Samsung launched the Galaxy A55 5G smartphone earlier this month as the successor to the Galaxy A55 5G. This gets an improved screen, faster Exynos 1580 4nm SoC, and faster charging, while retaining the same camera, and battery. Is this a good upgrade compared to the Galaxy A55 5G? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- Samsung Galaxy A56 5G 12GB RAM + 256GB in Awesome Olive colour
- USB Type-C to C Cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick Start Guide
Display, Hardware and Design
The phone comes with a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Infinity-O Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels at about 384 PPI. The display looks bright, thanks to 1900 nits peak brightness, and up to 1200 nits HBM (high brightness mode), an improvement compared to the predecessor. It also has good colour reproduction and the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection, same as the A55.
It has a 120Hz refresh rate screen that offers a fluid user experience with smoother animations, scrolling and gaming. Similar to the other Samsung phones, there is an Eye comfort shield that limit blue light emitted by the screen. There is also dark mode. You can choose from Vivid or Natural screen modes based on your preference, or set the white balance manually.
The phone doesn’t have DC dimming or low brightness anti-flicker mode that is present in some AMOLED screen phones in the price range. I didn’t notice any screen flicker issues in low brightness on the phone. It doesn’t have a notification LED, but there is Always on display option.
On the top, there is a new 12-megapixel camera, and the earpiece is present on the top edge which doubles up as a secondary speaker. The punch-hole is small and it is not intrusive. This uses a virtual proximity sensor instead of a physical one. I didn’t face any issues with a screen staying on during calls.
The phone still has huge bottom bezels, and the side bezels are also bigger compared to the competitors. The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Coming to the button placements, the power button and the volume rockers are present on the right side. There is nothing on the left side. The dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are on the bottom. The secondary microphone is on the top. The phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack. The A56 continues to feature a brushed aluminium frame which looks and feels premium and doesn’t slip out of your hands easily.
On the back, there is a triple camera module arranged vertically, and this time the camera deco is back. There is a single LED flash next to it. It is just 7.4mm thin, making it 0.8mm thinner than the predecessor, and the phone is also 15g lighter than the A55 at 198 grams.
It also comes in Awesome Light gray and Awesome Graphite colours in India. The phone IP67 ratings for dust and water resistance.
Even with the glossy glass back, it doesn’t attract fingerprints easily. The back also has a Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection. I have been using the phone without a case, and it didn’t slip out of my hands even once.
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with 1/1.56″ Sony IMX906 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS
- 12MP ultra-wide angle camera with 1/3.06″ Sony IMX258 sensor, f/2.2 aperture
- 5MP macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture
- 12MP front camera with Samsung S5K3LC sensor, f/2.2 aperture
Even though there is no major change in the camera setup, there are changes in the UI with the One UI 7. You can choose 50MP option from the aspect ratio settings on the top, and the default output is 12MP instead of 12.5MP after pixel binning. It also has AR stickers, scene optimizer, panorama, hyperlapse, food, dual rec, and more modes.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots look good with good amount of detail, good dynamic range and detailing, and the image look similar to the A55 since the sensor is similar. Ultra-wide shots from the 12MP camera are good in daylight, but not the best in low light.
2X macro shots from the main camera is good, and there is a dedicated macro camera mode which is average, and you have to keep it in 3-5cm distance. Live focus is good at detecting the edges. Low-light performance is good as well, which can be improved further with Night mode that offers more details, but you need to keep your hand steady, since it takes two to three seconds to process. 50-megapixel shots have a good amount of details, but the image size is huge. The new 12-megapixel front camera has seen improvements.
Check out some camera samples.
It can record videos at maximum 4K resolution at 30 fps from both front, rear and ultra-wide cameras. The rear camera can also shoot 1080p 60fps videos, but the stabilization works only in 30fps when it’s enabled in the settings. The phone now supports 10-bit HDR recording on both the front and rear cameras, but I didn’t notice a huge difference in the HDR video compared to the standard mode.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 15 with One UI 7, and it still has January 2025 Android security patch, but we can expect an update soon. Similar to the other latest Samsung devices, the company has confirmed 6 OS updates and 6 years of security updates for the A56 5G.
Unlike the AI features in the flagship S series phones, the A56 5G only gets has generative wallpapers. The Device maintenance option lets you manage your device’s battery life, storage, RAM usage, and security all in one place. Out of 256GB (UFS 3.1) storage in our unit, 224.3GB is free. Out of 12GB LPDDR5 RAM, about 11.14GB is usable and 6GB is free when default apps are running in the background.
