chasing for) does support storage expansion.
In the durability stakes, the Galaxy A56 is wrapped in Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and is rated at IP67 for water resistance.
No, I didn’t deliberately drown it or hit it with hammers to try to prove some kind of point about durability – you can click here to see my thoughts on that kind of “testing”.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy A55, the Galaxy A56’s immediate predecessor featured a wide 50MP f/1.8 sensor, ultra-wide 12MP f/2.2, 5MP f/2.4 macro lens and 32MP f/2.2 selfie sensor, which wasn’t a particular upgrade from the camera features found in the even earlier Galaxy A54.
The Galaxy A56 is a newer phone, and newer phones have better cameras in them, right?
Not, it seems, if you’re in the Samsung mid-range phone camera picking department, because the specifications for the Galaxy A56 feel kind of familiar to me.
You get a wide 50MP f/1.8 sensor, ultra-wide 12MP f/2.2 and a 5MP f/2.4 macro lens at the back. Where have I seen that before?
That’s right, it’s the same recipe as the top tier Galaxy A series has had three years running now. Samsung has made changes at the front, dropping the 32MP f/2.2 selfie camera down to a 12MP f/2.2 sensor instead, which sure is a choice.
Smartphone photography isn’t purely determined by megapixel counts, and Samsung’s position here is that the Galaxy A56 represents the best you’ll see out of its Galaxy A series line with a number of AI-led features and a claimed improvement in low light photography over prior models. I didn’t have the Galaxy A55 to hand to comparatively test with, but I did come away from testing it out feeling that it really was much like last year’s model for most uses.
Which is not to say that the Galaxy A56 has bad cameras for its price range, though they’re also not really a standout either.
Optical telephoto is notably absent – if you want that you’ll have to step up to the Galaxy S24 FE, with digital cropping from the primary 50MP sensor topping out at 10x.
Standard wide photo looks decent enough for a mid-range phone.
10x zoom has significant issues for the same shot.
The Galaxy A56 does get some AI photo tricks that are exclusive just to it within this year’s Galaxy A series lineup, including best face to get the optimal set of heads onto your group shots and object eraser to remove objects you don’t want there.
These AI features are tied to being signed into a Samsung account on the phone, which does make me ponder quite how much on-device AI they’re using. They can work with some images, but like a lot of AI tools of this type, it’s also all too common to be left with very obvious AI distortions in play in finalised shots.
Samsung Galaxy A56 Sample Photos
Selfies are decent with the front-facing 12MP camera.
Lower light shots can turn out OK, but you’ll still need a premium phone for much darker areas.
A more complex light and dark shot does show some issues.
Macro shots can take a lot of work — but that’s nothing new at this price range.
AI features do not include a “They Live” style filter. At least, I think they don’t.
Performance
The Galaxy A56 runs on Samsung’s Exynos 1580 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of fixed storage, depending on how much you’re happy to spend on the phone upfront.
My experience with Exynos systems over the years has typically been one of lower-scale power relative to the equivalent Qualcomm solution, but with typically better battery life as a result. Consequently, my expectations for the Galaxy A56’s performance were not particularly high, though I did expect it to at least outpace the Galaxy A55’s Exynos 1480.
That it did, and then some. Here’s how it compares against a range of similarly priced phones and its predecessor using Geekbench 6’s CPU test:
The Galaxy A56 is bested by the Oppo Reno13 there, but that’s a phone that costs either $100 or $200 more than the A56 does; effectively the Samsung phone is punching a little above its weight class here.
It’s a somewhat similar story if we look at GPU power via 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme test:
The Pixel 8a does outdo the Galaxy A56 here, and I’m including it though that phone’s being superseded by the Pixel 9a as I write this review – but then that does mean that for a brief period, you may be able to find end of life Pixel 8a stock at Galaxy A56 prices! Still, relative to other phones at or below the Galaxy A56’s price point, it performs well, and this does flow through into day to day performance across most Android apps.
Samsung’s OneUI is of course present on top of Android 15, with the promise of six years of OS and security updates for the Galaxy A56 to keep it fresh. That’s a nice bump up from the four years promised for the Galaxy A55, and a move that puts Samsung’s mid-ranger into a longevity class of its own.
It’s fair to suspect that after six years you’re likely to see some battery durability issues with the Galaxy A56 and might want to swap up to something newer, but having at least the facility to keep it current and secure is highly welcome.
Samsung’s big push for its premium class Galaxy S and Galaxy Z series phones is Galaxy AI, a suite of AI features that may attract additional pricing at the end of 2025. For its mid-range phones, you don’t get Galaxy AI, but instead “Awesome AI”. I never knew that the size scale went Galaxy>Awesome, but I guess we really do learn something new every day.
What “Awesome” AI essentially equates to are the AI features baked into most Android 15 phones, so you get circle to search for example. That’s fine for what it is, and depending on how much Samsung figures Galaxy AI features are worth, it might be better value to stick to a simpler approach – but then again, if you’re a heavy AI user, you’re not quite going to find what you’re looking for here.
Battery
Of late, I’ve seen a number of phones buck the trend of non-folding Android phones by shipping with batteries larger than the near-standard 5,000mAh.
The Galaxy A56… doesn’t do that. Crack open its frame and your warranty would be void, but you’d also be left facing a 5,000mAh battery, very standard stuff.
But how well does it manage its battery life? To put that to the test, I ran it through my standard YouTube based battery benchmark. For more on how I test phone batteries, click here.
Here’s how the Galaxy A56’s battery compares:
At one level it’s impressive that the Galaxy A56 manages the same first hour performance as its predecessor, given it’s running on a more powerful platform. It’s also interesting to see it outpace the cheaper Galaxy A36 in the second and third hour, pointing to the potential for good battery endurance.
That will naturally vary depending on precisely how you use it, but at least during my review period I’ve had no complaints. The model sent to me by Samsung Australia was literally just the handset and nothing else, but for the Australian models (and I suspect all models worldwide) you will need to supply your own charger. The Galaxy A56 supports up to 45W fast wired USB-C charging with appropriate chargers and cables in play, but sadly there’s no sign of onboard wireless charging.
Samsung Galaxy A56: Alex’s Verdict
I was somewhat disappointed by the Galaxy A55 last year, and while Samsung’s only tinkered around the edges of the Galaxy A56, the end result is a better phone that offers better value as a result.
Its performance is improved, it’s supported for longer and it should be a touch more durable than its predecessor while also benefitting from a slightly larger display. It is a touch disappointing that Samsung’s essentially relying on the same camera formula for quite so long, however.
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Samsung Galaxy A56: Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy A56 retails in Australia at $699 for the 128GB variant and $799 for the 256GB variant.
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