The Galaxy A series is one of Samsung’s most popular and best-selling smartphone lineups, known for delivering premium design and features at a more affordable price than the flagship Galaxy S series. For 2025, Samsung unveiled the 
Top to bottom: Two x Daylight, One x Lowlight images from the primary rear camera [Tap to expand]
The ultrawide camera produces good images in daylight conditions, but you’ll notice less detail and an okay dynamic range. It doesn’t perform very well in low-light conditions, with images showcasing noise and blurry details. The Macro camera is also nothing great, but it can be fun when there’s plenty of light. Selfies on the A56 are quite good, with enough details and good dynamic range.
Top – Daylight; Bottom – Lowlight ultrawide shots [Tap to expand]
Moving on to video, the Galaxy A56 supports 4K 30fps recording across all cameras, except for the Macro camera. The primary rear camera performed decently well in both daytime and night videos. Daylight videos have a good amount of detail and colour reproduction with very less noise. Nighttime videos do introduce some noise, but it’s pretty usable. The ultrawide and front camera also shoot good videos in daylight conditions with good details and vivid colours. You get OIS in the primary camera, but the phone utilises EIS in 4K resolution. The stabilisation is pretty good, but you will notice jitters if you start running with the phone. You also get 360 audio recording and audio playback features.
The Galaxy A36 does a good job with its main rear camera, especially in daylight shots. The images offer plenty of detail, vibrant colours, and a wide dynamic range. However, the exposure is inconsistent. In low-light conditions, the primary camera produces decent and usable results.
Top – Daylight photo; Bottom – Lowlight photo from the main rear camera [Tap to expand]
The ultrawide camera on the phone is okayish at best, but the images are usable. It’s the same with the macro camera. Lastly, the selfie camera on the phone performs well in daylight conditions with images offering good details, but its low-light performance isn’t great.
Top – Ultrawide daylight; Bottom – Ultrawide lowlight [Tap to expand]
In terms of video performance, the A36 lets you shoot 4K 30fps videos using the main rear and the selfie camera. Video quality from the main rear camera is good with adequate details and punchy colours during daylight. Night videos are noisy and offer less detail. The stabilisation is decent on the main camera, but you’ll notice some shakes. You can shoot 1080p videos using the ultrawide camera, but the output isn’t anything great. Daylight ultrawide videos are usable, but lowlight performance is poor.
Samsung Galaxy A56 and Galaxy A36 Battery: Nothing great
- Capacity – 5,000mAh (Both)
- Charging speed – 45W (Both)
Both phones feature a 5,000mAh battery, the same capacity as their predecessors. Add the brighter and slightly larger display and more powerful processors, and you get lower battery life compared to the A55 and A35.
The Galaxy A56 and A36 offer the same battery capacity as their predecessors
In the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, the Galaxy A56 delivered a runtime of 12 hours and 13 minutes, whereas the Galaxy A36 lasted 12 hours and 2 minutes. During the review, I did get a day’s worth of life from both phones with 4-6 hours of screen-on-time depending on usage.
As for charging, both handsets support 45W fast charging, but you will need to use a 5A cable to attain this speed, as the cable provided in the box doesn’t support it. In our charging tests, the Galaxy A56 and A36 attained a full charge in about 1 hour and 20 minutes, charging from 10 percent.
Samsung Galaxy A56 and Galaxy A36 Verdict
The Galaxy A56 and Galaxy A36 are excellent mid-range phones, offering great software support, premium design, high-quality displays, decent cameras, and adequate performance. However, there are plenty of other phones in the same price bracket that offer better performance, battery life, and much better cameras. If you don’t care too much about performance, cameras, and battery life, but do care about software support and premium build, then you could consider the A56 or A36, depending on your budget.
However, if performance, battery life, and cameras are higher priorities, then I’d recommend the Nothing Phone 3a Pro (Review), Motorola Edge 50 Pro (Review), OnePlus Nord 5 (Review), or the Poco X7 Pro (Review) instead of the Galaxy A56. For those considering the Galaxy A36, you could again look at the Poco X7 Pro or the Nothing Phone 3a (Review).
Samsung’s Galaxy A56 and Galaxy A36, while good phones, are definitely outshone by the competition, especially when you consider the pricing.