In what’s set to be the start of an almighty mid-range smartphone battle, detailed renders of the Samsung Galaxy A56 have appeared online, following hot on the heels of a similar Pixel 9a leak.
The Pixel 9a may be the hot mid-ranger on everyone’s lips right now, but the Samsung Galaxy A56 is likely to provide stiff competition. It’s certainly going to be a looker if leaked renders from a trusted tipster are anything to go by.
What’s the Galaxy A56 going to look like?
Trusted leaker Evan Blass (aka Evleaks) has posted four GIFs of the Galaxy A56, one for each colour, rotating on the spot. They reveal a device that looks quite a lot like last year’s Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, but this time available in silver, pink, black, and green (Samsung’s colourway naming is tbc).
As with last year’s model, it looks quite a lot like the flagship Galaxy S series (this year represented by the Galaxy S25), with a familiar flat-edged aluminium frame and gently curved corners.
As before, the defining feature is a set of power and volume controls that bulge out from the side of the phone. In my experience, this design quirk actually makes the phone quite nice to hold and particularly easy to operate.
The display reveals a much thicker bezel, especially around the chin, which betrays the phone’s budget status. Around back, the camera module is now one cohesive unit, which represents a subtle change up from the Galaxy A55 5G.
Evan Blass
What else do we know about the Galaxy A56?
The Samsung Galaxy A56 has already made an appearance on Geekbench 6, which points to the phone packing Samsung’s home-made Exynos 1580 processor with a fresh 1+3+4 core configuration. It could represent quite the performance bump over the Exynos 1480 that powered the Galaxy A55 5G.
Don’t expect any great advances in the camera department, though. We’re likely to see the same combo of a 50Mp main camera, a 12Mp ultrawide, and a 5Mp macro. The main advance could be a new and improved 12Mp selfie camera.
The phone has also appeared in both Chinese and German certifications with a 5000mAh battery and 45W wired charging. The latter would represent quite the advance over the Galaxy A55 5G’s 25W, and would be a surprising match for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung’s next mid-range contender is set to launch in March, the same month as the Pixel 9a and a month ahead of Apple’s hotly anticipated iPhone SE 4.
It’s a little late for New Year’s predictions, but it’s looking as if 2025 is going to be a great year for anyone who wants to spend less than £500/$500 on their next phone.
