Samsung’s new super-hyped Galaxy A series was just released a while ago and I brought it to Taiwan for a week to take a lot of pics with it already. So, in today’s video – we’re going to review the phone in its entirety.
Design
Now, the Galaxy A56 – at first glance, it looks more or less the same as the previous generation. I mean, it has the same Key Island design where the power and volume buttons bulge out. I actually like this design though some will argue that it is weird to have such a protrusion.
One big difference though, is the camera cutout at the back. While the previous generation looks identical to the Galaxy S series, Samsung switched it up for the Galaxy A56, as it now has a frame cover all the camera lenses with individual cutouts for each lens.
My intrusive thoughts got ahold of me as I immediately tried to pry it off. Now, I didn’t actually pry it out – but I think it’s easy to do. Disclaimer: I’m not sure what will happen if you actually pry it out. Do it at your own risk.
Camera
Since we’re talking about the camera bump already, let’s talk about the cameras themselves! They are practically the same as the previous generation, so does it actually matter?
Honestly, I don’t think so. I like the picture quality coming out of the Galaxy A56. The pictures are sharp and have great clarity. The colors are not the best, though it does look good overall.
To have a look at all the pictures and videos taken at Taiwan with the Samsung Galaxy A56, watch our video at the top of this review.
Screen
Now, the screen on this phone is a pretty standard one. It’s using a Super AMOLED screen with 2340×1080 pixels in resolution and goes up to 120Hz refresh rate as well.
From our test, the maximum auto brightness is at around 1150 nits it is indeed great enough for outdoor usage under sunlight.
The color accuracy though, is as complicated as the Galaxy S series. So, let me summarize it for you. There are a total of 4 different color profiles that we can choose from – the natural color profile, vividness level 1, 2, and 3.
Ramping up the vividness does ramp up to DCI-P3 color gamut coverage to around 95%, and it’s not as good as the Galaxy S series. I mean, that makes sense since the Galaxy A series is using a different screen anyway. However, the ΔE number is very low despite cranking up the vividness to the maximum – so that’s good.
Performance
And now, the one thing that many of you are curious about – the performance. The new Galaxy A56 is using the new Exynos 1580 chipset and this chipset is actually great. In day-to-day usage, this chipset is snappy and fast. Though, the gaming situation is a bit weird as of now.
You see, since this Exynos 1580 was released without any game developers optimizing their games for it, there will be some weird issues like unsupported drivers, hence having graphical errors like COD Warzone.
Some other games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero ran well, slightly better than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Remember, it’s without any optimizations yet.
This is the exact same situation as the S24 series with the Exynos 2400 when it was first released. Reviewers like me who got the device early will encounter this issue – and it’s important to understand what’s going on.
I will revisit this later to see how well the Exynos 1580 actually performs in games.
Battery life
How’s the battery life of the Exynos 1580 then? Honestly, it’s okay. It lasted 15 hours in our standardized battery life test and there’s nothing out of the ordinary here. There is a 10%-ish efficiency improvement over the previous generation – and that is to be expected from generation to generation.
Oh – I also used the Galaxy A56 as my WiFi hotspot phone in Taiwan, providing internet to 4 other different devices all the time, for the full day. And I still have a lot of battery left at the end of the day.
Charging speed
Now Samsung did improve the charging speed on the Galaxy A56. It now supports 45W charging. However, from our charging test though, Samsung doesn’t actually utilize the full 45W available. It’s only the first few minutes or so where it shoots up to around 43W for a short while before dropping back to 15W.
It actually stays around 15% most of the time though, and that’s why it takes around 88 minutes to charge completely. I honestly think that Samsung can push the wattage higher to achieve must faster charging since the temperature is around 37.5°C at most. Some other phones we tried can even go up to 42.5°C.
Maybe Samsung can change the charging behavior via a software update – but this is what we have now.
Software
The software though, is a bit of a weird one. You see, the Galaxy A56 is also using One UI 7. However, there are a few changes done to the UI. First, since the fingerprint scanner is low – which I don’t like but the way, the Now Bar is now placed higher.
I don’t really have any issues with it though some animations are still incomplete, in my opinion. Look at Spotify. When we tap on it, the wallpaper flickers.
Other than that, the Now Brief is not found in the Galaxy A56. Yeah, that one feature that summarizes your life a few times a day is not found on the Galaxy A56.
Other features though, are about the same. We have a setup guide on how I set up my Samsung device – so you can watch it at the top right corner there. Most of the things apply to the Galaxy A series too.
A few more things to mention
Okay, a few more things to mention. The Galaxy A56 still uses a USB 2.0 port at the bottom and does not have display output via USB-C, and unfortunately – Samsung also removed the microSD card slot on the A56. This is a big change compared to the previous generation. No idea why Samsung did this, but this is what we have now.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A56?
So, should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A56? I’m going to say – yes. But, under some conditions. If you are already using the A55, then I don’t think it’s worthy of an upgrade. Anything older than the A55 though, then yes – it’s a good upgrade. While there are not many changes from the A56 compared to the A55, the upgrades become prominent when compared to the A54.
The cameras on the Galaxy A56 are exceptionally great too – and yet the price is basically the same as the A55 from the last generation. At RM1,999, this is an enticing offer compared to other phones available in the market. I mean, we can already can get free storage upgrade now – but if you’re not into that, there should be a discount coming later.
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