Samsung’s FE series phones have always straddled the line between mid-range and flagship, sitting above the company’s more affordable A-series phones but below full members of the Galaxy S family. And from what I can tell, starting at $700, the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE continues that tradition with a handset similar in size to an S26+ with specs closer to an A57.
Just like the S26+, the S26 FE has a 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display with a slightly lower maximum brightness that peaks at 1,900 nits (compared to 2,600 for its more expensive sibling). On the back, you still get three rear cameras, including a 12-megapixel main camera, a 50 MP ultra-wide, and an 8 MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. Meanwhile, on the inside, instead of a Snapdragon chip, the FE comes with one of Samsung’s Exynos 2500 processors, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. The phone also comes with a 4,900 mAh battery with 45 watts of wired charging and 15 watts of wireless charging, as well as seven years of software support, just like on the previous model.
Granted, the FE’s 8GB of RAM seems a bit light considering every other member of the S26 family comes with 12GB. But at least Samsung didn’t go any lower, so there’s no year-over-year drop in memory, although it did increase in price by $50 over the S25 FE (most likely due to the current global RAM shortage). As for its design, the FE retains much of the beauty of the S26 line, as it sports a streamlined chassis with an aluminum frame and a relatively small camera bump. The only change is that it feels like the back panel of the phone is made of polycarbonate (i.e. plastic) instead of glass. But if you don’t look at it in detail, it’s hard to say.
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Samsung has also ported many of the software features we first saw to the mainline S26 family back in February. This includes things like Super Steady Video with horizontal lock, the my FanCam tool for automatically tracking and centering subjects in already recorded clips, AI-powered Photo Assist, and Now Nudge, the latter of which can now display important information across a handful of third-party apps and notifications.
During my brief hands-on session with the S26 FE, I was impressed by how similar it feels to more expensive family members, despite its reduced price. Indoors I couldn’t really tell it wasn’t as bright and in general use it seemed just as responsive as well. That said, I haven’t had a chance to really put its Exynos 2500 chip through its paces, so I’m still curious how the phone will perform in gaming compared to the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chips used in other S26 devices.
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The only major hurdle with the S26 FE is that while it offers significant savings over a new S26+, which starts at $900, you can already get used models for around $700. So if you’re in the market for a big-screen Android phone and don’t want to deal with the potential complications of buying a used device, the FE offers a compelling value proposition. But if you’re not as picky, a used S26+ is still a better deal thanks to its superior specs.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE will be available in three colors (pistachio, blueberry and graphite) starting September 3.
