Short review Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: full Galaxy AI for less

Price upon review

From $549.99

Best prices today: Samsung Galaxy S24 FE

$549.99

$620

When the prices of the Galaxy S series skyrocketed, Samsung decided to release a slimmed-down version a few years ago, with all the key features and the latest software version, at a more reasonable price. They called them FE, which is short for Fan Edition.

The timing was a bit strange at times, usually coming right before the best phones of the new year were released. The Galaxy S23 FE went on sale in November 2023, before its successor arrived almost a year later.

But is it good? I tested the Galaxy S24 FE to find out.

Design and construction

The Galaxy S24 FE is heavier and slightly larger in size than the already sturdy Galaxy S24+. It has the same screen size – 6.7 inches – so the extra millimeters come over a more simply built device that doesn’t have the same thin screen bezels.

Mattias Inge

The build quality is still high, with an aluminum frame and glass front and back. There’s Gorilla Glass Victus Plus in the screen and Gorilla Glass 5 on the back instead of Victus 2, so the aluminum chassis isn’t the extra durable type used in the S24+.

This makes it slightly less scratch and wear resistant, but still better than many other top phones. Of course, you also get dust and water resistance with an IP68 rating.

Specifications and performance

The system circuit is a brand new variant, the Samsung Exynos 2400e, which is very similar to the Exynos 2400 from the S24 and S24+ in Europe, but has a slightly lower clock speed on some cores.

That seems to be the only difference, and it’s so minimal as to not be crucial. It’s the same graphics, the same connectivity support, and the same NPU.

In short: it is real premium performance. Even if it doesn’t achieve record numbers in any benchmark, it won’t lag behind. The circuit seems to be a little harder to overheat than the S24+, but that could also be down to the chassis design and internal cooling.

With a powerful NPU delivering the same power for the S24 series’ many great AI features, it’s just a matter of giving thanks and receiving. You don’t lose any of this, except the Notes-specific features you only get on the S24 Ultra and the latest Galaxy S10+ and S10 Ultra tablets.

Display

The 6.7 inch screen is a 1080p AMOLED that doesn’t quite reach the sharpness and maximum brightness of the top models, but doesn’t make a fool of itself.

Good anti-reflective protection in the screen surface and Samsung’s Vision Booster technology for a peak brightness of 1,900 cd/m2 ensure that there is never a problem with readability in sunlight, although the image will be less attractive for displaying video.

But it’s certainly a downgrade from the S24+, which has 2,600 cd/m2, 1440p resolution, and true LTPO technology to control the screen’s refresh rate. It’s still dynamic here, although it can only automatically switch between 60 and 120 Hz instead of going all the way down to 1 Hz.

Mattias Inge

Battery life and charging

You can also set the display to a fixed 60 Hz, but why would you do that? It doesn’t save enough battery to be definitive – I get the same results in my battery life measurements in both modes.

Rather, what puts the Galaxy S24 FE at a disadvantage is that the battery is actually smaller, 4700 mAh versus 4900 mAh in the S24 Plus. Something else must also affect the power consumption, because here it is higher and with active work the battery lasts 13 hours instead of 16 hours.

Does it have too little power? Not at all, and for more sporadic use with periods in the pocket, some photography during the day and video streaming in the evening, it can still go a few days between charges. Overall, Samsung and the One UI system are good at saving energy.

Charging is iffy though – at best you can get up to 25W via USB-C and, as usual, you’ll need to provide your own compatible charger.

My two 65W universal chargers are rated at just under 25W and the result is semi-fast charging that tests patience. Without a charger in the box or proper guidance in the store for a suitable charger (even in Samsung’s own online store) there can be problems getting the right charging speed.

I don’t understand why this should be so difficult. No manufacturer is consumer-friendly in this area. Now I even charge the battery wirelessly almost as quickly. The S24 FE thus supports up to 15W. And yes, it supports reverse charging, so you can put your Galaxy Buds on it to charge.

Mattias Inge

Cameras

The third big thing that’s being reduced is the cameras. At least a few of them, the rear zoom lens and the selfie camera, have smaller sensors, 8Mp instead of 10.

The wide angle with 12 MP and 50 MP of the main camera therefore seems to match the S24 and S24+. I notice no difference in the end result of photos, which in daylight delivers good white balance, strong dynamic range and accurate colors – including natural skin tones.

All three lenses on the back match at that point, and as long as I don’t zoom digitally beyond the 3x I get optically with the zoom lens, it’s sharp and easy to shoot.

In evening light I occasionally suffer from vague noise in dark areas, and even the color balance can differ with the wide-angle and zoom cameras. All three cameras lose some detail, but as long as you don’t zoom in too much in post-processing, the photos look sharp.

The camera takes stable shots with reliable color and light processing and smooth autofocus. You can record up to 120Hz at 4K and it can also record 8K video. I wouldn’t recommend making it a habit though, both modes are huge battery drainers. The microphones in the phone are of high quality and the intelligent noise cancellation does a good job.

Price and availability

The Galaxy S24 FE starts at £649 in the UK, where it’s available from the likes of Samsung and Amazon,

On a contract basis it is available on the following networks:

In the US, the phone starts at $549.99 and can be found at Samsung and Amazon, among others. By contract, see below:

Should you buy the Galaxy S24 FE?

In this review I compared a lot with the S24+, because the S24 FE seems to be largely based on it. And the list of compromises to keep the price down is long, but not extreme.

There are a lot of little things that don’t make a significant difference in everyday life, such as slightly worse cameras, slightly lower performance and an optical fingerprint reader instead of the faster ultrasonic reader.

Samsung

But also others that may determine more, such as battery life, dimmer screen and even larger dimensions, higher weight and no option with a lot of storage. But since you don’t have to pay nearly as much for it, it could be worth it, especially if you want the full Galaxy AI experience without buying a flagship.