Samsung Galaxy A56 5G review: mighty future-proofing meets middling cameras

Samsung's launching the Galaxy A56 5G into a viper pit of competition. There's the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro with its periscope camera, the Pixel 9a with Google's trademark Samsung-beating photo processing, and the gaming-tastic Poco X7 Pro, which costs much less but offers much more power on paper. Rewind the clock, and you can pick up some last-gen high-end options like the Nothing Phone (2), Pixel 8 Pro, and Honor 200 Pro for the same price.

So what does the Galaxy A56 bring to the table to fight off such fine alternatives? It has a seriously good-looking AMOLED display and mighty speakers for a midrange phone. There are three cameras around the back, a primary, ultra-wide, and macro trio, and the phone can capture 4K video from the front and rear cameras, a win for vloggers.

Samsung's also future-proofing the A56 brilliantly with its promise of seven years of continued software support, and we're delighted that it ships with 256GB storage as standard, double the base model Galaxy S25.

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G review: design and screen

On paper, the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G should feel premium. It has a glass back and a metal frame with some fine-looking contouring, and it's durable, too, with IP67 dust and water resistance. Tapping the back, however, feels hollow; the shiny glass clings onto fingerprints if you get a darker-colored finish, and the flat sides don't flow into the front and back, with no 2.5D glass on the display, making it feel slightly underbaked alongside some more affordable competition.

Available in Lightgrey, Graphite, Olive, and Pink, we tested the Lightgrey model, and it's super-safe but struggles to stand out. It's also the worst culprit for being a fingerprint magnet.

Like the Galaxy A55 5G before, the A56 5G has a flat back and front, though the upgraded brushed metal frame is a nice touch this time. The ramp along the rail, contouring to the power and volume buttons, helps elevate things (literally and figuratively); there's a triple camera around the back, a USB-C port at the base, a dual-SIM slot, and a loudspeaker.

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The phone measures a slender 7.4mm thin and weighs 198g, but it doesn't feel as skinny as the numbers suggest with its expansive surface area and slightly chunky bezels (though it's got nothing on the big-bezelled Pixel 9a).

The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G is also IP67-rated for dust and water resistance and protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back which is competitive at its price.

The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G's 6.7-inch AMOLED display is large and looks great, with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and a pixel density of 385 pixels per inch. It's relatively sharp, has a great contrast ratio for depth and punchy highlights, and it also glides at up to 120Hz.

With a peak brightness of up to 1900 nits when displaying HDR content, 1200 nits in high brightness mode (in direct sunlight), and HDR and HD Netflix certification, it's easy to see what's on-screen and watching content on the A56 5G is a fantastic experience.

Going beyond the screen, the A56 5G is also a great streaming option thanks to its speakers, which are excellent in its class, outperforming alternatives like the Poco X7 Pro. Matched with the expansive, quality display, watching content on it is a treat.

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G review: camera specs

The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G has three cameras around the back – a wide, ultra-wide, and a macro camera – with the wide being the best specced, and the ultra-wide, macro, and selfie cameras falling behind with smaller sensors and no autofocus.

23mm main camera: 50MP, 1/1.56-inch sensor with an f/1.8 aperture lens and OIS.

13mm ultra-wide camera: 12MP, 1/3.06-inch sensor with an f/2.2 lens.

25mm macro camera: 5MP sensor with an f/2.4 lens.

25mm front camera: 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 lens.

The main, ultra-wide, and selfie cameras support video recording up to 4K at 30 frames per second, which is competitive without being class-leading, with some alternatives able to shoot 4K 60fps footage.

While there’s a Pro mode for manual shooting, none of the Galaxy A56 5G’s cameras capture RAW photos natively, and you can't access Expert RAW, which is available for the Galaxy S and Z series.

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G: camera verdict

There are some highlights of the Galaxy A56 5G's camera – the primary camera is relatively reliable, and the ultra-wide is especially wide at 13mm. In bright environments, both cameras do a solid job of capturing detailed shots with rich colors, and you can comfortably punch into a 2x zoom and still get usable results.

