Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review: Flagship Features for Small Sacrifices

Pros

• Big screen and loud speakers
• Telephoto lens
• Samsung's full feature suite for less money

Cons

• Battery life
• Slower optical fingerprint sensor versus Galaxy S24
• Galaxy AI feels gimmicky

Samsung's $650 Galaxy S24 FE is such a comfort to use that at moments it felt like I was testing a scaled-back version of the $1,000 Galaxy S24 Plus. The S24 FE's large 6.7-inch 120Hz refresh-rate display made it easy for me to enjoy streaming shows, playing games and taking video calls throughout the day. And it includes nearly every software perk from the more expensive Galaxy S24 line.

With the S24 FE, you'll get a capable phone that features a telephoto camera -- which you don't get on cheaper devices -- along with access to all of Samsung's Galaxy AI features alongside Google's Circle to Search. Whether these AI features are useful will be up to you, but the access allows the Galaxy S24 FE to feel like a full-fledged Samsung flagship without having to spend more money.

The Galaxy S24 FE nails many elements that most of us want from a good phone, especially at a $650 price that most other flagship phone makers are currently ignoring. Since Google's Pixel 9 now starts at the same $800 price as the Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S24 FE is now a prime phone for someone that would like to step up from a mid-range device like Samsung's Galaxy A phones or Google's Pixel 6A without paying for a premium phone price.

If you're looking for a cheaper version of the Galaxy S24 Plus, the S24 FE should fit your needs quite well. Though pay an extra $60 to get the $710 Galaxy S24 FE model with 256GB of storage: mirroring the S24 Plus' baseline configuration (which is still $290 more). 

But it's a different story when comparing the S24 FE with the $800 Galaxy S24. If you don't mind having a slightly smaller phone (the S24 has a 6.2-inch screen) and paying $150 more, you get a number of noticeable upgrades including a better camera, longer battery life, a faster fingerprint sensor and a speedier processor. But if you don't need the absolute top of the line, then save $150 and get the FE model.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review: A Cheaper Way to Get Galaxy AI

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Galaxy S24 FE's design

Samsung's Galaxy S24 FE has a slightly taller design to accommodate its 6.7-inch display, but it's otherwise similar to last year's Galaxy S23 FE, aside from the $50 price increase. The S24 FE has aluminum sides and pastel backs -- this time available in blue, mint, gray and graphite. I find both the blue and gray models to skew closer to a white under some lighting, while the mint and graphite versions have bolder colors.

The S24 FE's screen and speakers are a joy to use. I had no problems watching YouTube videos and playing We Love Katamari through Xbox Game Pass, which looked and sounded great. The S24 FE's size and shape also made it easy to use one-handed for phone calls and scrolling through texts.

One downside is the inclusion of an under-screen optical fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S24 FE compared with the faster, hypersonic, under-screen fingerprint scanner found on the pricier S24 phones. It took a second longer to unlock compared with the regular S24. I don't find the optical reader to interfere with the S24 FE's usefulness as I could still unlock the phone straight from its lock screen.

Galaxy S24 FE's battery and performance

The S24 FE's has a 4,700-mAh battery compared with the S23 FE's 4,500-mAh battery. Battery life on the S23 FE was my chief complaint when I reviewed it. Fortunately the S24 FE's larger battery does improve things as I ended most days at 30% compared with the S23 FE, which often had between 12% and 20% left.

If you do need a boost, the S24 FE supports 25-watt wired charging speed, which refilled the battery in my testing from empty to 56% in 30 minutes. The FE also supports 15-watt wireless charging and PowerShare which lets you turn the phone into a Qi wireless charger for other devices, like to top off your wireless earbuds case. 

Read more: Samsung Breaks Down How Bixby Will Evolve Alongside Galaxy AI

Samsung's Exynos 2400E processor powers the US edition of the Galaxy S24 FE, which is interesting as the phone maker has always used Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for Galaxy S phones sold in the US. For example, last year's S23 FE ran on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the US, while the international model opted for an Exynos processor. 

This isn't really an issue for the phone's performance though, as the Exynos 2400E outperformed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor used on the 2023 Galaxy S23 in my benchmark testing. The S24 FE even scored just a hair slower than the more expensive Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra, which run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. It's worth pointing out that the S24 FE doesn't fully measure up to the regular Galaxy S24's performance, but for most people the S24 FE will be fine in terms of handling everyday tasks and still running fast for years to come.

Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy AI

Samsung's biggest push for the S24 FE remains its Galaxy AI suite: a number of software tools aimed at improving writing, photos, translation and more. What's nice is that the phone gets access to every feature that is available on the more expensive S24 phones -- though last year's S23 FE also has these same AI features.

