The Galaxy A56 is the worst mid-range phone I used in 2025

www.androidcentral.com

It is a half baked review, IMO. The author says that despite having 45 W charging, the phone takes 75 mins to charge. Samsung really slows down it's charging speeds post 80%, so testing from 0 to 100 is not a good criterion at all.

Plus, he forgets to mention that Samsung skips on a microSD card for A56 which was present on A55. Though in Samsung's favor, they are offering 6 OS upgrades and I doubt any other OEM except Google matches it.

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5d ago

The Galaxy A56 is the worst mid-range phone I used in 2025

www.androidcentral.com /phones/samsung-galaxy/the-galaxy-a56-is-the-worst-mid-range-phone-i-used-in-2025

42 comments

$500 for an A series is insane. You can get a refurbished S24 for $100 less with a way better processor.
- Remember when it was a joke that the iPhone cost that much? "It's $500, you have no choice of carrier, the battery doesn't hold a charge, and the reception isn't very..."

Not to be on Samsung's side, but maybe they slowed the end charge to avoid any battery overcharge issues?
- I think even some Chinese OEMs throttle somewhat post 80% (and/or give user the option to limit charging upto that point only). I have a spare entry level Samsung phone. It supports 25 W charging though it gets very slow post 80%. It's not a big deal because the battery capacity is good and with an efficient chipset and 60Hz display, it does way better than my main Realme phone which I need to charge almost twice daily.
  
  everyone does. It's how the lithium battery charging cycle works.

My personal experience with Samsung phones is that they are rubbish, slow, full of bloat you can't remove. Maybe the high end are good, but the A-series have no business being so bad for the price.
- The bloat! It used to be apps but now it is baked in with knox, samsung services, ugh
  I have been thinking about getting a S24 Ultra purrly for its AI less flagship position with stylus but I cannot pull the trigger on a samsung device.
  
  How about a Sony Xperia phone?
- They've gotten a bit better with this lately I think. Although it has certainly gotten slower over the years, my A52 4G is definitely still usable despite being released over 4yr ago as a mid-range phone.
  
  A bit better maybe, but still the worst phones you can possibly buy, in my humble opinion.
  I had a Samsung A50 for some time. Worst phone I've ever see in my life. Terrible build quality, the thing came apart all by itself, and it's my work phone that I really use at a minimum. And the worst is how slooooow this phone as always been.
  Last year I got it "upgraded" to a A35 5G, it's a little faster, but the build quality still seems to be rubbish and the bloatware is through the roof !
- I hate the mandatory "updates" which is only a prompt to install "suggested" apps. Even when deselecting everything, it still starts downloading TEMU. Fuck that.
  
  Yes ! I've got the exact same experience, it was mad ! Pop-up to update a bunch of baggage apps I would never ever want, I dismiss it for it to appear again exactly one week later. I untick everything and press next. It installed the stuff anyway ! This should be illegal.

Do they really have no microSD card slot or is it one of those that you can use 2 sim or 1 sim + 1 microSD?
- No card slot according to GSM Arena
- Samsung dropped SD Card support a while back, and it's fucking stupid. The EU should find a way to go after them.
- They removed sdcard slot support in A36 and A56 series phone.
- Friend bought one and brought him a high capacity sd I wasn't using, to my surprise it genuinely didn't have a slot for it.

My $350AU (~$200US) Motorola G84 has been near perfect for the price. Only the camera sucks a bit, and Facebook Messenger notifications are unreliable; but it shits all over the A20.A30 I had before. Of course, Motorola is a gamble itself though - for example with this phone, you can't use the camera if you're connected to 5G on some networks, and they won't fix it.

Too much bloatware.

I mean, LineageOS offer around 9 years of support, depending on device. You could turn your back on the corps and install a ROM made by and for the people. LineageOS and others are mostly there to support phones for many years after the manufacturer quits. Reference: 2011 phone with 2020 software and Google security updates
- But in the vast seas of phones, Lineage OS still supports a very small subset. Major players like Google or Samsung are covered but a LOT are skipped.
  If one's phone supports Lineage OS, well and good but it's not a fix all
  
  If you have the technical-know-how and the patience, you can install LineageOS on unsupported devices. It might be unstable but, again, if you know what you are doing, you can get around many of the issues.
  
  Most people who use and support custom roms make sure the phone they're buying is supported before hitting the checkout button.
- Want to but can't install it. It is too hard.
  
  I'm genuinely curious: what about it is "too hard"?
- Make sure the cell provider hasn't banned the model. AT&T banned a bunch of perfectly good unlockable international phones and kept the locked local ones not supporting lineage. They still work of course, just can't make calls.
- Lineage tends to work mostly on older phones.

the A series as a whole has been nothing but a disappointment from my observations. The a50, 51 and 52 have all sucked, the a11 and a12 series were subpar at best and the a20/21 series might as well not existed.
after the third continuous series of disappointment I stopped following the series though so maybe it's better.

42 comments