Samsung Galaxy A56 5G Preview: Mid-range royalty in the making?
Galaxy A56 5G Intro
After giving us a good taste of its flagship phones with the Galaxy S25 series earlier at the beginning of the year, it's now time to turn our heads to the very popular mid-range lineup. Announced just before MWC 2025 were a trio of Samsung phones that will surely find their place in many a pocket: the Galaxy A36, Galaxy A26, and the Galaxy A56.
The latter is the best one among the bunch, with the best hardware and the best feature set. It also has the full Awesome Intelligence roster, Samsung's Galaxy AI geared for the mid-range market.
Most importantly, the Galaxy A56 is set to arrive to the US later this year, though Samsung is keeping mum on the possible time frame. All we know is that starting prices will certainly gravitate around $499, which means the Galaxy A56 will be a direct rival to devices like the iPhone 16e and the Pixel 9a.
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Table of Contents:
- Specs
- Design and Display
- Camera
- Performance
- Software
- Battery and Charging
- Audio Quality and Haptics
- Should you buy it?
Galaxy A56 5G Specs
Not too shabby
| Galaxy A56 5G | Galaxy A55 5G |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight 162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4 mm, 198 gr | Size and Weight 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2 mm, 213 gr |
| Display 6.7" Super AMOLED 1080 x 2340 resolution 120Hz refresh rate 1200 nits brightness Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ | Display 6.6" Super AMOLED 1080 x 2340 resolution 120Hz refresh rate 1000 nits brightness Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| Processor Exynos 1580 (4nm) | Processor Exynos 1480 (4nm) |
| Memory & storage 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB No microSD card slot | Memory & storage 6GB/128GB 6GB/256GB microSD card slot |
| Software Android 15 (One UI 7) 7-year support | Software Android 14 (One UI 6.1.1) |
| Cameras 50MP main 12MP ultrawide 5MP macro 12MP front | Cameras 50MP main 12MP ultrawide 5MP macro 32MP front |
| Battery Size 5,000 mAh | Battery Size 5,000 mAh |
| Charging Speeds 45W wired | Charging Speeds 25W wired |
| Prices $499 | Prices $499 |
Galaxy A56 5G Design and Display
Your minor annual refresh
Galaxy A56 is one sleek mid-ranger (Image by PhoneArena)
Little is changed here on the Galaxy A56 in comparison with the older Galaxy A55 generation. We are greeted by an aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass Victus+ up front and back, a totally flat design, and the now signature Key Island feature, which houses the power and volume buttons in a slightly raised bezel.
Nothing too exciting, but the phone surely looks smart and understatedly stylish.
Key Island reporting for duty (Image by PhoneArena)
Probably the biggest intergenerational change can be found at the rear. The Galaxy A56 boasts a unified vertical camera strip, combining all three cameras. That's a major shift away from the separate camera design that is employed on most Galaxy phones, like the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24, for example.
The Galaxy A56 is a water-resistant phone with an IP67 rating, which means that it can be submerged in freshwater for short amounts of time.
Size-wise, the Galaxy A56 is a fairly compact phone for its size, and is actually more compact than the Galaxy A36, which has a similar-sized screen and almost identical specs. The A56 stands at 162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4 mm, which is slightly taller than the older A55, but is also nearly a millimeter thinner. It's also much lighter, weighing less than 200 gr (in contrast with the A55's 213 gr).
Colors-wise, the phone is available in Pink, Olive, Graphite, and Lightgray colors. Not a very exciting selection, but stylish for sure.
Unboxing the Galaxy A56 reveals a familiar sight (Image by PhoneArena)
Inside the Galaxy A56 5G's box, you'll find the phone itself, a USB-C cable, as well as the standard leaflets and manuals.
It's a fairly decent display, with nothing too extraordinary (Image by PhoneArena)
In terms of display, we get a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen. It's got the standard FHD+ resolution, 60-120Hz screen refresh rate, and most importantly, up to 1,200 nits of peak screen brightness, which should be more than enough to deliver more than decent legibility in bright daylight.
Display Measurements:
In our display benchmarks, the Galaxy A56 achieves its advertised peak brightness at 100% APL and naturally performs even better in our 20% APL test, where it tops 1,700 nits. In terms of colors, the display is accurate, but the previous Galaxy A55 is slightly more accurate according to our readings.
Galaxy A56 5G Camera
Macro for the masses
The familiar triple-camera setup (Image by PhoneArena)
At the back of the Galaxy A56 5G, we find a painfully familiar triple-camera setup, consisting of a 50MP wide-angle camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and finally, a 5MP macro camera that doesn't sound like a particularly exciting option to have on deck. A telephoto would have been much more useful, but that's not something that's likely happening on a mid-range Samsung in the immediate future.
