Samsung Galaxy S24 FE review: The most affordable high performance Galaxy AI phone

Note: This article was first published on 19th October 2024.

Is this the Fan Edition you've been looking for?

With each evolution, it might seem as if the Samsung Galaxy FE line-up is stagnating, but the devil is in the details. The Galaxy S24 FE was soft launched in late September, and it’s supposed to offer flagship-level specs and features at a lower price point. 

This year, prices start from S$1,028, which is a big jump from the S$888 starting price last year. However, this is because Samsung has decided to remove the 128GB storage model and only offer only the 256GB and 512GB models. Given that it's 2024, that makes sense. Last year's 256GB model was listed for S$988, which means this year's Galaxy S24 FE only commands a slightly higher premium of about S$40 more.

TL;DR: If you want Samsung's AI features on a budget, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is the way to go. While it doesn't change too much from its predecessor, it has a larger display with newer glass, a bigger battery, better performance, and a promise of 7 years of software updates.



You can check out where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE here.

Inside, the phone is equipped with the Exynos 2400e, a variant of the Exynos 2400 chip used on the more premium Galaxy S24 and S24+ phones but with lower clock speeds. RAM remains untouched at 8GB, which is on the low side, considering many other competitors often feature 12GB. However, even the Galaxy S24 base model has 8GB of RAM and runs Galaxy AI flawlessly, so we're not too concerned about pure specs.

There are small improvements here and there, including a larger 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED display that can get up to 1,900 nits peak brightness and a larger 4,700mAh battery, but on paper, the Galaxy S24 FE looks very similar to the Galaxy S23 FE. The biggest addition might be the inclusion of Galaxy AI features like Circle to Search and Sketch to Image, which could make the Galaxy S24 FE a more affordable way to get those AI features if you’re keen on them.

Can Samsung still entice people to purchase its flagship-lite phone? We hope to share that through this review and see if it's a value alternative to the similarly sized flagship Galaxy S24+.

When looking like a flagship is a bonus

The FE models usually take heavy design inspiration from the flagship Galaxy S series, and the Galaxy S24 FE is no different. This year, Samsung has flattened the edges to be more in line with the flat edges of the Galaxy S24 series, making it easier to hold and reducing the slipperiness that I encountered with the Galaxy S23 FE last year. It's a small change, but a very welcome one.

Similar to last year, the Galaxy S24 FE comes with a coloured glass back and matte silver sides if you opt for a colour that’s not black. If you do go for black, you get the black coloured glass and black sides, which offers a pretty sleek look. 

The glass on the front and back has been upgraded to Gorilla Glass Victus, a big step up from Gorilla Glass 5 on the Galaxy S23 FE. The phone retains its IP68 dust and water resistance rating, thankfully.

We’ve covered Samsung’s OneUI 6.1 extensively in our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S24/S24+ reviews, so do refer them if you want to get acquainted with the phone UI aspects. A nice addition this year is the Galaxy AI features that we cover more in-depth here and here, and every feature in that article is also available on the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. In case you take it for granted, most other competing Chinese phones can't yet compete with these handy features offered on Galaxy AI, which goes well beyond just image-oriented edit assistance.

Again, we’ve mostly tried out these features before (and don't forget to check out this TikTok) so we won’t talk too much about them. They generally work well on the S24 FE, with the same processing times we’ve encountered on the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+. 

Samsung is also promising seven years of software and security updates for the Galaxy S24 FE, which is on par with the other Galaxy S24 series phones. This means you’ll be able to use this phone for much longer than other competitors who usually only offer two or three years of updates.

Imaging Quality

The cameras are very familiar to those of us who have been following Samsung’s recent releases. The 50MP (f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS) main camera on the Galaxy S24 FE is the exact same main camera found on the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy S24.

It’s paired with an 8MP (f/2.4, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom) telephoto camera and a 12MP (f/2.2, 123˚ FOV) ultrawide camera. Let's take a closer look at the shots from the main camera first before we work our way through its other lenses.

Main Camera

Photos from the primary camera are generally vibrant and relatively sharp, with that signature Samsung "pop" to the colours, particularly the greens. Next, let's what they look like without the pixel binning process and stare at its raw 50MP output.

Main Camera, 50MP

When shooting in 50MP, you'll notice the photos tend to get warmer, but it does offer better detail with more sharpening. Depending on what sort of photos you take, this added warmth and sharpness might be a good thing, as evidenced by the photos above. Just remember that it would eat up more space, so be sure to housekeep your camera roll more often if you prefer to keep them this way.

Ultrawide Camera

The ultrawide camera's field of view is quite large, which is nice, but it does result in a tiny bit of fish-eye distortion. That can be corrected via editing, however, so it's not a very big deal.

