Samsung Galaxy A56 Mid-Range Smartphone Review

The Samsung Galaxy A56 emerges as the flagship of Samsung's 2025 mid-range series, offering a premium design, updated camera features with AI, and robust performance for its class. Despite its strengths, including a 45W fast charger and extended software support, the A56 faces stiff competition and raises questions regarding its overall value compared to its predecessor, the A55, and other alternatives like the S24 FE.

Key Points Summary

• Introduction and Market Position

  The Galaxy A56 is introduced as Samsung's flagship mid-range phone for 2025, supplied by Darso store for review. It enters the market priced around $500, positioning it in direct competition with higher-end phones like the iPhone 16 and Pixel 9 in terms of dollar price. This phone is the strongest option in its series, offering better hardware and interesting AI features, though its overall value is debated.

• Design and Durability

  The A56 maintains a design largely unchanged from the A55, featuring an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on both front and back, with a flat profile and the Key Island button bump. A notable design difference is the camera arrangement in a single vertical strip, providing a more modern aesthetic. It boasts IP67 certification for water and dust resistance, making it suitable for rain and splashes, and is designed to be more compact, thinner, and lighter than the A36, weighing under 200 grams.

• Display and Aesthetics

  The phone features a 7-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate, offering a bright experience up to 1200 nits for comfortable outdoor use. It comes in four stylish color options: pink, olive, dark gray, and light gray. The retail box includes only the phone itself, a USB cable, and documentation, notably excluding a charger.

• Camera System and AI Features

  The rear camera setup includes a 50-megapixel main lens, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 5-megapixel macro lens deemed largely ineffective, with no telephoto lens present. The selfie camera has been updated to 12 megapixels, offering improved overall image quality and more natural clarity compared to its predecessor. New AI features, dubbed Asthma Intelligence, enhance capabilities like face recognition and an object eraser tool for photo editing, bringing advanced functionalities to the mid-range segment.

• Camera Performance and Cinematography

  The main camera produces warmer photos but shows slightly less detail than the A55, with exposure sometimes weaker, especially in low light. The ultrawide camera's performance is average, being somewhat softer than the A56, while the A55 occasionally yields better results. The 2x digital zoom performs better on the A56 than the A55. Cinematography is acceptable but not exceptional, characterized by inaccurate face exposure and limited dynamic range, with only the main camera supporting FK photos.

• Hardware and Performance

  Powering the A56 is Samsung's proprietary Exynos 158 chip, built on 4nm technology, which is neither exceptionally powerful nor slow, proving perfectly adequate for daily use, web browsing, media consumption, and moderately heavy gaming. Benchmarks indicate superior CPU and GPU performance over the A55, though it trails behind flagship competitors like the Pixel 9 and iPhone 16. The phone offers 8GB of base RAM with a 12GB option and 256GB of storage, but notably lacks a microSD card slot, a feature now removed, similar to flagships.

• Benchmark Results and User Experience

  Benchmark results show the Galaxy A56 outperforming the A36 and older models like the A35 and A55, establishing itself as a more powerful mid-range device. It achieves higher scores in graphics tests like TDMark (Still Nomad and Wild Life) and PCMark, alongside an acceptable jump in GigaBench Six for both multi-core and single-core processing. The improved Tutu score translates to a faster and smoother experience for gaming, multitasking, and heavier tasks, making it a strong contender for users seeking robust performance.

• Software and Support

  The Galaxy A56 ships with Android 15 and One UI 7, a version newer than some current Samsung flagships. Samsung guarantees software support for 6 years, extending until 2032; however, the review advises caution with such long-term promises for mid-range phones, as hardware limitations can quickly render updates less impactful over time, suggesting that robust updates are more beneficial for flagship devices.

• Battery Life and Charging

  Equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, the A56 provides approximately 7 hours of continuous normal use, surpassing the battery performance of the A55, Pixel 8, and iPhone 16. A significant upgrade is the inclusion of a 45-watt fast charger, a feature even missing in the Galaxy S25, enabling a full charge in about 75 minutes. Despite this, wireless charging is still absent, and the reviewer expresses a preference for wireless charging over the 45W wired solution, citing a minimal practical difference from 25W charging times.

• Audio, Haptics, and Other Considerations

  The phone's speakers offer acceptable sound quality but distort at higher volumes. Wireless connectivity is not described as strong, and the haptic feedback is basic and superficial, lacking precision found in higher-end devices.

• Conclusion and Recommendation

  The A56 is recommended for those seeking a well-made mid-range phone with a stylish design, good battery life, acceptable display, and integrated AI features, especially if desiring the latest model. However, notable drawbacks include the absence of a microSD card slot and cameras that are sometimes weaker than the A55. The review concludes that the A55 offers better value, stating the A56's higher price (approximately 10 million more than the A55 in local currency) is not justified. For a slightly higher investment (39 million vs. 37 million for A56 base), the S24 FE is presented as a vastly superior alternative.

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