Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review: Is good enough really good enough?

Note: This review was first published on 28 November 2023.

Fan Edition returns

After skipping a generation, Samsung has returned with the Galaxy S23 FE, offering the same enticing proposition of flagship-level features at a much more affordable price.

Starting from S$888 (128GB), the S23 FE offers features like a 50MP main camera, a 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display that goes up to 1,450 nits max brightness and supports up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, as well as a 4,500mAh battery that supports Samsung’s 25W Super Fast Charging. 

To keep it under S$1,000, Samsung scaled back some components. The biggest elephant in the room is the in-house Exynos 2200 chip instead of a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, as well as only having 8GB of RAM along with limited 128GB and 256GB storage options. 

TL;DR:  A good phone for those on a budget who still want some flagship features. Power users may not be excited for its Exynos 2200 chip.

Do those limitations diminish the performance of the Galaxy S23 FE? Is the phone still a good bargain for people who are on a budget and don’t require all of the latest and greatest bells and whistles? Let’s take a look.

Looks just like its flagship Galaxy S

The Galaxy S23 FE looks incredibly similar to the flagship S23 and S23+ models, with the only noticeable changes including its repositioned rear flash module and the switch to matte rails instead of shiny ones (which looks more preferable to me).

Unfortunately, the rails feel rather slippery, so I recommend using a phone case to protect your phone in case it falls out of your hands. 

The volume rocker and power buttons are all on the right side of the phone. It’s easy enough to activate with the press of the thumb or finger without having to stretch. 

On the front, Samsung has had to take a small downgrade on the glass, using Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Gorilla Glass Victus on the S21 FE. However, Samsung has changed the back plate to Gorilla Glass 5 instead of using plastic like the S21 FE, which makes the S23 FE feel more premium in hand.

The display remains unchanged at 6.4 inches, with the same Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, although it only goes between 60-120Hz instead of being able to drop down to 1Hz to conserve battery like a true flagship would be able to. There’s also HDR10+ support, and videos and other content are generally crisp and vibrant regardless of whether you choose the Vivid or Natural display options.

Our mint green colour is an understated, nice pastel shade, with other colourways in the lineup like Tangerine, Indigo and Purple offering a brighter pop of vibrance.

Unfortunately, the rails aren’t colour-matched, so you’ll always have the same silver aluminium sides no matter which variant you choose. 

The phone does come with IP68 dust and water resistance so there’s plenty of protection whether you’re planning on bringing the S23 FE to the beach or the pool. Also, S$888 with IP68 protection is a plus point in our books.

We’ve covered Samsung’s One UI 5.1 in both our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S23 reviews, so we won’t go over it again. One thing we have to point out is the odd omission of support for Samsung’s Galaxy Enhance X app, which provides some cool photo editing features.

Because the app is supposed to be supported by Galaxy A-series phones, we’re guessing that the Galaxy S23 FE series might get support in the future as well. If it doesn't, well, that's quite an oversight by Samsung.

Samsung also promises four years of software updates and five years of security updates, making the S23 FE’s lifespan similar to that of the flagship S23 phones. 

Imaging Quality

With a triple camera array on the rear, the Galaxy S23 FE has received some new updates in this area.

It has a new 50MP main camera (f/1.9 aperture, PDAF, OIS. 1.0µm). The phone also has an 8MP telephoto (f/2.4 aperture, PDAF, OIS, 1.0µm) with 3x optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2 aperture, 123˚ FOV, 1.12µm).

The main camera's sensor is the same one found on the Galaxy S22, S23 and S23+, so while it’s not top-of-the-line, it does provide the same vibrant photos that Samsung is known for while retaining a good amount of detail and sharpness. 

The 50MP un-pixel-binned images come out a little less processed, which means there’s more leeway for editing if you prefer. These do take up more storage space, however, so you’ll have to be mindful as the Galaxy S23 FE only comes with 128GB or 256GB storage, which can fill up very quickly with 50MP images.

The ultra-wide lens works well with Samsung minimising the fish-eye distortion effect so it’s rare to really catch any major distortion in images. It does struggle slightly with dark foliage at night, but generally, ultra-wide images from this phone still retain detail and pleasant colours.

The 3x optical zoom on the telephoto lens is also surprisingly good, with great rendering and excellent colours, although you do start losing detail and noise is introduced in shaded areas of the image, but all in all, the photos out of the telephoto lens are very usable.

