It sports a marginally bigger screen, a more powerful SoC, a better GPU and faster wired charging.
The other reason Im covering this gadget is because it also has rugged credentials.
Similarly, the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+, enabling it to handle calamities more easily.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
And its certainly a strong candidate for ourbest-rugged phoneround-up.
Each SKU comes in all four colours: Pink, Olive, Graphite and light.
Samsung chose not to include a bumper or power supply with this phone.
The only other external features are the USB-C port and a SIM card slot.
For those who like Samsungs other Galaxy designs, there is relatively little to complain about here.
This SoC offers eight cores in three clusters, only a portion of which are Samsung-designed.
A single-performance Cortex-A720 core is clocked at 2.91GHz, and another two A720 cores run at 2.6GHz.
Power efficiency is provided by the fine four Cortex-A520 cores that run at 1.95GHz.
It also uses LPDDR5 memory, a significant improvement over cheaper designs that use LPDDR4X.
The GPU component is an Xclipse 540, an RDNA 3 graphics processor based on an AMD design.
Not to spoil the benchmark results this early, but this graphics engine packs a serious punch.
Thats not the brightest Ive seen, with some makers quoting 2000 nits for their panels.
It can also be used in different colour modes; the default is Vivid with an option for Natural.
Under these parameters, the white balance can be adjusted between cooler colours or warmer hues.
But, for those who like to move SIMs around, the card tray accepts two Nano SIMs.
However, it has two tendencies that stop it from being exceptional.
One is that under bright lighting conditions, it blows highlights.
Equally, you need excessive amounts of light to make the Macro 5MP sensor worth deploying.
If you take lots of selfie images or use a phone for conferencing, this sensor is unexpectedly good.
OGL
5037
Slingshot Ex.
Why was it downgraded on the PassMark and PCMark scores?
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Perhaps it was the amount of storage, but everything else the A56 owns.
The A56 has an always-on mode that will burn battery life even if you dont use the phone.
The software side of this equation is both a blessing and a curse.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
However, this phone has Samsung AI beside Google Gemini and, incredibly, Microsoft M365 Copilot.
Another specific Samsung problem is that the phone added a whole slew of apps that I never requested.
It even put back a few that I removed.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Six years of updates assumes that Google doesnt increase memory and processing requirements that exclude the A56.
Should I buy a Samsung Galaxy A56 5G Enterprise Edition?
It doesnt have annoying rubber plugs that can wear out, although Id be careful putting it underwater.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Therefore, it isnt ideal for a camping trip that lasts a week.
But, if you take a Power Station with you, this phone will charge rapidly.
If you carry lots of data or need to record plenty of video, this could become an issue.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Sadly, the SIM tray doesnt accept a MicroSD card, so there is no way around this limitation.
But, its not available in the USA, sadly.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