3x Optical Zoom

The 3x optical zoom works very well and retains plenty of detail. There is a bit of image noise present, as evidenced in the photo of the flower, but I actually prefer that the noise reduction algorithm doesn't go overboard, so this output is a good balance in my books.

Night Mode

Nightography, or Samsung's night mode, works the same as always. You can tell by comparing the two photos above that night mode does help to lift the shadows and provide some texture and colour back to the dark foliage that would otherwise just be black patches.

 

Benchmark Performance

Our tests for the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ have already shown that the numbers aren’t as good as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 featured on the Ultra model, so we’re not expecting anything fancy out of the Galaxy S24 FE, mainly since the chip inside is a lower-clocked Exynos 2400e processor. 

We’re pitting it against the Galaxy S24 series phones, the old Galaxy S23 FE, and other midrange phones around the S$1,000 price point. 

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

Fortunately, the Galaxy S24 FE was just a smidgen slower than the base Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ models and, for most purposes, just as good as the more expensive non-FE counterparts and even better than the more expensive Pixel 9. As such, the phone performs fairly well overall and is splendid in day-to-day use.

More surprisingly, we noted that the phone’s internal temperature shot up to about 39 degrees Celsius when playing games like Honkai: Star Rail, but it was barely warm to the touch. This can definitely be credited to the larger vapour chamber inside for better thermal dissipation.

Only the similarly priced Xiaomi 14 could outrun the Galaxy S24 FE in most of these tests, as it packed Qualcomm's top-tier processor, the same chip used on the industry's most feature-packed phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. So that's more of an outlier than the norm, considering the different dynamics offered by all three phones.

Battery Life

Our 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. 

The Galaxy S24 series phones all have great battery life, and the Galaxy S24 FE is no exception. It lasted the same time as the Google Pixel 9, which also had a 4,700mAh battery, but this outcome is even better considering that the Pixel 9 has a smaller screen than the Galaxy S24 FE. Furthermore, it's miles better than the Galaxy S23 FE, which is also physically smaller.

Charging speeds are average, with 25W wired charging and 15W wireless. There’s no charging adaptor provisioned in the box, although you do get a cable. It took 31 minutes to charge to 50%, and a full charge from 0 to 100% took about 75 minutes, which is not too shabby considering it doesn't support any of the super-fast charging standards seen on Chinese phones.

Is it good enough?

The same question from last year’s Galaxy S23 FE remains: is good enough really good enough? Perhaps. You do get Samsung’s suite of nifty AI features, including stuff like Live Translate, but the performance of the Galaxy S24 FE is not as good as our lead phone for the Best High-end Android Phone category, which is the Xiaomi 14. Priced at 'just' S$999 while offering more compelling features like 12GB of RAM, blazing fast 90W wired and 50W wireless charging speeds and Leica-branded cameras that produce excellent photography, it's a tough cookie to beat if you're looking for an overall best recommendation.

However, if you’re a Samsung fanboy (nothing wrong with that since they've fine products) or want Samsung’s AI offerings, the Galaxy S24 FE remains one of the most affordable ways to get that in a semi-flagship package. And if you’re on a S$1,000-dollar budget, this might be the Samsung phone to get, particularly if Samsung starts offering discounts.

Now that we know where the Galaxy S24 FE falls in line, the more pertinent question would be whether it can offer good value against the Galaxy S24+, which is the proper flagship edition of equivalent screen size. Considering the latter comes in at S$1,528, the Galaxy S24 FE is quite a bit cheaper—a full $500 less!

So, what does the extra dough accord you on the Galaxy S24+? It has a better build, colour options, a slightly faster processor, more RAM, a larger battery with a sizeable battery life boost, slightly better cameras and imaging performance, Wi-Fi 7 and a faster 45W wired charging. It's also a bit lighter in the hand, so you can see there's a whole slew of upgrades that do set the Galaxy S24+ apart from the Galaxy S24 FE. And yet, as we've assessed the new FE model, it has a fairly balanced offering to net off its slightly higher price tag than last year's Galaxy S23 FE.

But if you fall into neither of those above mentioned categories and you want the most value for your dollar, you would be better served by our all-rounder pick. 

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE retails in the following configurations at these official prices: 

• Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (8GB RAM + 256GB storage): S$1,028
• Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (8GB RAM + 512GB storage): S$1,208

You can find the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE at the Samsung Official Store, Lazada and Shopee. The phones are also available at our consumer electronics retailers (Challenger, Courts, Gain City, Harvey Norman) and local telcos (M1, Singtel, StarHub).