The Galaxy A56 has a faster chipset, a more premium design, and a better ultra-wide camera than the A36, but it’s not leagues ahead of its cheaper sibling.
For
- Healthy dose of AI features
- An impressive jack-of-all-trades
- Serious value at its price point
Against
- Middling performance
- Lacks full Galaxy AI suite
- No wireless charging
You’ll have to settle for a plastic (rather than aluminum) frame, but the Galaxy A36 is a great no-frills handset on paper. We haven’t reviewed it yet, mind.
For
- Bright, vibrant display
- Great software support
- Strong build quality
Against
- Not particularly powerful
- No MicroSD slot
- So-so battery life
The Samsung Galaxy A56 and Samsung Galaxy A36 are both mid-range alternatives to the pricier Samsung Galaxy S25, but they’re far from identical phones.
Sure, they share many similarities, but their chipsets, cameras, and designs are different from one another, meaning they’re intended for different types of users.
Below, then, we compare the Galaxy A56 and the Galaxy A36, looking at key features like their screens, battery life, photography prowess, and more. You’ll find our full verdict on the former phone in our Samsung Galaxy A56 review, but we haven’t yet reviewed the latter, which is worth bearing in mind as you read.
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: specs comparison
Before we dive deep into the similarities and differences between these two phones, let’s take a look at their key specs, so you can see how they stack up at a glance.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Samsung Galaxy A56 |
Samsung Galaxy A36 |
|---|---|---|
|
Dimensions: |
162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4mm |
162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4mm |
|
Weight: |
198g |
195g |
|
Display: |
6.7-inch Super AMOLED |
6.7-inch Super AMOLED |
|
Resolution: |
1080 x 2340 |
1080 x 2340 |
|
Refresh rate: |
120Hz |
120Hz |
|
Chipset: |
Exynos 1580 |
Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 |
|
Rear cameras: |
50MP wide; 12MP ultrawide; 5MP macro |
50MP wide; 8MP ultrawide; 5MP macro |
|
Front camera: |
12MP |
12MP |
|
RAM: |
8GB |
6GB / 8GB |
|
Storage: |
128GB / 256GB |
128GB / 256GB |
|
Battery: |
5,000mAh |
5,000mAh |
|
Charging: |
45W wired |
45W wired |
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: price and availability
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The Samsung Galaxy A56 and Samsung Galaxy A36 were both announced on March 2, 2025, and began shipping on March 10, so they’re widely available now.
The available configurations differ by region, though. In the US, for example, the Galaxy A36 costs $399.99 and comes with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, while the Samsung Galaxy A56 isn’t currently available.
In the UK, the Galaxy A36 costs £399 and the Galaxy A56 costs £499, and in both cases they come with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
And in Australia, the Galaxy A36 costs AU$549, for which you get a version with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. The Galaxy A56 costs AU$699 for the model with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, and AU$799 for the model with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
So, in the UK, the Galaxy A56 is £100 more than the A36, while in Australia, it’s AU$150 more. In the US, you can’t currently get the pricier phone.
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: design and display
At a glance, the Samsung Galaxy A56 and Samsung Galaxy A36 look very similar. They both have flat screens and a similar overall design, with a punch-hole selfie camera, flat sides, glass backs, and similarly shaped camera blocks.
They also have similar dimensions, with the Galaxy A56 measuring 162.2 x 77.5 x 7.4mm and the Galaxy A36 measuring 162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4mm – so, the A56 is slightly shorter and narrower, but not dramatically so. The Galaxy A56 is also marginally heavier, at 198g to the A36’s 195g.
The bigger difference, though, comes in the frame, because while the Galaxy A56 has an aluminum frame, the Galaxy A36’s is plastic. Their available colors also differ, with the Galaxy A56 being available in Pink, Olive, Graphite, and Lightgray, and the Galaxy A36 shipping in Lavender, Black, White, and Lime.
Both phones have identical water resistance, with an IP67 rating, meaning they can survive depths of up to 1 meter (in fresh water) for up to 30 minutes.
As for their screens, both phones have a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 1080 x 2340 resolution, and a peak brightness of 1,900 nits. So, there’s nothing to separate them in the display department.
