Samsung Galaxy A56

Review

I invite you to read my review of the Samsung Galaxy A56 – the successor to the very popular and generally well-reviewed Samsung Galaxy A55. Will the new model prove to be just as attractive?

Refreshed Design

This year, Samsung's main mid-range phone, the Galaxy A56, has received a fresh new look. You'll notice it mainly in the modified camera bezel, which, in my opinion, now looks even better than before. The smartphone retains its flat sides and sharp corners, but this makes it look very elegant.

Impeccable Ergonomics

The device has an interesting embossing at the button height, which positively impacts the phone's ergonomics, making it highly ergonomic. The buttons are where they should be, and so is the fingerprint reader. It's an under-screen optical fingerprint reader that works very quickly and very well. I have absolutely no complaints about it. Or, if you prefer, there's facial recognition. The smartphone has a metal frame and an IP67 waterproof rating, which is quite good.

Display and plenty of customization options

On the front, there's a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The screen looks quite good; of course, you can leave the refresh rate to automatic, but you can also set it to fixed. The manufacturer claims a brightness of up to 1900 nits, which is quite high. However, honestly, on sunny days, I found it a bit lacking. I wouldn't mind if the display were even a little brighter.

Everyone will judge the phone's styling individually, but I like it, especially the back and sides, as the display has a bezel that's too wide for me. And what about the display itself? Of course, we have all the necessary settings here, like balance, color balance, and so on. We also have eye protection against harmful blue light and an Always-On Display, which we can customize extensively. The entire overlay, i.e., One UI 7, can be highly personalized and tuned to our needs and expectations.

There are a few pre-installed apps, but not that many. Besides, most of these apps are simply useful, so we would have downloaded them anyway. Samsung, on the other hand, spares us games and other such junk, which is commendable. The manufacturer promises six years of support for this system, so this is a phone that will last quite a while.

Up to 99% stability!

And how does it all work? We have an octa-core Exynos 1580 processor with a 2.9 GHz A720 main core, three 2.6 GHz A720 cores, and four 1.95 GHz A520 cores with an Eclipse 540 graphics chip, 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 128 or 256 GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage.

This phone is characterized by its very smooth operation. It doesn't get too hot, and there's virtually no throttling. Benchmarks have rated this phone's stability at over 99%, which is excellent. Performance isn't the highest, reaching 800,000-900,000 points on the AnTuTu benchmark. This is almost a millionth of a percent, so it's also quite good for a mid-range phone.

Stability, performance, and thermal management are truly flagship-level. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this phone might be better in some usage scenarios than the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite, as the latter typically experiences performance drops, while this one never does.

Average battery and average charging

The phone is powered by a 5000 mAh battery, which is quite ordinary. Charging at 45W is also standard, which is a good result for Samsung, but competitors offer significantly more in this area. I'd like to be able to fast charge when I really need it, but right now we're only left with 45W.

The phone can be charged halfway in just over 20 minutes, and fully in just over an hour. Fortunately, we don't have to search for a charger very often, because the battery runs quite well, and the processor isn't particularly power-hungry. A full day of use is no problem, and two days are also perfectly achievable. Of course, it all depends on how you use the phone, but let's say that normal, everyday use means a full day and a half, if not more.

Communication without flaws

I have no complaints about the communication side of this smartphone. Everything we need is here, and all forms of connectivity work as they should. The smartphone supports two physical SIM cards and also has an eSIM option, so here too we have a full range of options. In terms of connectivity, I didn't notice any issues. The phone performs well in areas with poor reception, and the sound quality in the earpiece is truly excellent.

Average stereo speakers

Samsung also features stereo speakers, but unfortunately, they're not fully symmetrical. The bottom speaker is significantly louder and better than the top, earpiece speaker, so we're a bit short of perfection here, but it's always better to have mediocre stereo than no stereo at all, right? Overall, considering the phone is a mid-range phone, it's not bad.

Very decent cameras

Photography isn't bad either, although it has a similar camera setup to the previous model. A 50 Mpx main camera, a 13 Mpx wide-angle camera, a 5 Mpx macro camera, and a 12 Mpx front-facing camera for selfies. It's worth noting, of course, that the main camera has optical image stabilization, but how do the photos turn out?

Like its predecessor, the photos are quite good for a mid-range price point. I rate this smartphone highly in terms of photography, keeping in mind that it's not the most expensive device on the market. For a mid-range phone, the photos are very good both day and night. We don't see any significant differences in color detail between the wide-angle and main cameras, although the wide-angle camera unfortunately begins to lose some of its quality after dark.

The cameras handle all conditions. Night mode activates automatically when needed, so we don't even have to worry about it. The Galaxy A56 doesn't try to make day out of night, and night photos retain a pleasant atmosphere. The color temperature in night photos is slightly warmer, but this makes these photos simply very pleasant to look at. When it comes to daytime photos, colors are shown essentially as we see them, meaning faithfully.

No telephoto lens or greater optical zoom

Regarding zoom, unfortunately, there's no telephoto lens, but the manufacturer offers a 2x matrix zoom, which also produces quite good results. Beyond that, it's a typical digital zoom, and the further you zoom, the worse it gets. The maximum zoom is 10x, but I suggest you use it as little as possible.

The presence of a 5-megapixel camera instead of a 2-megapixel macro camera is pleasing, but we already saw that in the previous model, as is the front camera, which offers quite nice portraits, even those with HDR, which can also be activated automatically.

Ability to switch between lenses

Videos are sharp, clear, and have good sound. Importantly, you can switch between all three lenses—the wide-angle lens, the front camera, and the main camera—without interrupting recording. I have absolutely no complaints about the videos, except perhaps the lack of 4K recording at 60 frames per second. We only have 30 frames per second, but both the front and rear cameras can record in 4K. The camera comes with a clear and intuitive photography app. We have no reason to criticize here either.

A decent mid-range phone for a good price

In fact, I didn't find any major criticism in this smartphone. It could only have a brighter screen and slightly better speakers, but the rest is perfectly acceptable, absolutely correct, and I can confidently recommend this phone as a very good mid-range phone for this year. It costs less than 400 EUR, and I think that It won't be money well spent. The phone has some minor flaws, but it has quite a few great features, so it worked. The previous model was very good, and this one is too – and I recommend this one as a mid-range smartphone of choice.