We got a new front-facing camera, though. A 12MP substitutes the 32MP selfie snapper of old. Don't let the megapixel reduction fool you: the new one could deliver higher quality photos still.
The Galaxy A56 features the Awesome Intelligence suite of features, with the Best Face feature available. What this one does is allow you to select a more flattering facial expression when someone has blinked or had their eyes closed. Additionally, you can make use of the Object Eraser feature in the Gallery, allowing you to delete unwanted subjects or people from your photos.
In terms of image quality, here's how the new Galaxy A56 compare:
Main camera
Details are less impressive in comparison with the Galaxy A55, which is an unpleasant surprise. Same goes for exposure, where the older device does a slightly better job at exposing the scene, as well as having a wider dynamic range. Colors are slightly warmer.
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide camera is also softer in comparison with the Galaxy A55. Colors are warm here, too.
Zoom
With the digital 2X zoom, the Galaxy A56 finally matches the old phone in detail, even beats it by a little.
Video quality
The Galaxy A56 takes video that are mostly similar to the Galaxy A55, with average details, exposure that's far from perfect when it comes to exposing the subject's face, and not very impressive dynamic range that struggles in challenging lighting.
Galaxy A56 5G Performance & Benchmarks
Acceptable mid-range performance
Mid-range Exynos power (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy A56 arrives with Samsung's own 4nm Exynos 1580 chipset, which is a mid-range affair that isn't anywhere near the company's flagships in terms of performance, but isn't terribly slow either.
That's a decent tradeoff, and in real life, the phone feels more than adequate to use for regular everyday tasks. Browsing, media consumption, and light gaming are all handled mostly effortlessly by the new trooper.
In our synthetic benchmarks, the Galaxy A56 performs fairly well against its predecessor. The Galaxy A56 triumphs both in the CPU and GPU benchmarks, making it a pretty neat intergenerational upgrade as far as processing power is concerned. However, rivals like the Pixel 8a and the iPhone 16e perform better in all benchmarks.
We get 8GB of RAM on the Galaxy A56, which is the bare minimum for any self-respecting Android phone in 2025. Storage-wise, we get either 128 or 256GB. There's also a version with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, which should bring the overall performance closer to the upper mid-range.
Sadly, the phone has lost its microSD card slot, which is a pity, but not something surprising given the ongoing trends in the space.
Galaxy A56 5G Software
Awesome Intelligence is the mid-range Galaxy AI (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy A56 5G will get supported for seven years, which is awesome. That's as long as Samsung's latest flagships.
The phone arrives with Android 15 and One UI 7, which is something that older ex-flagships don't support presently.
As mentioned, the phone comes with its own version of Galaxy AI, called Awesome Intelligence. It comes with the following features:
As mentioned, the phone comes with its own version of Galaxy AI, called Awesome Intelligence. It comes with the following features:
- Best Face: Select a more flattering facial expression from a series of images;
- AI Select: Google Circle to Search, but accessible from the utility side panel on the screen;
- Custom Filters: Automatically creates a filter based on a photo you've taken;
- Edit Suggestions: A photo-editing advisor that will suggest edits in the Gallery app;
- Object Eraser: Lets you remove unwanted subjects and people from your photos;
- Read Aloud: Speaks web pages aloud in the Samsung Internet browser.
Galaxy A56 5G Battery
The standard affair
A standard 5,000mAh ticks inside (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy A56 features a 5,000mAh battery. Is "5,000" Samsung's favorite number? It would definitely appear so.
Hopefully, this battery will do just good when paired with the fairly efficient Exynos 1580 chip. We hope that the device delivers battery life that's at least as good or significantly better in comparison with the Galaxy A55.
According to our tests, battery life is excellent. The Galaxy A56 achieves a total battery life estimation upward of seven hours, which is very decent and surpasses its predecessor, as well as the Pixel 8a and the iPhone 16e.
One surprising addition to the mid-range phone is a feature that not even the Galaxy S25 has––fast 45W wired charging. Thanks to this, it charges superfast: it takes it a little bit over an hour for a full charge, which is great.
There's, however, no wireless charging on the Galaxy A56, which isn't ideal, but we'd take the faster wired charging anyway.
Also read:
Should you buy it?
Could this be the new king of mid-range (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy A56 is shaping up to be a fairly respectable mid-range affair.
With a starting price expected to be around $499, it will inevitably clash with the two other phones that are shaping up to be the mid-range stars of 2025: the Pixel 9a and the iPhone 16e. All of them seem to be taking things very seriously, so things are getting heated in the mid-range segment.
The Galaxy A56 is a phone that reiterates everything that's good with the Galaxy A series and doesn't deviate too much from the formula, just like the rest of Samsung's roster, to be honest.
If you've liked the previous Galaxy A5x phones, you'll most probably like this one as well.
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