There’s a new Samsung phone to talk about! It’s not an industry-leading flagship, and it’s not a foldable. It’s the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, and it’s Samsung’s latest attempt at a “value flagship” smartphone. Think of it like the Galaxy S24 Plus, but with a few spec downgrades and a $650 price tag.
I recently had the chance to go hands-on with Samsung’s newest phone, and if I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure what to think about it. Let me explain why.
The Galaxy S24 FE is a very, very big phone
I spent a little under an hour playing with the Galaxy S24 FE, and the first thing that jumped out to me was just how big the phone is. The S24 FE measures 162.0mm by 77.3mm by 8.0mm, which is larger in every dimension compared to the Galaxy S24 Plus at 158.5mm by 75.9mm by 7.7mm. The S24 FE is heavier, too, weighing 213 grams compared to the 196-gram S24 Plus.
Those may not look like significant increases on paper, but after using the Galaxy S24 FE, you do feel it. You still get the 6.7-inch display size of the S24 Plus, but the body surrounding it is larger in every manner. Folks who like large phones may not care about this, but as someone who’s quickly gravitating more and more toward smaller phones, it wasn’t a great feeling to me.
On the plus side, the S24 FE’s hardware is (mostly) nice. The aluminum frame feels solid, the buttons have a satisfying press, and the blue and mint colors are good. They aren’t as saturated or colorful as the iPhone 16’s excellent Ultramarine and Teal colors, but I’m still happy with them. Colorful phones are always good, and the S24 FE delivers here. The vibration motor, however, felt … bad.
Display, performance, and camera impressions
That’s the hardware. What else should you know? The S24 FE has a lower-resolution screen than the S24 Plus (Full HD instead of Quad HD), but it looked fine to my eyes. It’s a little soft if you really pixel peep, but this is a quality AMOLED panel. There’s also a 120Hz refresh rate that was smooth and fluid during my time with the phone, and while it only scales back to 60Hz instead of 1Hz like the S24 Plus, having 120Hz is still a great addition — and something Apple really should take note of with the iPhone 16 .
Speaking of smooth and fluid, my initial performance impressions are good. Instead of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy S24 FE uses Samsung’s own Exynos 2400e chip. We rarely get an Exynos-powered Samsung phone in the U.S., so its presence in the S24 FE is noteworthy. I need much more time to put the chip through its paces, but opening a few apps and scrolling through menus felt good.
I’m a little more anxious about the Galaxy S24 FE’s cameras. The 50-megapixel primary, 12MP ultrawide, and 8MP 3x telephoto cameras sound fine on paper, if not particularly noteworthy. The primary and ultrawide cameras are the same ones found on the S24 Plus, though the telephoto camera is a downgraded sensor.
The S24 Plus already had a pretty mediocre telephoto camera, so the idea of a lesser one on the S24 FE doesn’t inspire much confidence. The S24 Plus also struggled a lot with moving subjects, so I’m curious to see if that’s a problem with the S24 FE.
Should the S24 FE be your next phone?
On its own, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE seems like a perfectly fine smartphone. It’s an unabashedly big device with a 120Hz screen, its performance seems promising, and you get all of the Galaxy AI features found on Samsung’s more expensive smartphones.
My issue with the Galaxy S24 FE is how it stacks up to the competition. The $650 starting price isn’t terrible, though if you want to upgrade from 128GB of storage to 256GB, you go up to $710. That’s for a phone with a non-Qualcomm chip, 25-watt charging, 8GB of RAM, and a questionable camera setup.
When you start looking at handsets like the OnePlus 12R and Google Pixel 8a, I struggle to see how the S24 FE stands out. It doesn’t seem like an outright bad handset, and I’m curious to spend more time with it, but it doesn’t immediately look like anything special. Maybe that will change after more hands-on time, but as far as first impressions go, it’s not doing it for me. I hope that changes, and we’ll find out if it does when our review is ready.
Preorders for the Galaxy S24 FE are live now, and regular sales will begin on October 3.
