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Intro
The new Galaxy S25 series has arrived and with it, we have the Galaxy S25 Plus model, a $1,000 phone with a big screen and top-end specs. But if you want to save up, you still have the similarly big and also quite powerful Galaxy S24 FE, which you can find for about half the price of the S25 Plus.
So is it really worth overspending for the Galaxy S25 Plus? Or is the Galaxy S24 FE good enough at a much lower price?
We compare the design, performance, cameras, battery life and a lot more to answer that question. Read on.
The Galaxy S24 FE is also available at Amazon. The model in Gray with 128GB of storage is currently available at lower prices, and you can save 23% on it.
Trade in your old phone to save up to $700 on the exciting Galaxy S25 Plus. Samsung also gives you a $100 instant discount on the 512GB variant, giving you a total of up to $800 off the high-class Galaxy AI phone.
Trade in your old phone to save up to $500 on the Galaxy S25. There's an additional $50 Samsung credit for the base storage model, while the 256GB variant arrives with a $50 instant discount.
The Galaxy S25 Plus comes in more saturated colors. | Image by PhoneArena
Samsung has unified the design of its phone lineup throughout the last few years, making it harder and harder to immediately distinguish them from each other.
And that is exactly the case with the Galaxy S25 Plus and the Galaxy S24 FE, the only thing that separates them are the slightly restyled camera lenses on the back (slightly bigger on the S25 Plus).
Both phones are made out of the same materials—glass for the back and aluminum for the frame—so holding them feels similar. Not too similar though, since the S25 Plus is actually quite a bit shorter, at 158mm vs the 162mm of the Fan Edition. It's also not as wide, measuring 75.8mm vs 77.3mm.
The S25 Plus frame looks slightly more matte. You can also clearly see the size difference when placing them on top of each other. | Image by PhoneArena
What's more the S25 Plus, like the rest of the lineup, has been slimmed down. It come at 7.3mm, making it one of the slimmest Plus models yet, and significantly thinner than the 8 mm of the S24 FE. The difference is immediately felt, and it's amazing that Samsung was able to achieve this despite fitting a larger battery (compared to the FE) inside the new Plus.
The S25 Plus has fitted the same display size as the FE but in a much smaller body. Image by PhoneArena
Both phones feature a 6.7-inch display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate, but the S25 Plus has slimmer bezels and slightly higher brightness than the S24 FE.
The Galaxy S24 FE also has the lower resolution (1080p), while the S25 Plus runs at crisper 1440p resolution. The S25 Plus also uses LTPO AMOLED technology for improved power efficiency.
Being the flagship phone, the S25 Plus can also get brighter, hitting 2,600 nits of peak brightness compared to 1,900 nits on the S24 FE. Just keep in mind that these brightness measures are not linear, so your eyes will not see this as big of a difference as the numbers suggest.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
Our measurements did show that the S25 Plus can go brighter, especially at 20% APL. APL stands for Average Picture Level, and refers to the brightness level of a given image on the screen. APL is expressed as a percentage, where 0% indicates a fully black image and 100% signifies a fully white one.
As for the biometrics, the Galaxy S25 Plus uses an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, while the S24 FE bets on an optical one. The ultrasonic doesn't shine bright at night and is a little more reliable, but it's not a huge difference.
Performance and Software
The S25 Plus features the beastly new Snapdragon 8 Elite
The Galaxy S25 Plus has zero lag. | Image by PhoneArena
The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset inside the Galaxy S25 Plus is one of the biggest leaps in processor power in recent years. In comparison, the Galaxy S24 FE runs on a Samsung-made Exynos 2400e processor, which is definitely not in the same league.
We didn't get the expected 50% increase in CPU, GPU and NPU performance with the Galaxy S25 Plus, but the improvements in our performance tests are definitely consequential.
One of the main issues we've had with Galaxy phones is that they tend to lag every now and then, but the S25 series is the first generation where we haven't experienced any hiccups (so far).
RAM is another area where the S25 Plus is superior, with 12GB on board, up from 8GB on the S24 FE, and by now we all know that RAM is very important for AI tasks.
The S25 Plus also comes with double the storage in the base model – it's 256GB on the S25 Plus vs 128GB on the S24 FE.
In terms of software, Samsung is one of the best Android phone makers. It promises seven years of software and security updates for both of these phones. However, keep in mind that the S24 FE launched with Android 14, while the S25 Plus arrives with Android 15, so it's one year ahead.
Features-wise, some of the new Galaxy AI features that come with the Galaxy S25 might not trickle down to the S24 FE because they are dependent on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and the 12GB of RAM. These include Personal Data Engine and Now Brief.
Galaxy AI's Personal Data Engine processes data on-device, protected by Samsung Knox, to deliver personalized AI experiences while prioritizing user privacy. It learns user preferences locally, enabling features like Now Brief without compromising data security.
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Now Brief is a new neat feature that provides a personalized daily briefing. It gathers relevant information like your schedule, weather, reminders, and news, and presents it in a concise and easy-to-digest format. Think of it as your AI-powered morning (or anytime) update.
As mentioned earlier, we expected to see an even bigger difference in performance between the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Exynos 2400e processors, but what you see above is still an impactful jump.
