Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review: The Best Gateway Drug to Samsung Ecosystem

For years, we have seen the Fan Edition being the affordable entrée to the Samsung experience but their attempts have left a lot to be desired. In our S23 FE review, I mentioned that we deserve a better Fan Edition and not the Injustice the S23 FE got. You know what, they finally listened and they just might have made the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE that I wanted – and perhaps the best FE ever made.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review

What’s Good

A Proper Polished Phone (F*cking, finally!)

1/4

That F-word was personal because the Fan Edition has always taken an odd slump in the design aspect. Hate is a strong word, but that’s what it made me feel about the S23 FE – the unpolished metal rails, the thick bezels surrounding the display and so on – which made the phone look a lot more inferior to the Galaxy A54. But fast forward today, It’s safe to say that they took this feedback, listened and you know what, almost everything about this phone is just amazing now.

The matte finish metal rails are something I love through and through with the more polished finish, which no longer digs into your hand and feels like it’s about to cut you. The glasses on the front and back are made out of Gorilla Glass Victus and in more ways than one, it looks exactly like the A55 – and trust me, you won’t be able to tell the difference when you put it side by side. In terms of weight, it is slightly heavier than the S23 FE actually and that’s because…

The FE is a Big Boy Now

Yes, Samsung upsized the S24 FE to match the S24+’s dimensions – and this means, the petite S24 with a 6.2” display is safe from getting axed – but with the rumours about a Slim S25 – we are not sure how it’s going to affect the series. But that’s a problem for later. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE looks extremely identical to the Galaxy A55 with a slightly thicker bezel all around. I hope to see this bezel vanish in the S25 FE if they make one because the older S20 FE aged well as compared to the recent FE.

Almost an S24 in Performance, but with an “e”

One of the biggest changes you will see with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is in its performance because for the first time, we get the same year flagship processor but with a caveat. In the normal S24 Series, we got the Exynos 2400 whereas the 24 FE gets the 2400e – which is slightly less powerful than the real deal by 5%. When you use it, you can’t tell in which aspect it falls behind because it performs well and lives up to what a flagship truly is. On top of that, Samsung isn’t joking with the 5 years of major software updates – so you are getting a prim and proper phone that will last for a good duration.

Gaming on this phone felt like a breeze. The only two games I enjoy on mobile: Honkai Starrail and Marvel Snap were pretty good. Honkai Starrail could run on Very High Settings very well. You will encounter a split-second delay when you set up the game for the first time or when you venture onto a new adventure, but once the phone is in the zone, it is consistent with its performance. I have had gaming sessions as short as 20 minutes to about an hour or so in Honkai – one thing to keep in mind is the thermals. Despite what Samsung says with increasing the Vapour chamber for better heat dissipation which does happen, you will feel the heat. This happens with the Ultra, so just make sure to enjoy certain things in moderation.

But man, what a performance, I love it. Before you make a fuss, the 8GB RAM is more than enough with a choice of 256GB or 512GB storage.

Good Display which won’t Disappoint

Samsung has never let down in their Display experience. AMOLED is pretty much the standard for a good mobile display in the industry and the Dynamic AMOLED 2X display you find here in the S24 FE gives a good flagship experience with beautiful vibrant colours that pop while consuming content and a higher refresh rate properly done and hits 120Hz with a peak nit brightness of 1900 – perfectly capable for outdoor viewing. It’s just that the thick bezels do break the illusion at times and I genuinely wish it was more thin – closer to the S24+’s screen-to-body ratio.

What Else Improved and How So?

Battery Bump

Because the S24 FE is now a bigger phone, the increased battery capacity is completely warranted as it now gets an extra 200mAh, totalling 4700mAh which is pretty good for an all-day and maybe slightly longer than that. The reason you could get a significant battery life is because it uses an FHD+ display as opposed to a QHD or 4K display and everything here is efficiently handled. So, you are not compromising a lot. Our experience averages about close to 6 hours of Screen-on-time with 17 hours of standby time – which is an all-day phone.

Charging speeds are limited to 25W and honestly, it’s enough – as you don’t need any faster than this. And for gamers, you can connect your charger and bypass the charging to get DC power instead – a genius way to save your battery health.

Gets the Galaxy AI Experience After All

Yes, you get all the Galaxy AI experience here with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and it isn’t missing out on anything – you get all of the photo editing, AI generation, Recording Transcribing, Translation and the list goes on. We did an entire article about the Galaxy AI which we’d recommend you to read by clicking here.

A Capable Camera in Every Way

The triple camera setup comes in the following configuration: a 50MP f/1.8 Primary sensor, 12MP f/2.2 Ultrawide and 8MP f/2.4 Telephoto camera. Almost nothing changed here to be honest, because we are getting the same setup as its predecessor. But it’s a camera setup that’s functional and works quite well. Recently, Samsung Malaysia took us to Alice Saves Wonderland for us to shoot with the phone under various lighting conditions – and it’s one good test we got to put it under to show how capable the camera is. You can click here to check out how that turned out.

But for real, the camera here is a “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” setup – you are going to take decent photos that are social-media-worthy and even as a keepsake. You won’t be disappointed. Check out all the samples with this phone below.

But What’s the Catch?

The Pricing Honestly

Samsung’s pricing structure has never been their strongest suit because at the time of release, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE commanded a price of RM 3,299 for 256GB and RM 3,899 for 512GB. As much as I love the phone, that is hitting the S24 territory when you know you could pick up the normal S24 for less than RM4000 right now during sales. But guess what…

Lucky for you, Samsung Pulled a… Samsung

During 11.11, Samsung slashed the price by so much that you could pick the S24 FE 256GB for as low as RM 2000 – making it the best affordable flagship experience smartphone you can get that’s released in the same year. You best bet, Samsung is going to slash the price harder for 12.12, perhaps get it as low as RM 2000. If you do plan to get it now, you can save upto RM1300 and with Samsung offering discounts here and there, you can still pick it up for a good price – but I’d say wait for the sale happening throughout November and December.

You Might miss out on some Exclusive features but it’s not necessary in making a Good Phone

We can’t have it all and that’s why we pay top dollar for the next generation technology. The S24 FE misses out on UWB, which is a feature I eventually hope to see in more phones because you have no idea how amazing it is – especially if you use Smarttag 2 and other devices that leverage UWB.

But at this price point, it’s okay if it doesn’t have one – because it’s the right compromise made to retain the best experience possible.

Conclusion

Okay, please don’t bother about what others say about the Fan Edition because we have something far more important to tell you. The S Series and Z Series are the cutting-edge devices from Samsung but that’s not the gateway drug into Samsung’s Ecosystem. That title belongs to the Fan Edition. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is everything I wanted to see with the Fan Edition – though there is some room for improvements like the bezels and some refinement which is required but man, what an amazing phone. This is our choice for the best Samsung phone you can get in 2024.

For that, we are giving the Gold Vesper Choice Award for the Best Samsung for 2024.

And Samsung, if you are reading this, which we believe you are – Thank you for listening to our feedbacks through our reviews. Few more tweaks and you will have a proper force to be reckoned with. Looking forward to the S25 FE.

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