Samsung Galaxy M56 5G

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G has a standard candy-bar form factor — it does not fold and lacks a rugged build. It stands 162 mm tall and 77.3 mm wide, with a thickness of 7.2 mm, giving it a relatively slim profile. The device weighs 180 g and has a total volume of 90.16 cm³, keeping its physical footprint fairly compact for a phone with a large display.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G features a 6.74″ OLED/AMOLED touchscreen with a 1080 x 2340 px resolution and a pixel density of 382 ppi, delivering a sharp and vibrant visual experience. The panel runs at a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus for added durability. The screen does not support HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision, and there is no Always-On Display mode or secondary screen. There is also no secondary screen included on the device.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G is powered by the Samsung Exynos 1480, a 4 nm chipset with an octa-core CPU clocked at 4 x 2.75 GHz and 4 x 2.05 GHz across 8 threads, utilizing big.LITTLE architecture with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing for efficient workload distribution. Graphics are handled by the integrated Xclipse 530 GPU running at 1300 MHz, with support for DirectX 12 and OpenCL 2. The chip includes integrated LTE, supports 64-bit processing and multithreading, and carries a 4 MB L3 cache. The device comes with 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM at 3200 MHz across 4 memory channels, a maximum supported memory amount of 12 GB, and a peak memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, paired with 256 GB of internal storage. In Geekbench 6 benchmarks, the chipset scores 1161 in single-core and 3398 in multi-core testing.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G carries a triple rear camera setup with a 50 MP main lens at f/1.8, an 8 MP lens at f/2.2, and a 2 MP lens at f/2.4, backed by optical image stabilization and a CMOS sensor, though a back-illuminated sensor is not included. The main camera supports 4K video recording at 30 fps, continuous autofocus during video, phase-detection autofocus for stills, slow-motion recording, timelapse, HDR mode, burst mode, and in-camera panoramas, while manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance — though manual shutter speed is not available. There is no optical zoom, no laser autofocus, no dual-tone or RGB flash, and the single LED flash does not support HDR10 or Dolby Vision recording, nor 3D capture. On the front, a 12 MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture handles selfies; it is a single-lens setup with no front flash and is not positioned under the display.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G ships with Android 15, an open-source platform that supports multi-user operation, voice commands with offline voice recognition, on-device machine learning, and device position tracking. On the privacy side, it offers location controls, camera and microphone access management, clipboard warnings, and app tracking prevention, though cross-site tracking blocking, Mail Privacy Protection, and Wi-Fi password sharing are absent. The interface supports dark mode, dynamic and manual theme customization, widgets, customizable notifications with granular permission controls, a media picker, full-page scrolling screenshots, split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, sharing intents, extra dim mode, and the ability to select text from images. Additional conveniences include a battery health check, the option to offload apps, a child lock, and the ability to play games while they are still downloading. Focus modes, Quick Start, and the ability to use the phone as a PC are not supported, and OS updates are not delivered directly from the OS vendor.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G houses a 5000 mAh rechargeable battery with a battery level indicator for monitoring charge status. It supports 45W wired fast charging, though wireless charging is not available and a charger is not included in the box. The battery is non-removable.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G has a notably limited audio feature set. It does not include a 3.5 mm headphone jack or stereo speakers, and there is no built-in radio. On the wireless audio side, none of the high-quality Bluetooth codec standards are supported — aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are all absent.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G supports 5G connectivity with a cellular module, dual SIM slots, and Wi-Fi covering 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4), 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), with peak download speeds of 3790 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1280 Mbit/s. Bluetooth 5.3 and USB Type-C (USB 2.0) are also on board, though NFC, HDMI output, and DLNA certification are not available. For sensors, the device includes a fingerprint scanner, GPS, Galileo support, a compass, a gyroscope, and an accelerometer, while a barometer, heart rate monitor, infrared sensor, and ANT+ support are absent. 3D facial recognition, an iris scanner, motion and optical tracking, crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, and a built-in projector are likewise not featured, and no stylus is included.

The Samsung Galaxy M56 5G includes a video light for illuminating footage during recording. The display is flat rather than curved, and neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper screen are part of the build.