Samsung Galaxy S24 FE review: good phone, tough recommendation

Speaking of the display, it’s a good one! Mostly. As mentioned above, this is a 6.7-inch screen with Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen tech — the same one found in the other S24 handsets. Colors are bright and vibrant, blacks are rich, and the 120Hz refresh rate is as smooth as can be. It’s all very solid stuff.

That said, don’t expect the same exact display quality as the S24 Plus or S24 Ultra. The 2340 x 1080 resolution is significantly lower than the 3120 x 1440 resolution on Samsung’s more expensive S24 phones. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I did notice that the S24 FE’s screen is a bit softer than I’d like.

Additionally, this is not an LTPO panel, meaning the lowest the refresh rate gets is 60Hz. You can still enable an always-on display on the S24 FE, but you can’t customize it like you can on Samsung’s other S24 models. There’s also no option to see a darkened version of wallpaper — you just have a black background with the time.

Going into my Galaxy S24 FE, I was initially concerned about its performance. Inside the phone is an Exynos 2400e chip. Performance with Samsung’s Exynos chipsets is very hit-and-miss, and we rarely see a smartphone released in the U.S. with a piece of Exynos silicon inside of it. Thankfully, those concerns were unnecessary.

Paired with 8GB of RAM, the S24 FE’s day-to-day performance has been great. Apps open immediately, scrolling is very smooth, and not once has the phone felt slow or choppy. It also handles gaming with ease. Playing Star Wars: Hunters at 60 frames per second with Ultra graphics settings is a great experience, with the S24 FE delivering fluid gameplay with only a few occasional jitters.

In our benchmark tests, the Galaxy S24 FE fares nicely against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip inside the Galaxy S24 Plus. It also handily outperforms the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset powering the OnePlus 12R. The Exynos 2400e has proven extremely reliable, so any worries about a Samsung phone with an Exynos chip can be laid to rest.

Battery life has been equally impressive. With moderate use, the Galaxy S24 FE’s 4,700mAh battery easily lasts two days on a charge. As an example of my use of the phone, I began one day with 100% battery at 7:30 a.m. After just shy of two hours of screen time — including 50 minutes watching YouTube, 20 minutes on Reddit, and some time on TikTok and Star Wars: Hunters — I ended the day at 11 p.m. with 70% battery still remaining.

The next day, I had 67% battery at 8 a.m. and racked up over two hours of screen time — this day with over 30 minutes on the NFL Fantasy app, over 20 minutes on X, more than 10 minutes scrolling on TikTok, and frequent camera use. I didn’t hit 10% battery until 10:30 p.m. For reference, I did not have the always-on display enabled.

If you push the S24 FE and are constantly gaming, streaming, etc., you might be able to kill it in a day. But for almost everyone, this will be a two-day smartphone, and that’s excellent.

The Galaxy S24 FE has a fairly standard camera setup. There’s a 50-megapixel primary camera, an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP ultrawide camera with a 123-degree field of view.

So, how’s the image quality? If you’re taking a well-lit photo of flowers, food, or a very still animal, the Galaxy S24 FE can return some nice-looking photographs. I’ve taken a handful of pictures that I’m pretty happy with, and as you get closer to your subject, the S24 FE’s primary camera provides a pleasing natural bokeh effect.

That said, the S24 FE can also capture some pretty mediocre-looking pictures. Like other Samsung phones, it struggles with moving objects — particularly animals. The photo of my cat Polo (the white and brown one) is very soft. He was moving around a little bit but was mostly still for the picture I took. Even so, the S24 FE focused on the right edge of the hammock instead. The camera also has a difficult time with black fur. My cat Minnie is a beautiful princess, but the S24 FE did a really poor job with her black coat.

Comparatively, the telephoto and ultrawide cameras are entirely unremarkable. Photos from the two secondary sensors lack any depth or detail and consistently produce bland images. The added flexibility they provide is handy, but there’s also nothing memorable here.

Similarly forgettable is the 10MP selfie camera. Does it work in a pinch? Sure. But you won’t want to use it for much beyond that. Shots look fine at first glance, but zoom in just a little bit, and you’ll quickly notice the grainy background, poor focus, and lacking details.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is available now. The 128GB model starts at $650, while the 256GB version is available for $710. It comes in Blue, Mint, Graphite, and Gray colors.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a confusing smartphone. Viewed in a bubble, there’s plenty to like. If you want a big phone with a 120Hz display, two-day battery life, and great performance, the S24 FE can seem like a bargain. However, even viewed through this hypothetical lens, you still compromise with cheap hardware, lesser display specs, and mediocre cameras.

As I explained above, the S24 FE does not exist in a bubble. Want a big Android phone with excellent performance and battery life? The OnePlus 12R is a much better choice. It outdoes the S24 FE in some key areas and costs $150 less. If you’re dead set on getting a Samsung phone, your money is much better spent on a discounted S24 or S24 Plus — which are very easy to come by these days.

If you can find the Galaxy S24 FE at an incredible discount — such as $200 or $300 off — then sure, go ahead and buy it. But if you’re considering dropping $650 on the FE, do your research and get something else for that kind of money. The Galaxy S24 FE isn’t a bad phone, but it is an outclassed and outpriced one.