The Samsung Galaxy A56 is a mid-range phone built for people who want a premium experience without the flagship price. With its high-quality AMOLED display, solid performance, and long battery life, it’s a great fit for everyday users who prioritise a smooth experience and longevity.
Samsung’s six-year update promise makes it ideal for those who want a phone that lasts, while AI features like Best Face and Object Eraser add convenience.
However, with no expandable storage, no wireless charging, and no charger included, it’s not perfect. But if you’re after a well-built, future-proof phone that nails the basics, while feeling like a more premium device, the A56 is a strong contender.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
|
|
Design
The A56 has a clean design; it’s not quite as classy looking as the best-of-the-best phones, but it’s nice enough.
At 7.4mm thick and weighing 198g, it feels no different to more premium devices. On the back, the camera module houses all three cameras in a single raised oval array. This is probably the worst-looking part of the design. The housing protrudes out quite a way, and it looks like it’s stuck on rather than blending in with the back of the device. And it does cause some wobbling when using the phone on a flat surface.
Featuring Gorilla Glass Victus+ on both the front and the back, the A56 is a durable device. It has an aluminium frame that not only adds to the strength of the phone, but also helps provide a more premium feel. It’s also IP67-rated, meaning it can survive being underwater in up to 1m of water for 30 minutes.
The A56 comes in three matte-finish colour options, Awesome Pink, Graphite and Light Gray. These are okay if you’re looking for an understated, modern aesthetic, but there are no flashy options here.
Overall, other than the camera array, the A56 does a good job of looking like a more premium device. It’s sturdy, well-built and comfortable to use.
Display
The A56 has an excellent, 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display; it's one of the best in its class.
It’s an FHD+ screen with a 1080 x 2340 resolution and a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Scrolling and interacting with the device feels buttery smooth, whether you’re browsing the web or gaming.
It can get impressively bright with a peak brightness of 1900 nits, meaning daytime visibility is excellent. It boasts HDR10+ support, which provides deep blacks and vibrant colours when streaming or watching videos, and Samsung’s Vision Booster ensures good contrast as well.
The bezels are slim enough that you won’t notice them unless you’re consciously looking for them, which helps in providing a modern edge-to-edge look, and at the top, there’s a small punch hole selfie camera, which is unobtrusive as well.
For a phone in this class, this is one of the best screens available, competing with some of the best devices on the market and in a lot of cases beating them.
Cameras
The A56 has a three-camera array that will allow you to take very good social media-worthy photos and videos. The 50MP main camera is the standout, supporting Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and boasting an f/1.8 aperture. It captures detailed, well-exposed shots, but you will need good lighting.
Like most Samsung devices, the images taken with the device can be a bit oversaturated, meaning the colours are more vibrant than they are in real life. If you like this look, then the A56 is great, but if you’re looking for a more realistic portrayal, you may be a bit disappointed. This will all come down to personal preference though; for me, I don’t mind the vibrant, oversaturated look. It makes everything look a little more lush.
The 12MP ultra-wide camera offers a 123° field of view useful for landscapes and group shots, though low-light performance isn’t great due to the smaller sensor.
Strangely, there’s also a 5MP macro camera, and it’s not great. This is designed to take extreme close-up shots, but like all the macro cameras I’ve used, it feels more like a gimmick than something that actually comes in handy. Taking decent super close images can be tricky, as the low-resolution lens often produces soft or blurry images, unless the lighting is perfect
In low light conditions, Night Mode helps in getting a clearer image, but don’t expect groundbreaking results. It definitely helps in brightening shots and HDR processing, ensuring images don’t get blown out and shadows retain detail. But in really dark conditions, you will still get quite a bit of noise.
The 12MP front camera is great for selfies and video calls, supporting 4K video recording. Both the front and rear cameras can shoot 4K at 30fps, and stabilisation is solid.
Overall, the A56’s camera setup is versatile and reliable, offering excellent quality for social media, casual photography, and even some creative shots.
Performance
Under the hood, the A56 is powered by the Exynos 1580 chipset. There are two configurations, offering 8GB or 12GB of RAM.
To test the Exynos 1580 chipset, we ran it through the same old CPU and GPU tests. For the CPU, we used Geekbench 6’s benchmarks, where it achieved a single-core score of 1361 and a multi-core score of 3882.
To test the GPU, we ran it through the Wildlife Extreme test from 3DMark, where it achieved a score of 1310 with an average frames per second of 7.85. To put these results into perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra achieved a single-core score of 3131, a multi-core score of 9887 and a 3DMark result of 6100 at 36.53 frames per second.
For real-world usage like multitasking, I found the A56 worked well, apps stay open, animations are fluid, and Samsung’s One UI 7, Android 15 operating system is polished and responsive.
For gaming, it handles most titles well at medium to high settings. The most demanding games definitely require some settings adjustments though.
The A56 boasts a vapor chamber cooling system, which helps keep temperatures in check, preventing overheating and performance drops. You will still definitely feel the device getting hotter when performing resource-intensive tasks, but I didn’t notice any stuttering or lag when gaming with medium settings.
Samsung also promises 6 major Android updates and 6 years of security patches for the A56. This means the A56 will stay relevant for years to come, which is a nice touch.
AI & Features
The A56 supports all of Samsung’s new AI tools. Circle to Search is here, which lets you instantly search anything on your screen, Object Eraser removes unwanted objects from photos, Best Face ensures group shots come out perfect, and there’s also Live Translate and a lot more.
My favourite feature is Best Face. When taking group photos, it captures multiple photos in quick succession, and uses AI to let you swap in the best facial expressions for each person. If someone blinks or looks away, you can select a better frame, and the AI seamlessly blends it into a single, natural-looking shot
Security is strong with Knox Vault, and the under-display fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate. Samsung Pay is included, but there’s no Samsung DeX support, which is a shame.
Battery
The A56 boasts a 5,000mAh battery. It will comfortably last a whole day with normal usage. Resource-intensive tasks like gaming will deplete this a bit quicker, and with light usage, you may be able to stretch it out to two days. But most of the time, you’ll have to charge it every night.
It supports 45W Fast Charging, reaching 65% in 30 minutes, but there’s no charger in the box, so you’ll need to buy one separately. There’s no wireless charging either, which is a shame but is to be expected for a phone in this class.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A56 is one of the strongest mid-range phones available, offering a premium feel, an excellent display, reliable performance, and long-term software support.
The AMOLED screen is one of the best in its class, battery life is solid, and Samsung’s AI-powered features add genuinely useful tools to everyday use.
Unfortunately, there’s no expandable storage, no wireless charging, and no charger in the box, and while the cameras perform well overall, low-light shots could be better, and the macro camera feels unnecessary.
But if you’re someone who’s looking for a future-proof, well-built phone that delivers a great day-to-day experience, the A56 gets a lot right.