There is also a RAM Plus feature, which uses the internal memory of the phone to expand the RAM by an extra 8GB, in addition to the existing 12GB of RAM. This is enabled automatically.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps and Google Apps, the smartphone comes with Facebook, Netflix, Truecaller, Blinkit, Spotify and Microsoft apps such as Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Outlook and LinkedIn. You get the option to install apps when you are setting up the phone, which you can choose not to. It also has Samsung Wallet via NFC. The phone doesn’t have ads, but shows notifications of new Samsung products occasionally.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor that immediately unlocks the phone even when the phone is locked. It is good, but not as fast as a physical fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 3 fingerprints, and adding fingerprint is easy. It has support for Face recognition, which doesn’t work well if the lighting is poor in the room, if you are hats, or use heavy makeup. Both these are protected by Knox security.
Music Player and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It has equalizer, Dolby Atmos, UHQ upscaler, and Adapt that can be enabled from the settings. All these improve the audio when listening through earphones, and Dolby Atmos also works with speakers. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. That said, audio through earphones is good. Loudspeaker output from the stereo speakers is good as well.
The phone comes with Widevine L1 support out-of-the-box so that you can enjoy HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar and other streaming apps. There is also HDR playback support for YouTube and Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The Galaxy A56 5G has support for N1, N3, N5, N7, N8, N20, N28, N38, N40, N41, N66, N77 and N78 Network Bands in India. There is dual SIM 5G, and Airtel and Jio 5G works out of the box. There is also 4G Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and support for LTE-A or Carrier Aggregation, and VoNR support for Jio. It also has eSIM support, but this disables the second SIM.
Other connectivity options include, Wi-Fi 802.11 6 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Wi-Fi-Calling or Vo-Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 and GPS with GLONASS. It has support for USB OTG and NFC that works with supported payment apps. The modem
The Galaxy A56 5G’s head SAR is 1.325 W/Kg, which is slightly higher than the A55, but it is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) for India.
Performance and Benchmarks
The Galaxy A56 5G is the first Samsung phone to be powered by new Exynos 1580 4nm SoC. This has 1x Cortex-A720 @ 2.90GHz, 3x Cortex-A720 @ 2.60GHz, 4x Cortex-A520 @ 1.95GHz. I didn’t face any performance issues, it was smooth.
There is also a new AMD-powered Xclipse 540 GPU, and the company mentions that the GPU based on AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture now has two Work Group Processors (WGPs) instead of one, and it also brings increased GL2 cache capacity and twice the amount of FMA/texture unit processing.
Even though the performance is good, it is not the best phone for gaming when you get flagship-range chips in phones in the price range. However, you can still run games. In BGMI you only get Smooth Extreme option, so it is only 60 fps even. There is 120Hz gaming motion smoothness feature.
It has a larger cooling solution compared to the A54, says the company, without revealing any other specifics. In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 81.5% which is less than the A55 that has 99.1%, and the temperature shot up from 32 to 40 degrees, which is not more. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see from the benchmark scores, the Exynos 1580 is clearly better than the Exynos 1480. There are some phones which have flagship chips, but the scores of the Exynos 1580 are good compared to Snapdragon 7 Gen 3.
Battery life
The Galaxy A56 5G retains the 5000mAh battery from the last 3 generations. I got about 5 hours of screen on time mostly on Wi-Fi and occasionally on 5G with over 2 days of use in 120Hz refresh rate. Even though the SoT is slightly less than the A55, the battery optimization is good in One UI 7, so it lasts more. It should last for a day easily even with heavy use.
Samsung doesn’t offer a charger in the box, but the phone supports 45W charging, compared to 45W in older models. With the official 45W PPS fast charger, it takes about 1 and 15 minutes for 0 to 100%, and 0 to 50% took about 20 minutes. It is still less compared to the competitors, but better than the A55.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 41,999, the Galaxy A56 5G is another minor upgrade to the Galaxy A55 with improved performance, charging, and the display, making it the best A series phone till date once again. However, lack of telephoto camera makes the S series Fan Edition a better choice after the price drop.
Alternatives
The OnePlus 13R is a direct competitor at a cheaper rate with a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE at the same price after the price drop will get you a telephoto camera, but you have to compromise slightly on the battery life and charging.
Pricing and availability
The Galaxy A55 5G 8GB + 128GB model is priced at Rs. 41,999, 8GB + 256GB version costs Rs. 44,999 and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 47,999. It is already available from Samsung exclusive and partner stores, Samsung.com, and other online platforms. You can avail Rs. 3000 bank cashback with select cards.
Pros
- 120Hz AMOLED display is good
- Improved front camera performance
- Solid build quality, IP67 ratings
- Smooth performance
- Promise of 6 OS updates and 6 years of security updates
- Good battery life, 45W charging
Cons
- Same old rear camera setup without telephoto camera
- Slightly priced on the higher side
- A lot of preloaded apps