Review: Samsung Galaxy S24 FE - Slightly Cheaper, Just as Good

It is a pattern that many Android manufacturers follow. Release a new flagship model in the spring, then in the fall, release a more budget-friendly flagship model, which may not be the best at everything but offers more value for the money. It can be a way to compete with the price tag without undermining their own flagship model. Xiaomi has systematized this, and OnePlus has also used this strategy from time to time.

But when Samsung has tried the same model with its FE series, it has faltered. The Galaxy S21 FE and S23 FE models were launched so late in the year that they came just before the next new year's model started selling. By that time, most retailers sell the previous flagship model at a reduced price, and when the FE model is not much cheaper than what the flagship model was to begin with, one wonders what the point was.

This year, Samsung has slightly adjusted the model with the Galaxy S24 FE. For one, you get the affordable top model of the fall earlier; there's a difference between October and Christmas when the next generation arrives in January. They still haven't given the phone a price tag that truly makes it feel like a cheaper top model, but on the other hand, they've made it better. In fact, it's hard to tell the difference between the Galaxy S24 FE and other S24 models.

Same price rather than cheaper

If we start with the price, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is sold for 9300 kronor with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, or 10,000 kronor with 8/256 GB. It's a price tag that doesn't exactly scream affordable top model. The closest equivalent model, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, costs 14,500 kronor with 256 GB of storage, so you save a substantial amount by choosing the S24 FE. But that's the price on Samsung's website. If you go online and search, you'll find the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus with 256 GB of storage from 10,500 kronor today, practically the same price. If you choose the regular S24 in a smaller format, something many might see as an advantage rather than a disadvantage, you can get it new for under 9000 kronor. So when the Galaxy S24 FE starts selling, it's actually not cheaper at all than the regular S24 series.

On the other hand, it is not practically worse either. There are absolutely differences that we will go through in detail, but they have very little significance, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE therefore becomes an alternative model that, at the time of writing, struggles to distinguish itself from the rest of the S24 series. However, the Galaxy S24 FE has time on its side, because while the regular S24 models have dropped in price and will not drop much more, the Galaxy S24 FE may prove to be a good value top model in half a year when it, in turn, has dropped in price. "Made to be discounted" may not be the most inspiring sales argument a mobile phone can have, but it is at least an argument.

Samsung Galaxy S23 borrowed its chipset from Galaxy S22 while it was launched just before Galaxy S24, in other words, a mobile that felt two years old when it was new. Samsung Galaxy S24 FE instead has the Exynos 2400e chipset, which, according to Samsung, is exactly the same chipset as the one in Galaxy S24, except for a 0.1 GHz lower clock frequency. Here it almost feels like Samsung made the Galaxy S24 FE a little worse just for the sake of it, but one can also imagine that there are production technical reasons that allow for a few more chipsets to be produced if the clock frequency is lowered. For the user, it makes absolutely no difference, the Galaxy S24 FE feels just as fast as the Galaxy S24 did, and there are no mobiles that are meaningfully faster today.

Screen and cameras barely noticeably worse

Two more areas where the FE model is worse on paper than its counterpart S24 Plus, without it being noticeable in the user experience, are the screen and cameras. The screen on the Galaxy S24 FE has a slightly lower resolution than the Galaxy S24 Plus, slightly lower maximum brightness, and cannot update seamlessly but only at either 60 or 120 Hz. None of this is something I, as a user, notice. The screen is still fast and responsive, and shines brightly enough to be readable even in direct sunlight.

The main camera is the same as in the Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, that is, a good all-round camera that takes nice pictures in most situations, even in poorer light, but does not rise to the level of the best mobile cameras. The wide-angle camera is simpler without autofocus, which is also comparable to the S24. The telephoto camera with three times optical zoom has a lower resolution, 8 megapixels instead of 12 megapixels, but on both the S24 and S24 FE, Samsung upsamples the images to 12 megapixels for some reason. The lower resolution should be noticeable here, but when I compare images, I can't say that I perceive any difference in sharpness in the zoomed-in images.

The design is an area where it feels like Samsung had the goal that it should clearly be seen as a Galaxy S24, but it should look a bit cheaper. The slightly rounded edges of the frame are therefore not as symmetrically rounded as on the regular S24, and the camera lenses protrude noticeably more.

AI we are waiting for

The system, however, is exactly the same as in the S24 or Z Flip 6, that is, Android 14 with One UI 6.1 and all the latest of Samsung's AI features. The AI features include language functions, where you can have notes transcribed, emails summarized, and both calls and text translated, but none of this works in Swedish. According to Samsung, however, all these functions will receive Swedish language support before the end of the year. The other category is image editing functions, which are available and already working. You can remove or move objects in the image and the background is filled in, with highly varying degrees of credible results. Image editing with AI feels mostly like a gimmick, but in that case, it's still a fun gimmick when you can draw in an image and have what you drew transformed into a real motif. The result is often impressive but moderately useful.

The battery is slightly smaller than in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, and combined with a less power-efficient screen, it could lead to slightly worse battery life for the Galaxy S24 FE, but I can't say it is particularly noticeable in practice. As usual, fast charging is not really Samsung's thing, and it takes an hour and 20 minutes to charge the phone from empty to full with the fastest possible charger.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a decent phone for just under 10,000 kronor. If you get hold of another S24 at the same price, it will be better, but not really in any way that makes a big difference. In six months, perhaps the Galaxy S24 FE can be found for 7-8,000 kronor, and then it is finally the cheap flagship model we hoped for.

Questions and Answers

Are the material choices the same in the S24 FE as in the other S24 models? No, the screen and back, for example, are in slightly less durable Gorilla Glass Victus Plus instead of Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Does the phone have a memory card slot? No, like the other S24 models, there is no slot for a memory card. If you take a lot of photos and videos, it might be worth choosing the 256 GB variant.

How does the fingerprint reader work? It's located in the screen and, like other Samsung phones, it's a bit finicky. For some reason, you can only register three fingerprints.

An alternative

As mentioned in the text, the Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus are obvious alternatives, especially when you can find them at roughly the same price.

Camera example

The colors are not quite as exaggerated as in Samsung's previous generations of flagship models, but still very vibrant.