I found Samsung's generative AI Sketch to Image tool to be a fun way to turn everyday objects into coloring books. The feature uses AI to generate a photo-realistic version of something you draw or doodle on an image in the Gallery app. For instance, I took a photo of a Dunkin' coffee cup, used the Sketch tool to draw a heart on it and watched Galaxy AI turn my sketch into an actual logo. It kept the colors of the Dunkin' logo while morphing my shape into a design that looked as if it was printed on the cup.

I noticed that some words in images would become a jumbled mess. For instance, when I drew a star on an image of a Celsius can, the AI added letters and descriptors to the photo in places that didn't make sense. The Sketch to Image tool is a neat trick that I'd consider to be a fun game.

There's also Samsung's Interpreter app that can be set to Listening mode and offer a translation based on what the phone can hear. This is a bit different from Galaxy AI's Live Translation feature for phone calls and texting apps, which can come in handy for multilingual chats, but as my colleagues who have tested iterations of these on other Galaxy phones found, the results are mixed for how well these translations turn out. 

I opened the Interpreter app and put the phone into Listening mode while watching an Italian-language film. And while this isn't the intended purpose, the results weren't always accurate. I don't feel comfortable to actually use Galaxy AI for a live conversation, but if you're curious how the Interpreter app does in that scenario read this story from my CNET colleague Patrick Holland who tested it in Paris.

Then there's Google's Circle to Search feature, which lets you draw a circle around something being shown on your display to run a search for it. The feature isn't part of Galaxy AI and is available on other phones like the Pixel series and the Galaxy S and Z series. Circle to Search was the most useful AI feature for my everyday needs. For instance, without needing to take a photo, I can open up the Camera app and then press and hold the home button to scan flowers, animals and sites like Manhattan's Little Island.

Currently, Galaxy AI functions best for creativity, transcription and translation, but I'd like it to help me with tasks like finding the cheapest hot lunch option near my office or organize my communications with a single point of contact. Other AI options like Google's Gemini and Apple Intelligence have announced similar plans for organizing our data with artificial intelligence, but it's still early days for these features.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE cameras

The Galaxy S24 FE's cameras did a decent job taking photos in both well-lit and low-light environments. The phone has a trio of lenses: wide, ultrawide and telephoto. The main camera has a 50-megapixel image sensor, the ultrawide a 12-megapixel sensor and the telephoto an 8-megapixel one.

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Taking the cameras to New York's High Line park turned out to be a beautiful way to test out these cameras, as my photos taken on both the main lens and when zoomed in with the telephoto lens captured lots of detail for the various plants seen at the park. The main image suffers a bit from the shadows being boosted which gives it an HDR-look.

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Using the phone's 10-megapixel front-facing camera also takes a balanced photo that captures my hair strands and skin tones while outside on a Manhattan rooftop.

When inside, especially in nighttime environments, the Galaxy S24 FE's photo take a hit when it comes to image noise. I took the Galaxy S24 FE, the S23 FE and the regular S24 to a dimly lit bar. Despite there being only trace lighting, all three phones did an OK job capturing my bowl of pasta and beer. There is noticeable image noise across all three photos when zooming in, but the noise reduction each phone applied made the images look more like a drawing than a photo.

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When I switched to the front-facing cameras in the same bar, however, there was a noticeable difference between each phone's selfies. The S23 FE's image is soft and has a blurry look. The S24 FE's photo captures more detail in my facial hair. But the S24's image was the best and took the additional step of brightening up my face. While the S24 is able to put in that additional work it costs more.

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I also took comparison photos with just the S24 and S24 FE at a well-lit location of The Cheesecake Factory. Both images of a Bloody Mary have a lot of sharp clean details. Notice the water droplets on the tomato garnish and the spices used inside of the drink itself. 

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All in all, I find the S24 FE's cameras to compare quite favorably to the S24's, even if the more expensive phone has a bit more power for cleaning up images in challenging conditions.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE: Bottom line

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a great value-option for someone who is looking for a phone that can handle pretty much anything you want to throw at it, but isn't as concerned about having the latest and greatest specs. The Galaxy S24 FE is a solid handset with a nice big screen, loud speakers, decent cameras and is easy to use with one hand. You also get full access to Samsung's Galaxy AI features and a promise of seven years of software and security support that will provide you with new phone features for a considerable amount of time.

While you can get more processing power and better photography by opting for the more expensive Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus phones, for most people this phone is an easy recommendation when you just want a nice Samsung phone that doesn't skimp on features to hit a lower price. But those who are looking to get the most possible power for your phone purchase should still consider the Galaxy S24 or wait a few more months until next year when we expect Samsung to announce its Galaxy S25 line at the beginning of 2025.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET's reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone's features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it's bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor's performance to the extremes using standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays, among others that can be useful. We balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value. While these tests may not always be reflected in CNET's initial review, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.