Samsung Galaxy A56 and A36 hands-on: A budget masterclass?

Ever since Samsung teased its ultra thin Edge phone back at the unveiling of its flagship range, tech journalists and phone fans alike have been itching to get a closer look. But the latest unveiling had nothing to do with the most exciting thing to come out of Korea since BTS – it’s the latest update to the mid-range… um, range: the Samsung Galaxy A36 and the Samsung Galaxy A56. (Samsung has also announced the cheaper A26 but didn’t show that to me at my briefing.)

Despite the fact that they don’t bend when you breathe on them or cost north of £1,000, these are in some ways the most important Samsung phones of the year. Although the S25 series are the phones people lust after, these are the Samsung phones most people actually buy.

Samsung Galaxy A36: Specifications

• 6.7in FHD+ Super AMOLED display, 1200 peak brightness, Gorilla Glass Victus
• Plastic frame, Gorilla Glass Victus on rear
• Exynos 1580 processor
• 8GB RAM and 256GB storage
• 5,000mAh battery, 45W wired charging
• Camera: Main camera: 50MP f/1.8 OIS; Ultrawide: 8MP f/2.2; Macro 5MP f/2.4; Selfie: 12MP f/2.2
• Colours: black, white, lime, lavender
• Price: £399
• Availability: pre-order from 2nd March 2025; on sale from 19th March 2025

Samsung Galaxy A56: Specifications

• 6.7in Super AMOLED display, 1200 peak brightness, Gorilla Glass Victus
• Metal frame, Gorilla Glass Victus on rear
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3
• 8GB RAM and 256GB storage
• 5,000mAh battery, 45W wired charging
• Camera: 50MP f/1.8 OIS; Ultrawide: 12MP f/2.2; Macro 5MP f/2.4; Selfie: 12MP f/2.2
• Colours: graphite, olive, light grey and pink
• Price: £499
• Availability: pre-order from 2nd March 2025; on sale from 19th March 2025

Samsung Galaxy A56 and A36: Key new features and first impressions

The first thing to note is that both of the new phones have larger screens than last year, growing from 6.6in across the diagonal to 6.7in (still Super AMOLED QHD+ 120Hz) and the design has changed in a few subtle ways, too. The camera housing on the rear with its three lenses is now in a single vertical “traffic light”-style block, instead of three separate cylinders. I’m no designer, but I must say I preferred the old design.

And there are “new colours”, too. This year’s colours are branded “awesome” by Samsung but effectively are just dark grey (graphite), light grey, olive and pink for the A56, and black, white, lime and lavender for the A36.

Despite the larger screen both phones feel smaller and a little easier to handle than the old models thanks to slimmer bezels all round and generally smaller dimensions. On paper, the differences aren’t all that big, but when you’re holding something like this in your hand all the time, subtle changes can make all the differences. They both feel substantial and well made and they each retain the IP67 dust and water resistance rating from last year, too.

This year’s A-series come with what looks like the same selection of cameras on the rear as 2024’s phones: a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera and 5-megapixel macro, plus a 12-megapixel ultrawide on the A56 and 8-megapixel ultrawide on the A36. But there are changes afoot up front, with the 34-megapixel camera swapped out for a 12-megapixel f/1.2 HDR camera across both phones.

Samsung has enhanced the image editing suite, as well, with an upgraded object eraser, edit suggestions and the ability to create your own filter presets, and the newer processors in each phone should improve computational photography abilities.

And in perhaps the biggest change this year, Samsung has improved both OS and security update support, lengthening the former to six iterations and the latter to six years. That’s not quite as extensive as the Google Pixel 8a’s seven years but it’s otherwise much better than anything else around this price.

Samsung Galaxy A56 vs A36: How do they differ?

At first glance, you’d struggle to tell the difference between these two, despite the A56 5G costing £499 and the A36 5G costing £399. Pick them up, and you can see and feel the difference, however, The A36 is a touch lighter and has a plastic frame, while the A56 has a brushed aluminium frame and feels a little more solid and luxurious in the hand. You can see the difference if you take a look at the side by side shot below:

Examination of the specs sheet, meanwhile, reveals a small handful of other differences. The cheaper phone only has an 8MP ultrawide camera (the A56’s is 12MP). It also has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 (4nm) processor where the A56 has one of Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1580 models and, as a result, the A56 benefits from some extra AI features – these actually look like they might be useful, too, in a change from a lot of the AI features manufacturers are chucking at the wall right now.

The two highlights, which made their debut on the S25 series earlier in the year are Auto Trim and Best Face. Auto Trim is an automatic video editing tool that uses AI to analyse your clips and assemble an engaging edit without you having to make any decisions yourself. Best Face lets you take a burst shot of a group of people, then takes the “best” facial expressions (in focus, open eyes, smiling etc) from each person and merges them into one shot.

The different processors will also mean slightly different image processing and may have an impact on battery life, too, although the two phones do share the same 5,000mAh battery. We’ll have those details for you once we’ve actually reviewed and tested the phones, naturally.

Samsung Galaxy A56 and A36 hands-on review: Verdict

These phones aren’t the sexiest devices on God’s green Earth, and there’s nothing really groundbreaking here in terms of new features and design. They are a little improved on the design front, which is nice, but ultimately, they’re not all that much different from last year’s handsets from a hardware point of view.

And that’s not a huge problem, of course. We liked these phones last year and we’re likely to like them this year as well. Samsung fans will love them. But we preferred the Nothing Phone (2a) last year and Google’s Pixel 8a delivers longer support and (currently) much lower prices with handsets available from around £330. With new Nothing mid-rangers and the Google Pixel 9A on the horizon, I’d respectfully suggest you hold onto your wallet.