Samsung Galaxy S24 FE hands-on: Nice, however is it a ‘fan version’?

When Samsung first launched its line of “FE” merchandise, it readily admitted the moniker stood for “Fan Version.” The concept was to barely water down its hottest flagship merchandise to make them nonetheless rock-solid units however cheaper general. Ultimately, although, the corporate dropped the Fan Version nomenclature and simply stored the FE label. At present, the corporate launched the most recent entry on this household: the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE.

Clearly, this isn’t a Fan Version telephone as a result of Samsung doesn’t use that time period anymore, however that doesn’t cease me from considering that the FE line remains to be the place Samsung places new editions of a product designed with its followers in thoughts. After enjoying round with the Galaxy S24 FE a bit as we speak in New York Metropolis, I got here away impressed whereas concurrently questioning whether or not or not this telephone is something Samsung followers would really need.

Bodily, the Galaxy S24 FE is a dead-ringer for the Galaxy S24 Plus. Technically, the 2 telephones aren’t the identical dimension, however they’re fairly shut. Regardless, if you happen to simply seemed on the Galaxy S24 FE, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a Galaxy S24 Plus.

Design-wise, Samsung barely modified something. There are nonetheless completely flat aluminum rails throughout the system. There’s a glass again and a triple-lens rear digicam system, with every lens organized neatly in a column within the higher left. Truthfully, it looks like Samsung’s designers simply seemed on the Galaxy S24 Plus after which hit “CTRL-V” for the Galaxy S24 FE.

The 2 telephones share the identical show dimension at 6.7 inches whereas additionally sharing the identical 120Hz refresh fee. They don’t share the identical resolutions, although: the Galaxy S24 Plus is able to hitting 1440p, whereas the Galaxy S24 FE can solely go as excessive as 1080p. Nonetheless, in my temporary time with the telephone, I barely seen the decision distinction. It was nonetheless a gorgeous, crisp, and fluid show, simply as I might anticipate from a Samsung flagship.

There may be one semi-significant distinction between the development of the 2 telephones, which is the glass used. The Galaxy S24 Plus makes use of Gorilla Glass Victus 2, whereas the Galaxy S24 FE makes use of a barely older Gorilla Glass Victus Plus. Nonetheless, this can be a enormous improve over the Galaxy S23 FE, which was utilizing the a lot, a lot older Gorilla Glass 5.

With this high-end glass and an IP68 score, the Galaxy S24 FE must be very sturdy. As all the time, we nonetheless advocate conserving it in a case.

Lastly, the Galaxy S24 FE is available in 4 colours right here in america: Graphite, Grey, Blue, and Mint. The blue colorway may be very a lot a child blue, and I didn’t prefer it in any respect. The Mint shade was good, however I might most likely go together with grey if I had to decide on. It’s extra enjoyable than the boring Graphite shade whereas not being fairly as in-your-face because the Mint or Blue colorways. Notably, there’s a yellow mannequin, too, however it is just out there in choose international locations, and that doesn’t embrace the US.

Internally, the Galaxy S24 FE doesn’t change a lot from what we noticed within the Galaxy S23 FE. It has the identical quantity of RAM (8GB), the identical beginning degree for inside storage (128GB), and the identical charging speeds (25W with a cable and 15W with a wi-fi charger).

We additionally don’t see any {hardware} modifications with the cameras. There’s a 50MP main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide, and an 8MP telephoto with 3x zoom. That is very near the Galaxy S24’s system, though the Galaxy S24 (and, after all, the Galaxy S24 Plus) has a barely higher 10MP telephoto sensor.

On the entrance, the selfie digicam can be the identical because the one we noticed on the Galaxy S23 FE: a 10MP shooter that isn’t fairly nearly as good because the 12MP shooter within the mainline Galaxy S24 sequence.

Samsung did make room for a really slight digicam improve, although: the Galaxy S24 FE can shoot 8K video at 30FPS, which is nominally higher than the 8K/24FPS high quality cap of the Galaxy S23 FE. This can be a very minor change, however nonetheless welcome.

Samsung additionally up to date the battery by a bit. The Galaxy S23 FE had a 4,500mAh battery, which was fairly good, however the Galaxy S24 FE bumps that as much as 4,700mAh. This makes it very near the Galaxy S24 Plus’ 4,900mAh battery.

That’s about it for year-over-year modifications, although. The Galaxy S24 FE barely strikes the needle when in comparison with its predecessor. The most important change is the one spec I haven’t touched on but.

Within the US, all FE telephones have had Qualcomm processors. In reality, that was one of many massive promoting factors of the road: get a telephone with the identical processor as its corresponding flagship mannequin however spend much less cash on it. Even final yr’s Galaxy S23 FE stored up this custom whereas altering the method barely by providing the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as an alternative of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy supplied by the mainline Galaxy S23 telephones.

The Galaxy S24 FE, nevertheless, tears utterly away from this custom by touchdown with an Exynos 2400e processor. This CPU powers all Galaxy S24 FE telephones, no matter the place you purchase them — and sure, that features right here in america.

