Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus vs A56 5G

Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.6-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G, which is powered by Exynos 1580 and came out 2 years and 1 month after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • 39% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1744K versus 1251K)
  • Handles wireless charging up to 10W
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.0 versus UFS 3.1
  • Reverse charging feature
  • 52% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2064 and 1354 points
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G
  • Shows 8% longer battery life (28:42 vs 26:32 hours)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • The phone is 2 years and 1 month newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and A56 5G crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
8 / 256 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
126.3
(Excellent)
Value Index
93.2
(Very good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Super AMOLED
Size 6.6 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 393 ppi 385 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 1200 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 1900 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Gorilla Glass Victus Plus
Screen-to-body ratio 89% 87.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 97.4% 99.1%
PWM 240 Hz 120 Hz
Response time 1 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1193 nits
1205 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 157.8 mm (6.21 inches) 162.2 mm (6.39 inches)
Width 76.2 mm (3 inches) 77.5 mm (3.05 inches)
Thickness 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 195 g (6.88 oz) 198 g (6.98 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP67
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Green, Purple, Yellow Black, Gray, Green, Pink
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability - Good (3.19/5)
Drop resistance - Excellent (A) · 270 drops
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Samsung Galaxy A56 5G
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Samsung Exynos 1580
Max clock 3360 MHz 2900 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3
- 4 cores at 1.95 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 3 cores at 2.6 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 2.9 GHz: Cortex-A720
L3 cache 8 MB 4 MB
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Yes
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Xclipse 540
GPU shading units 1536 256
GPU clock 680 MHz 1300 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~1331.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Samsung Galaxy A56 5G
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 8934 6865
Single-core score 2064 1354
Multi-core score 5334 3789
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1744323
1251512
CPU 581203 490457
GPU 446806 296896
Memory 272465 173263
UX 443849 290896
Total score 1744323 1251512
Samples [23 tests] [130 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 79% 97%
Graphics test 8 FPS 5 FPS
Graphics score 1068 641
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 78% -
Graphics test 20 FPS -
Section 1 23 FPS -
Section 2 20 FPS -
Section 3 18 FPS -
Graphics score 5364 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 66% -
Graphics test 22 FPS -
Graphics score 3712 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
15689
Web score 14728 14131
Video editing 7866 7744
Photo editing 33422 22842
Data manipulation 12880 11699
Writing score 18951 18128

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-27 (TUANKYSU)AnTuTu 111774738
📘 2026-07-31 (WhiteSite)AnTuTu 111722215
📘 2026-07-31 (v1c)AnTuTu 111847871
📘 2026-06-13 (King)AnTuTu 111806851
📘 2026-05-24 (VarD)AnTuTu 111610700
Samsung Galaxy A56 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-04 (Neagu Mihai)Geekbench 6 CPU1348 / 3823
📘 2026-09-04 (Neagu Mihai)AnTuTu 111287132
📘 2026-08-19 (Ferran)AnTuTu 111269203
📘 2026-08-11 (Datssemble)Geekbench 6 CPU1349 / 3757
📘 2026-07-18 (Claus)AnTuTu 111264715

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock - 3200 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 8.0 One UI 8.5
OS size 42.5 GB 21.5 GB
OS updates 4 years 6 years
Security updates 5 years 6 years

Battery

Capacity 4700 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (10 W) No
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (57% in 30 min) Yes (65% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:05 hr 1:13 hr
Battery cycles - 2000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:37 hr 11:28 hr
Watching video 15:54 hr 19:50 hr
Gaming 06:37 hr 04:53 hr
Standby 128 hr 131 hr
General battery life
26:32 hr
28:42 hr
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (118th and 69th place)

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 123°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
3) Macro: 5 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 23 mm -
Sensor Samsung S5KGN3 Sony IMX906
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Focal length 70 mm -
Sensor Samsung S5K3K1 -
Sensor size 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) -
Pixel size 1 micron -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX258
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution - 5 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Stabilization - Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 145
Preview 72 -
Zoom 126 59
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus from DxOMark Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy A56 5G from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 -
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Samsung S5K3LC
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) -
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 No
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
91.8 dB
87.7 dB

Other

Category Flagship Mid-range
Announced February 2023 March 2025
Release date February 2023 March 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $999 $499
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus - Samsung Galaxy A57 5G
SAR (head) 0.57 W/kg 0.61 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg 1.05 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the camera, performance, gaming, and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus. But if the display, battery life, and design are more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
163 (90.6%)
17 (9.4%)
Total votes: 180

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