I spent time with the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and it absolutely crushes the iPhone 16e in every way that matters
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE hands-on: Price and availability
To understand the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, you need to know two things. First, it’s a phone for Samsung fans, even if Samsung no longer says FE stands for Fan Edition. Second, it costs only $50 / £50 (AU $TBD) more than the Apple iPhone 16e, but it gives you so much more that it might be a much better value. There are still questions to be answered (Exynos, really?), but the Galaxy S25 FE makes a lot of sense.
I spent an afternoon with the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE – and the new Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra and Tab S11 tablets – and got a feel for what Samsung is cooking with this new bargain model. Actually, it’s only a bargain if you were wishing for a Galaxy S25. It still costs $649 / £649 (Australia price TBD), and Samsung also sells less expensive Galaxy A-series models like the Galaxy A56.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE hands-on: Galaxy S features
Why pine over a Galaxy S25 when the Galaxy A56 is within reach? First of all, the Galaxy S phones have more advanced software. They will usually get OneUI and Android updates first, and they pack more features, especially Samsung DeX, one of my favorite tricks that Samsung phones can pull.
Enter the Galaxy S25 FE! Like the Galaxy S25, it runs the latest software, and it will even be the debut device for Samsung’s new OneUI 8 version of Android 16. If you’re a Samsung fan, you can check out the latest interface design first on the S25 FE.
Like the Galaxy S24 FE, the S25 FE can also run DeX. That means you can connect the phone to a USB-C hub with a monitor, keyboard and mouse attached and it will turn into a sort of desktop environment, with multiple windows and a real taskbar like you’d expect from a Google Chromebook.
Of course, I didn’t have a monitor and keyboard on hand during my time with the new phones; I mostly got to check out the latest OneUI 8 and the overall design. The Galaxy S25 FE is really more like a Galaxy S25 Plus. The screen is the same size, and this year so is the battery within: a 4,900 mAh cell that should provide excellent longevity. I’ll know more once I’ve reviewed the phone and Future Labs has tested it.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE hands-on: Design
The Galaxy S25 FE and S25 Plus aren’t exactly the same. The FE is slightly chunkier in every direction, but not so much bigger that it’s cumbersome. It’s only a tenth of a millimeter thicker, according to Samsung. My calipers aren’t so precise.
The colors are… boring. Very, very boring. There is blue, black, blue, and white. Seriously, there are two blue colors: Icyblue and Navy blue. I remember when the FE phones used to be more colorful, but this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 FE is glossy black and white, and the flat S25 FE only adds dark and light shades of blue. Sigh.
The Galaxy S25 FE is a nice step down for folks who want to save money on a real Galaxy S device, and it’s also an incredible competitor stacked up against Apple’s latest bargain model, the iPhone 16e. If the iPhone 16e seemed a bit dowdy before, the Galaxy S25 FE puts to rest any question that the iPhone isn’t a serious device.
For just a bit more money, the Galaxy S25 FE gives you a much bigger display – 6.7-inches versus 6.1-inches. The Galaxy display has a higher peak brightness, and it can refresh up to 120Hz. Of course, there’s also a much larger battery inside.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE hands-on: Cameras and specs
The Galaxy S25 FE gives you three cameras instead of the questionable single-camera setup on the iPhone 16e, and that includes a real telephoto zoom lens with 3X optical zoom. More importantly, the main 50MP camera uses a sensor that is much larger than the paltry sensor on the iPhone 16e’s 48MP camera.
The Galaxy S25 FE charges as fast as the Galaxy S25 Plus – up to 45W wired if you have the right charger. That’s much faster than the iPhone 16e. Usually, an iPhone has an advantage with magnetic wireless charging, but Apple oddly omitted the magnets from the bargain iPhone, so it doesn’t have the MagSafe leg up on Android phones.
The biggest letdown on the Galaxy S25 FE is the processor. It uses a Samsung Exynos 2400 chipset, which isn’t even the latest Exynos processor. I asked Samsung reps why it doesn’t use the Exynos 2500, but they didn’t have a substantive answer.
There’s a big difference between the Exynos 2400 in the Galaxy S25 FE and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset in the Galaxy S25. Even the newer Exynos 2500 doesn’t come close to measuring up. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is more than 50% faster than the Exynos 2400, based on single core test results in Future Labs benchmark testing.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE: The Exynos question
In battery testing, a phone like the Galaxy S25 Edge with the Snapdragon inside lasted much longer than a phone like the Galaxy Z Flip 7 with an Exynos 2500 inside, even though the S25 Edge has a smaller battery.
The difference between the Apple A18 chipset in the iPhone 16e and the Exynos 2400 in the Galaxy S25 FE is even more stark. In our benchmark tests, the iPhone completely blows away the Exynos in every test – including single- and multi-core processing, graphics, and real-world tasks.
Does that mean the iPhone 16e will be better for gaming and other processor-intensive tasks than the Galaxy S25 FE? Maybe, but I’ll need to spend more time with the phone to compare it against the iPhone’s performance head-to-head. I’m sure Samsung’s phone will be able to run the latest games, but I may need to dial down graphics settings to achieve the highest frame rate and take advantage of the 120Hz display.
I’ll know more soon once I’ve had more time with this phone, but it still feels like Samsung is making the Galaxy S25 FE for its biggest fans. The phone gets the latest OneUI interface and all of Samsung’s best software features. It has a big display and more cameras than the competition. It’s even more colorful – though that’s not a big win when the competition is literally black and white.
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