Galaxy S24 FE vs Galaxy S24: You might not have to get the flagship after all

Samsung's recent unveiling of the Galaxy S24 FE has sparked a wave of excitement and speculation among tech enthusiasts. As a more affordable alternative to the flagship Galaxy S24, the FE aims to offer premium features at a lower price point just like in previous years. But how does it stack up against its more expensive counterpart?

The Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy S24 share a striking resemblance in terms of design, both adopting the sleek, boxy aesthetic that has become synonymous with Samsung's flagship series. However, their similarities extend beyond aesthetics. Both devices boast impressive specifications, including high-resolution displays, powerful processors, and advanced camera systems.

While the Galaxy S24 has been hailed as a compact powerhouse, the Galaxy S24 FE takes a different approach, opting for a larger form factor that caters to those seeking a more immersive screen experience. This size difference is a key consideration for potential buyers, as it influences factors such as portability and one-handed use.

In the following sections, we will delve deeper into the key areas that differentiate these two devices. From their display and performance to their cameras and battery life, we will explore the nuances that set them apart. By the end of this comparison, you'll have a clearer understanding of which device best suits your needs and preferences.

Galaxy S24 FE: Up to $400 off with trade-in

The Galaxy S24 FE is up for grabs at the official Samsung Store. Currently, you can save up to $400 on the handset with eligible trade-ins.

$400 off (62%) Trade-in

$249 ⁹⁹

$649 ⁹⁹

Buy at Samsung

Galaxy S24 FE: Get at Amazon with a $100 Gift Card

The Galaxy S24 FE is also available at Amazon. Over here, you can't take advantage of any price cuts (for now, at least), but you get a $100 Gift Card with your phone purchase. This is a limited-time deal.

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Buy at Amazon

This year Samsung decided to alter the design of its flagship series, making it box-like, with flat sides and slightly curved corners and edges. Well, that's what it has also done to the Fan Edition series, which was expected considering the FE is supposed to just be a less expensive version of the high-end models.

But despite that, the FE is more similar to the Galaxy S24 Plus instead of the Galaxy S24, mostly due to its size. While the Galaxy S24 stands as arguably the best compact phone on the market right now, the S24 FE is big phone that needs two hands to operate.

We are looking at 6.38 x 3.04 x 0.31 inches for the S24 FE vs 5.79 x 2.78 x 0.30 inches for the S24, so the former is much taller and somewhat wider. It is also much heavier at 7.51 oz vs 5.89 oz. Suffice it to say, this can be a major deciding factor if you are choosing between these two phones.

Materials-wize, both have aluminum frames with glass back panels. Even their camera modules protrude the same length outside the phone's back. Both also come with an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, which is about the best you can get on a flagship phone. Buttons and ports are placed at the same spots, and feel equally well made.

The Galaxy S24 colors include a wider selection of colors, including:

In contrast, the Galaxy S24 FE only comes in:

• Blue
• Graphite
• Gray
• Mint
• Yellow

And, no, neither includes any goodies inside the box like cases or wall chargers. You are just getting a USB-C charging cable and that's it.

The Galaxy S24 FE has increased in size, and with that its display size has also jumped from 6.4 inches to 6.7 inches, meaning it has an even larger display compared to the 6.2-inch one on the Galaxy S24. What's more, even though they are not as thin and uniform as those on the S24, the bezels have significantly shrunk on the S24 FE, and it now looks more premium.

The area where one would notice the most difference when it comes to their displays is brightness. The Galaxy S24 is stated to have a peak brightness of 2600 nits, while the S24 FE is said to max out at 1900 nits. We will let you know just how big the difference is in real life depending on our display lab tests.

Otherwise, both phones come with HDR10+ support and both have a high display refresh rate of 120Hz, which feels like should be the norm for any phone over $500 these days...

One big difference between the two is that the S24 FE comes with a standard optical fingerprint sensor embedded in its display, which is noticeably slower and less accurate than the ultrasonic one Samsung uses on its flagship series.

Lastly, protection-wise, the Galaxy S24 FE's screen comes with Gorilla Glass Victus Plus — an improvement over last year's Gorilla Glass 5 — vs the Galaxy S24's Gorilla Glass Victus 2. We are not exactly sure just how much more durable the S24 display is, but our guess is that it is not by much in comparison.

As usual, performance will most probably be the main area where the flagship Galaxy phone differentiates itself from the Fan Edition one the most. Just by how much the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside the S24 is better than the Exynos 2400e inside the S24 FE is unclear — we will find out once we do our benchmark performance tests.

Whatever the case though, the Snapdragon is bound to be the higher performer here, as it showed some of the best results we have ever seen so far. In fact, it is arguably the best chip in terms of raw graphical performance at this moment.

