Samsung Galaxy A56 Review – Balanced Midrange Workhorse

When it comes to annual smartphone releases, Samsung sets the tempo with a flagship Galaxy S series release such as the Galaxy S25 series in the early part of the year and their foldables near the end with their Galaxy Z Fold and Flip series. Sandwiched between both flagship releases is their popular Galaxy A series, helmed this year by the Galaxy A56 which will be arriving soon on our shores. 

We managed to get our hands on an early retail sample for Malaysia and unboxed it while sharing our first impressions. After a thorough field test, here’s our Samsung Galaxy A56 review to see if their best midrange phone is worthy of the title.

Samsung Galaxy A56 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy A56 is the most powerful of Samsung’s latest Galaxy A 2025 series phones that also consist of the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26. While all three models share approximately the same dimensions with an almost identical 6.7-inch AMOLED display and battery capacity, there are subtle differences in terms of what processor is used under the hood, charging speeds, storage, RAM and secondary rear cameras; the Galaxy A56 remains the most powerful model out of the series for 2025. The phone also has a redesigned camera housing on the rear while retaining an IP67 dust and water resistance rating.

A notable improvement that the Galaxy A56 has over the older Galaxy A55 is that it has a slightly larger screen by 0.1-inches than the prior Galaxy A55 at 6.7-inches on account of thinner bezels. Our Samsung Galaxy A56 review sample also comes kitted out with the works. Powering the Galaxy A56 is the latest Exynos 1580 chipset and is the first phone in the market to use this new processor. 

Intended as the successor to last year’s Exynos 1480 CPU that was used in the Galaxy A55, the new Exynos 1580 processor is a midrange chipset built on a 4nm process that utilises newer Cortex A720 and Cortex A520 CPU cores over the older Exynos 1480’s Cortex A78 and Cortex A55 cores. 

Unlike its predecessor’s bi-cluster setup, the Exynos 1580 uses a tri-cluster architecture that consists of a single big, three middle and four little cores. The big core runs faster at 2.9Ghz while the three middle cores clock in at 2.6GHz and the four smaller cores run at 1.95GHz. The Exynos 1580 also uses the AMD RDNA3-based Xclipse 540 graphics which offers 37% better performance to the one used in the Exynos 1480.

On top of improved performance from the Exynos 1580 chipset, the Galaxy A56 also comes in your choice of two configurations – a modest 8 GB RAM/128GB base model and the more premium 12GB RAM/256GB storage variant for a slightly higher price. Unfortunately,  the Galaxy A56 omits the microSD card slot this time around, one of the key selling points of what made their midrange Galaxy A series so appealing which means you have to make the most of the available storage that you have on your phone. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

 

Price	RM2,199 (12GB RAM/256GB storage), RM1,999 (8GB RAM, 128GB storage)
Display	6.7-inch Super AMOLED, 1080 x 2,340 pixels, FHD+, 120Hz, 1,900 nits peak brightness, HDR10+
Processor	Exynos 1580
OS	Android 15 with One UI 7
Memory	12GB RAM / 256GB UFS 3.1 storage (review unit) / 8GB RAM/128GB UFS 3.1 storage (variant)
Cameras	50MP F/1.8 w/ OIS + 12MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle + 5MP f/2.4 macro (rear) / 12MP f/2.2 (front)
Battery	5,000mAh w/ 45W wired charging
Size/Weight	162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4mm /198g

Running under the hood of our Galaxy A56 review sample is the latest Android 15 with their new One UI 7 firmware, the very same running on the Galaxy S25 series flagships. 

Rather than the Galaxy AI moniker used in the Galaxy S25 series, the Galaxy A56 instead has Awesome Intelligence, which in effect consists of a selection of AI features culled from the Galaxy S25 series primarily for image manipulation which we’ll get into later. Like many of Samsung’s Galaxy series phones, our Galaxy A56 review sample also has the option to assign storage as virtual RAM, dubbed as RAM Plus in One UI 7 in 2GB increments to a maximum of 8GB. 

With the default 4GB RAM Plus, we got the following synthetic benchmarks:

 

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	643
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	655
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	1,494
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	1,464
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1,359
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	3,931
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	6,968
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	6,907
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	3,016
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	693
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	14,526
PCMark Battery Life	15 hours, 59 minutes

In terms of overall benchmarks, our Galaxy A56 review unit easily outperformed its predecessor across the board in single, multicore and graphics performance.  When it comes to gaming, the phone did not disappoint and handled the usuals like Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact smoothly without any significant frame rate drops or stuttering.

