Check out the very best Samsung telephones, and you will find loads of Galaxy S25 fashions topping the checklist. That is no coincident — Samsung’s newest telephones boast glorious cameras, long-lasting batteries and a few fairly polished AI options that assist them stand out from the Android crowd.
By that very same token, the Galaxy S25 FE, unveiled this week by Samsung and now on sale, provides some compelling options in its personal proper. And by doing so, you may make the case that you’re going to by no means need to pay full value for a Samsung system once more as a way to benefit from the telephone maker’s most compelling premium options.
Once more, that is no knock on the present Samsung flagships, which embody the usual mannequin in addition to the marginally bigger Galaxy S25 Plus, the a lot thinner Galaxy S25 Edge and the extraordinarily premium Galaxy S25 Extremely. It is only a reflection of the truth that the Galaxy S25 FE guarantees a lot of what you want from a telephone with out racking up an enormous price ticket.
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Samsung’s FE telephones defined
(Picture credit score: Future)
Technically, the Galaxy S25 FE is a part of the Galaxy S household, although I might hesitate to name it a flagship. Not like the opposite S25 fashions, you do not get the powerhouse Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon contained in the Galaxy S25 FE. As an alternative, you get an Exynos system-on-chip, and an older one at that. The Exynos 2400 powering Samsung’s new telephone arrived in the beginning of 2024, which is among the trade-offs you make to avoid wasting $150 off the beginning value of the usual Galaxy S25.
Tom’s Information hasn’t run benchmarks on the Galaxy S25 FE but, however I might be very shocked if it does not noticeably lag behind the CPU and GPU efficiency turned in by different S25 fashions. Then once more, until you are working processing-intensive apps in your telephone, you may argue that is a distinction the common consumer is not going to noice or care about — not when their pockets is not less than $150 fuller.
As an alternative, with the Galaxy S25 FE. Samsung places the hassle in the place it counts. The telephone provides three rear cameras, together with a devoted telephoto lens. That is a characteristic lacking from prime midrange fashions just like the Pixel 9a and iPhone 16e. And whereas Google’s picture processing chops makes the Pixel 9a the mannequin to beat in terms of the very best digital camera telephones for $500 or much less, you are going to get much more versatility with the S25 FE’s additional rear lens.
It is not simply the lower cost tag and flagship-quality digital camera setup that makes the Galaxy S25 FE a worthy different to Samsung’s higher-profile telephones, although. It is Samsung’s choice to make it possible for many of the Galaxy AI options you may get on a premium mannequin are additionally accessible on this lower-cost handset.
Extending the Galaxy AI expertise
(Picture credit score: Future)
When my Tom’s Information colleagues and I examined out units for our AI telephone face-off, we agreed that Google’s Pixel units set the usual, however the Galaxy S25 fashions did not linger too far behind. And that is excellent news for the Galaxy S25 FE as a result of loads of the options that impressed us after we put AI capabilities by means of their paces this summer time are in proof on this new telephone.
The Galaxy S25 FE boasts writing instruments and photo-editing/picture technology options on par with what the opposite S25 fashions supply. There is a looking help characteristic that summarizes the content material on net pages or gives wanted translations, and, as you’d anticipate, Circle to Search capabilities are very current right here.
However I believe the massive AI additions to the Galaxy S25 FE embody Gemini Stay, which brings multimodal capabilities to the on-device assistant. Level the S25 FE’s digital camera at one thing, and the assistant can let you know what you’ll want to know, whether or not it is figuring out components in a how-to challenge or determining washing directions from laundry tags.
Moreover, the Now Temporary characteristic that debuted on the Galaxy S25 this yr involves the S25 FE, so you will get a day by day abstract of appointments and very important data that adapts to your preferences and actions.
It is unclear if each Galaxy AI characteristic on board the opposite S25 fashions made the grade for the Galaxy S25 FE. There is not any point out of my favourite addition from earlier this yr — cross-app actions that allow you to faucet into the on-board assistant to carry out a number of duties in numerous apps with one command. (Assume including a dinner reservation to your calendar and texting that information to a pal, multi function go.)
Samsung does not tout that functionality in its S25 FE promotional supplies, and if it have been there, I might think about the telephone maker could be shouting it from the mountaintops. Nonetheless, that is one thing we’ll discover out as soon as Tom’s Information will get an opportunity to completely evaluation the telephone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE outlook
In his hands-on with the Galaxy S25 FE, my colleague John Velasco makes the case that the most recent telephone Samsung is the proper counterpoint to the Galaxy S25 Plus. It is acquired the triple-camera setup, the AI options and the massive display screen, however at $649, it is $350 lower than the $999 Plus.
That sounds about proper to me. Individuals will at all times gravitate towards extra premium telephones. However for some individuals, a lower cost is a key piece of the smartphone puzzle. If the Galaxy S25 FE can actually present a comparable expertise when it comes to pictures and AI — and that is what we’ll be on the lookout for after we evaluation the telephone — it ought to be among the many first units you think about when purchasing for a Samsung handset.
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At this time’s finest Samsung Galaxy S25 FE offers
