For the FE, it’s also a high-quality camera with a bright f/2.4 lens and built-in optical image stabilization. I’m not usually a fan of Portrait mode on budget devices like the S24 FE, but I found it to make sense here since the compression provided by the telephoto lens allows for better subject separation. The phone did a great job rendering natural skin tones and background blur, so I ended up taking a lot of portraits.
The main camera is not very noticeable. The 50MP sensor produces the most detailed images of any camera on the S24 FE, but autofocus wasn’t as fast as I would have liked. When trying to get close-ups of things like Celine the cat, the camera took several seconds to lock in focus. But other than that, the S24 FE can take great photos. Don’t slouch even in the dark.
As for the 12MP ultrawide, it was my least favorite of the FE cameras. Samsung’s image processing doesn’t do a good job of correcting the fisheye distortion caused by such wide-angle lenses, so buildings and other objects around the frame appear distorted. The photo looks good when zoomed out, but as soon as you start pixel-peeping it starts to look bad. Part of the problem here is that Samsung didn’t update the ultra-wide camera to add autofocus, so even though the sensor offers plenty of resolution, every shot is as sharp as possible. It’s not like you can take a perfect photo.
Speaking of autofocus, selfie cameras don’t have that feature either. That’s a shame, because the FE has the best front-facing camera I’ve used recently. It offers enough resolution to make your selfies look detailed, but not so much that every pore and blemish is rendered in painful detail. At the same time, the company seems to have toned down on the overly aggressive skin smoothing it was known for in the past few years.
I mentioned the Pixel 8a earlier, but I think it’s worth returning to it for a moment. My colleague Sam Rutherford compared Google’s midrange device to the Galaxy S24 Ultra and found that they were surprisingly comparable when it came to camera performance. Despite costing $800 less, the Pixel 8a frequently produced photos with more accurate colors and better detail. The S24 FE’s camera has worse coloring than the S24+’s camera. Unless you value a telephoto lens like I do, the S24 FE doesn’t offer enough upgrades to justify spending $650.
performance
Thankfully, the S24 FE has more than just minor tweaks. Under the hood, the phone is powered by Samsung’s new Exynos 2400e chipset. This is the one processor that the company uses in both the US and international versions. Exynos chips have been known in the past for both lower performance and efficiency compared to Qualcomm chips, so we can already hear some people groaning. So let’s get the good news straight. The 2400e is powerful.
When we ran the S24 FE through Geekbench 6, the chip had a single-core score of 2,140 and multi-core performance of 6,690. To put these numbers into perspective, when my colleague Sam did the same thing with the S24+ earlier this year, its flagship Snapdragon Gen 3 SoC saw an increase in performance, but not by a huge amount, and each They recorded scores of 2,284 and 7,003.
The Exynos 2400e was equally impressive in real-world use. Although the FE only has 8GB of RAM at its disposal, we didn’t have any issues scrolling through websites, switching between apps, or doing other daily tasks. As for the game, I was able to play it. diablo immortal The game’s 60 fps mode is enabled and graphics settings are set to maximum. No hitching or frame drops occurred. It’s worth mentioning here that Samsung has redesigned the FE’s vapor chamber to make it larger, thereby improving cooling. In my experience, when running graphics-intensive games, the phone gets warm, but not hot.
battery
As mentioned at the beginning, this year’s FE is larger than its predecessor. Samsung has wisely used the extra space to include a larger 4,700mAh battery. Unfortunately, the company has only made minor changes to the FE’s charging capabilities. Thanks to Qi2 support, wireless charging tops out at 15W, up from 10W on the S23 FE. When it comes to wired power supply, FE is still limited to 25W.
During one test, I left the house at 8am with the FE’s battery at 87%. For the next three hours, I used my phone to track my bike ride on Strava and take photos along the way. When I got home the battery was at 67%. Then I went out to lunch with my partner, took lots of photos along the way, and used FE to surf the web and check social media. I played for about an hour after that. diablo immortal The total screening time that day was 3 hours. By the time I went to bed, I had about 40 percent battery left. Samsung says the S24 FE can power long gaming sessions, and judging from what I’ve seen, that’s accurate.
Charging the FE is far from an ideal experience. In my testing, I was able to get the battery from 0 percent to 50 percent in about 30 minutes. This is consistent with Samsung’s claims. However, it takes quite a while to fully charge. It took nearly 70 minutes for the battery to reach 100% after it died. Of course, this assumes you have a compatible 25W fast charger. Did I mention that Samsung doesn’t include a power adapter in the box? Yes, you’ll need your own. Otherwise, expect glacial charging speeds.
software
I’ve spent a lot of words about the S24 FE’s hardware, but for Samsung, that’s not what this phone is about. The company wants people to see the new FE as a more affordable way to access Galaxy AI tools. I won’t bore you with a review of the entire suite, as it’s already covered on Engadget.
What I’m trying to say is that while all of the S24 FE’s AI features work well, none of them are a reason for me to buy this phone myself. For example, consider Circle to Search. Long-press the FE’s home button to summon Google anywhere, including while scrolling through photos on Instagram or your camera roll. You can search for a specific object by drawing a circle around it. So the next time you spot a cute Fluff, you can confirm it’s a Samoyed without leaving Google Photos. You don’t have to switch between apps or figure out how to explain what you see to Google.
Circle to Search is useful, but I can live without it. And the same can be said for all of Samsung’s unique AI features. For example, Transcript Assist was useful for converting voice memos to notes, but it didn’t save me much time in the long run because I ended up editing most of what the software created. You also don’t want to send AI-generated texts to your friends courtesy of Chat Assist.
Most importantly, if FE’s AI features are no longer free, I won’t be willing to pay for them. In case you forgot, Samsung has plans to monetize Galaxy AI. In a press release announcing the S24 FE, the company said that “fees may be applied for certain AI features in late 2025.” If you’re in the market for a midrange device, the idea of paying a subscription to use some of its features can seem non-starter. I don’t know about you, but when I buy a cheap cell phone, I want it to save me money in the long run, rather than cost me more in a year or two.
summary
Otherwise, the Galaxy S24 FE is a great all-around phone and would be easy to recommend if the S24+ didn’t exist, or if Samsung released the two devices at the same time. At $650 for the base 128GB model and $710 for the 256GB, the FE is a great deal, especially considering the Plus comes with 256GB of storage by default and has already dropped $150 in price in recent months. It’s not significantly cheaper than the S24+. . If you want to buy the S24+ at a discount, it’s better to wait for the phone to be released.
The S24 FE is in an even weirder position when compared to the best mid-range smartphones you can buy today. Yes, it has a larger screen and additional cameras than the current top contender, the $499 Pixel 8a. But for most people, I don’t think there’s a need to spend the extra $150 on these upgrades. If you want to get the most out of your phone for as little money as possible, the S24 FE is the way to go.
I’m sure Samsung will adjust the price soon, but for now, this Fan Edition device doesn’t have a clear user base.