It also proved to be pleasantly stable under heavy workloads with an 84.4% stability rating in the Steel Nomad Light stress test while having a best loop score of 661 and a lowest loop score of 558. Heat was well managed and the phone kept temperatures between 34°C to a peak of 40°C thanks to conservative heat management and larger vapour chamber to its predecessor.

The inclusion of One UI 7 makes navigating the phone a smooth and intuitive affair and the provision of a generous 6 years of OS and security updates – 2 years more for OS and a year more for security updates than the older Galaxy A55 – offers added peace of mind.

Of greater value is that the Galaxy A56 and its One UI 7 firmware adds in Circle to Search with Google, features Best Face mode along with a variety of additional AI image manipulation features from the Galaxy S25 series like Object Eraser, Edit Suggestions to get ideas on how to best improve photos and Auto Trim that cuts videos down to digestible highlight show reels. While they won’t radically alter your user experience, they do help in taking better looking photos by removing photo bombers and ensuring everyone in a shot looks in the right direction with their eyes open.

The 6.7-inch FHD+ 120Hz Super AMOLED display used in our Galaxy A56 review sample  is slightly brighter than last year’s model which helps with clarity outdoors under direct sunlight conditions while serving up pin-sharp text and pleasing colour rendition though it looks its best indoors.

The stereo speakers in the Galaxy A56 are as good as its predecessor, offering solid audio with good volume and a fair bit of detail for ploughing through your Netflix or Spotify playlist.

When it comes to charging and battery life, our Galaxy A56 review unit manages to even surpass the base Galaxy S25 as it manages to cram in a larger battery, longer battery life and even throws in much faster 45W wired charging too with a full charge from dead zero requiring about an hour and 15 minutes. In PC Mark’s battery life, it scored 15 hours and 59 minutes, a minute shy of a full 16 hours. Unfortunately, there is no wireless or reverse wireless charging but that’s not exactly a deal breaker as it hasn’t appeared thus far in the Galaxy A series.

In regular use, our Galaxy A56 review sample proved to be a pleasant phone to wield and use. The raised ‘key island’ which is a raised portion of the side that makes the power button and volume rocker easier to feel and access by touch alone. Combined with its slimmer dimensions, it made for a comfortable, practical carry that’s the match of a Galaxy S25 in feel and polish at almost half the price.

Samsung Galaxy A56 Review – Cameras

In terms of imaging hardware, our Samsung Galaxy A56 doesn’t differ all that much from its predecessor and has a similar rear camera setup with a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle camera and a 5MP f/2.4 macro camera. This setup enables the Galaxy A56 to enjoy 2x lossless zoom and up to 10x digital zoom for stills and up to 4K@30fps video, also with up to 10x digital zoom. 

Up front, the Galaxy A56 has a 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera which is a step down from its predecessor the Galaxy A55’s larger 32MP f/2.2 selfie camera. This setup still enables the front camera to capture stills and up to 4K@30fps video. Astute readers will note that this performance envelope doesn’t differ all too much from the prior Galaxy A55 though on paper, there are improvements to the ISP with improved noise reduction on account of the new Exynos 1580 chipset.

As midrange camera phones go, the Galaxy A56 is in the upper echelons, delivering consistent performance in daylight with good detail and dynamic range with slightly more saturated than normal colours though the lack of a dedicated telephoto zoom camera means that your best shots will be within 2X zoom. The macro camera likely won’t see much regular use bearing in mind its highly specialised nature but it does what it says on the tin for capturing shots close-up in good light. 

There’s also a slight bump up in low light performance from the primary and ultrawide angle cameras with slightly better colour rendition, noise reduction and better dynamic range compared to its predecessor though the Galaxy S25 still outguns it almost every way. You’ll get the best results if you stick to 2x zoom and under off the main 50MP camera. Beyond that, details start getting soft.

 

Even with the smaller 12MP sensor, mugshots off the front-facing camera in our Galaxy A56 review sample offer consistently good skin tones and detail.

Much like stills, 4K@30fps video offer a good level of detail and dynamic range with pleasing colour rendition in both daylight as well as urban low light scenarios with at least some level of street lighting though they still pale to the base Galaxy S25’s capabilities. Unfortunately, the removal of the microSD card slot removes one of its greatest advantages as a phone – expandable storage – forcing users to perform regular house keeping every few weeks.