A great phone, but I wish it was cheaper

For just a few years now, it’s been exhausting to pin down the technique behind Samsung’s Fan Version merchandise. Ostensibly, they’re supposed to supply high-end options at a extra reasonably priced worth. Nonetheless, following the Galaxy S20 FE, most FE units haven’t lived as much as that promise. Whether or not it was the poor timing of the S21 FE or the boring {hardware} of the S23 FE, these telephones by no means felt like absolutely the steal the S20 FE was 4 years in the past.

With the brand new Galaxy S24 FE ($650), Samsung is providing its least expensive entry into its Galaxy AI ecosystem. Sadly, just a few {hardware} modifications and loads of AI aren’t sufficient to beat an uncompetitive worth.

Design and show

Once I first took the S24 FE out of the field, I assumed Samsung had left the design of the cellphone untouched. It seems I used to be solely half proper. The brand new mannequin contains a show that’s 0.3 inches bigger than the S23 FE’s 6.4-inch one. By way of measurement, meaning the S24 FE is a a lot nearer match to the S24+ than the S23 FE was to the S23+. I need you to maintain the S24+ prime of thoughts as you learn via this assessment; The S24 FE is the cellphone Samsung desires you to think about if the whole lot concerning the S24+ is interesting to you apart from its $1,000 worth.

Like with the S23 FE, Samsung selected an AMOLED 2X panel that has an adaptive 120Hz refresh charge and 1080p decision. Along with being larger, the S24 FE’s display is brighter than the one on final 12 months’s FE, providing near 1,900 nits of peak brightness in comparison with 1,450 nits. The S24 FE remains to be lacking the battery-saving LTPO tech discovered on Samsung’s flagship telephones, however so far as screens on midrange telephones go, the S24 FE simply has probably the greatest I’ve seen. I additionally suppose it’s the motive to purchase the FE.

The show appears nice, particularly when scrolling via social media and enjoying video games. It’s additionally simply legible in brilliant daylight. Likewise, I discovered it was loads sharp, regardless of having a decrease decision than the QHD display on the S24+. It’s good Samsung gives such a big show on a midrange machine, however I’m not a fan of huge telephones. Clearly, private choice will dictate if the FE’s girth is your factor, however these with smaller palms like me, take into account this your warning: it’s not a simple cellphone to carry.

In North America, the S24 FE is out there in 4 colours: blue (pictured), graphite, grey and a beautiful mint. It may not be fabricated from titanium, however I believe the FE appears simply as premium as its dearer siblings. I additionally wouldn’t fear about its sturdiness an excessive amount of; the back and front of the cellphone are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, and all the cellphone is IP68-certified in opposition to mud and water.

Cameras

I’ll be trustworthy, I didn’t count on to love the S24 FE’s digicam as a lot as I did. The brand new cellphone gives the identical {hardware} as its predecessor. Particularly, it comes with a 50-megapixel, f/1.8 principal digicam; a 12MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide digicam; an 8MP, f/2.4 telephoto digicam and a 10MP selfie digicam with f/2.4 lens.

The one addition right here is the corporate’s ProVisual engine. It’s the primary time Samsung has provided the software program on one in every of its FE telephones. Having not used final 12 months’s mannequin, I wasn’t in a position to straight examine the 2 units.

So I did the subsequent neatest thing: I in contrast the images I snapped with the S24 FE to these I took with the final Samsung cellphone I reviewed, the Galaxy A53 5G. If I needed to pinpoint a distinction, it’s that the S24 FE did a greater job of constantly nailing white stability and correctly exposing darkish scenes.

On the identical time, Samsung’s picture processing hasn’t dramatically modified during the last couple of years. There’s no mistaking the images from the S24 FE got here from a Samsung machine. As you may see from the gallery beneath, practically each picture options brilliant and saturated colours.

Whilst somebody who’s not a fan of Samsung’s picture processing, I had loads of enjoyable utilizing the FE’s cameras. Of the three principal ones, my favourite was the telephoto. Because of its 32-degree area of view, it offers you a 3x optical zoom over the FE’s principal digicam. Which may not look like a lot, however when most midrange telephones, together with the superb Pixel 8a, don’t include a telephoto digicam, any little bit of optical zoom makes it really feel such as you’re utilizing a extra premium product.

