If you walk into a shop or go online to buy a new Samsung Galaxy. The shop assistant or the website will probably always try to sell you the most expensive models but maybe you shouldn’t do that. Because the reality is for a lot of people, maybe including yourself, the Galaxy A56, with its more affordable price tag, could do pretty much everything you need it to do.

So If you watch this until the end and answer the 6 important questions and then finally you can decide if A56 is in fact the Android youve been looking for, And If that is the case, why would you spend more? And that's why I'm making this Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus vs Galaxy A56. So let's explore the differences between these galaxies.

Price - ROM/RAM

Let's start with the price differences. The base model of the Galaxy A56 starts at £499. It's not cheap, but compared to today's flagship prices, it kind of is. For your £499, you can get 256GB storage and 8GB RAM. And there are 4 awesome colour options. The S25 starts at double the price. And for £999 you get the same amount of storage at 256GB, but with 12GB RAM that's an additional 4GB. With that said, in some countries, you can pay more for 12GB RAM on the Galaxy A56 if you wanted.

Doing this could give you marginally faster load times on backgrounding apps & can make a more noticeable difference if you like to play graphically demanding games, or use video editing apps on your phone. Also, a key difference is that while both phones have 256GB of storage, the chips are different. The S25 uses UFS 4.0 Vs the A56’s UFS 3.1. Put simply, the read speed is 100% faster, and the write speed is 133% on the S25. My opinion is that the difference this makes will only be noticeable to you if your current phone uses UFS 4.

Q1. How fast is fast enough for you?

Display Difference

Essentially, that price bump for the S25? Yeah, it's mostly down to this.. There are 3 significant differences between the displays. Both have 120Hz 6.7" Samsung Amoleds panels, but that's where the similarities stop. The A56 is an FHD+ panel with 385ppi, and the S25 uses a QHD panel with 128 additional pixels per inch. Making the difference in sharpness noticeable side by side, but it's a difference you'll only notice if your current phone is more pixel-dense than 385ppi. So it might be worth downloading Geekbench and going to the My Device section to see what your current pixel per inch is. The second big difference is the brightness, with the A56 having a respectable 1900 Nits peak brightness. Not too long ago, this would have been considered the flagship level. But of course, the more expensive S25 Plus is brighter by roughly 27%.

The third big difference is Galaxy S25 Plus uses a LTPO display, a newer screen tech that allows the screen to adjust between 120 Hertz and just one Hertz. This makes the display more efficient, ensuring a smooth and reliable performance. The Galaxy A56 can adjust refresh rates but not quite as dynamically as the S25, so the refresh rates can only jump from 30 to 60 to 90 and 120HZ. Which is still very good. The advantage that the S25 has is that it's LTPO could help some animations and some gaming graphics feel smoother. And boost battery performance. Samsung is aware of this and has balanced it out on the A56. We will come back to that shortly. But here's the second important question to ask yourself.

Q2. Is display brightness more important than HD graphics and Gaming to you?

Design Difference

Ok, now let's talk about some of the design & hardware differences. I'm sure you've spotted this already, but the bezel thickness around the display is much thinner than that of the Galaxy S25. If you're the type of person who throws on a chunky case, the kind that's more likely to damage the pavement than your phone. Then the borders won't bother you.

Q.3 Do the borders bother you?

While we are talking about durability, both have aluminium frames. The S25 is flat all the way round & A56 does have this raised rail section around the power and volume rocker. Both use Gorilla Glass Victus on the front. However, the S25's glass is Victus Glass 2, which is said to be quite a bit more scratch-resistant and stronger than the Victus Plus used on the A56. Another difference is that the S25 can survive in slightly deeper waters than the A56 with its IP68 ingress protection rating. Also, beneath the glass, the fingerprint scanners used here are different. The A56 uses an optical scanner & the S25 uses a sonic scanner, which is slightly faster and more accurate.

