8.0
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
Like
Fast performance
Lower price for higher-end features
Lowlight photography
Don’t like
Battery life
Feels similar to the Galaxy S22, for better and worse
After a week spent using the $600 (£599, AU$999) Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, I decided that the company’s “FE” should now stand for “Flagship Essentials.” That’s not a bad thing, as the S23 FE includes many of the features that Samsung only includes in its Galaxy S23 phones, while scaling back areas that help it hit a price that’s $200 less. It fills a gap in Samsung’s lineup between the $450 Galaxy A54 and the $800 Galaxy S23 quite well. A Samsung representative has also confirmed that FE no longer stands for “Fan Edition” as it did in the past, with the FE label now standing on its own.
When I first got the phone, I was pleasantly surprised to see how fast it ran through setting up my apps, settings and web pages. That’s largely thanks to the phone’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which despite being almost two years old is still faster than the Galaxy A54 5G’s Exynos 1380 chip. Internationally, the Galaxy S23 FE includes Samsung’s Exynos 2200 processor, but my review unit is the US model with the Qualcomm chip.
When I took the S23 FE to my parents’ house over the weekend, I learned firsthand how valuable it can be to spend a little extra on a phone that has more-premium features like reverse wireless charging. I forgot my USB-C power adapter, but the S23 FE helped me power up my other devices until I was able to get to a Best Buy. That’s something I wouldn’t have been able to do on the cheaper Galaxy A54 5G.
The S23 FE includes a 50-megapixel main camera and 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, similar to what’s included on the…
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