Samsung Galaxy A56 5G review: Look and feel will win you over, but is it enough?

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy A56 5G in India with the latest Exynos processor, a vibrant AMOLED display, a revamped design and the latest One UI 7. I have been using the Galaxy A56 for the past month and here’s a comprehensive look at how the phone holds up in everyday use.

Inside the box:

Inside the box of Galaxy A56, you get the device itself, a SIM ejector tool and a USB cable wrapped inside a paper covering and some documentation that noone ever reads. This is pretty similar to other Samsung devices in the past including the Galaxy S25 series where you’ll have to purchase a compatible fast charging adapter or make do with slow charging using 3rd party chargers (more on this later).

Design:

The Galaxy A56 5G comes with a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both the front and back. The frame is made of aluminium with curved edges just like the Galaxy S25 lineup.

However, the A56 does not totally imitate Samsung’s pricier offerings in terms of design and stands in its own league with a pill shaped camera cutout and minimalistic yet distnict colour options.

The Galaxy A56 gives a premium in-hand feel owing to its aluminium build and tactile buttons. It doesn’t hurt that the phone is actually pretty slim at 7.4mm and weighs just shy of 200 grams (198 to be precise).

I received the Olive colour variant for review which goes with my taste but in case you find this colour a little bland there are three more colour variants: Pink, Graphite and Lightgray.

The new Samsung mid-ranger comes with an IP67 rating, which, while not being top of the line, still guarantees protection till 1 meter of submersion under water for up to 30 minutes.

Display:

The Galaxy A56 comes with a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top. It features a peak brightness of 1200 nits in High Brightness Mode (HBM) which translates to it being legible not just in indoors but even in bright outdoors.

The display on Galaxy A56 comes with thick bezels on all three sides with a chunky chin at the bottom. This isn’t something I am a big fan of given that even mid-range phones these days come with pretty slim bezels. However, the Samsung mid-ranger tends to come out slightly on top when you compare it with the likes of recently launched Pixel 9a which has similar bezels and poorer display protection.

Software:

Galaxy A56 runs on latest One UI 7 based on Android 15 and Samsung has promised 6 years of OS updates and 6 years of security patches with the device.

The One UI 7 on Galaxy A56 is pretty similar to what we have previously seen with the Galaxy S25 lineup with the same fluid animations, Now Bar, bolder icons and widgets and a redesigned system.

What’s not great is that the One UI on Galaxy A56 comes with tons of bloatware and ads not just on the home screen but also on the lock screen (glyph interface). Given my limited experience with the Galaxy A series in the past, I was taken back by the amount of clutter in a premium mid-ranger and this is something that Samsung should get rid of in the future.

Apart form that the One UI 7 is currently the best Android experience you can get at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, Oxygen OS15 is still a close second but the One UI 7 simply feels more fluid and is easier to customize even for a lay person.

As time went by, I fell in love with the plethora of changes that One UI 7 allows users to make, including matching the colour of wallpaper to the notification tray and app icons and the ability to customize the size and colours of the widget on the lock screen to meet the individual’s aesthetic sensibilities.

There are a few AI features that have been carried forward from the Galaxy S25 series including Best face (choosing from a variety of facial expressions for the image), Object eraser, Auto Trim for videos and Read aloud, but I am not entirely sure if they deserve the ‘Awesome Intelligence’ moniker/

Performance:

Galaxy A56 is the first ever Samsung smartphone to be powered by the Exynos 1580 built on the 4nm processor and paired with the Xclipse 540 GPU. This is a capable setup that gets most day to day tasks done without a glitch. It can also handle a bit of light gaming but anything more than that is a kind of a stretch.

Looking at the benchmarks, the phone gets a score of 9,21,658, which is significantly above the score seen on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 but lower than the number of Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or Dimensity 8400.

On GeekBench, the phone gets a single core score of 1348 and a multi core score of 3869. I tried running the 3D Bench Wild Life Extreme Stress test multiple times on this device but error message stopped it from running.

While gaming or during benchmarks, there wasn’t any excessive heating issue to report. Credit where it’s due, Samsung seems to have done a good job in keeping the thermals at check with the this processor.

However, there was a bit of frame drops to be noticed during elongated gaming sessions which suggests that the phone is definitely not a good bet for the gamers out there. BGMI also doesn’t currently support ‘Ultra’ or ‘Extreme’ frame rates at the moment and the maximum that you can set is at HDR setting.

Camera:

Getting the specs out of the way, the 50MP primary shooter with OIS and a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens. Sadly, there is no telephoto lens with the Galaxy A56 and the third camera slot is filled by the 5MP Macro lens. On the front is a 12MP selfie shooter.

We’ll get to the rear cameras later but first lets talk about the 12MP selfie shooter. Don’t just go by the resolution this is probably the best selfie camera you can get at this price range with plenty of detail retention and close of natural colour tones. There is also an option to choose to warmer tones if that’s what one prefers.

The 50MP primary shooter is capable of shooting some beautiful looking shots in daylight conditions with excellent detail retention and great dynamic range. However, there is no telephoto shooter here, meaning that images do tend to lose detail as you progress to zoom in further, which is also limited to 10x.

The night time performance of the sensor is a hit or a miss with decent dynamic range and white balance but the darker images tend to lose out on some details and a noticeable halo effect around artificial light sources.

Portrait shots under artificial lights turn out to be fine but the sensor can some times miss out on the skin tones and even oversharpen the images a bit more than one would like. There wer also some noticeable issues with edge detection during portrait shots in artificial lighting.

The ultra-wide angle camera actually performs better than I expected for a 12MP shooter. There is a bit of detail loss when switching from the primary shooter to the ultra-wide angle lens but the end images retain pretty much the same colour tone as the main lens. Even in night time, the ultra-wide angle lens stands but the noise tend to increase on the 12MP lens and the halo effect around artificial light sources is even more noticeable.

Verdict:

Priced at ₹41,999 for the base variant, the Galaxy A56 offers a compelling package with its visually appealing yet minimalist design, responsive and feature-packed software, a capable camera system, and an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance.

However, the device does come with some compromises. The presence of bloatware and adware in the UI is concerning at this price level, and the thick bezels around the display detract from its overall appeal. Moreover, while the Exynos processor handles daily tasks well, it can struggle under prolonged gaming, and the 5,000mAh battery falls short compared to the competition.

Despite its flaws, though, the Galaxy A56 is still an excellent choice for someone looking for a well-designed, reliable smartphone from a trusted brand without the price tag of a full-fledged flagship phone.