In regards to dimensions, the A56 is 3.5mm taller and 1.7mm wider, and this is probably due to the thicker borders all the way around. The A56 is also 1mm thicker and it's 6 grams heavier. These are not differences that will change your mind. But maybe the colour options might…the S25 does have some pretty bold online exclusive colours. But this could be a deciding factor. If photography is important to you, the camera a quite different.

Camera Differences.

In regard to the camera. Of course, the visible design differences. with the S25 you get those individual floating lens rings around each camera. The A56 has more of an all-in-one setup, but if you look at it from the side, it also has that floating design. Both obviously have a triple camera array & interestingly, the most important camera, the primary 1X, uses the same 50MP sensor. However, the image processing will be slightly different, and I'll explain why in a moment. Can you notice a difference between the primary cameras here?

Now, this is where they start to differ. The S25 Plus can shoot 8K video at 30FPS, and the A56 goes up to 4K at 30FPS. Which is more than what most people would ever need. The Ultra Wide cameras both use 12MP sensors, but they're not the same. The physical size of the sensor is around 20 larger than the S25. Making the sensor more sensitive. So, it should be better on paper, but can you notice that here? The most significant difference between the third camera setup is that on the A56 is a 5MP macro for those close-up shots. Which is nice to have. The S25 in its place has a 10MP telephoto with 3X Optical zoom. The perfect inconspicuous spy tool. Really though its also a nice to have option.

Q.4 How important are higher quality ultra-wide shots to you & would you even use the telephoto camera?

Galaxy S25 Plus

50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS

10 MP, f/2.4, 67mm (telephoto), 1/3.94", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom.

12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55" 1.4µm, Super Steady video

8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS

Selfie

12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.2", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF

4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps

Galaxy A56 Selfie

50 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.2, (wide)

12 MP, f/2.2, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/3.06", 1.12µm 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 10-bit HDR

5 MP, f/2.4, (macro)

4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS

Performance Difference

The Selfie cameras use the same 12MP camera with the same F2.2 aperture. And if you're seeing a difference here, it's likely due to the difference in chipsets. This is another big difference, the chips. These handle everything on the phones, including image processing. The efficiency of these affects performance and battery life. The S25's uses the best 3NM chip available to Android users. And it's overclocked. It is, of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. The Galaxy A56 uses a 4NM chip, one of Samsung's own. It's called the Exynos 1580. It's not a bad processor, capable of all your daily tasks and backgrounding and even Ai. You'll start to feel a difference in Apps where you push it to its limits, for example, Genshin Impact on maxed-out settings.

Q5. How powerful do you need your phone to be? Are you ever going to use it for graphically intense Apps for long periods of time?

Battery & Charging Difference

Also, due to the fact that the A56’s Exynos chip is slightly less efficient, the battery life may suffer. But, like I said before, Samsung has given the A56 a little boost in the battery department. The Galaxy A56 does have a slightly more power-hungry display and chipset, but it has a larger 5000mAh battery than the Galaxy 25's 4900mAh battery. And I had to put this to the test by just leaving the phones playing videos on YouTube

The charging speeds are the same at 45-watt peak, which means you get a similar recharge time. But here's something you'd need to pay more for. The S25 supports Qi wireless charging and reverse charging, whereas the A56 does not.

Q6. Do you use Wireless charging, or would you ever use reverse charging?

Software Difference

The last question you might have is about the software & What, if any, are the differences when it comes to using the phone? Both run on Android 15 with Samsung's latest One UI7, the Galaxy A56 gets 6 years of software & security updates. And the Galaxy s25 gets 7 years. The software experience is identical to the S25, which feels just a little snappier and more fluid from time to time. However, many people would not be disappointed with the overall speed of the Galaxy A56.

So the final question is. Do you care about the user interface being marginally faster & do you plan to keep your phone for longer than 6 years?

So, now hopefully I've armed you with the main things you need to know so that you don't make a mistake & and end up having to walk around face for the next 6 or 7 years. When it comes to software features & AI. Samsung's implementation of this is class-leading. The amount of customisation features & tricks, and hidden settings is really next level. And if you want to really see what this phone can do. Check out my 'First Things to do' guide.