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: cameras
The Galaxy A56 and Galaxy A36 both have a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), and also a 5MP f/2.4 macro snapper. But their ultra-wides differ, with the Galaxy A56 having a 12MP f/2.2 one and the Galaxy A36 getting an 8MP f/2.2 one.
So, you get a few extra megapixels for ultra-wide shots with the pricier phone, but that’s the only real camera difference, with both also able to record video in up to 4K quality, and having 12MP f/2.2 front-facing cameras.
In our review of the Galaxy A56, we said the following: “Simply put, the Galaxy A56 takes some seriously good photos – at any distance. While a higher megapixel count is great, it’s the phone’s image processing that determines the results.
“The Galaxy A55 struggled with this: while it produced crisp, well-defined shots, many mid-range and budget phones tend to over-process images, making colors look too saturated and unnatural. The A56 avoids both extremes. While photos come out slightly cooler than I’d prefer, they’re impressively natural, detailed, and well balanced.”
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: performance and software
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Performance is one of the main differences between these phones, as while the Samsung Galaxy A56 has an Exynos 1580 chipset, the Samsung Galaxy A36 has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. As you might expect, the former outperforms the latter in benchmarks, but we’ll let you know how they compare, specifically, when we’ve put both phones through full reviews.
For reference, here’s how we described the performance of the Galaxy A56 in our Galaxy A56 review:
“In our Geekbench benchmark tests – which measure the phone’s CPU performance in everyday tasks and GPU performance in real-world applications, the A56 performed well – beating the gaming-powered Poco F6 Pro, and only falling a few hundred points short of the Pixel 9.
“However, in our two 3DMark benchmarks – Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme – that test the overall graphics performance and how the phone deals with both high performance in short bursts, it didn’t look so good.
“Its numbers aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, it showed a massive improvement over the A55 in both. However, its single and multi-core scores of 1,330 and 3,759 weren’t too far ahead of the Motorola Edge 50 Pro (1,132 / 3,076) – which isn’t known for its gaming power. The A56 was also thoroughly beaten by the Poco F6 Pro (1,375 / 4,733), and both phones can easily be found for around the same price or less.”
It’s clear, then, that neither the Galaxy A56 nor the Galaxy A36 are particularly powerful phones, but they’ll certainly get the job done for most everyday tasks.
Their RAM and storage configurations are more complicated, since these vary a lot by region, as detailed in the pricing section. But both phones can, in theory, come with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. Both can also come with up to 8GB of RAM – though there’s also a 6GB version of the Samsung Galaxy A36 in some regions.
In fact, there’s also a 12GB version of both phones in some countries, but not currently in any regions we cover.
For software, both phones run Android 15 with Samsung’s One UI 7 over the top, and both come with the promise of up to six major Android version updates.
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: battery
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This section will be short, as both the Samsung Galaxy A56 and the Samsung Galaxy A36 have a 5,000mAh battery, and both charge at up to 45W.
That’s a decent rate for a mid-range Samsung phone, considering that’s all the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra can manage, and is faster than the base Samsung Galaxy S25. However, neither phone supports wireless charging.
In our full review of the Galaxy A56, we said the following: “For everyday use – texting, calling, video chatting, scrolling social media, checking emails, and some light gaming – the A56 is more than up to the task, easily lasting a full day.” We’d expect the same to be true of the Galaxy A36.
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Samsung Galaxy A36: verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A56 and Samsung Galaxy A36 are very similar phones overall, but with a few notable differences.
The biggest is arguably their chipsets, with the Galaxy A56 likely to offer superior performance. The Samsung Galaxy A56 also has more megapixels in its ultra-wide camera, and a slightly more premium design, thanks, primarily, to the use of aluminum rather than plastic in its frame.
That aside, though, the only real difference is the price. Well, that and the availability, with the actual configurations varying a lot depending on what country you’re in – and in some cases, you might not be able to buy one of these phones at all, which makes deciding between them rather easier.
We’re just looking at the on-paper specs here, though, so for a clearer idea of how these phones perform in practice, keep an eye out for our full reviews.
