Samsung Galaxy A56 5G $500 Samsung Galaxy A56 5G does a lot of things well, mostly in terms of design and battery, but its performance is merely fine, and the lack of wireless charging feels like an oversight. It's a serviceable enough phone, but put against other Galaxy devices, it's hard to see why you'd pick the middle, and things get even more competitive when you look at the competition from other brands.
It’s been a few years since Samsung has offered its top-level Galaxy A device officially in the US — since 2023, in fact. Back then, its Galaxy A54 5G challenged Google’s Pixel 7a as its closest rival, combining a triple-camera system and a robust 5,000mAh battery to win users away from the simplicity of Pixel UI and the reliability of Google’s image processing. By all accounts, it was a good $500 phone, offering more than enough bang for your buck.
Then, it disappeared. Well, Samsung decided not to offer the Galaxy A55 5G in the States, anyway, making its sub-flagship Fan Edition the go-to option instead. And over the course of that break, the affordable Android market has changed entirely. Rivals like OnePlus and Motorola have stepped up their game, and Google’s Pixel A series is better than ever.
So, now that Samsung wants to reclaim its mid-range market share, it has a much steeper hill to climb — one that I’m not entirely sure the Galaxy A56 5G can make it to the top of. Here’s why I think Samsung might have missed its window.
A hint of Galaxy designs to come?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
As someone who’s spent time with just about every Galaxy A launch over the last few years, I’ve had quite a lot of fun with them. Do they often earn headlines? No, almost never, but I’ve noticed that they’re frequently used as testing grounds for Samsung to work out its design kinks. Usually, what it does to its Galaxy A launches, it will also do to the flagship Galaxy S series — even if it takes a year or two.
To see what I mean, look no further than the Galaxy A14 5G. That phone, which is now almost three years old, was the first to abandon its camera bump in favor of three corner-mounted rings, beating the Galaxy S24 series to market by just a few months. Interestingly, it also helped speed up Samsung’s pivot from slightly rounded frames to sharp, angular ones, because not every design change is a good one, I guess.
But what does any of this have to do with the Galaxy A56 5G? Well, just like its Galaxy A26 and A36 siblings, it looks like Samsung’s top Galaxy A device represents the start of something new — or, maybe old. Yes, after a few years of equating mid-range to minimalist, Samsung has finally brought back a camera bump. All three of the Galaxy A56’s rear sensors (which I’ll talk about in a bit) sit on one pill-shaped bump in the top left corner of the phone, and I couldn’t be happier.
Seriously, I’m actually excited about something this simple. I never thought I would be, especially when mid-range options from Motorola, OnePlus, and more make big camera bumps look commonplace, but this feels like something that Samsung so badly needed. It takes the Galaxy A56 5G from looking like a generic phone that Apple would use in its iPhone vs Android comparisons to, well, something just a little bit more exciting than that.
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