Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is Almost the Best Hits Phone

The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is a recipe for the ideal mid-range smartphone: similar style to the full-fledged S23, a bright OLED display, a capable trio of back cameras and a chipset that can keep up, and a long-lasting battery, all at a reasonable price.

The design is the real star here, especially in our Purple edition. It’s one of the most startlingly beautiful hues we’ve seen in years, and we’re completely in love with it. The phone is IP68-rated and appears similar to the Galaxy S23 variants but with a matte frame. It uses the Galaxy 21 FE display, which is a 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

The base model still has 128GB of storage, but the base RAM has been increased to 8 GB. There is no microSD expansion, which is a popular feature among fans. Moving on to the camera. The rear layout is similar to that of the S21 FE, but with a higher resolution primary camera (50MP OIS), an 8MP 3x OIS telephoto, and a 12MP ultrawide sensor. The selfie camera has a 10MP imager.

And that’s it. The rest is the same as on the S21 FE: two speakers, a 4,500mAh battery with 25W fast charging, wireless charging, and a UD fingerprint scanner. The S23 FE comes with Android 13 and One UI 5.1.

Price when reviewed: $599.99 | Check price at Amazon

GALAXY S23 FE KEY FEATURES

An excellent bargain at full price, but an incredible value when on sale (which will most likely occur frequently). It resembles the Galaxy S23 Junior. It’s bigger, harder, and more colorful, yet retains the family resemblance. A fantastic display that gives up on clarity but not brightness. You might find the large, uneven bezels bothersome, though. Ever hear the saying, “Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks”? With Samsung software, everything adheres. It’s time to give the wall a cleaning. The primary camera on this phone is excellent, but there is room for improvement in terms of app simplicity, and there are more affordable phones with better cameras. As anticipated, the phone’s battery life is excellent; nevertheless, the additions of wireless charging and wireless power-sharing elevate it to an unexpectedly low price.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S24 FE UNBOXING

The Galaxy S23 FE arrives in one of Samsung’s ultra-thin, eco-friendly packaging, which it has been utilizing for the past few years.

The retail bundle consists of the S23 FE, a black USB-C-C cable, and a SIM ejection PIN. That is it.

CAMERA

Typically, a sub-$600 phone with three back cameras devotes one of those lenses to something like a specialized macro camera or depth sensor — anything to increase the camera count. That is not the case with the Galaxy S23 FE, which, like other Galaxy S23 phones, has a main camera, an ultrawide shooter, and a telephoto lens.

It’s not quite the same setup. While the 50MP primary camera and 12MP ultrawide lens are identical, the Galaxy S23 FE’s telephoto shooter has an 8MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. In comparison, the normal Galaxy S23 has a 10MP telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture. The S23 FE, like the S23, has a telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom.

Even though it lacks the megapixels of the Galaxy S23, the S23 FE’s telephoto camera is notable for a phone priced under $600, as it is not available on the Pixel 7a or Galaxy A54. The Galaxy S23 FE also stands out for its ability to take 8K video, a function generally found on more expensive phones.

To put the Galaxy S23 FE’s camera configuration to the test, I scheduled a camera face-off with the Pixel 7a. Google’s midrange phone lacks the extra telephoto lens featured on the S23 FE, but it is still the greatest photography phone available for less than $500. If the Galaxy S23 FE can compete with the Pixel 7a, it will be a genuinely formidable budget phone.

The Pixel 7a keeps everything darker and more balanced, resulting in an image with more contrast overall. If I have a problem, it’s that the fruit and veggies in the backdrop are obscured by shadows, which the S23 FE shot does not have. However, the Pixel 7a clearly took the better shot here.

The issue is that Samsung has gone a little overboard with face-smoothing in the S23 FE photo. Despite the darkness of the Pixel 7a photo, the freckles on my daughter’s face are visible. I also believe the Pixel 7a’s background blur is more effective, and the contrast in the photo is more striking than what the S23 FE has.

The Galaxy S23 FE uses a 10MP selfie camera to shoot self-portraits, however, it failed to impress in this photo of me in front of a brick wall. The shot is excessively warm, leaving my skin with a yellowish hue. I appear healthier in the Pixel 7a photo, even if Google’s phone obscures some of the nuances in the wrinkles beneath my eyes. In the Pixel 7a photo, the brickwork’ red is likewise richer and cooler.

