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What's up, guys? And welcome back to our head-to-head series. Today, we're comparing Samsung's new mid-ranger, the Galaxy A57, with last year's model, the Samsung Galaxy A56. Is the A57 a genuine generational leap or just a prettier face? Let's go through all of our test results and find out. Samsung has made some serious refinements to the design this year. The A57 is thinner than the A56 and about 20 g lighter. The materials are the same, though, Gorilla Glass Victus Plus and aluminum.
Also, the Galaxy A57 is IP68 rated, up from IP67 last year. That means it can withstand submersion in slightly deeper water. On the surface, the Galaxy A57 and A56 have identical displays. They're 6.7 in with a 1080p resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. But, there is a difference. The A57 uses more premium display tech. The A56 has a Super AMOLED, which uses a diamond pentile arrangement. But, the A57 has a Super AMOLED Plus panel, which has a regular RGB subpixel matrix. That means that the A57 has more subpixels and theoretically a crisper image than the A56. It's not really noticeable to the naked eye, though. In practice, the viewing experience is identical.
Our best guess is that Samsung used this particular panel because it's either thinner or lighter or even both. The two phones have about the same brightness, as well. We measured a maximum of over 1,200 nits in automatic mode. Moving on to the speaker quality, the two phones are in the same loudness rating of good, but the sound is better on the new model. It's cleaner and vocals are more crisp. Let's have a listen to compare. So, you can wake up and unlock either phone with a reliable optical under display fingerprint reader. And while you can get both phones in 128 or 256 gig variants, the A57 can also come with 512 gigs on board.
The interface of these two phones is the same. Samsung's One UI 8.5 on top of Android 16. However, you are missing some features on these mid-rangers that you get on the flagships, such as the natural language AI editing for photos. This latest UI version came recently to the A56 through a software update. As the older model, the A56 will have 1 year less of support going forward, out of a total of six. If you'd like to check out the new features of One UI 8.5, here's a link to our dedicated video. Now, let's get into the chipset. The A57 runs on an Exynos 1680 and is a new chip with improvements in CPU and graphics.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy A56 is based on the older Exynos 1580 chipset. In benchmarks, the A57 is a better performer and earns better scores. However, the gap in performance isn't that huge when considering CPU-based tasks. There's a bit more of a difference in graphics tasks, though. The thermal management is good either way. Neither phone exhibited much throttling within our prolonged stress tests. These two phones have the same battery capacity, 5,000 mA hours.
However, Samsung has managed to squeeze out more battery life on the new model. It earned a higher active use score of about 14 hours compared to around 12 hours on the A56. These two Galaxies also feature the same 45-W charging. As a result, the charging speed is roughly the same between the two. A full charge on either the A57 or A56 will take roughly 70 minutes. And now the cameras, which are indeed basically identical. On either phone, you have a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. But even though the hardware may be the same, the A57's main cam does bring an edge when it comes to detail, and both
phones have good dynamic range and vivid colors. Two times zoom results are about the same between the two phones. Not great, but decent for the class. The ultra-wide cameras of the A57 and the A56 also produce quite similar photos. Staring for long enough, you might see a slight advantage with the new model. In the dark, the A57's main cam has a minor edge with slightly better definition of detail in the dimmer areas. The A56 does almost as well, though, and both are good enough for the class. Neither phone's ultra-wide does a good job at night, but the A57's might come out slightly less blurry with a bit better dynamic range.
When it comes to selfies, there's little in the way of differences. Both phones capture very good selfies with excellent detail and colors. And here's a look at the 4K selfie video quality. Video recording capabilities are pretty much the same between the two phones. The main, ultra-wide, and selfie cameras can record in 4K at 30fps. It's a struggle to find meaningful differences between the two phones in video quality. Main camera footage has essentially the same level of detail, wide dynamic range, and vibrant colors.
The ultra-wides are also on the same level, and both are a little extra contrasty. But in the dark, the new model's main camera may have a bit more of a tangible advantage with a bit better dynamic range and more neutral colors. So, there you have it, guys. Samsung's Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A56. Let's do a quick recap of what you get with either phone. Both phones have a comparable display, a mid-range version of Samsung's One UI 2.5 interface, and the same charging speed. And with both phones, you get a similar camera experience.
However, the A57 is thinner and lighter and has better ingress protection. There's a 512 gig storage tier. The speakers sound better. Battery life is improved, and the photo quality is slightly better overall. The A56 doesn't bring specific benefits over the new model, except that it offers the same user experience at a cheaper price. In the end, the Galaxy A57 feels like a more premium device and does provide tangible benefits. Probably the most impactful one being the better battery life. But the differences aren't huge and if you want to save some cash, the A56 should do you just fine.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one.