Night mode also works well, as is usually the case with Samsung phones. I did find the saturation boost a little overdone for my liking. Even without night mode turned on, the Galaxy S23 FE can do a good job in boosting image brightness, as long as there’s a decent enough amount of light present.

Benchmark Performance

Remember our joy when Samsung started using Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for the company’s high-end phones? Or when Samsung used a flagship Snapdragon chipset for its first-ever FE device? Well, that’s not the case with the Galaxy S23 FE in Singapore, which is a shame.

The phone comes with Exynos 2200, which isn’t a bad chip for general performance, but it would have been nice to have chip parity between a phone that’s supposed to provide a flagship experience and Samsung’s other flagship phones. However, the Exynos 2200 proved adequate for general daily usage, even if the numbers in the synthetic benchmarks look low.

Putting it to the test

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark Performance remarks

The results aren’t all that surprising. Exynos chips have always been a little lacking in performance, thermals, and heat management, so it’s not a shocker to see that the 3DMark results are low. Thankfully, the Geekbench 6 results aren’t too far behind the results of the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+, and the Jetstream 2.0 score for the S23 FE is excellent.

The numbers don’t always tell the whole story, however, with the Galaxy S23 FE running fine for web browsing and general usage, although it can get a touch laggy if too many intensive apps are open due to the limited 8GB of RAM.

Battery Life

Our new battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

In real-world use, the 4,500mAh battery life is definitely good enough for most users, using up about 10% while idling for 24 hours with occasional notifications, about 12% for an hour of photography and 18% for an hour of 60Hz gaming at max brightness.

Throughout the course of a normal day, the phone consumes around 80% of the battery with moderate use watching videos, scrolling through social media, playing games and browsing the web. It’s not the best out there for sure, but being able to last a full day before needing to charge is good enough.

The S23 FE supports 25W fast charging, although you won’t find a compatible charging head in the box, only a cable. A 46-minute charge brought the phone from empty to 50%, and a full charge from 0% took 85 minutes, which is definitely on the longer side of things.

There is also 15W wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, so you can charge your accessories (or even another phone) with your Galaxy S23 FE.

Some flagship features, but not quite enough

The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE offers what it promises, technically. It’s a solid phone that offers some flagship-level features so you can experience the “flagship Galaxy experience” at a lower price point, starting from S$888.

You get a phone that looks very similar to the flagship Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+, alongside a nice, vivid display capable of a 120Hz refresh rate, IP68 dust and water resistance, and a triple camera array that takes some very nice images. 

But at the same time, Samsung made several tradeoffs for the Galaxy S23 FE's price tag of S$888 possible. You’re limited to 8GB of RAM and only 128GB or 256GB of storage. The glass on the front and back is only Gorilla Glass 5 and you don’t get the same smooth, snappy user experience that you would with a real flagship phone. 

There are plenty of competitors around, additionally, so one would benefit from comparing the S23 FE with other “flagship killers” under $1,000 like the Nothing Phone 2, the Xiaomi 13T Pro and even Samsung’s own flagship Galaxy S23. 

When you consider the fact that the true flagship Samsung Galaxy S23 is only $150 more than its FE counterpart for the same 8GB/128GB configuration, the Galaxy S23 does seem to be even more value for money from a performance standpoint thanks to the better Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.

For a Samsung fan, it may feel quite short of an all-encompassing Samsung experience. It's not quite the Fan Edition it first started out with (big performance and big value). It's also barely cheaper than the vastly more powerful Galaxy S23, that's just S$150 away and teasing you.

But if you’re on a strict budget or just looking for a second phone, the Galaxy S23 FE is a good option, although it competes with the S$999 Nothing Phone (2).

Samsung has also been running several promotions which have dropped the 256GB Galaxy S23 FE model down from $988 to much more attractive prices like $777. At a discounted price, it’s hard to say no to the Galaxy S23 FE given how similar it is to the standard base version of the Galaxy S series. Without the discounts, and the Galaxy S23 FE faces stiff competition. 

The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE retails in the following configurations at these official prices: 

• Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (8GB RAM +128GB storage): S$888 
• Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (8GB RAM + 256GB storage): S$988

You can find the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE at the Samsung Official Store, telcos Singtel, StarHub and M1, the Samsung official outlets on Lazada and Shopee, iShopChangi, and other online versions of major electronics retailers.

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