I admire Samsung’s efforts to keep the Galaxy S23 FE’s camera skills intact while looking for ways to differentiate it from the ordinary Galaxy S23. Overall, I’d say the cameras are adequate, but not superior to what a solid budget camera phone like the Pixel 7a can achieve.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

Do smartphone colors strike you as serious? The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is here to help. The purple on my review sample is the most cheerful purple I’ve seen on a phone in years. The tangerine color will elicit oohs from others who see your phone. The hues are vibrant, lustrous, and saturated. If you want to be dull, you can opt for milk or graphite, but there is also a gorgeous mint and a foggy indigo blue.

Why start with colors? Because if you’ve seen one Galaxy S phone, you’ve seen the others. The Galaxy S23 FE’s design is directly from the Galaxy S playbook. The front and back are both made of glass. The cameras are like portholes poking out from behind the sea of purple (or tangerine). The branding is surprisingly subtle: you can only see the word “Samsung” if you hold the phone in the right light.

This phone is thick. The middle-child Galaxy S23 Plus features a larger display than the Galaxy S23 FE, but the FE is more than a half mm thicker and weighs 13 grams heavier. It looks and feels huge. It’s not uncomfortable. The sides are brushed metal and elegantly contoured, making it extremely comfortable to handle. It’s simply a large chorus of a phone. With a bigger shape, thicker bezels surrounding the display, and brighter colors, the phone exudes a young mood, almost like a toy, but one that will not break. It appears to be an excellent first phone if you want your child to have something serious but also durable that will not cost you a fortune if they smash it.

The Galaxy S23 FE’s display looks amazing, as you’d expect from a Samsung phone, especially when compared to other phones in this price range. It’s not as bright as the Galaxy S23, but it’s just as sharp and colorful, plus it has HDR10+ certification, allowing you to watch streaming material in enhanced HDR quality.

The bezels around the display are large and asymmetrical, which bothered me. I didn’t expect it to annoy me so much, but once I saw that the lowest bezels were larger than the others, I was always aware of it. I couldn’t avoid seeing the unevenness. Perhaps this type of thing doesn’t concern you. If it happens, you are aware of your identity, which will annoy you.

There is an excellent always-on display option on the Galaxy S23 FE, but it is turned off by default, so you’ll have to look for it. If you’re a genuine Samsung enthusiast, I also recommend getting the Good Lock app from the Samsung Galaxy Store. It has several fantastic themes, wallpapers, and lock screen settings that are not available in the standard Samsung One UI. Only for true aficionados, however.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

When I learned Samsung will sell the S23 FE in Europe with an Exynos CPU, I was concerned that it would indicate a return to a two-tier system, with only the United States receiving faster, more efficient Qualcomm technology. However, American S23 FE handsets employ a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, not the latest plus model, which is known for running hot and demanding battery life. It turns out that the Exynos 2200 was not a bad pick after all.

Synthetic performance is comparable to other current mid-range phones, and it can challenge previous year’s flagships. Even under extended stress, temperatures appeared to be rather stable, and I never saw any throttling. In the real world, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE felt more than snappy enough for me, opening apps swiftly and keeping multiple apps in memory at the same time.

In terms of gaming performance, the Exynos chipset falls slightly shy of Qualcomm’s CPU. The most demanding titles cannot achieve such high frame rates without reducing detail settings (when the games allow it) and cannot take full advantage of the 120Hz display. However, simpler games work almost smoothly. I could easily play Diablo Immortal without any noticeable stuttering, so only die-hard fans will feel shortchanged.

A 4500mAh battery felt a little conservative given the size of the phone, but I was still able to go all day on a single charge. When you stress the CPU or GPU, the Galaxy S23 FE’s batteries deplete significantly faster, but for everyday tasks (social surfing, calls, messaging, web browsing, music streaming, and photography), it lasts from breakfast to sleep. Wireless charging is a good addition, as it is not given on a mid-range tablet, but wired speeds of 25W seem very basic in 2023.

Buy it if...

• Beautiful traditional design, dual-glass, IP68 rating.
• Fast OLED screen, reasonable brightness, excellent color accuracy, and HDR10+.
• Excellent stereo speakers.
• Flagship-level performance.
• Overall, the camera quality is consistently good.
• One UI with DeX compatibility and four major Android releases.

Don't buy it if…

• It is more closely related to S22 than S23, although arriving 18 months after the S22 family.
• Heavyweight and big screen bezels.
• The battery life is not particularly amazing.
• Strong GPU throttling, with chipset fragmentation per area.
• The price at launch does not make sense.

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