Compare Samsung Galaxy A56, OnePlus Nord 5, and iQOO Neo 10 in design, performance, battery, and cameras. Find out which phone is best under ₹30,000
Samsung Galaxy A56 vs OnePlus Nord 5 vs iQOO Neo 10
Three hot brands, three hot phones in the 30,000 price category. We've got the Samsung Galaxy A56, OnePlus Nord 5, and the iQOO Neo 10. All the three phones aim to give you a flagship-like experience at a mid-range price point. But the real question to ask is which one should you actually buy?
So, that's exactly how I'm going to help you in this blog post. If you're reading for the first time, I'm MKB. This is MKBM Tech, your destination for detailed, incisive gadget reviews & Smartphone Comparison.
Design & Build Quality
Samsung has this classic minimalistic approach. You get glass on the back, glass on the front with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus protection and a metal frame as well. But more importantly, with the Samsung Galaxy A56, what you get is IP67 rating, which makes it more water and dust resistant than the other two phones, the OnePlus Nord 5 and the iQOO Neo 10, both of which only give you IP65.
In comparison, the iQOO Neo 10 sticks to a completely plastic build with a Shot Sensation Alpha Glass protection on top of the display. It's functional, it's lightweight, but it doesn't feel very premium. Also, one thing we noticed is that it is a little top-heavy.
The Nord 5 is a good balance between the two with a glass back, glass front, and a plastic frame. Of course, of all the three phones, it's slightly heavier and wider, but the weight distribution has been done really well. By the way, with the Nord 5, what you get is Corning Ola Glass 7i on top of the display.
In terms of ports and buttons, it's largely similar with a power button, a volume rocker, and of course, a USB Type-C 2.0 port, which has become standard nowadays. But OnePlus has an advantage with the plus key, which integrates directly to the Mind Space feature. You can also switch it to other functions.
Another advantage with the iQOO Neo 10 and the Nord 5 is the IR blaster, which the Galaxy A56 lacks.
So, of these three, the phone that has the most premium build quality has to be the Samsung Galaxy A56.
Display & Multimedia
The Galaxy A56 has a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 1200 nits HBM brightness. The iQOO Neo 10 dominates on paper with a 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED display, 144Hz refresh rate, 2000 nits HBM mode, and a crazy 5500 nits peak brightness for HDR. The OnePlus Nord 5 sits somewhere in between with a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED panel at 144Hz. Of course, 144Hz only works with certain games, and the system UI runs at 120Hz. As for brightness, you get 1400 nits HBM and 2800 nits peak HDR brightness.
But the raw specs don't tell the full story. Color accuracy is the best on Samsung’s display, followed by the Nord 5, then the iQOO Neo 10, which is a little too punchy. In HDR gradation, the Nord 5 comes out on top, Samsung comes in second, and iQOO trails in third.
At Outdoors, the iQOO Neo 10 is the brightest and most legible, followed closely by the Nord 5.
All three phones have stereo speakers, but the Nord 5 is the loudest and richest sounding.
In terms of display and multimedia experience, the Nord 5 strikes the best balance, with great display quality, fantastic speaker quality, and support for LHDC & LDAC.
Performance & Gaming
On paper, the iQOO Neo 10 dominates with an AnTuTu score of 2.12 million, followed by the Nord 5, and then the Galaxy A56. The Geekbench scores also show iQOO Neo 10 > Nord 5 > Galaxy A56.
But in CPU throttle tests, the Galaxy A56 shows the best stability, followed by the iQOO Neo 10, then OnePlus Nord 5.
For 3DMark GPU tests, the iQOO Neo 10 scores highest but with only 46.5% stability, meaning it throttles under load. The Nord 5 has better GPU stability, and the A56 has the best stability but lowest performance.
In real-world Genshin Impact tests, the iQOO Neo 10 ran at 59.8 FPS at 40.3°C, the Nord 5 at 57.8 FPS at 40.6°C, and the A56 at 47 FPS but coolest at 38.6°C.
So, if you want maximum power and the best gaming experience, the iQOO Neo 10 would be the choice for you. If you want more stable performance in gaming, the Nord 5 does a pretty good job. The Galaxy A56 doesn’t throttle much and stays cool, but it lacks raw performance.
Battery and Charging
The Samsung Galaxy A56 comes with a 5,000 mAh unit. It gives 5 hours and 34 minutes of screen on time. With a 45W charger, it took 68 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%.
The iQOO Neo 10 has a 7,000 mAh silicon carbon battery. It offers 10 to 12 hours of screen on time. With 120W charging, it takes 35 minutes to go from 0 to 100%.
The OnePlus Nord 5 comes with a 6,800 mAh battery. The battery life is 9 to 10 hours of screen on time. with an 80W charger, it takes about 50 to 53 minutes for a full charge.
Network and Connectivity
All three phones support multiple 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC.
OnePlus and iQOO support Bluetooth 5.4. Samsung supports Bluetooth 5.3, but Samsung Wallet makes NFC more useful.