Within the case of the FE, it’s a top quality digicam too, with a brilliant f/2.4 lens and built-in optical picture stabilization. I’m normally not a fan of portrait modes on extra reasonably priced handsets just like the S24 FE, however right here I discovered it made sense because the compression from the telephoto lens results in higher topic separation. I ended up snapping loads of portraits as a result of the cellphone did an amazing job of rendering natural-looking pores and skin tones and background blur.

The principle digicam is much less of a standout. Because of that 50MP sensor, it might probably produce probably the most detailed photos of the S24 FE’s cameras, however the autofocus wasn’t as quick as I’d have appreciated. Once I tried to get a closeup of one thing, equivalent to my cat Celine, the digicam took just a few seconds to lock focus. Nonetheless, exterior of that, the S24 FE can take gorgeous images. It’s no slouch in low mild, both.

As for the 12MP ultra-wide, it was my least favourite of the FE’s cameras. Samsung’s picture processing doesn’t do an amazing job of correcting for the fish-eye distortion produced by such a large lens, so buildings and anything captured within the periphery of the body look misshapen. Pictures look high-quality when zoomed out, however start to look worse as quickly as you begin pixel-peeping. A part of the issue right here is that Samsung didn’t replace the ultra-wide digicam so as to add autofocus, so not each shot comes out as sharp because it may very well be, regardless of the sensor providing a good quantity of decision.

Talking of autofocus, the selfie digicam is lacking that function as nicely. It’s a disgrace as a result of the FE has one of many higher front-facing cameras I’ve used just lately. It gives sufficient decision to make selfies look detailed however not a lot that each pore and blemish is rendered in painful element. On the identical time, the corporate appears to have toned down the overly aggressive pores and skin smoothing it was identified for in years previous.

I discussed the Pixel 8a earlier, and I believe it’s value returning to it for a second. When my coworker Sam Rutherford pitted Google’s midrange handset in opposition to the Galaxy S24 Extremely, he discovered the 2 had been surprisingly comparable when it got here to digicam efficiency. Regardless of costing $800 much less, the Pixel 8a incessantly produced images with extra correct colours and superior element. The S24 FE’s cameras carry out a shade worse than their counterparts on the S24+. Except you worth the inclusion of a telephoto lens as a lot as I do, there’s a case to be made that the S24 FE doesn’t supply sufficient of an improve to warrant spending $650.

Efficiency

Fortunately, the S24 FE isn’t all small tweaks. Internally, the cellphone options Samsung’s new Exynos 2400e chipset. It’s the one processor the corporate is utilizing for each US and worldwide variants. I can already hear a few of you groaning since Exynos chips have been identified prior to now for each poor efficiency and effectivity relative to their Qualcomm counterparts, so let me get straight to the excellent news: The 2400e is a powerhouse.

Once I put the S24 FE via Geekbench 6, the chip delivered a single-core rating of two,140 and a multi-core efficiency of 6,690. To place these numbers in perspective, when my co-worker Sam did the identical with the S24+ earlier this 12 months, its flagship Snapdragon Gen 3 SoC carried out higher however not considerably so, posting scores of two,284 and seven,003, respectively.

The Exynos 2400e was equally spectacular in real-world use. Despite the fact that the FE solely has 8GB of RAM at its disposal, I didn’t expertise any hiccups scrolling via web sites, switching between apps and different day by day duties. When it got here to gaming, I might play Diablo Immortal with the sport’s 60 fps mode enabled and graphics settings pushed to their max. I didn’t expertise any hitching or dropped frames. I’ll point out right here that Samsung redesigned the FE’s vapor chamber to make it larger and thereby enhance cooling. In my expertise, the cellphone will get heat — however not scorching — operating graphically intensive video games.

