It’s a sacrifice we’ve all faced when choosing a new smartphone – performance or affordability. It’s either one or the other, you can’t have both. Or can you?
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (Fan Edition) is a value-focused smartphone that promises flagship-like features without breaking the bank. Building on the success of the previous FE models, the S24 hopes to strike a balance between performance, design and price, for users who want premium features without the flagship cost.
It carries forward the sleek design language of Samsung’s flagship S series and is the size of an iPod Pro Max, with Gorilla glass both front and back and an IP68 water and dust-resistant rating. The rear comes in a range of understated shades – I tried out the blue which was very nice indeed.
The 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display is vivid, bright and colourful, the only real hint of the budget being the ever-so-slightly thicker bevels and heavy design. The display also has a 120Hz refresh rate that makes scrolling and animations feel smooth.
Often more affordable phones are hamstrung by the processor, in some cases making them borderline unusable. Happily, the device is powered by an Exynos 2400e chip that proved to be up to the job. Is it the most powerful? No, you’ll have to pay for that. But I found the whole experience quick and smooth, and I never came close to hitting the sides of the 8GB of RAM, no matter how many Chrome tabs I had up!
Keeping pretty much the scheme set-up as the S24, .the FE’s triple camera packs a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. On the front, the 10MP selfie camera delivers solid results, with good colour reproduction and enough detail for social media photos or video calls.
Image quality is great and, especially in good lighting, is ideal for landscape photography or group shots. However, like most ultra-wide lenses, it can struggle a bit in low light. Night mode works across all lenses, improving low-light photography by brightening up images without too much noise.
The Galaxy S24 FE is equipped with a 4,700mAh battery, which provides a full day of use on a single charge with moderate to heavy usage. The phone supports 25W fast charging, which, while not the fastest available on the market, can recharge the phone from zero to 50% in just over 30 minutes. Wireless charging is also supported, which is a nice bonus at this price point.
And now comes the main feature Samsung is really pushing – AI. The phone runs on One UI 6.1 that offers Galaxy AI, which allows you to translate phones calls on the fly, organise and summarise your notes, and even help you write your text messages. I spent most of my time in the photo app, however, transforming people I know into cartoons.
Samsung has also committed to several years of software updates and security patches, which adds long-term value to the S24 FE, making it a future-proof option for users who don’t upgrade every year.
At £649, the Galaxy S24 FE is positioned as a great value proposition, sitting between budget devices and premium flagship models. Its biggest competition comes from other mid-range phones like the Google Pixel 8 and OnePlus Nord 3, which offer similar pricing.
I found the FE to pack a hell of a lot in for the price. You could easily spend double the price and unless you’re a real power user, you wouldn’t notice the difference.
What users say
Peaches: I bought this phone after my S22 contract finished, I just needed a phone really but I have to say it’s much better than expected. Battery life is very good, fast to load pages and apps and picture quality is great.
MrTech: My only real gripe is with the charging speed – it could be faster, and Samsung should start exploring faster charging speeds at this point. The lack of expandable storage can be limiting in my experience as I have previously had to resort to SD cards to supplement my expanding memory needs. However, this is subjective and a larger storage model can be purchased to alleviate this issue.
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