Samsung A56 Review: A Mid-Tier Contender Offering Plenty for the Price

In the midst of the global cost-of-living crisis we’re all currently battling through, the opportunities to secure some decent bang for your buck have grown increasingly few and far between. Fortunately, Samsung is looking to buck that trend with its new mid-range A56 smartphone, which offers a polished experience with some high-end touches for just AUD$699. Impressively, despite everything else becoming more expensive, this is actually a discount from the last generation’s AUD$749 price point. 

With the promise of six years of OS and security updates, paired with some nifty ‘Awesome Intelligence’ functionality, a long-lasting battery, and solid camera performance, it’s a formidable offering at this tier. While the A56 probably won’t convert those used to the full flagship experience—and to be fair, it’s not really aimed at them—as a value proposition, it’s hard to beat. 

With that, let’s jump into the Samsung A56’s pros and cons and see if this is the phone to help keep the cost-of-living crisis from your door. 

Why Trust Us

Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We’re not fans of any one brand, and we like to get our hands on the latest and greatest tech before we proclaim any product the next great thing. Over the past 10 years, we’ve built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication.


The author of this article, Rob Edwards, is one of Man of Many’s technology journalists and has followed the industry for over a decade. He’s previously reviewed competitors’ devices and was provided the A56 by Samsung for the purposes of this review. No money exchanged hands, and all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven’t been seen by Samsung ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here.

The Good: Bells and Whistles on a Budget

Handsome (if Unremarkable) Design

The A56 is a good-looking smartphone that feels more premium than its price point would suggest (there’s a theme developing here). It’s also an example of the increasing homogeneity of smartphone design and, therefore, unlikely to turn heads, but that’s just the nature of things in 2025. 

The 6.7-inch screen (6.5 inches if you account for the device’s rounded corners) provides plenty of real estate. It’s bright enough for most conditions (up to 1,200 nits), vivid, and should more than suffice for all but the most picky of smartphone users. It’s perfect for catching up on the latest content from your favourite streaming service or doomscrolling into the wee small hours, not that I’d recommend the latter. 

With a glass back and metal frame that make the most of the ‘Awesome Olive’ colourway (‘Awesome Graphite’ is also available), the A56 feels polished in the hand, although I’d recommend getting a case on it as soon as possible. After all, while smartphones are tougher than they’ve ever been—this number boasts Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and an IP67 rating—if you want to take advantage of the aforementioned six years of OS updates, you’ll want to make sure the hardware also goes the distance. 

Six Years of OS Support

Speaking of which, Samsung’s commitment to support the A56 in this manner is nothing to be scoffed at. If you find yourself still wanting the latest and greatest in the form of something like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the A56 is an ideal smartphone to purchase for one of the kids or a less-than-tech-savvy parent, as it will ensure they’re protected for the long haul.

While you can expect similar timeframes of support from the likes of the new iPhone 16e and the Pixel 9a, those devices are notably more expensive than Samsung’s latest mid-tier contender. Such long-term support at the AUD$699 price point is genuinely commendable. 

A Splash of AI

Boasting Samsung’s clean new One UI 7 user interface, the A56 has a suite of artificial intelligence features packed in. While I’ve previously described these kinds of offerings as inessential—an assessment I stand by—they’re still a welcome addition to the A56 experience. As the saying goes, it’s better to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it. 

Called ‘Awesome Intelligence’, as opposed to the more comprehensive Galaxy AI found in Samsung’s flagship devices, this suite of functions includes the always useful Circle to Search, intuitive Object Eraser for those who want to tweak their photos, and Song Search, which you can use to identify music tracks (you can even hum or sing into it). So that’s Shazam out of a job. 

While Galaxy AI is clearly more feature-packed, the reality is that Circle to Search and Object Eraser are easily two of its most useful features. If forced to choose what to keep and what to jettison in order to keep pricing down, well, I think Samsung and I have similar thoughts.

Solid Camera (for the Money)

Samsung’s cameras have always been one of the jewels in the brand’s smartphone crown and while the A56 has nothing on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it still puts in a respectable performance, exceeding expectations at this price point. 

Consisting of a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, 5-megapixel macro lens, and 12-megapixel super HDR front-facing lens, the A56 team clearly decided against taking a minimalist approach. 

While you won’t want to wield the A56 if you’re a serious content creator or professional photographer, for the everyday snaps that most people take, the A56 is absolutely up to the task. I certainly didn’t feel in any way shortchanged during my time with the device. To be clear, I’m not one of those people who needs to take photos of everything and anything I come across, nor do I expect every snap I take to be a work of art. However, the A56 comfortably captured sharable photos of my dog (a top priority), up-close snaps of watches during a recent work visit to the Vacheron Constantin boutique in Sydney, and low-light snaps of a band playing at Newtown’s Union Hotel. 

The Bad: It’s All in the Details

Fingerprint Scanner

Honestly, when you’re talking a price point of AUD$699, to describe what’s on offer here as bad feels petty. The A56’s feature set is a bargain no matter which way you slice it and despite being more accustomed to smartphones in the AUD$2,000+ range, I could easily make it my daily driver without too much of an adjustment. 

But given I have to nitpick, I could argue that the fingerprint scanner could do with another pass. More frequently than it should, it failed to recognise my finger multiple times in a row and forced me to use my pin to unlock the phone. Even after erasing my fingerprints and setting them up again, this continued to happen. Not a dealbreaker, but mildly annoying when it would happen. 

Ugly Camera Module

The big black camera module on the back of the phone is aesthetically underwhelming and undermines the overall sleekness of the device, if only a touch. Reminiscent of a giant mole or skin tag that needs removing, it just doesn’t look great. But it’s not that different from the offerings on other contemporary devices.  

Like I said, I’m really nitpicking here. 

Many of Many’s Verdict on the Samsung A56

The Samsung A56 is a good smartphone that isn’t really looking to push the envelope in any particular direction except when it comes to value for money. In that regard, it’s an undeniable success, and its timing couldn’t be better given the pinch many are feeling under today’s economic conditions. 

For anyone seeking a phone that punches above its weight, won’t break the bank, and has just enough premium features for you to genuinely forget (at times) that you’re not using a far more expensive handset, the A56 is undoubtedly worth a look.