The S25 Plus is especially more capable when it comes to graphical performance. Unfortunately though, it seems the new chip is not that much better than the S24 FE's as far as thermal throttling goes, which is what the 3DMark Extreme(Low) tests.
Camera
Only a small difference in image quality
There's a new design for the rings around the three camera lenses on the S25 Plus. | Image by PhoneArena
PhoneArena Camera Score:
Photo
Video
Phone
Camera Score
Photo Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
150
153
84
20
26
22
Samsung Galaxy S25+
147
151
80
21
27
23
Phone
Camera Score
Video Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
150
147
79
23
26
19
Samsung Galaxy S25+
147
142
74
21
26
21
Find out more details about photo and video scores for all phones we have tested on our PhoneArena Camera Score page
Interestingly, the S24 FE scored higher in our camera test. That's mostly due to the new image algorithms Samsung has introduced with the S25 series, which favor a natural and true-to-life look, so there's less extra sharpening added after the fact.
The Galaxy S25 Plus keeps the same hardware as previous generations, so you get the following:
The lower resolution of the telephoto camera is the main hardware difference.
However, we have the new ISP on the Galaxy S25 Plus and software improvements.
Camera Samples
The post-processing on the S24 FE is more pronounced, meaning the contrast is higher and the colors are more saturated. On the other hand, the S25 Plus captures more toned down images, which are often better exposed and have the benefit of looking more natural.
The detail is also visibly higher when comparing the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras. Something else that stood out is that the selfie camera on the S25 Plus achieves better detail and more natural skin tones.
Video Quality
The main difference we noticed between the Galaxy S25 Plus and S24 FE during video was their HDR. The S25 Plus comes out with an image that's more evenly lit, showing brighter shadows and darker highlights. You can especially notice the benefits of this on the skin, which is a bit too bright in the S24 FE video.
Of course, there's also a visible difference in image quality when we switch to the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras, with the S25 Plus displaying a more natural image with higher detail.
But the Galaxy S24 FE does a pretty good job at video recording and it's not that far behind the S25 Plus considering it costs $350 less.
Battery Life and Charging
Where the S24 FE falls a bit short
Image by PhoneArena
The Galaxy S25 Plus gets a 4,900 mAh battery, while the S24 FE has a slightly smaller, 4,700 mAh battery size.
And while that is an advantage for the S25 Plus, it's not a big one – the difference between the two is less than 5%! But presumably because of the better power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the S25 Plus manages to achieve about an hour more of estimated battery life in our tests.
In all three of our individual battery life tests, the S25 Plus beat the S24 FE. It was specifically during our Browsing and Gaming tests when the S25 Plus pulled ahead.
The S25 Plus also beats the S24 FE in charging speeds. You get 45W charging via a wire on the S25 Plus, while the S24 FE maxes out at 25W.
Both support wireless charging at similar 15W speeds, though.
Specs Comparison
Below is a quick comparison of the specs. The main visible differences are the newer and more advanced processor of the S25 Plus, its higher RAM, and faster charging. For a deeper dive you can check our Galaxy S25 Plus vs Galaxy S24 FE specs page.
Galaxy S25 Plus
Galaxy S24 FE
Size and Weight: 158.5 x 75.9 x 7.7 mm 197 g
Size and Weight: 162 x 77.3 x 8 mm 213 g
Display: 6.7" LTPO AMOLED 120Hz
Display: 6.7" Dynamic AMOLED 120Hz
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm
Processor: Exynos 2400e 4nm
Versions: --- 12/256GB 12/512GB
LPDDR5
Versions: 8/128GB 8/256GB 8/512GB
LPDDR5
Camera: 50MP main 12MP ultra-wide 10MP 3X zoom
12MP front
Camera: 50MP main 12MP ultra-wide 8MP 3X zoom
10MP front
Battery: 4900 mAh
Battery: 4700 mAh
Charging: USB-C 45W wired 15W wireless or higher
Charging: USB-C 25W wired 15W wireless
Summary
Image by PhoneArena
The Galaxy S25 Plus and S24 FE offer similar design and displays, making it challenging to distinguish between the two at first glance.
However, the S25 Plus is much faster thanks to its newer chip and it has more RAM, which you need for AI. You also get double the storage in the base version.
There are also some smaller upgrades on the S25 Plus. Despite the similar camera hardware, the actual photos and videos should look better on the S25 Plus. It also achieves better battery numbers and it charges faster.
So should you get the S25 Plus? If you are a power user, that's likely a "yes", but otherwise, the Galaxy S24 FE still stands like a great value offer that will not disappoint and it allows you to save a good $500 in the process.
So, which one would you go for?
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Aleksandar is a tech enthusiast with a broad range of interests, from smartphones to space exploration. His curiosity extends to hands-on DIY experiments with his gadgets, and he enjoys switching between different brands to experience the latest innovations. Prior to joining PhoneArena, Aleksandar worked on the Google Art Project, digitizing valuable artworks and gaining diverse perspectives on technology. When he's not immersed in tech, Aleksandar is an outdoorsman who enjoys mountain hikes, wildlife photography, and nature conservation. His interests also extend to martial arts, running, and snowboarding, reflecting his dynamic approach to life and technology.
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