ZTE Blade A56

The ZTE Blade A56 has a conventional, non-folding form factor with no rugged certification and no water resistance. It measures 167.6 mm tall, 77.4 mm wide, and 8.3 mm thick, giving it a relatively slim profile for its size class. The handset weighs 193 g, which places it on the heavier side for a smartphone of these dimensions, with an overall volume of approximately 107.67 cm³.

The ZTE Blade A56 uses an IPS LCD touchscreen measuring 6.75 inches, delivering a resolution of 720 x 1600 px at a pixel density of 260 ppi. It supports a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and is protected by branded damage-resistant glass. The display does not support HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision, and there is no Always-On Display mode or secondary screen.

The ZTE Blade A56 is powered by the Unisoc T7200 chipset, built on a 12nm process with an 8-thread CPU running all cores at 1.6 GHz using big.LITTLE architecture with HMP support, and a TDP of 10W. It comes with 4GB of DDR4 RAM at 1600 MHz and 128GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage, with a maximum supported memory amount of 14GB and a peak memory bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s. Graphics are handled by the Mali G57 MP1 GPU, which features 64 shading units, one execution unit, and a clock speed of 650 MHz, with support for DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. The SoC includes integrated LTE and TrustZone security, and the chip supports 64-bit processing. Cache configuration includes 128 KB of L1, 2 MB of L2, and 1 MB of L3 cache. In benchmarks, the device scores 371 single-core and 1391 multi-core on Geekbench 6, 313 single-core and 1175 multi-core on Geekbench 5, and 2663 on PassMark with a single-core PassMark score of 988.

The ZTE Blade A56 features a dual-lens rear camera system led by a 13MP CMOS sensor, capable of recording video at 1080p and 30fps with continuous autofocus during recording and slow-motion support. The rear setup includes a single LED flash and offers a solid range of manual controls, including exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, along with touch autofocus, burst mode, HDR, and in-camera panorama shooting. Optical zoom and optical image stabilization are not available, nor is a BSI sensor, laser autofocus, RAW capture, manual shutter speed, or HDR10 and Dolby Vision recording. On the front, an 8MP single-lens camera handles selfies without a dedicated flash, and it is not positioned under the display. Neither 360-degree panorama nor 3D photo and video capture are supported on either camera.

The ZTE Blade A56 runs Android 15 and includes a broad set of software features covering both usability and privacy. On the privacy side, it offers clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not available. The interface supports dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customization, widgets, and an extra dim mode, while productivity is aided by split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, full-page screenshots, a media picker, customizable notifications, sharing intents, and the ability to play games while they download. On-device machine learning is supported alongside offline voice recognition, voice commands, Live Text, app offloading, a child lock, multi-user support, and phone tracking. The device does not support Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, Quick Start, or the ability to function as a PC, and it does not receive direct OS updates from the vendor.

The ZTE Blade A56 is equipped with a 5000 mAh rechargeable battery that is non-removable and supports fast charging at 10W. Wireless charging is not available. The device includes a battery level indicator, making it straightforward to monitor remaining charge at a glance.

The ZTE Blade A56 includes a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio and a built-in radio. It does not feature stereo speakers, and none of the advanced Bluetooth audio codecs — aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, or LDAC — are supported.

The ZTE Blade A56 supports Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n), Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and GPS with Galileo for location tracking, alongside a cellular module with download speeds of up to 300 Mbits/s and upload speeds of up to 100 Mbits/s, though 5G is not supported. It accepts a single SIM card and includes a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0, as well as an external memory slot for storage expansion. Security is handled by a fingerprint scanner, while biometric options such as 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are absent. The sensors on board include an accelerometer, but a gyroscope, compass, barometer, heart rate monitor, and infrared sensor are all missing. Features such as HDMI output, DLNA certification, ANT+ support, satellite SOS, crash detection, motion tracking, optical tracking, a built-in projector, and a stylus are likewise not available.

The ZTE Blade A56 includes a video light for use during video recording. The display is flat rather than curved, and neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel are used.