Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review: First Impressions

First Impressions

Samsung looks to have doubled down with this year’s Galaxy S24 FE, offering a suite of upgrades to display, performance and battery life that should make it a more tempting prospect for Samsung fans who don’t want to shell out for the flagship Galaxy S24 or S24 Plus. 

Introduction

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 FE looks to be a more affordable alternative to the flagship Galaxy S24 range without too many compromises on hardware.

It not only looks very similar to Samsung’s flagship range, but sports a very similar 6.7-inch screen to the Galaxy S24 Plus, a more energy-efficient version of the Exynos 2400 chipset and all the same Galaxy AI smarts as its more premium brethren.

It even has a 3x telephoto lens that many smartphones at the £649/$649 price point forego. 

The question is, is it worth forking out for when you can find the flagship Galaxy S24 range at a pretty big discount almost 9 months after its launch?

While I’m not yet to deliver my final verdict on the latest Fan Edition, I did get to spend some time with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE at a hands-on event ahead of its release on 4 October, and here’s what I learnt. 

Design and Screen

• Similar design to the Galaxy S24 range
• Larger 6.7-inch screen and slimmer bezels
• Flagship-level protection

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a very familiar device – and that’s purposeful on Samsung’s part. 

Not only does the Galaxy S24 FE retain a similar look and feel to last year’s Galaxy S23 FE, but also the flagship Samsung Galaxy S24 range. It sports the same minimalistic look with no real camera housing on the rear, with a trio of lenses in a vertical alignment, along with the same flat edges and rounded corners as the full-fat flagship.

That continues with the materials, sporting the same aluminium frame and glass rear as its premium brethren, and IP68 dust and water protection also makes a welcome return. The glass is tougher this year, sporting Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the screen, though the rear remains Gorilla Glass 5. Still, this is a small compromise that doesn’t have a real effect on the look and feel of the phone. 

That all said, there are upgrades here compared to the Galaxy S23 FE. Most notable is the boost in the screen department, sporting a larger 6.7-inch FHD+ panel in place of the 6.4-inch screen, complete with thinner bezels – though not quite what I’d describe as flagship-thin. Still, despite the bigger screen, the slimmer bezels mean its overall footprint is only marginally larger. 

That actually brings the Galaxy S24 FE closer to the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus than the regular 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 – though without some of the more premium bells and whistles like a pixel-packed 1.4K resolution and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. 

The screen also boasts a boosted 1900 nits peak brightness, along with support for a super smooth (but non-LTPO) 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ too. This should all make for a perfectly nice viewing experience; it looked great during my hands-on time, but I’d be interested to see how it handles extremely bright outdoor environments before I pass judgement. 

Samsung has also refreshed the colour options available with this year’s Fan Edition. Fan-favourite Mint has made a return, alongside new colours like Bue and Yellow, along with the rather standard Graphite and Gray finishes for something more formal. 

The brighter options, like the yellow variant photographed in this review, are quite nice; it’s not as vibrant and in your face as you’d expect, while still delivering a nice pop of colour to proceedings. 

Cameras

• Same main camera as flagship Galaxy S24
• Support for AI-powered Visual Engine
• Secondary ultrawide and telephoto lenses

Though the collection of rear-facing cameras may seem familiar at a glance, seemingly offering the same 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP 3x periscope lens as the Galaxy S23 FE, there are differences here. Most notably, the 50MP sensor is the same as that used in the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, with a 1/1.56-inch sensor, f/1.8 aperture and OIS. 

That alone should boost the performance of the camera, but it also utilises the AI-powered ProVisual engine – usually only on flagship devices like the S24 and Z Flip/Fold 6 – to further enhance camera prowess. 

Samsung claims that it takes multiple photos in quick succession, combining the best parts of each individual image to deliver a result that’s brighter, more detailed and more colour-accurate than what you’d get from the Galaxy S23 FE.

It’s hard to comment on how well Samsung has delivered on that promise right now, having only had a limited time with the device so far, but the test snaps I took at the hands-on area looked pretty impressive – though it’s arguably in low light where the ProVisual engine boost will be most noticeable.

Flip the phone around and you’ll find the same 10MP selfie camera as its predecessor, offering a clear enough view for the occasional selfie and video call, but it’s the rear lenses where most of the action is. 

It’s worth noting that the ProVisual engine is utilised across all lenses, so there should also be a boost to the secondary and selfie lenses despite having the same hardware as the S23 FE, but we’ll put that to the test in our full review. 

Performance and Software

• Samsung Exynos 2400e processor
• Galaxy AI smarts
• Seven years of OS upgrades

Performance was an area where the Galaxy S23 FE was lacking, sporting two-year-old flagship chipsets (either the Exynos 2200 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 depending on your region) that, while performant, left quite a gap between it and the flagship Galaxy S23.

The same can’t be said for the Galaxy S24 FE, however. While it’s not the exact same as the Exynos 2400 you’ll find in the Galaxy S24, it’s a slightly tweaked 4nm chipset dubbed the Exynos 2400e, with a focus on efficiency and battery life. 

That said, it’s no slouch, a supposed 2x boost to performance compared to the S23 FE alongside support for premium features like ray-tracing usually found on flagships, which should bode well for the gaming experience. I’m certainly looking forward to running our suite of benchmark tests to see just how it compares to the Galaxy S24.

Oh, and unlike last year, you’ll be getting the Exynos 2400e chipset – there’s no region split this time around.  

Importantly, Samsung claims that the chipset, coupled with a slightly larger 4700mAh battery, should deliver an extra four hours of battery life compared to the Galaxy S23 FE that should hopefully see it through a full day’s use. It’s a shame there’s no boost to the 25W wired charging to match, though the 15W wireless and reverse wireless charging tech remain welcome convenience-focused features. 

Elsewhere, the Galaxy S24 FE comes with Android 14 in the form of OneUI 6.1.1 out of the box, complete with all the Galaxy AI smarts you’ll find on the Galaxy S24 and even Flip/Fold collections, from basics like writing tools and real-time translation tech to advanced camera editing features. 

It’ll also continue to improve over time, with a commitment to seven OS upgrades and seven years of security patches that’ll take the phone all the way to Android 21 and OneUI 13.

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