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

Samsung not too long ago launched the Galaxy A56 5G in India with the newest Exynos processor, a vibrant AMOLED show, a revamped design and the newest One UI 7. I’ve been utilizing the Galaxy A56 for the previous month and this is a complete have a look at how the telephone holds up in on a regular basis use.

Contained in the field:

Contained in the field of Galaxy A56, you get the system itself, a SIM ejector device and a USB cable wrapped inside a paper protecting and some documentation that noone ever reads. This is fairly just like different Samsung units up to now together with the Galaxy S25 sequence the place you’ll need to buy a suitable quick charging adapter or make do with gradual charging utilizing third occasion chargers (extra on this later).

Design:

The Galaxy A56 5G comes with a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ safety on each the entrance and again. The body is fabricated from aluminium with curved edges similar to the Galaxy S25 lineup.

Nonetheless, the A56 doesn’t completely imitate Samsung’s pricier choices when it comes to design and stands in its personal league with a capsule formed digicam cutout and minimalistic but distnict color choices.

The Galaxy A56 offers a premium in-hand feel owing to its aluminium construct and tactile buttons. It would not damage that the telephone is really fairly slim at 7.4mm and weighs simply shy of 200 grams (198 to be exact).

I obtained the Olive color variant for overview which fits with my style but in case you discover this color a bit bland there are three extra color variants: Pink, Graphite and Lightgray.

The brand new Samsung mid-ranger comes with an IP67 score, which, whereas not being prime of the road, nonetheless ensures safety until 1 meter of submersion beneath water for as much as half-hour.

Show:

The Galaxy A56 comes with a 6.7-inch FHD+ Tremendous AMOLED show with 120Hz refresh fee and Corning Gorilla Glass safety on prime. It incorporates a peak brightness of 1200 nits in Excessive Brightness Mode (HBM) which interprets to it being legible not simply in indoors but even in shiny outside.

The show on Galaxy A56 comes with thick bezels on all three sides with a chunky chin on the backside. This is not one thing I’m a giant fan of on condition that even mid-range telephones today include fairly slim bezels. Nonetheless, the Samsung mid-ranger tends to return out barely on prime when you examine it with the likes of not too long ago launched Pixel 9a which has related bezels and poorer show safety.

Software program:

Galaxy A56 runs on newest One UI 7 based mostly on Android 15 and Samsung has promised 6 years of OS updates and 6 years of safety patches with the system.

The One UI 7 on Galaxy A56 is fairly just like what we’ve beforehand seen with the Galaxy S25 lineup with the identical fluid animations, Now Bar, bolder icons and widgets and a redesigned system.

What’s not nice is that the One UI on Galaxy A56 comes with tons of bloatware and adverts not simply on the house display screen but additionally on the lock display screen (glyph interface). Given my restricted expertise with the Galaxy A sequence up to now, I used to be taken again by the quantity of muddle in a premium mid-ranger and this is one thing that Samsung ought to do away with sooner or later.

Aside kind that the One UI 7 is at present one of the best Android expertise you can get for the time being. Do not get me incorrect, Oxygen OS15 is nonetheless an in depth second but the One UI 7 merely feels extra fluid and is simpler to customise even for a lay individual.

As time glided by, I fell in love with the plethora of adjustments that One UI 7 permits customers to make, together with matching the color of wallpaper to the notification tray and app icons and the flexibility to customise the dimensions and colors of the widget on the lock display screen to fulfill the person’s aesthetic sensibilities.

There are a couple of AI options which were carried ahead from the Galaxy S25 sequence together with Greatest face (selecting from quite a lot of facial expressions for the picture), Object eraser, Auto Trim for movies and Learn aloud, but I’m not solely positive in the event that they deserve the ‘Superior Intelligence’ moniker/

Efficiency:

Galaxy A56 is the primary ever Samsung smartphone to be powered by the Exynos 1580 constructed on the 4nm processor and paired with the Xclipse 540 GPU. This is a succesful setup that will get most everyday duties executed with out a glitch. It could actually additionally deal with a bit of sunshine gaming but something greater than that is a form of a stretch.

Trying on the benchmarks, the telephone will get a rating of 9,21,658, which is considerably above the rating seen on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 but decrease than the variety of Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or Dimensity 8400.

On GeekBench, the telephone will get a single core rating of 1348 and a multi core rating of 3869. I attempted working the 3D Bench Wild Life Excessive Stress check a number of instances on this system but error message stopped it from working.

Whereas gaming or throughout benchmarks, there wasn’t any extreme heating subject to report. Credit score the place it’s due, Samsung appears to have executed an excellent job in protecting the thermals at verify with the this processor.

Nonetheless, there was a little bit of body drops to be observed throughout elongated gaming classes which means that the telephone is undoubtedly not an excellent wager for the avid gamers on the market. BGMI additionally would not at present help ‘Extremely’ or ‘Excessive’ body charges for the time being and the utmost that you can set is at HDR setting.

Digital camera:

Getting the specs out of the best way, the 50MP major shooter with OIS and a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens. Sadly, there is no telephoto lens with the Galaxy A56 and the third digicam slot is crammed by the 5MP Macro lens. On the entrance is a 12MP selfie shooter.

We’ll get to the rear cameras later but first lets speak in regards to the 12MP selfie shooter. Do not simply go by the decision this is in all probability one of the best selfie digicam you can get at this value vary with loads of element retention and shut of pure color tones. There is additionally an choice to decide on to hotter tones if that is what one prefers.

The 50MP major shooter is able to taking pictures some lovely trying pictures in daylight circumstances with wonderful element retention and nice dynamic vary. Nonetheless, there is no telephoto shooter right here, which means that pictures do are likely to lose element as you progress to zoom in additional, which is additionally restricted to 10x.

The evening time efficiency of the sensor is successful or a miss with first rate dynamic vary and white stability but the darker pictures are likely to lose out on some particulars and a noticeable halo impact round synthetic gentle sources.

Portrait pictures beneath synthetic lights turn into nice but the sensor can some instances miss out on the pores and skin tones and even oversharpen the pictures a bit a couple of would love. There wer additionally some noticeable points with edge detection throughout portrait pictures in synthetic lighting.

The ultra-wide angle digicam really performs higher than I anticipated for a 12MP shooter. There is a little bit of element loss when switching from the first shooter to the ultra-wide angle lens but the tip pictures retain just about the identical color tone as the principle lens. Even in evening time, the ultra-wide angle lens stands but the noise have a tendency to extend on the 12MP lens and the halo impact round synthetic gentle sources is much more noticeable.

Verdict:

Priced at ₹41,999 for the bottom variant, the Galaxy A56 provides a compelling bundle with its visually interesting but minimalist design, responsive and feature-packed software program, a succesful digicam system, and an IP67 score for water and mud resistance.

Nonetheless, the system does include some compromises. The presence of bloatware and adware within the UI is regarding at this value degree, and the thick bezels across the show detract from its total attraction. Furthermore, whereas the Exynos processor handles each day duties nicely, it can battle beneath extended gaming, and the 5,000mAh battery falls quick in comparison with the competitors.

Regardless of its flaws, although, the Galaxy A56 is nonetheless a wonderful selection for somebody searching for a well-designed, dependable smartphone from a trusted model with out the worth tag of a full-fledged flagship telephone.