Samsung Galaxy A56 review

Competition

Even though Samsung is launching the Galaxy A56 at the same price, €479, like last year, it appears to be much less competitive this time around. It faces fierce competition from various brands, and plenty of those were launched in mid to late 2024. There are more recent competitors too, like the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, for example.

Overall, the Galaxy A56 fails to impress with its camera hardware. The selfies and videos are excellent, but the stills leave more to be desired. The much cheaper Xiaomi 14T has a dedicated telephoto camera and generally takes better photos. The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, which costs around the same, boasts more versatile camera hardware with a periscope telephoto shooter.

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro • Xiaomi 14T • Motorola Edge 50 Pro • OnePlus Nord 4

The Motorola Edge 50 Pro is also a cheaper sensible alternative in the low €400 with a dedicated 3x telephoto camera and a selfie cam with AF.

The OnePlus Nord 4 has comparable camera hardware but excels in areas where the A56 is just getting by, like raw performance, charging and battery life.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE • Honor 200 Pro

In fact, a good portion of the Galaxy A56's competitors outperform it when it comes to charging and raw performance.

Dead set on buying a Samsung as you prefer One UI? Well, weirdly enough, the A56 faces some homegrown competition as well. The Galaxy S24 FE is a more powerful alternative with better cameras, wireless charging and a nicer display.

If you are willing to spend a little bit more on your next daily driver, you can also consider the Honor 200 Pro, as it costs a few bucks more but offers a much better value per dollar. In fact, it's probably one of the best €500 phones you can get right now, beating pretty much all the phones on this list in most aspects.

Verdict

As you can see, the Galaxy A56 is hard to recommend, even though we liked the selfies, the video recording, the premium design and the nice display. It looks like a good all-rounder on paper but fails to stand out from the crowd.

Want better cameras? You can get them at a lower price. Need a more powerful chipset? The sub-€400 price bracket has you covered. The same goes for battery life and charging.

One could make a case for the Galaxy A56 once the price settles down, but we already have more capable phones at a much lower price, so the Galaxy A56 will have a hard time competing even in the future. And even if you absolutely want a Samsung, then the Galaxy S24 FE is the better buy.

Pros

• Sturdy, premium build with Gorilla Glass Victus+, aluminum frame, IP67 rating.
• Brighter and bigger display with HDR10+ support.
• Decent performance, great thermal behavior.
• Excellent videos, great selfies.
• Nice speakers.
• Polished One UI 7, entitled to at least 6 generations of OS upgrades.

Cons

• No charger in the box, and not very fast to charge; no wireless charging either.
• Underwhelming camera performance (except videos and selfies), no telephoto.
• The virtual proximity sensor for turning off the screen during calls is not as good as a physical one.
• No more microSD card support.
• Expensive at launch.