The Korean giant Samsung has released a new mid-range smartphone, the Galaxy A56. The device looks very cool, at least to my taste, and has a number of nice technical features and bonuses for the user, but as always, nothing is perfect, so there are some gags here. Let’s see all this in detail in the review below.

	6.7-inch Super AMOLED, 1080×2340 pixels, 385 ppi; 120 Hz, 1900 nits peak brightness, HDR10+
	Samsung Exynos 1580, 4 nm, 1 Cortex-A720 2.9 GHz core, 3 Cortex-A720 2.6 GHz cores, 4 Cortex-A520 1.9 GHz cores
	Xclipse 540
	8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of LPDDR4X and UFS 3.1 storage
	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, NFC
	50 megapixel wide-angle, 1/1.56», 1.0µm, ƒ/1.8, PDAF, optical stabilization; 12 megapixel ultra-wide-angle, 1/3.0», 1.12µm, ƒ/2.2, 123°; 5 megapixel macro ƒ/2.4
	12 megapixels, ƒ/2.2
	Stereo speakers
	5000 mAh, 45 W fast charging
	USB Type-C 2.0
	Android 15 + One UI 7.0
	162.2 × 77.5 × 7.4 mm
	198 grams

We received a sample from the manufacturer for review, so it was without a box. But the regular version comes in a flat white box with a picture of a smartphone. It contains the phone itself without the film and case, a USB-C cable, a paper clip to open the SIM card tray, and documentation. There is also no power supply.

Samsung Galaxy A56 looks stylish and impressive. To my taste, it’s one of the most striking smartphones I’ve tested recently. And although this is a mid-range segment, it is clear that the manufacturer has brought its style as close as possible to the flagship series.

The device has dimensions of 162.2×77.5×7.4 mm and weighs 198 grams. Its size cannot be called large, but Galaxy A56 cannot be called small either — it is a standard modern «shovel». The smartphone has a textured aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus+ protective glass on the front and back. The edges are flat, the corners are rounded.

On the front panel we see uniform bezels of medium thickness and a front camera built into the screen.

On the back there is a protruding rectangular module with the main cameras and a round flash. There is also a Samsung inscription.

On the right side there is a convex smooth part where the lock button and volume buttons are located. There is nothing on the left side, on the top we have two microphones, and on the bottom — a couple more microphones, a speaker, a USB-C port and a slot for two nano-SIMs.

The metal frame and glass parts do not allow the smartphone to slip in the palm of your hand, so even without a case, the device sits securely in your hand. No traces of use, no dust, no fingerprints are visible at all, but this is in our pale pink color. Perhaps it will be different for others.

Samsung Galaxy A56 is protected according to the IP67 standard. This means that the smartphone is protected from moisture, rain or dust.

The smartphone has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels. The pixel density is 385 ppi, the refresh rate is 120 Hz, the base brightness is 1200 nits, and the peak brightness is 1900 nits. HDR10+ support is declared.

Samsung Galaxy A56 is equipped with a stunning screen. The Super AMOLED matrix has excellent color contrast, they are saturated, the blacks are real, and the brightness is not inferior to some flagships. However, for this you need to set the auto-brightness. Of course, with such values, it works without any problems even during the day in the ruthless summer sun.

Samsung Galaxy A56 has full stereo sound in the speaker + earpiece format. The sound is loud, surround and without buzzing. The smartphone also supports Dolby Atmos, has a built-in equalizer with presets, a volume normalization mode, adaptive sound for a specific user, and the ability to improve its quality with headphones.

The vibration response is pleasant and definitely not the cheapest. You can set it up separately for the system and separately for calls, notifications, etc.

Samsung Galaxy A56 is equipped with a triple main camera. The main module here is 50 megapixels, and it is wide-angle, with an aperture of ƒ/1.8, PDAF and optical stabilization. The second sensor is an ultra-wide-angle 12-megapixel sensor with a ƒ/2.2 aperture and a viewing angle of 123 degrees. The third is a 5-megapixel macro module with an aperture of ƒ/2.4.

The camera shoots in 12-megapixel mode and 50-megapixel format. If your photos don’t go beyond your phone and social media, then you can easily take photos in the basic 12 megapixel mode. If you want to process them on a computer and use them in some way, then 50 megapixels is your choice.

Photos taken with the main camera are good, especially in sunny weather. They have a wide dynamic range and excellent detail. But the colors are not natural at all — classic Samsung algorithms work here, adding saturation and brightness, which makes things, objects, and places in the photos look better than they really are. This will probably appeal to many users who love mobile photography, but personally, I don’t like this processing.

In the settings, there’s a thing called «Frame Optimization», which basically does all these things. For those who share my opinion, I advise you to turn it off, but even then, the photos still look «attractive», not realistic.

There’s also a four- and ten-fold zoom. You can still use the first one somehow, but I don’t recommend the second one at all, unless you want to see «noise» and «cute».

