Samsung has been releasing a slightly simplified version, the so-called Fan Edition, for several years now, some time after the release of the flagship Galaxy S line. Moreover, the general idea remains to offer a slightly more affordable smartphone that will not radically lose to the flagships. Sometimes it works out quite well. For example, Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, sometimes a little worse. But the company continues to experiment.
Last year's Galaxy S23 FE had a 6.4-inch screen, between the 6.1-inch Galaxy S23 and 6.6-inch Galaxy S23+, and had an Exynos processor, instead of the Snapdragon in the older models. The same year, the new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE has a diagonal of 6.7 inches, just like the Galaxy S24+, and a processor that is almost identical to the one installed in the flagships. Now we are going to take a closer look at the current "fan" flagship and tell you how interesting it turned out to be.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE specifications
| Dimensions and weight | 162 x 77.3 x 8 mm213 grams |
| RAM and storage | 8 GB OZP, 128/256 GB of storage |
| Processor | Samsung Exynos 2400e |
| Graphics processor | Xclipse 940 |
| Wireless modules | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, NFC |
| Display | 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2XResolution: 1080×2340 dots, 385 ppiFrequency: 120 Hzpeak brightness 1900 nits, HDR10+ |
| Main cameras | 50 megapixel wide-angle, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, ƒ/1.8, dual pixel PDAF, optical stabilization;8 megapixel telephoto, 1/4.4", 1.0µm, ƒ/2.4, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization, 3x zoom;12 megapixel ultra-wide-angle, 1/3.0", 1.12µm, ƒ/2.2, 123° |
| Front camera | 10 megapixels, ƒ/2,4 |
| Audio | Stereo speakers |
| Battery | 4700 mAh |
| Charging | Wired 25 W, wireless 15 W, reverse wireless charging |
| Connectors | USB Type-C 3.2 |
| Operating system | Android 14 + One UI 6.1 |
| Recommended price | from UAH 28,999 |
Package contents
You shouldn't expect any bonuses with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. Everything is absolutely standard for the company's smartphones over the past few years: only the smartphone itself, a cable with Type-C connectors on both sides, a tray eject tool, and documentation.
Design and ergonomics
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE has a minimalist and, one might say, classic appearance similar to the older flagships. But a closer look reveals that the bezels around the perimeter of the screen and the "chin" are quite wide for a flagship. This is rather the level of mid-range smartphones. With a similar display diagonal, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is larger and heavier than the Galaxy S24+.
The screen is flat and protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+. The front camera is in a small round hole. Above is the earpiece speaker, which is also used for stereo sound. As in most modern smartphones.
The side bezel is made of metal, in our case a pleasant graphite color with a matte finish. It is flat around the entire perimeter of the smartphone and has very small roundings at the transition to the back panel. Thanks to this, the smartphone does not "cut" the palm with sharp corners. This is especially important given the rather large size of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE.
On the right side are the standard volume and power buttons. Of course, it all depends on the size of your hand, but if the power button is conveniently located, then you have to reach for the power buttons a little or grab the smartphone when using it with your left hand.
On the top edge there are two additional microphones and a tray. The tray is unremarkable: it can accommodate two SIM cards. There is also support for eSIM.
On the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE are the main speaker, two more microphones, and a USB Type-C connector. In this case, it's fast USB 3.2, which also supports displaying images on a monitor. This is quite logical, given the support for the DeX desktop mode.
The back cover of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is also made of Gorilla Glass Victus+. Unlike older models, it's glossy. At the review, there was a graphite dark version, on which fingerprints are visible immediately and very strongly. Therefore, it makes sense to look towards lighter models. The design of the back cover is similar to other flagships: a flat panel with a barely noticeable Samsung logo.
This also applies to the recognizable minimalist design of the rear camera in the form of three separate identical lenses arranged vertically in a row, sticking out slightly above the back cover and collecting dust around them. There is an LED flash next to it. So fans of the design of Samsung's flagships of recent years will like the design.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is large and quite heavy: it weighs 213 g. At the same time, it is a bit slippery, so you need to be careful when using it with one hand on the go. Or buy a protective bumper right away. Although it will increase the dimensions. Like older models, the smartphone has full protection against dirt and water according to the IP68 standard.