As for RAM, both phones come with 8GB of it, so that won't be a factor when it comes to performance differences. That also seems to be the minimum for Galaxy AI features. And, speaking of AI, everything related to it that's available on the S24 is also available on the S24 FE.

The FE even comes with the somewhat new Sketch to Image feature that allows users to sketch over a photo, after which the phone generates an AI image on top that (hopefully) fits in. In our experience, however, this feature did not work too well.

What does seem to work very well is the more useful AI features such as Chat Assist, Call Assist, and Interpreter. These are the AI-powered tools from Galaxy AI that actually show why AI in our phones is the future, and it is great to see them on the Galaxy S24 FE, even though most were already available on the S23 FE too.

The software update situation with this year's Fan Edition has improved, and Samsung now offers the same 7 years of Android updates and security patches that it promises with its flagship series. including the Galaxy S24.

According to Samsung, the cheaper Galaxy S24 FE shares the same 50MP main camera inside the Galaxy S24. It even comes with the same ProVisual engine that is supposed to help improve image quality, especially when zooming in digitally.

And, speaking of zooming in, both come with a 3X telephoto camera. However, the small difference is that the one on the FE is 8MP while the S24's is 10MP. If we are to judge from our Galaxy S23 FE vs Galaxy S23 camera comparison, we don't expect to see too big of a difference in quality.

Unlike the telephoto cameras, however, the S24 FE has a 12MP ultra-wide camera, just like the Galaxy S24. The spec sheets make it appear as those cameras are the same, but we will have to wait and check out the samples to see if there is any difference in image quality between them.

When it comes to the selfie cameras, the S24 once again has slightly higher resolution — 12MP vs 10MP on the S24 FE. And, in fact, from the previous generations of these phones, which had the same selfie camera differences, we did notice slightly higher levels of detail coming from the S24's front camera. But, again, the difference is not immediately visible.

For video we expect to see similar image quality between the two phones, although when comparing year's generations we noticed that the Fan Edition was not very good when it came to HDR. There were halos forming around tree branches when a blue sky was in the background. We'll see if Samsung has made improvements on the software side this year to help alleviate that issue.

As you might already suspect, there is a considerable difference in battery capacity given size difference between the S24 FE and the standard S24. The Fan Edition comes with a 4,700 mAh battery, while the one on  the S24 is 4,000 mAh.

700 mAh is quite the difference when it comes to battery sizes, and it will without a doubt add to longer battery life on the mid-ranger from Samsung compared to the base flagship. That being said, battery efficiency also has a large roll to play when it comes to battery life, so we will have to see how the S24 FE handles our three battery life tests and compare the results to the S24's to determine which one lasts longer.

Our expectations are that the difference won't be too stark despite the much smaller size of the S24's battery. But we suspect the Exynos 2400e inside the new Fan Edition will be great at preserving energy, so it will likely still come out on top.

On the charging side of things, both phones should charge at the same speed given both support 25W, but the lower battery capacity on the Galaxy S24 means it should take less time to go from 0-100% than its more affordable counterpart.

Both also have the same 15W wireless charging, and both support reverse-wireless charging.

If you were to compare the $649 Galaxy S24 FE to the $799 flagship Galaxy S24 purely by their spec sheets, most of the differences boil down to size. The FE is larger, and therefore comes with more screen real estate and a bigger battery. There are two more tiny differences, and those are the slightly higher resolution 3X telephoto and selfie cameras on the S24.

Check out our separate detailed page of the Galaxy S24 FE vs Galaxy S24 specs comparison for more information. 

Comparing the spec sheets of two devices serves as a way to look at them from an eagle's point of view, revealing things that one might not typically see. The comparison above gives us the impression that there is very little that separates the Galaxy S24 FE from the more premium Galaxy S24.

The key takeaways in this comparison are mostly related to size and portability, performance, and battery life. For $150 you are getting a phone that will most likely last longer on a single charge and offer a larger screen to enjoy content on. On the other side of the ring we have a more compact phone that packs one of the best processors we have seen so far.

Many would probably prefer the FE, as even with its lower chipset performance it will probably still be more than capable enough for the usual things we do on a phone. Not to mention that it now comes with the same 7 years of software updates, making it a perfect purchase for prolonged ownership.

Our preliminary verdict based on the specs and our hands-on experience with the S24 FE is that it is probably the better deal for most potential buyers. The only real reason we would recommend the S24 is its smaller size for those who prefer that form factor.

The one other area that might change our perspective is if the S24 turned out to have much better camera performance. But based on last year's comparison between the two predecessors of these phones, that is unlikely.