Samsung Galaxy A56 review

Design and handling

Samsung retained the same footprint for the A56 as last year's A55 while increasing the display diagonal, which is quite nice. It also means that the screen bezels on the front are thinner, allowing a slightly bigger display without enlarging the device. It's now a tad taller but thinner (7.4mm) and lighter (198g).

This is rather impressive, given that the handset uses high-quality materials. The side frame is made of aluminum, while Gorilla Glass Victus+ sheets protect the front and back. A small upgrade over last year's model, which had a Victus+ panel only on the front.

Other than that, the Galaxy A56's design isn't a huge departure from the A55 design, though there are a few design changes that are worth pointing out.

For instance, the camera island is now one whole piece. It appears slightly raised off the back, so we are guessing it is a glued-on camera bump - a bit like the Galaxy S25 series - with the actual camera lenses sitting underneath.

The frame on the A56 also has this brushed metal look that we quite like.

The flat side frame meets the flat glass panels on the front and back, creating sharp edges that may not be everyone's favorite. Still, these sharp edges provide a stable grip, so that's fine.

The available colors are Pink, Olive, Graphite and Lightgray. We have the Lightgray variant, and it comes with a frame in a natural aluminum color, which we quite like. The rest of the colorways have the frame color matching the back.

Button placement is convenient. The side frame is slightly protruding in the area where the power key and volume rocker reside; this is to allow your thumb to rest on something without pressing the buttons themselves.

Samsung Galaxy A56

The fingerprint reader, on the other hand, isn't ideally placed. It's a bit too close to the bottom edge of the screen. It leaves a bit more to be desired in terms of read speed too. It's fairly reliable and consistent, but we've definitely seen faster-working implementations.

Overall, we like the minimalist design and appreciate the high-quality build. The flat sides add for a blocky feel that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but these are the trends. And we don't want to sound nitpicky, but we are starting to see devices in the price bracket with IP68/69 ingress protection, whereas the A56 is still at IP67. Not a deal-breaker for sure.