Samsung Galaxy A56 Review – A Step Forward for Everyone

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A56

Kicking off the Samsung Galaxy A56 with an unboxing, it comes in a white packaging instead of black like the flagship series, which reminds me of the old FE series packaging, but the overall design language is still the same. It’s minimalistic in nature and you get an illustration of the devices front and rear, with the latter being displayed more prominently to show off its colorway. Inside the box, we found the following items:

• USB-C to USB-C cable
• SIM ejector pin
• Documentations
• The Samsung Galaxy A56 itself

Samsung Galaxy A56 Specifications

SoC	Exynos 1580, 4nm
RAM	12GB
Storage	256GB
Display	6.7″ FHD+ (2340 x 1080) Super AMOLED Display Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ Vision Booster HDR10+ 1,900 nits peak brightness Adaptive color tone 60Hz to 120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate
Rear Camera	50MP f/1.8 wide angle camera, PDAF, OIS 5MP f/2.4 macro camera 12MP f/2.2 123˚ ultra-wide Best Face, LED flash, HDR, panorama 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS
Selfie Camera	12MP f/2.2 wide-angle selfie cam, 10-bit HDR
Connectivity	Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 with Wi-Fi Direct 5G, LTE Bluetooth 5.3 with A2DP and LE GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS NFC USB-C 2.0 with OTG
Battery	5000mAh 45W wired fast charging
Dimensions	162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4 mm, 198g
Ingress Protection	IP67
Software	One UI 7 based on Android 15
Colors	Pink, Olive, Graphite, Lightgray

Performance

Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu v10, the Samsung Galaxy A56 performed a little better than its predecessor, the A55, but it’s still quite a ways away from a flagship-class smartphone. Even the Google Pixel 9 with its Tensor G4, which is one of the weakest flagship chips of its year, is still noticeably stronger than the Exynos 1580. This is not me dissing the midranger however as it’s significantly more affordable in comparison, and I suspect that its GPU is its weak point rather than the CPU.

Moving on to Geekbench 6, the Samsung Galaxy A56 performed better than I expected. It seems that its CPU performance, both single and multi core, is almost on par with flagships from 2 years ago. Keep in mind that this device, even with a slight price increment from its predecessor for its 12GB RAM variant, is still half the price of typical flagships. It’s not much stronger than the A55 but it’s still a healthy upgrade nonetheless.

Then on 3DMark, the Samsung Galaxy A56 didn’t fare well, which echoed its results in Antutu v10. This practically solidifies my hypothesis of it having a weak GPU, though its CPU performance is still pretty good. That doesn’t mean you can’t play games on this however, just that you should keep the games (or its settings) on the lighter side.

Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy A56 fared pretty well with a score of 14,320. Once again, it matches up with flagships from 2 years ago, and it’s amazing to think that it’s practically on par with the much older S22 Ultra. While it’s unfair to compare midrangers with flagships, it’s always fun to see how well it matches up with older devices as it’s easier to symbolize its value. Personally, I’m quite pleased with it.

In case you’re wondering about battery life, this is where the Samsung Galaxy A56 truly shines. In PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test, it lasted 16 hours and 17 minutes (977 minutes) before the midranger called it quits. That is insanely long and is one of the best performers in our list of benchmarked devices, especially if you remove gaming phones from the picture. While the vivo X200 Pro outlasted it, keep in mind that the A56 came in really close with 1,000mAh less. As for charging speeds, this is what we managed to get with our 100W GaN charger from 2% battery life:

• 15 minutes = 36%
• 30 minutes = 71%
• 45 minutes = 87%
• 57 minutes = 100%

If you prefer a flagship-caliber device instead, check out our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review by clicking right here.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A56 has a redesigned camera array, looking more like the Galaxy Note 10’s camera housing as opposed to being a carbon copy of its current generation flagships, albeit wider to accommodate the bigger sensors. I personally like this as it’s breath of fresh air and gives the Galaxy A series its own identity. The camera itself consists of a main wide angle camera, and ultrawide camera, and a macro camera, so no telephoto here.

The main camera is the standout, delivering high detail, wide dynamic range, and Samsung’s signature HDR effects, though sometimes at the cost of natural-looking highlights. Low-light shots show more noise compared to top mid-range competitors but maintain good detail and color accuracy. The 12MP selfie camera has slightly improved noise reduction but remains largely unchanged. With rivals advancing, the Galaxy A56 sits as an average mid-range contender.

The macro lens on the Galaxy A56 lacks value as it requires manual activation and produces lower-quality images with weaker details, mismatched colors, and limited dynamic range. The ultrawide camera performs better, closely matching the main lens in color accuracy and highlight preservation, though it still falls short in fine detail compared to flagship models.

