The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a solid $650 phone. Here’s why you shouldn’t buy it

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a confusing phone. With a $650 starting price, it’s the most affordable entry into the S24 series and has many of the same features as the $800 Galaxy S24 and $1,000 Galaxy S24 Plus. On the surface, it seems like a fantastic deal.

In some ways, it is! If you want a big phone with a giant display, good performance, and long battery life, the Galaxy S24 FE delivers. But it makes some compromises to get there, and other phones at lower prices further complicate things. Should the Galaxy S24 FE be your next smartphone? Let’s find out.

Galaxy S24 FE specs

The Galaxy S24 FE makes a bad first impression

First impressions are everything; unfortunately, the Galaxy S24 FE doesn’t make a great one. Following my hands-on with the S24 FE, I initially praised its hardware, but after using it for a while longer, I’m not so impressed.

After living with the S24 FE for a few days, I’ve noticed it feels a bit cheap. The aluminum frame has a sharp edge around the display, and the backside (which is glass) feels cheap and hollow to me. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a lack of polish here that I enjoyed so much with the Galaxy S24 Plus. The S24 FE is objectively well-made, featuring aluminum and glass with no trace of plastic, but it’s clearly not constructed nearly as well as its more expensive siblings.

The other issue is how enormous the Galaxy S24 FE is. A 6.7-inch display isn’t outrageous for a smartphone in 2024, but the overall dimensions put it closer to phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL. I’ve used big phones before with fewer issues, but the double whammy of this with the lesser construction quality isn’t a good combination.

Perhaps I’m more sensitive to it after coming from the small and compact iPhone 16, but I never fully adjusted to the S24 FE’s size during my review period. That’s great news if you love giant phones, but if you prefer something more manageable, this is not the phone for you.

A good display, with some compromises

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.

Finally, there’s the brightness. The S24 FE’s 1,900 nits of peak brightness is very good, and for the most part, I’ve had no issues with it. However, it is another step below the S24 and S24 Plus, which offer 2,600 nits of peak brightness. If you live in a particularly sunny area, it’s another factor you’ll want to consider.

Surprising performance, fantastic battery life

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.

What about charge speeds? The 25W wired charging speed doesn’t inspire much confidence, but interestingly enough, I found the S24 FE to charge at about the same rate as the Galaxy S24 Plus with its 45W charging. After 30 minutes on my reliable Anker 747, the S24 FE went from 2% to 61% in 30 minutes and had a full battery after about an hour and 10 minutes. That’s not the very best in the world, but it’s also not bad by any means — especially for a battery just 200mAh smaller than the one in the S24 Plus.

What about the cameras?

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.

Galaxy AI and software updates

Being a Samsung phone released in 2024, it should be no surprise that the Galaxy S24 includes the full suite of Galaxy AI features. That means you get features like real-time translation during phone calls, note formatting and summarizing, AI-powered photo editing tools, and more.

Some of these features, like Samsung’s object eraser tool for photo editing, are quite good! Others, like all of the Chat Assist tools, are embarrassingly bad. I’ve used Galaxy AI a few times throughout this year on multiple Samsung phones, and once again, my conclusion is the same. Some of these features are cool and helpful, but they’re not reason enough to buy the S24 FE over a competing phone without Galaxy AI.

Whether you care about Galaxy AI, the rest of the S24 FE’s software is no different from any other Samsung phone. It ships with Android 14 and Samsung’s One UI 6.1 interface. Although it’s not my personal preference for an Android interface, One UI 6.1 is fast, reliable, loaded with extra features, and highly customizable. From numerous multitasking options to systemwide themes, there a lot to sink your teeth into.

Looking down the road, Samsung promises seven years of Android upgrades and security patches for the Galaxy S24 FE — ensuring it should keep receiving updates through September 2031. That’s the same level of support offered on Samsung’s more expensive S24 flagships, and it’s great to see it also offered on the FE.

Galaxy S24 FE price and alternatives

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.

If you’re shopping for an Android phone on a budget, you need to check out the OnePlus 12R. It has an outstanding 6.7-inch display, two-day battery life, incredible 80W wired charging, and a much nicer design. There’s no wireless charging or telephoto camera, but for $500, it’s an unbelievably good deal.

There’s also the Google Pixel 8a. It has a better camera, similar AI features, and a more compact 6.1-inch 120Hz display. If you can deal with the smaller size (and shorter battery life), it’s a great bargain at $499.

OK — but what if you want a Samsung phone? As mentioned at the beginning of the review, the S24 FE is cheaper than the retail prices of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus — $800 and $1,000, respectively. That’s significant savings at first glance, but you need to look closer than that.

Right now, T-Mobile is offering up to $800 off the Galaxy S24 Plus when you trade in a phone as old as the Galaxy S9 or iPhone 11. Verizon is giving away the Galaxy S24 for free when you add a new line. Depending on which phone you trade in on Samsung’s website, you get the Galaxy S24 Plus for just $50 more than the S24 FE. At the time of publication, you can buy the Galaxy S24 Plus outright — no trade-in or carrier deal required — for just $750 on Amazon. Considering it has 256GB of storage by default, that’s just $40 more than 256GB Galaxy S24 FE.

Because those other (and objectively better) S24 phones have been out for a while, it’s very easy to find incredible deals for them. There are promos for the S24 FE, too, but when you can get the S24 and S24 Plus at such great prices, why bother with the S24 FE in the first place?

Should you buy the Galaxy S24 FE?

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.