Samsung’s Galaxy S series phones are known for pushing the boundaries of what a smartphone can do, but the Galaxy A series is where my money’s at. The South Korean phone maker’s mid-range devices borrow almost all the features from its flagship series but cost a lot less. I used the Galaxy A56 for a few weeks as my daily driver, and here’s what I think about Samsung’s most premium mid-range phone.
I am a clumsy person, prone to dropping electronics either on the ground or unknowingly slapping them on top of one another. While I did not drop my phone (at least this time), it was fine even when I accidentally brushed it against things like my tablet, earphones, chargers, and doors. Also, it did not get any scratches even when I kept it in my pocket with other things.
The Galaxy A56 also carries over the ‘button island’ Samsung introduced last year. For those who don’t know, the phone’s frame is slightly raised on the top right side, which makes it easy to find and press the power and volume buttons when the phone is in your bag or pocket.
Compared to its predecessor, the phone is a tad taller and packs a slightly bigger (6.6-inch vs 6.67-inch) screen, but Samsung has somehow managed to make the phone a bit lighter, which means your hands will no longer ache when binge-watching videos or playing games for hours on end. The 120Hz AMOLED screen isn’t the brightest on the market, but you can easily watch videos or read articles outdoors in Delhi’s bright and hot summers.
However, the fingerprint scanner is still not as reliable as other phones, but this may be because it is located too close to the bottom edge of the phone.
One UI 7 is one of the most intuitive and feature-packed Android skins of all time. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
Performance and software
The Galaxy A56 is powered by the Exynos 1580 chipset. Both on paper and in real life, the phone feels faster and snappier than its predecessor. In a nutshell, this is the closest any Galaxy A series device has come to Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series phone in terms of smoothness.
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Be it everyday tasks like messaging, scrolling through social media, listening to music, watching videos or gaming, the Galaxy A56 doesn’t lag, like, at all. And with Samsung now offering 6 years of software updates, I can confidently say that the chipset will easily last more than half a decade of Android updates.
The faster chipset, combined with Samsung’s latest Android skin – One UI 7, offers a flagship-like experience. Compared to One UI 6, the animations are smooth, and I barely encountered any lag when switching between applications or launching new ones.
Talking of OneUI 7, I like how Samsung allows you to customise the user interface. I am used to stock Android and like to customise every aspect of my device, but trust me, once you switch to a Samsung device running One UI 7, there’s no going back.
Also, I like the way Samsung has baked in AI features like Best Shot, Best Face, Object Eraser and more into the system itself. Like the Galaxy S series phone, these features work flawlessly most of the time, but there are a few rough edges here and there. Another thing to note is that some AI features, like Now Brief and a bunch of other complex stuff, like the ability to move around objects in a photo, are still exclusive to the latest Galaxy S series devices, but Samsung may trickle them down to the A series later down the line.
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And while this isn’t a gaming phone, the experience is pretty good. I tried games like Genshin Impact, Solo Levelling: Arise, Wuthering Waves and BGMI, and the gameplay was smooth throughout. However, I had to dial down the settings a bit to hit the 60 fps mark.
Camera
The Galaxy A56’s camera consists of a 50MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultrawide lens and a 5MP macro shooter. And while the primary and ultrawide cameras are great, I did miss the telephoto lens.
Personally, I feel like a phone that costs upwards of Rs 40,000 should have a telephoto lens. Coming back to the camera, the primary 50MP sensor takes great photos during both day and night time, but as is the case with Samsung phones, the colours come out a bit saturated for my taste.
The 12MP ultrawide lens is average at best, and while it does come close to the main sensor, the images often come out soft in low-light conditions. As for the 5MP macro camera, it is a gimmick at best, and I just hope Samsung ditches it for a telephoto sensor in the next iteration.
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If you are someone who often records videos, I suggest you stick to the main camera, which has OIS, as the other ones are not that good.
Images captured at the dawn are detailed and barely have any noise. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
Like its predecessor, the Galaxy A56 still struggles with light sources at night.(Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
However, it does take good photos in low-light most of the time. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
Day time shots are pretty detailed even at 2x digital zoom. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
The primary 50 MP sensor is on par with other phones in the price bracket. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
Here’s an image captured by the 5MP macro shooter. (Image Credit: Chitral Khambati/Indian Express)
The 50MP main camera excels even in challenging lighting conditions (Image Credit: Chitral Khambati/Indian Express)
Battery
The Galaxy A56 packs a 5,000 mAh battery, the same as its predecessor. However, the battery life sees a significant, if not substantial, improvement in terms of screen-on time, with the phone easily crossing the 6-hour mark on heavy usage even with the Always-On display enabled.
If your day involves using the phone for surfing the internet, scrolling social media for a few minutes, streaming music on 4G or 5G almost all day and using navigation to travel around, the Galaxy A56 may need a charge sometime before you hit the bed before 1 AM. But those who don’t use their phone heavily can expect their phone to easily last more than a day, and only need to charge their phone sometime in the morning or early afternoon.
Undoubtedly, this is one of the best Exynos-powered Galaxy A series phones to date that offers a great battery life. I am happy to see Samsung’s software and in-house hardware optimisation offering this much screen-on time without increasing the battery capacity. It will be interesting to see how long smartphones will last once Samsung embraces the new silicon carbon batteries like the ones in Realme, Vivo, iQOO and OnePlus phones.
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The Galaxy A56 (bottom) alongside the Galaxy A36 (top). (Image Credit: Chitral Khambati/Indian Express)
Galaxy A56: Should you buy it, and what are the alternatives?
The Galaxy A56 is a solid premium mid-range phone which, like every Samsung A5x series phone, offers a combination of good performance, the latest features and an all-day battery life with a solid build that can drop as well as withstand dust and water without any issues. However, the lack of a dedicated telephoto shooter in a phone that crosses the Rs 40,000 mark might be a bummer for some.
If you are not a camera enthusiast or mostly stick to the main sensor to take photos, the Galaxy A56 is a good phone for under Rs 45,000. But if you can spend a bit more, I suggest that you go with the Galaxy S24 FE, which comes with a much faster chipset, a capable telephoto sensor and more AI features. However, for most people, including me, who don’t mind the lack of a telephoto shooter and want a premium phone with what is arguably one of the best software on the Android side of things, the Galaxy A56 is an easy recommendation for under Rs 45,000.
However, the mid-range segment has gotten super competitive, and there are a lot of alternatives for those looking to buy a mid-range device with flagship-like cameras, bigger batteries or faster processors, like the Xiaomi 14 Civi, OnePlus 13R, Vivo V50 and Realme GT6, which offer better value for money.
Galaxy A56 pros and cons: