Samsung Galaxy S24 FE reviewed: flagship and economical

Buying a new high-end phone tends to come with an equally high-end price, but Samsung’s Galaxy S24 FE could end up being a solid deal, all things considered.

Design

A pretty enough phone, glancing at this phone may remind you of something else.

The S24 FE is like an S24, but also a little like a recent iPhone, too. If Apple made Android phones, it would probably look a little like the S24 range does right now, and that is where the FE fits.

You’ll see it if you’ve ever seen the iPhone 16, iPhone 15, iPhone 14, and so on: a flat metal frame, with a glass front and back, complete with only the obvious buttons for power and volume on that frame.

The only major difference is the camera setup, which on a Galaxy is set up in a traffic light configuration with three, while the standard model iPhone jumps around a bit in design. This year saw a change to two cameras in that similar configuration, though we’ve seen diagonal in the past from Apple, as well.

Camera differences aside, the S24 FE is like the S24 in that it’s a simple design with a flat edge and glass on the front and back.

It’s about as inoffensive and minimalist as phone design gets right now, and that’s not a bad thing.

It isn’t quite as light as its cousins in the S24 range — 213 grams versus the S24+’s 196g — something likely resulting from a difference in materials, but you won’t care. Barely 20 grams is nothing to be concerned about.

Features

Inside, Samsung’s S24 FE gets a slightly different spec setup compared to the other S24 models in Australia. The only S24 we managed to play with was the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and that saw the meaty and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The S24 FE misses out on that chip, exchanging it for Samsung’s own Exynos 2400e and pairing it with 8GB RAM and a choice of either 128GB or 256GB. There’s no MicroSD card slot here, either, so work out your needs in the beginning.

Android 14 arrives on the S24FE out of the box, complete with three cameras on the back and one at the front. As such, you’ll find a 50 megapixel F1.8 wide camera, a 12 megapixel F2.2 ultra-wide, and an 8 megapixel F2.4 3X telephoto lens to use on the back, while the front offers a 10 megapixel F2.4 selfie camera.

Support for 5G is part of the package, as is 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6E, USB-C, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and Near-Field Communication (NFC) for Google Pay and Samsung Pay, dealer’s choice.

All of this sits under a 6.7 inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass, complete with an IP68 water resistance rating, as well.

The phone sports both wired and wireless charging, and includes a 4700mAh battery that can’t be removed. You’ll also find a fingerprint sensor built into the screen.

In-use

Using the S24 FE is rather like using any other Android device, albeit one with Samsung’s One UI overlay to Android as opposed to stock.

You’ll have widgetised home screens, an app menu, dropdown notification bar, and this year, why not have some AI thrown in for good measure. It’s the year of AI in phones, or at least the start of AI in phones, as the year’s obvious buzzword and trend comes to more devices.

In the Galaxy S24 FE, you’ll find Samsung AI staples such as photo assist AI, note assist AI, the live translation tech, and of course, Google’s “circle to search” functionality to circle what’s on screen and start searching whatever that was.

Whether you use them or not is down to your needs — we haven’t used AI features in many phones this year beyond the initial review — but they are here, just like they were in the flagship equivalent.

Performance

And just like the flagship models, the S24 FE comes with performance to spare, thanks in part to a Samsung-made chip, the Exynos 2400e. Not quite the Snapdragon used in the Ultra model, the Exynos still has plenty of power, evident by the benchmarks.

Comparing the S24 FE to its S24 Ultra sibling, the performance isn’t far off the mark, and it even manages to beat what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip was doing in the more expensive Z Flip 6, while also besting the previous S23 models including the S23 Ultra.

Technically — on benchmarks alone — the S24 FE has more performance than the S23 Ultra. That’s an interesting situation to be in for sure.

Real world performance delivers, too. Testing the S24 FE in day-to-day usage found the apps loaded with little to no lag, with the phone generally performing well.

Mobile performance is equally solid, offering 5G where you can find it, and achieving speeds of 175Mbps in our tests via the Telstra Wholesale Network in Sydney, Australia. We expect more is possible, though your network connection will vary depending on a variety of factors.

Camera

You’ll find an assortment of three cameras in the Fan Edition S24, and outside of low light, they’re actually a surprising package.

There’s a 50 megapixel main camera which appears to be similar to the rest of the S24 range, accompanied by an also similar 12 megapixel ultra-wide, plus a reasonable 8 megapixel 3X telephoto. It’s a slight deviation from what’s found in the more expensive models, but not enough to throw people off the scent.

In terms of how the camera performs, the main wide camera is clearly the best, delivering sharp images in day time, as well as some decent low light, as well. Samsung’s camera software will by default prefer to grab night shots by stacking several images (no surprise there; all new camera do this), and the results aren’t bad, either.

The ultra-wide can play the same low-light trick, but the zoom lens doesn’t seem to handle the night, as well.

Fortunately, the combination of the cameras delivers decent images for all, particularly given the thousand dollar price range the phone finds itself in.

Battery

In terms of how the S24 FE’s 4700mAh battery deals with life and your regular day to day, the answer is better than you’d expect.

Real-world testing with the FE showed a battery life able to hit a day and a half of use, basically made up of 4 to 5 hours of screen time, and resulting in a phone that could survive a full day, rather like its big (and more expensive) sibling in the S24 Ultra.

Sure, you don’t get the S-Pen or the more premium design, but somehow the combination of Samsung’s Exynos processor and the sizeable battery grant the S24 FE surprisingly great battery life.

Wireless charging is also included in the package, too, handy if you’re one of those people living in the future and can’t go back to corded chargers. We get it. It’s slower, but we get it.

Value

The price is also very compelling, offering what is basically a flagship phone without the flagship materials for less.

Priced from $1099 in Australia, the Galaxy S24 FE is less expensive than the similar Galaxy S24 going for $1399 and much lower than the same-sized $1699 S24+. The fact that the S24 FE measures the same screen size as the

And that’s despite the fact that the hardware feels quite similar.

What needs work?

While the package is almost perfect, there are a couple of compromises in there.

The phone is a touch slippery, so make sure you put a case on it ASAP. And the screen isn’t quite as good as its regular S24 range siblings.

It turns out fans don’t really seem to care about having the best screens, so the technology isn’t quite the same.

\While the similarly sized S24+ gets another 6.7 inch screen, the S24+ display is brighter, offers a more variable refresh rate (1 to 120Hz, compared to the 60 and 120Hz of the S24 FE), as well as a better resolution.

By comparison, the Galaxy S24+ uses a 3120×1440 Quad HD+ screen, while the S24 FE is just a Full HD+ 2340×1080 option. The S23+ is sharper and brighter than the FE, while the standard Galaxy S24’s 6.2 inch phone is only brighter.

The cameras are also slightly different, with a “dual telephoto” option that switched the focal length in the telephoto camera, something the S24 FE can’t do.

What we love

Despite that difference in screen, we’re not sure buyers will really care, and what we love is the price.

Sure, phones that go for over a thousand bucks are usually the best of the best, and you pay for getting that best-in-class tech. But we love that with the S24 FE, you’re getting most of the best-in-class Samsung Galaxy S24 without needing to fork out quite as much.

Most of what you’d pay for in the S24+ is in this phone, but for less. We’d call that a win.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

Samsung notes that “FE” stands for “Fan Edition” which is a curious admission that fans prefer to pay less for its phones. But we feel the S24 FE’s initialism is probably something more cluey about what it offers: it’s flagship and economical, making it a win for budget conscious Android buyers.

Want a Galaxy S24 without needing to spend too much over the thousand dollar mark?

The S24 FE has a lot going for it. We’re not even sure why the standard Galaxy S24 models need to exist with this thing around. Recommended.