The resolution of the front module is — 12 megapixels, aperture f/2.2. It takes good detailed selfies and there are no such obvious AI algorithms. I liked the detail, as well as the background blur, although if there are many details on it, sometimes the algorithms do not cope everywhere.

The main and front cameras can record video in 4K@30fps with image stabilization.

Samsung Galaxy A56 is powered by a proprietary 8-core Exynos 1580 processor, made using the 4 nm process technology. It has 1 Cortex-A720 2.9 GHz core, 3 Cortex-A720 2.6 GHz cores, 4 Cortex-A520 1.9 GHz cores. The graphics chip here is Xclipse 540. The smartphone has several memory options: 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of LPDDR4X and UFS 3.1 ROM. Among the modules and interfaces are Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC. I note that there is no support for memory cards, which will definitely not appeal to certain users. However, there is support for eSIM.

The smartphone delivers good results for its segment in various benchmarks. Its chip is powerful enough and relatively cool at the same time. Even Genshin Impact titles run easily on it at high-maximum graphics settings.

Of course, this is more than enough for fast and trouble-free operation of the existing Android 15 OS and the proprietary One UI 7.0 shell. We turn on the increased screen refresh rate and enjoy the flagship level of the system, where nothing glitches and everything flies. Also, six (!) years of support for system updates and security are announced.

The brand-new add-on itself looks stylish and modern. I really like it visually and in terms of settings, but you have to be careful when you first launch it because the company pushes a lot of items, menus, and submenus on the user, asking for the widest possible access, analytics, and adding you to various programs, studies, etc. Plus, you have to log in to your Samsung account. It seems to me that even Xiaomi smartphones had less of this at the beginning than the Korean giant’s gadgets now. However, there are no ads, and the small pool of preinstalled programs includes most of the ones you will probably use: Facebook, Netflix, etc.

It also has the classic integration with artificial intelligence for modern phones from the company, and among the coolest features I’d like to highlight «Magic Eraser», which removes objects in photos quite well, and Circle to Search for better searching for specific things on the Internet.

The Samsung Galaxy A56 has a 5000 mAh battery, which is already a standard for most modern phones of any category. What matters more here is what kind of hardware the smartphone has, how it and the battery are optimized, and so on. I have to say that the hero of the review is doing great with this.

The smartphone works without any problems for a day with auto-brightness, 120 Hz refresh rate, Internet, instant messengers, games, and videos. If you remove the last two items, it will easily last a day and a half, and even more.

In PC Mark tests, the smartphone showed an excellent result of 16 hours and 28 minutes.

The device has a 45W fast charger. If you have such a power supply because it’s not in the box, the smartphone will charge quite quickly: 65% in 30 minutes and 100% in an hour.

Samsung Galaxy A56 has every chance of appealing not only to me, but also to most users. It has a stylish design that adds value to the model — it looks pricier than it actually is and really looks like a flagship.

I liked the machined metal frame and glass panels, as well as the full water protection. Of course, I didn’t like the minimalist package, but this is now in almost all models of most manufacturers, and when they put something in, it’s a whole holiday.

I like the Samsung Galaxy A56 because of its accessories and incredible screen. Well, Koreans know how to make awesome displays that make a great impression on users, and rightly so.

I also really like the new One UI 7.0, its visual and design solutions, its performance, at least on this smartphone, the level of customization, etc. But I don’t like the large number of items that need to be «signed» when you first turn it on. However, there are no ads here, which is good.

People will probably like the photos taken with their smartphone cameras. In general, I understand that they are good, high-quality, and detailed for this category. But I don’t like this Samsung’s proprietary photo processing, which makes the colors too saturated and unnatural (especially green), but certainly spectacular, Instagrammable, etc. This applies not only to the Samsung Galaxy A56, but to all the manufacturer’s models in recent years.

If you like this kind of thing and you’re not a fan of bulbous photos without AI processing like me, you’ll be delighted with the photos this smartphone can take. Of course, for its category.

I would also like to note the good battery life with the standard 5000 mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy A56 is sold at a price of UAH 13,500, but these are «gray» versions. In large official networks such as «Allo», the price tag for this model starts at 18,999 hryvnias. If you look at the price in a spherical vacuum, the smartphone is definitely worth the money. But if we compare it with competitors, the price is a bit too high, even taking into account the fact that some models are sold only in «gray». This means they have a lower price tag than they should have if they were imported properly.

Among the competitors worth paying attention to are the following models: fresh POCO F7 with a price tag of UAH 17,999 andPoco X7 Pro (price from UAH 13,000), Google Pixel 8a with a price tag of 18000 UAH andGoogle Pixel 9a (price from UAH 21,000), Motorola Edge 60 Pro with a price tag of 19,000, Xiaomi 14T with a price starting from UAH 16,500 andOnePlus Ace 5 (price from UAH 15,400).