Camera Comparison
Primary Camera
In terms of details the Nord 5 captures the most followed by the Galaxy A56 and the iQOO Neo 10 comes in last year. Due to its smaller sensor size and more contrast heavy processing. This is also true for 2x details are more on the Nord 5 followed by the iQOO and Samsung.
Colors
iQOO does shoot almost true to true to life colors followed by OnePlus which is slightly boosted and Samsung which is very punchy. One area where I like the iQOO is definitely capturing the skin tones. because it does the most closest to neutral skin tones followed by Samsung and OnePlus.
HDR Performance
While shooting HDR images, iQOO nails it. Whether it's the primary, the ultra wide, or the selfie, iQOO shoots the best HDR images followed by the Nord 5 and the Galaxy A56.
Portraits Shots
The portraits is a different ballgame altogether. Because OnePlus shoots the best portraits among the three, followed by iQOO and Samsung.
Low Light Shots
Low light with the primary lens is where Samsung takes the lead. because it has the best details and also the brightest exposure.
Ultra Wide Shots
Talking about the ultra radical camera, Samsung without any doubt is better than the other two. Because of its 12 megapixel sensor. But comparing the other two which is basically OnePlus and iQOO it's more or less the same. Because it's the same 8 megapixel sensor on both the phones. Low light using the ultra wide again is best on Samsung. Because it's got a larger sensor.
Macro
One good thing about Samsung is that you do also get a dedicated 5 megapixel macro camera. So it can shoot macro photos which the other two phone just cannot.
Selfies
Selfies are the best on OnePlus. Thanks to the 50 MP GN5 sensor followed by iQOO which is the second best and it trails Samsung. That's also true for the selfie portraits and low light as well. OnePlus just leads.
Video
Both OnePlus and iQOO can shoot videos using the primary and selfie camera at 4K 60 fps where Samsung tops out at 4K 30 fps. But where Samsung pulls ahead is in ultra wide because with ultra wide you can do 4K 30 fps which is not possible on OnePlus and iQOO. which top out at 1080p 30 fps.
If you are shooting with the primary lens OnePlus is the best with slightly better details and better stabilization followed by iQOO and then Samsung. But I has a slightly better audio quality compared to OnePlus is what we noticed.
With selfies Video, OnePlus shoots the best videos, followed by iQOO and Samsung. And in low light, OnePlus shoots the best videos, followed by iQOO and Samsung.
Overall Camera Comparison
So overall, all the three are actually pretty good in terms of camera performance. But the most reliable one of the three and the one that actually gives us consistently good results has been the OnePlus Nord 5.
Software and Updates
Samsung Galaxy A56
Samsung here actually runs ONEUI 7 based on Android 15 and it takes the lead in terms of software update promise because what Samsung is promising is 6 years of updates and 6 years of security updates. And honestly, One UI has been one of my favorite software experiences. First of all, you get a very modern experience with the UI and UX, but more importantly, you do get a ton of customization options, including Good Lock, which I cannot live without.OnePlus Nord 5
The Nord 5 has Oxygen OS 15 based on Android 15, and OnePlus is promising 4 plus 6 years of updates, which is also pretty good. Compared to One UI, Oxygen OS is definitely better in terms of overall sheer smooth experience, which is actually the best of the three by the way.Panel animations are fantastic, it feels very fluid and you also get modern UX elements like live activities and flux themes all of which look fantastic. On top of that there is a full suite of AI features – AI Call Assistant, AI Eraser, AI Reflection Remover, AI Recomposer. All of these are pretty good in day-to-day usability.
Icon Neo 10
As for the iQOO Neo 10, what you have is FunTouch OS 15 based on Android 15 with 3 plus 4 years of updates. There needs a lot of work to come to the kind of premium software experience that you get with Samsung and OnePlus.So overall, Samsung and OnePlus are tied in terms of the best software experience and IU would be my least favorite one.
Conclusion
If you must have noticed is if you had to look at these three phones, you've got Samsung's durability, iQOO's raw power, and OnePlus's pallets. So, of these three, which one should you pick?
With Samsung, while the phone is good, and I don't necessarily have too many problems with it. but it lacks in almost every aspect in some way or the other compared to the other two. It is a very powerful phone with great battery life as well. So, anybody looking for pure raw performance for gaming, I would easily suggest the iQOO Neo 10. And the camera performance is pretty good.
👉 You can also read our dedicated blog post about the iQOO Neo 10 for a more detailed perspective
But my overall pick continues to be the OnePlus Nord 5. It's an underrated phone. I know that it's gotten a lot of flack for not having a lot of features that you've come to expect from it, but the experience with that phone has been pretty reliable. because whether you look at the performance, the battery life, the display quality or the camera or the software experience, everything comes together really well and there are no compromises.
And if you're worried about the Green line issue, that is a legitimate concern. But thankfully, OnePlus has said that they're going to give like a free lifetime replacement warranty if that happens on your Nord 5 when you buy it.
Which one would it be for you? Let me know in the comments
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