Samsung Galaxy A36 vs. Galaxy A56
If you're looking to get one of the new Galaxy A series phones, the comparison between the more expensive Samsung Galaxy A56 and the cheaper Samsung Galaxy A36 is inevitable.
At the time of writing, the Galaxy A56 starts at around â¬479 (we expect a $500 US price), while you can get a Galaxy A36 starting at around â¬379/$399. The price difference we are looking at is a nice round 100 bucks, which is quite a bit in this price bracket.
So how much better is the Samsung Galaxy A56 to deserve its price premium? Let's look into it.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following text.
Size comparison
The two phones are practically identical in size. Both are built around a 6.7-inch display and have the same footprint. The weight isn't noticeably different, either.
Overall, you have to look for really subtle design differences to tell the two apart, like the slightly different rear camera island design, for example.
While both phones are well-made and feel solid, there is one notable difference in the bill of materials. The Galaxy A56 has an aluminum middle frame, whereas the A36 has to settle for a plastic one.
The frame on the A56 also has an extra nice brushed metal finish. On the other hand, the Galaxy A36 comes in a few arguably livelier color options.
Other than that, both phones have a pair of Gorilla Glass Victus+ sheets covering their backs and fronts.
They both have an IP67 ingress protection rating for surviving up to 30 minutes in a 1m deep fresh water.
Neither phone has a microSD card slot, in stark contrast to last year's models. You can only find a microSD slot in the Galaxy A26 this year.
The rest of the controls are very similar across the pair, like an under-display optical fingerprint reader and a stereo speaker setup.
Connectivity is quite similar between the two phones, too. Both get SA/NSA Sub-6 5G connectivity on both of their physical Nano-SIM slots, plus up to two eSIM cards.
Local connectivity is handled by dual-band Wi-Fi 6 on both phones. Both also get NFC, but not in every market.
In case you were wondering, there is no 3.5mm audio jack or FM radio receiver on either one.
One small difference is that the A56 gets Bluetooth 5.3 while the A36 interestingly gets Bluetooth 5.4.
Both phones are equipped with Samsung's virtual proximity sensors.
Display comparison
We are fairly certain that the two phones use identical display panels. Both measure 6.7 inches in diagonal and have a 1080x2340 pixel resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
In our standardized testing we got very similar maximum brightness figures of around 1200 nits.
Both phones have enough brightness to be comfortable outdoors in the sun.