Display
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE features a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with FullHD+ resolution of 2340x1080 and a pixel density of 385 PPI. Just like the older Galaxy S24+ model. But it does not use LTPO, but a simpler matrix that has a lower declared brightness and is not capable of adaptive frequency from 1 Hz. Samsung promises a peak brightness of 1900 cd/m², HDR10+ is supported. Of course, there is an Always on Display function.
The set of settings is typical for modern Samsung smartphones: dark and light display themes with the ability to automatically switch, adaptive color temperature function depending on the ambient light, scaling of the interface, fonts, display modes (saturated with color temperature adjustment and natural), Always on Display and refresh rate. There are two modes in this item: 60 Hz and Adaptive. In the latter mode, the interface and most applications operate at 120 Hz. The frequency automatically drops to 60 Hz when the picture is static. But not to 1 Hz, as in LTPO.
The screen may not be as bright as the older flagships, but it doesn't fade in the sun and has a rich, juicy picture with maximum viewing angles. In "Saturated" mode, the maximum brightness is 484.759 cd/m², and the color gamut is slightly wider than sRGB. At the same time, the color reproduction is quite accurate: the color temperature is 6500-7000K (with a reference value of 6500K):
In Natural mode, the maximum brightness is 482.154 cd/m², and the color gamut is slightly narrower than sRGB. There is a slight deviation towards cooler shades, and the color temperature is about 8000K.
Security
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE unlocking methods are fully in line with modern trends. So the user has access to an in-screen fingerprint scanner, as well as unlocking using the front camera's face recognition. However, unlike the older flagships, it uses a simpler optical fingerprint scanner rather than an ultrasonic one. It works accurately, but is slightly inferior to the ultrasonic one in terms of speed. The convenience of its location is rather an individual issue. I had no problems.
Face recognition in Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is implemented as standard, so you can count on high unlocking speed in good light. In the dark, you'll have to hope that the light from the display is enough for the camera to see your face.
Performance and software
It seems that Samsung has decided to change the principle of choosing a processor in its flagships every generation. The previous generation used exclusively Snapdragon. This year, only the Galaxy S24 Ultra received Snapdragon. The rest run on Samsung's proprietary Exynos. Interestingly, in Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ it is Exynos 2400, in Samsung Galaxy S24 FE it is Exynos 2400e.
In fact, it is almost the same as the Exynos 2400. The Exynos 2400e is also a 4-nanometer 10-core processor with one Cortex-X4 core at 3.1 GHz, two Cortex-A720 cores at 2.9 GHz, three more Cortex-A720 cores at 2.6 GHz, and four Cortex-A520 cores at 2 GHz. The only difference is in the frequency of the Cortex-X4 core: the older model has 3.2 GHz. The Xclipse 940 graphics accelerator and a separate NPU unit for AI tasks. The RAM can only be 8 GB of LPDDR5X, the storage can be 128 or 256 GB. There is no MicroSD slot, so the 128 GB version looks completely uninteresting in modern realities.
In synthetic performance tests, Samsung Galaxy S24 FE demonstrates very close results to the older flagships, which is not surprising given the minimal differences in processors. This is not the level of top-end Qualcomms, but the smartphone's performance is excellent. So the future owner won't have to worry about it for the next couple of years.
But like most Exynos, the processor is quite hot. And under prolonged maximum load, performance can drop by up to 72%. Although the case itself becomes warm, not hot.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is equipped with a standard set of modern wireless communications: dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, Bluetooth 5.3, and an NFC module. GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and BDS global positioning systems are supported.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE runs on Android 14 with the proprietary One UI 6.1 shell, in this regard, everything is completely the same as the older models. The shell hasn't received any major changes in a couple of years. Except for Galaxy AI AI functions, which the company emphasizes. This is quite logical: why change something that works well? So the interface has the usual logic with desktops, a separate application menu, and a curtain with a larger number of switches (compared to stock Android).