The Good

There are a number of reasons to consider getting the Samsung Galaxy A56. For starters, it has a premium build which far exceeds the Galaxy A series of old. It uses an aluminum chassis with glass rear, and it’s not just any glass as both the display and the rear utilizes Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+. It feels eeriely similar to holding a Galaxy S25 Plus, further enhancing that premium feel. Despite the large 5,000mAh battery capacity, they managed to keep the device thin at 7.4mm, and it’s rated IP67 dust and water resistant. Sure, it’s not IP68 but considering that it can withstand water up to 30 minutes and 1 meter in depth, it’s more than enough a device at this price.

The display is also pretty great as it’s a rather large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display at Full HD+ resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate. It’s not as good as the S25 series’ Dynamic AMOLED 2X but it’s still vibrant and pleasing to use, especially with Vision Booster enabled. Speaking of which, with up to 1,900 nits of brightness at peak, you’d certainly have no issues using this even under bright sunlight.

Combine that with its surprisingly good stereo speaker setup and it’s a recipe for a solid multimedia entertainment tool. Like most modern Samsung smartphones, it consists of a single bottom-firing speaker and the earpiece acting as a single front-facing speaker. The volume isn’t as loud as the flagship S25 series in general but the sound quality is certainly satisfying as it focuses more on the lows and mids, resulting in deeper, richer audio. Audio distortion is certainly not an issue here at high volumes, in case that’s something you’re worried about.

With newer smartphones having a bigger focus on AI, you’d think that this device will have Galaxy AI but that’s not the case. Instead, you get Awesome Intelligence, which includes some AI features but the entire AI suite is still limited to Galaxy AI. The entire Galaxy A series gets Google’s Circle to Search, Object Eraser, and Custom Photo Filters while the Samsung Galaxy A56 gets a few extras that its brethren will lack, namely Best Face, Auto Trim, and Instant Slow-Mo. While not getting all of Galaxy AI’s features may seem like a downside, this limitation makes it easier for people to adopt AI as a lot of consumers end up not using most of the features anyway, and the ones included in Awesome Intelligence are the ones that are likely to be used more often.

Lastly, and this will appeal to those who enjoy using smartphones for longer periods of time, is that the Samsung Galaxy A56 is guaranteed to have 6 major Android OS upgrades along with 6 years of security updates. This means that you can pretty much remain up-to-date with the latest in software innovations and security for at least 6 years from its launch. Sure, a lot of consumers will likely end up upgrading to a new device after using it for 2 or 3 years, but you have the option to go beyond that easily thanks to the lengthy software support.

The Bad

Of course, the Samsung Galaxy A56 has its share of drawbacks. For starters, it lacks wireless charging. If you’re someone like me who values convenience over all else, then this might matter more to you but on the upside, at least the wired charging speed is 45W instead of 25W, so it’s decently fast.

Next up, while the fingerprint scanner seems to be reading my registered fingerprints without issues (aside from when my hands are wet, where the struggle is understandable), it does so a little slower than most modern smartphones these days. You might not notice at first but as you continue using, you will notice an odd delay before the phone gets unlocked. It’s especially jarring if you are used to flagship-caliber devices and move to this, even if those flagships were from 2 or 3 years ago. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, but you might get annoyed if you’re particularly impatient.

While I did praise the Samsung Galaxy A56’s display, there is one thing that I don’t like and that is the fact that the bezels are on the thicker side. The side bezels are thinner than the top and bottom ones, but even the thin one feels rather thick in this day and age. The bezels on its own makes it look like a smartphone from roughly 3 years ago. At its price point however, I feel like this is a reasonable compromise to have and if you’re very particular about it, you will need to increase your smartphone purchase budget.

Another display-related feature that can be annoying, albeit this one will have a higher chance of annoying more consumers than the previous one, is that the Samsung Galaxy A56 uses a virtual proximity sensor instead of a physical one. As it relies on other sensors and software, it doesn’t work consistently enough. This will result in your screen flickering and potentially lead to accidental touch-based button presses when it’s trying to detect if your ear is close to the earpiece. This can also lead to slightly worse battery life but given how good the battery life is as is, this shouldn’t be something to worry about.

Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy A56 has seen a small price increment over its predecessor at launch. This one retails for RM2,199 while the Galaxy A55 launched at RM1,999, both of which have the same memory configuration of 12GB RAM and 256GBs of storage. Sure, there is a promotion where you can get it for RM1,999 but that’s only until the end of this month, and it’s unfair to compare standard retail price with a promotional one.

Samsung Galaxy A56 Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A56 is a great midrange smartphone, and it’s surprising how close it feels to the flagship Galaxy S25. If you’re looking for a functional daily driver with some useful AI features, long battery life, and good multimedia capabilities without breaking the bank, this would easily be a top pick. Just remember that given its price, there are some necessary sacrifices such as the lack of wireless charging, the use of a virtual proximity sensor, and the thicker bezels. For the most part, its drawbacks aren’t dealbreakers and one can easily live with it.

At the end of our Samsung Galaxy A56 review, I award this midrange smartphone with our Silver Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Samsung Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.