Not to be left out of Techtember and Techtober, Samsung has just announced its latest smartphone for the FE range. That’s the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE. And last week, I got to spend about an hour with the phone, checking it out and seeing just how good it is. Whether it’s worth the $699 price tag.
As you know, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is a “Fan Edition” phone and it’s basically a cheaper and bigger version of the Galaxy S23. This one sports a 6.4-inch display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and a 4500mAh capacity battery. While my hands on time with the Galaxy S23 FE was short, it was pretty tough to see how good the battery life would be here, but I don’t have high hopes. Since this is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, not the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which are a lot more battery efficient.
So you might be wondering where Samsung is positioning this? Well, it’s sitting right below the Galaxy S23 in terms of price, but between the Galaxy S23 and S23+ in terms of display size. So you can get a phone with flagship features and specs, at a lower price, and a larger display. A 6.4-inch display here is honestly pretty odd. Since most phones are around 6-inches or closer to 6.7-inches. So it’s a good sweet spot for Samsung.
The mint and purple colors are stunning
From the moment I picked up the Galaxy S23 FE, I noticed that it was definitely different from Samsung’s other phones. Especially their high-end phones. It’s noticeably thicker than a regular Galaxy S23, and the sides are slightly curved. Which does help with the comfort in hand. It’s quite comfortable to hold, even with the flat backside.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 FE does also come in a number of stunning colors. It’s available in Mint, Purple, Cream and Graphite, with a couple of Samsung.com exclusives for the Tangerine Orange and Blue. Which we did not get to see during our hands on time, but we did fall in love with the purple and mint colors. The Purple looks really great as it is a deep purple color and has a silver frame and cameras. The contrast looks pretty incredible here.
The mint color also comes with a silver frame and cameras, while the graphite has a darker frame and cameras here. For a much more muted experience here. You really can’t go wrong with any of the colors here. Especially since you’re going to toss a case on it anyways.
Android 13 running out of the box
The Galaxy S23 FE has not been updated to Android 14 and One UI 6 just yet. Of course, that’s not a surprise since it is still in beta on other Samsung smartphones. So this was bound to happen. But Android 13 and One UI 5.1.1 is the most recent update from Samsung and that is what is here on the Galaxy S23 FE.
Honestly, the software here is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from Samsung. It works almost identical to what is currently on the Galaxy S23 series.
Samsung is going to keep the Galaxy S23 FE updated too. Like the regular Galaxy S23, it’ll get four years of updates, and Samsung has also been very fast at updating to the latest version of Android and even sending out security updates. So if you’re worried about updates with this cheaper smartphone, don’t be. Samsung has you covered.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE?
The FE series is always hard to recommend. Because it’s basically the same as the entry-level Galaxy S model, but a tiny bit cheaper and a bit larger. For instance, the Galaxy S23 has an MSRP of $799, but it is typically on sale for $699 or less. That’s the same price as the Galaxy S23 FE now. So why should you buy it? Really only if you want the larger screen. If that 0.3-inches more of a display matters to you.
From our short time with the Galaxy S23 FE, it doesn’t look like the battery life will be better than the Galaxy S23. But we’ll have to wait for our review to see for sure. That’s going to be the biggest reason why you should buy the Galaxy S23 FE, since everything else is a pretty small difference from the regular Galaxy S23.