The appearance is quite different from stock Android, but this is only the visual part. Of course, there are many customization options, including themes, color schemes, different icon options, etc. The traditional sidebar is still in place. The application manager has additional features in the form of a semi-transparent display and collapsing the application to an icon, as in Samsung smartphones.
The Galaxy AI platform was introduced with the Galaxy S24 line. We have already seen its capabilities in the relevant reviews. The main features include real-time translation of phone calls, Chat Assist for writing texts or messages, automatic text formatting in notes, generating short summaries from large texts, searching by image on the Circle to Search screen, generating wallpapers, and generating images based on a sketch. The latter works quite interestingly and there is a selection of different styles in which the image is generated.
In addition, there are AI functions for the camera and gallery. These include removing or adding elements to a photo, alignment, color correction, removing glare on surfaces, and more. Optionally, all AI functions can be processed only on the device. All graphical and visual features are available. Voice and text are still more complicated: so far, Samsung's "native" large-screen models do not support the Ukrainian language.
Sound
Stereo sound in Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is reproduced in a quite familiar way: the main and earpiece speakers. They are well balanced, the difference is practically not felt. The quality and volume are at a good level, there is a little bass, but it is slightly lost at maximum volume. Of course, there is no 3.5 mm jack. But now there is a large selection of fairly high-quality wireless headphones, and the smartphone supports the LDAC codec.
The four microphones in Samsung Galaxy S24 FE are used not only for video recording. They are also used for better voice transmission during conversations. So you don't have to worry that the person you're talking to won't hear you on a noisy street.
Cameras
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE has the right modern camera setup, which will be enough for almost any situation. It consists of a 50 megapixel main wide-angle camera with 1/1.57" sensor size, 1.0µm pixel size, ƒ/1.8 aperture, dual pixel PDAF and optical stabilization. It is complemented by a telephoto camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels, 1/4.4", 1.0µm, ƒ/2.4, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization and 3x zoom. The third camera is 12 megapixel ultra-wide-angle, 1/3.0", 1.12µm, ƒ/2.2, 123° viewing angle. Again, it doesn't have autofocus, although there are half the price of competitors with ultra-wide-angle cameras that do. The main camera shoots video up to 8K 30 FPS, the rest - 4K 30 FPS. The front camera is 10 megapixels ƒ/2.4.
The camera app is standard on Samsung smartphones. The viewfinder screen has all the basic settings, including flash, aspect ratio, resolution, timer, and more. You can switch between shooting modes with horizontal swipes. Additional modes are available in a separate menu and can be pulled into the main carousel.
The main camera takes great photos in the vast majority of cases. During the day, excellent detail, fairly natural colors and mostly correct white balance. Good work with shadows and generally wide dynamic range. In the evening, with a limited amount of light, the detail remains at a good level, but the colors are no longer quite natural, there is a saturation of yellow and orange shades:
Ultra-wide-angle lenses generally don't have a very high resolution and have darker optics. So, of course, the photos are a bit darker and not as detailed. But overall, the camera does its job well:
The telephoto camera has a 3x zoom. There are no critical complaints about it: the photos are detailed and rich. The only thing is that it's a little harder to get a clear photo in low light. Although this applies to almost all telephoto cameras in smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a great video shooter. 4K 60 FPS on the main camera is clear, detailed and almost does not shake, even without activating super stabilization. Which, of course, will make the video even more stable, but will reduce the picture quality.
4K 30 FPS video on an ultra-wide-angle camera:
4K 30 FPS invideo with 3x zoom:
And this is how Samsung Galaxy S24 FE shoots video in 8K resolution:
Battery life
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is equipped with a 4700 mAh battery. It's not a record, but it's enough for the smartphone to last for a day or so. Of course, if you don't play a lot of games or watch videos for hours. With moderate use, the smartphone is quite durable. In the PCMark battery test, the smartphone lasted a little less than 13 hours, which is a good indicator.
Unfortunately, Samsung is in no hurry to increase the charging speed of its smartphones. And Samsung Galaxy S24 FE supports charging with a power of only 25 watts, just like last year's model. They promise 50% in the first half hour. Unfortunately, we didn't have a proprietary power supply to test it. It also supports 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging for accessories.