Indoors and in darker scenes, all three cameras struggle, but the main camera is unsurprisingly the strongest. The fast lens and relatively large lens make sure there's depth separation for close-up objects, and a steady hand typically yields a clean picture.

In darker environments, shadow detail isn't as strong as it could be, and across the board, Samsung applies a lot of sharpening that makes focal points look unnatural when viewing images on a big screen.

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Colors are handled a bit clumsily by the A56 5G, especially when cropping in with the digital zoom, even in bright scenes. It's also worth noting that this isn't a phone you want if you have a shaky hand, with action shots and quick snaps when walking, generally coming out blurrier than some similarly priced alternatives.

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The macro camera adds very limited value compared to the main camera. With its 5MP resolution and small sensor, its photos can look fine, but typically, we got more detail from the 50MP main camera when we cropped in on shots. Being fixed-focus, it's finicky, and it struggles in low light, too, so it's starting to feel like an unnecessary camera for the sake of it.

Ultimately, we seldom took a photo on the A56 5G and thought to ourselves – this is a keeper – and that has a lot to do with Samsung's photo processing on its midrange phones. By contrast, alternatives like the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro and Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus left us with more usable shots.

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Video shot on the Galaxy A56 5G's main camera looks good in bright environments, and hand shake is kept at bay with OIS and EIS kicking in. Avoid switching to the ultra-wide in anything but ideal lighting; not only will the resolution drop, but noise is handled badly, so you're better off sticking to the primary camera.

Where the A56 5G shines is selfies and video, with 4K capture from the main camera held steady and the picture looking competitive across lighting conditions. The phone's selfies are also nice and sharp while still being moderately flattering, and selfie video also looks strong, so vloggers on a budget could do a lot worse.

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G review: performance and battery

We experienced confusing performance results from the Galaxy A56 5G. On the one hand, the Exynos 1580 chipset handled a game that typically stalls low-end phones relatively well (Wuthering Waves), while another typically well-optimized game (Genshin Impact), ground the phone to a stuttery halt. When you're paying as much as Samsung is charging for the A56 5G, it's fair to expect a reliably smooth gaming experience, albeit not a maxed-out one. Unfortunately, you don't get that here.

Day-to-day use, in contrast to gaming, was smooth. We didn't experience any UI grumbles, Samsung's latest version of OneUI is feature-rich, though misses out on the Now Briefing feature introduced on the flagship Galaxy S25 series. This is no big loss based on our early testing, and anyone coming from a Samsung phone should feel right at home with the A56 5G.

With 256GB storage (though there will also be a 128GB enterprise version for businesses), the Galaxy A56 5G is the first Samsung A-series phone we've tested to compete with brands like Honor, Xiaomi, Poco, and Redmi when it comes to storage space, which is a step in the right direction.

The Galaxy A56 5G's 5000mAh battery lasts a full day with standard to heavy use and can creep into the second day with light use relatively comfortably. Missing out on fast or wireless charging holds the phone back from besting alternatives like the Poco X7 Pro or Pixel 9a, with a full charge taking a little less than 80 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G is a great phone for watching on. Its large, bright, smooth screen and punchy speakers shine, and the phone's upgraded storage is a great move from Samsung, so anyone coming from a past A-series device plagued by low-memory warnings, those should be a thing of the past.

The phone's highlights can't quite compensate for its shortcomings, at least not at its asking price on launch. The A56 5G's camera is weak for stills, the camera mix is overbaked – fewer cameras with cleaner processing would help things along – and the performance inconsistencies when gaming feel at odds with the phone's positioning.

So while anyone who picks the A56 5G up on a great value network or carrier plan will get a fantastic watching and listening experience, not to mention all-day battery life and decent video recording, at full price, it can't quite stand out amongst tough competition.