Granted, there’s nothing actually fallacious with the Exynos 2400e. Samsung didn’t elaborate on what the “e” means, however it’s nearly definitely much like the Exynos 2400, which seems in world variants of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus (all variations of the Galaxy S24 Extremely globally have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy). In different phrases, it’s going to be a high-quality processor — it’s simply not going to be nearly as good as a Snapdragon.

In my restricted time with the system, it moved like butter. It was clean, quick, and snappy. I didn’t have time to place it by means of any paces, however I walked away assured that standard day-to-day smartphone utilization could be terrific.

However “day-to-day smartphone utilization” isn’t what Samsung followers actually care about. It’s no secret that the Exynos line shouldn’t be popular with Samsung die-hards as a result of they make a behavior out of pushing the boundaries of what the processor can do, whether or not that be by means of multitasking, gaming, or content material creation. These conditions are the place the Exynos 2400e won’t be able to check to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy contained in the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus within the US and the Galaxy S24 Extremely all world wide.

I can’t communicate for all Samsung followers worldwide, but it surely simply looks like this can be a change none of them would have requested for.

In the course of the launch presentation, Samsung spent the majority of its time speaking about Galaxy AI. For each the Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy Tab S10 sequence, Galaxy AI was all Samsung appeared to care about.

Nevertheless, there’s nothing actually new right here. The options Samsung confirmed off have been ones we’ve all seen earlier than, similar to Circle to Search, Sketch to Picture, Interpreter, and so on. There was no model new function announcement, simply the motion of already-announced options to the Galaxy S24 FE.

Granted, that’s nonetheless cool, however Samsung has already assured us that even telephones within the 2024 Galaxy A sequence will ultimately see Galaxy AI. A bulk of Galaxy AI options run within the cloud, so that you don’t even want high-end {hardware} to run them. The entire announcement felt very hole, like Samsung couldn’t consider something to say particularly concerning the Galaxy S24 FE so it simply talked about Galaxy AI as an alternative.

Regardless, I used plenty of the Galaxy AI options on the Galaxy S24 FE and so they labored as anticipated. Interpreter was good and quick, Circle to Search was as dependable as ever, and Sketch to Picture labored like a allure. However I extremely doubt anybody studying this is considering shopping for a Galaxy S24 FE particularly as a result of it has Galaxy AI.

As talked about earlier, the Galaxy S24 FE solely has a couple of upgrades when in comparison with the Galaxy S23 FE. You may see all of the important data within the desk beneath:

After utilizing the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE for a bit, I walked away considering it was a watered-down model of a non-US mannequin of the Galaxy S24 Plus. It has an identical design to the Galaxy S24 Plus however skimps out on some construct supplies. It additionally waters down the internals to make them much like an Exynos-powered Galaxy S24 whereas nonetheless not being fairly nearly as good as that telephone.

Whereas the core thought of the telephone, as I’ve simply described it, is okay, I can’t cease fascinated by the strangeness of this being an FE system. If there’s one factor I’ve heard again and again after working at Android Authority for so long as I’ve, it’s that Samsung followers don’t like Exynos processors. They’re wonderful with Exynos chips powering lower-level telephones, however in terms of something within the Galaxy S household, they overwhelmingly desire Snapdragon. The truth that Samsung isn’t providing any Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S24 FE fashions — particularly right here within the US — looks like an abandonment of the integrity of the FE branding.

I can also’t assist however take into consideration the Samsung Galaxy A55. That telephone is extremely much like the Galaxy S24 FE. However the Galaxy A55 didn’t land in america — the primary time shortly that we haven’t seen a Galaxy A5x telephone. Now that I’ve used the Galaxy S24 FE, I can see why Samsung did that. There’s no approach it may have these two telephones on a shelf with out complicated the hell out of US prospects.

This makes me really feel like followers will probably be much more upset. The FE line is meant to be a trimmed-down flagship, not a beefed-up mid-ranger. I’m not saying that’s precisely what the Galaxy S24 FE is, but it surely definitely might be construed that approach.

The underside line right here is that the Galaxy S24 FE looks like an incredible telephone at a very good worth. At $649, it’s $350 cheaper than the Galaxy S24 Plus ($1119.99 at Amazon) and $150 cheaper than the Galaxy S24 ($859.99 at Amazon) whereas providing related specs and options from each. For what you’re getting, I really feel like $649 is a good worth (though final yr’s $599 would have been higher). However contemplating how related it’s to the Galaxy S23 FE ($599.99 at Amazon) and contemplating that it will be straightforward to discover a Snapdragon-powered model of that telephone for a comparatively low worth proper now, I’m not certain Samsung followers are going to flock to the Galaxy S24 FE.

I suppose what I’m attempting to say is that it’s a very good factor FE doesn’t formally stand for “Fan Version” anymore. I loved my temporary time with the Galaxy S24 FE, but it surely doesn’t appear to really slot in with what I consider after I see the FE branding.