Samsung Galaxy S24 FE review – He a fan, he a fan, he a fan

Who said that you needed to drop R20,000+ to get your hands on Samsung’s suite of Galaxy AI features? Technically, Samsung did, multiple times. But if you managed to outwit Samsung’s marketing team (AKA your salary didn’t permit the purchase of a new phone) for this long, all that hard work is about to pay off. Samsung just dropped the Galaxy S24 FE (Fan Edition) and we can comfortably confirm this is the mid-ranger to get.

At least until Samsung decides to unleash the Galaxy S25 line-up onto the world. That won’t be until January 2025 at the very least, likely delivering yet another R22,500 starting price for even the most basic model. No, best to stick with the South Korean outfit’s latest AI-touting efforts, the Galaxy S24 FE, arriving to the tune of R15,000.

Glass punk

You’d be forgiven for making the fairly obvious mistake of thinking this is the S24+, wrapped in a bunch of new colours, but no. It’s only once you get up close do you start to spot the nitty gritty details, most of which are negligible enough that we’d write them off entirely. A 17g weight difference? We’d kill for that to be the biggest issue in our lives. Hell, it’s even retained the same ‘kebab’ camera array the company is so fond of these days.

The S24 FE exudes main character energy, despite the massive price cut. It’s rocking the same Gorilla Glass Victus+ found on the rest of the S24 line-up on both the front and back, where you’ll catch a glimpse at our review model’s grey colourway. It’s a curved affair where the aluminium edges are concerned, dodging the sharp edges you’d find on the S24 Ultra, and sticking with the friendlier, less intimidating Apple vibe.

This is 2024, folks. Flat is out, and oddly shaped bulges are in. The S24 FE does its best to conform to those ideals, jutting those cameras out a good millimetre or more from the phone’s rear, providing nothing more than a constant fear of scratches and a makeshift see-saw. A cover more than makes up for the minor annoyance, but that’s on you. Samsung dodges all those extras a Chinese company would throw in free of charge.

Expect all the ports to be right where they normally are. A USB-C port lines the device’s bottom, while the SIM slot sits up top. On the right is a volume rocker above the power button. Where Apple spent the year throwing buttons every which way at us, Samsung kept things classy (and more importantly, samey). Even so, we’re a little salty about the lack of any sort of action button. It’s 2024, guys. Maybe next year?

Mid-range beast

It’s no Snapdragon, but the custom-built Exynos 2400e chipset and 8GB of RAM Samsung has opted for here truly does slap – and not just for a mid-ranger. Samsung’s custom-made SoC makes the whole thing really fly even if it is technically less capable than the more expensive S24 series. We had no issues booting up game after game, bouncing between apps, and occasionally employing the help of Galaxy AI, even if accidentally.

We ran the Galaxy S24 FE through Geekbench 6 to get a better idea of how it squares up against its older siblings. The 10-core Exynos 2400e pulls down a single-core score of 2,046 – just shy of the S24 Ultra’s 2,172 in the same category, and even closer to the S24+ which reps a 2,091 score. Its multi-core score punches in at 6,188 – further than we’d like from the 6,661 number attached to the S24+.

That all equates to a silky smooth experience helped along by the 120Hz display. But more impressive is the promised seven years of software updates. And we don’t mean the usual pinky promise of X number of security updates, either. We’re talking proper, full-fledged Android updates, keeping the S24 FE alive and kicking until 2031.

On that display, we can’t complain. It’s a solid 6.7in and is more or less re-using the same Dynamic AMOLED 2X display (without any LTPO tech) from the original line-up. It’s not as bright as its flagship siblings, but still manages to hit a peak brightness of 1,900 nits which was more than enough to get us through several sunlit days without any issues.

Less impressive was the 4,700mAh battery. A full day of use is enough to completely kill the battery before you even get home – keeping Bluetooth on and the brightness at a reasonable level. It prompted us to start charging the phone in the middle of the day more regularly than others to ensure it’d have enough juice by the time 18h00 hits. Fortunately, it can get the job done in roughly an hour with 25W wired charging, resulting in 50% after 40 minutes.

Artificially Intelligent gains

We’re not the first to discuss Samsung Galaxy AI, nor will we be the last. But we are among the first to discuss its entry into the mid-range sector, a first for Samsung’s not-so-premium devices. Considering this is essentially a mid-ranger repping the sort of premium features that were, only a few short months ago, reserved for those willing to drop a couple thousand more, it’s worth discussing.

We’ve already gone in-depth on the sort of features you can expect on one of those more premium devices, but the suite isn’t quite as extravagant here. It hits all the right notes, however, providing the basics – Circle to Search, Photo, Note, Browsing, and Chat Assist, plus a built-in interpreter. We had the most fun and saw the best results from Circle to Search, which has since been adopted by nearly every other Google-friendly AI-repping smartphone out there.

Of all the Assist-related features, Photo Assist proved to be the most useful, though we saw decent performance from all the rest. If you’re familiar with the Google-branded Magic Eraser and Editor, you’ll know what to expect here. We had no trouble removing any unwanted background images, though expect better results when focusing on background objects – with the foreground offering the most noticeably AI-edited images.

Sketch to Image was great too – if not entirely practical. It did exactly what it said it would, turning our Grade Two drawing into something that might pass as modern art in some sketchy gallery. What we’re trying to say is that the results weren’t exactly the best, but that might have more to do with our low-effort inputs. Give it something more substantial, and it might just dish out something with a little more worth.

Seeing triple

The Galaxy S24 FE can’t beat Samsung’s premium efforts, but it comes darn close. It boasts a three-camera array on the rear, ranging from the 50MP main sensor, 12MP ultrawide lens, and the 8MP telephoto shooter. The front-facer is less impressive with the 10MP sensor embedded into the display.

We had absolutely no trouble seeking out some pretty great results from the three cameras fixed to the rear, though the best images were easily those shot in the day. Without much fiddling, the S24 FE performed well, mimicking the colours it saw relatively well, providing some crisp, clear shots we’d be more than happy to post on Instagram. Even with the ambitious 3x optical zoom at hand, the FE 24 kept up with the pace set.

Low-light conditions can diminish the FE’s reputable camera efforts, but not by much. Colours still felt natural, even if some of the detail was lost in the process and a certain amount of blur was noticeable. There’s no dedicated macro lens, but you’ll still manage to hit some decent close-ups, no fidgeting required. Ultrawide gains too, were mostly positive though a fair amount of noise was introduced that we couldn’t ignore.

Of a great bunch, the 10MP shooter on the device’s front was the worst. Don’t get us wrong – great selfies can be had if the conditions are right – but the results vary. Step out in the light of Helios, and expect your shots to be overexposed. It’s not a dealbreaker – far from it – but it is a stain on an otherwise great set of shooters.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE verdict

It feels as though we’re slighting the Galaxy S24 FE by calling it a mid-ranger, but that’s exactly what this is. The R15,000 price tag will have you wondering why anyone would opt for something more premium, and we can offer no higher praise. It’s let down in one or two key areas – namely the middling battery life – but other than that, the FE makes a decent case for being your true daily driver, minus the over-the-top price tag and incoming S25 range.