Battery

As I discussed on the prime, this 12 months’s FE is greater than its predecessor. Samsung has correctly used the additional house to incorporate a bigger 4,700mAh battery. Disappointingly, the corporate solely made a minor change to the FE’s charging capabilities. Because of Qi2 assist, wi-fi charging now tops off at 15W, up from 10W on the S23 FE. As for wired energy supply, the FE remains to be restricted to 25W.

Throughout one take a look at, I left dwelling at 8AM with the FE’s battery at 87 p.c. For the subsequent three hours, I used the cellphone to trace a motorcycle trip on Strava and snap images alongside the way in which. Once I bought dwelling, the battery was at 67 p.c. I then went out for lunch with my associate, snapping loads of images alongside the way in which, and utilizing the FE to surf the online and test social media. I later performed an hour of Diablo Immortal for a complete of three hours of display time that day. Earlier than mattress, I had about 40 p.c battery left. Samsung says the S24 FE can energy lengthy gaming periods, and judging by what I noticed, that’s correct.

Charging the FE is much from a great expertise. In my testing, it was potential to get the battery from zero to 50 p.c in about half-hour. That’s according to Samsung’s claims. Nonetheless, charging to full takes considerably longer. It took near 70 minutes to get a useless battery to 100%. After all, that is assuming you personal a appropriate 25W quick charger. Did I point out Samsung doesn’t embrace an influence adapter within the field? Sure, you’ll want your individual. In any other case, count on glacial charging speeds.

Software program

I’ve spent loads of phrases on the S24 FE’s {hardware}, however for Samsung, that’s not the story of this cellphone. The corporate desires you to see the brand new FE as a extra reasonably priced method to entry its Galaxy AI instruments. I received’t bore you with a assessment of all the suite since Engadget has already lined what’s included.

What I’ll say is that all the S24 FE’s AI options work nicely, however none of them are causes I’d exit and purchase this cellphone for myself. Take Circle to Search, as an illustration. By lengthy urgent the FE’s dwelling button, you may deliver up Google anyplace, together with whereas scrolling via images on Instagram and your digicam roll. It’s then potential to seek for a particular object by drawing a circle round it. So, the subsequent time you notice a cute floof, you may affirm it was a Samoyed with out leaving Google Pictures. No want to modify between apps or attempt to determine tips on how to describe what you noticed to Google.

Circle to Search is beneficial, however I might additionally reside with out it. And I can safely say the identical for all of Samsung’s personal AI options. For instance, Transcript Help was helpful for turning voice memos into written notes, but it surely didn’t save me a lot time in the long term since I ended up modifying most of what the software program produced. I additionally don’t need to topic my pals to AI-generated texts courtesy of Chat Help.

Most significantly, I can’t see myself paying for any of the FE’s AI options as soon as they’re now not free. In case you forgot, Samsung plans to monetize Galaxy AI. “Charges might apply to sure AI options on the finish of 2025,” the corporate mentioned within the press launch saying the S24 FE. Should you’re out there for a midrange machine, the prospect of paying a subscription to make use of a few of its options seems like a non-starter. I don’t learn about you, but when I’m shopping for a finances cellphone, I need it to save lots of me over the long term, not price me extra after a 12 months or two.

Wrap-up

In a vacuum, the Galaxy S24 FE is a good all-around cellphone and could be a simple suggestion if the S24+ didn’t exist or had Samsung launched the 2 units on the identical time. At $650 for the bottom 128GB mannequin and $710 for 256GB, the FE isn’t considerably cheaper than the S24+, particularly when you think about the Plus comes with 256GB of storage by default and has already been decreased by as a lot as $150 off in latest months. If you would like a reduction S24+, you’re higher off simply ready for that cellphone to go on sale.

The S24 FE is in a good weirder spot in comparison with the very best midrange telephones you should purchase proper now. Sure, it has a bigger display and an additional digicam over our present prime decide, the $499 Pixel 8a. Nonetheless, for most individuals, I don’t suppose these upgrades warrant spending an additional $150. Should you’re seeking to get probably the most cellphone for as little cash as potential, the S24 FE isn’t it.

I’m certain Samsung will regulate the value earlier than lengthy, however for now, this Fan Version machine doesn’t have a transparent viewers.