OPINION: Samsung’s latest ‘Fan Edition’ smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, was released this week and it comes with a whole host of changes. However, it still has the same old problem as previous entries in Samsung’s FE collection.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite a fan of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. It offers a whole bunch of upgrades compared to last year’s Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, including a boost in screen size from 6.4- to 6.7 inches, slimmer bezels and an increased maximum brightness of 1900nits that should make the phone easier to use in bright daylight.
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There’s also a much simpler approach to the processor than last year; rather than getting either the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Exynos 2200, a year-old flagship chipset at the time of release in 2023, the S24 FE gets the same 2024 flagship Exynos 2400e wherever you happen to purchase the phone.
That’s a more energy-efficient version of the chipset found in the Galaxy S24, representing a two-year jump in processing power. That should translate to significant performance gains from this year’s FE – though I’ll have to wait until I’ve fully reviewed the phone before I can say for sure.
There’s also a larger 4700mAh cell that Samsung claims should boost battery life by a few hours despite the larger screen, and it, of course, comes with the same Galaxy AI features as the flagship S24 range, including recent additions like Sketch to Image introduced on Samsung’s foldables in July.
So, what’s the issue then? It’s the £649/$649 asking price.
When looked at singularly, that is a pretty good price for a rather premium phone with great processing power, Galaxy AI smarts and a trio of cameras including the same main sensor as that of the flagship Galaxy S24.
The problem is that you can get the full-fat Samsung Galaxy S24 for less right now, having been on the market for nearly 10 months, so why would you go for the slightly less capable model?
It’s not just a slight discount either. At the time of writing, the regular Samsung Galaxy S24 can be found on Amazon for under £600 in the UK. That’s not only a huge saving compared to its £799 RRP, but it’s also cheaper than the Galaxy S24 FE.
In fact, I wrote something similar about the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE a little under a year ago, and it seems that Samsung really hasn’t learnt its lesson.
It’s not a simple fix either; release the phone sooner and it might cannibalise sales of the flagship Galaxy S24 range, but releasing it later means that the flagships have dropped massively in price, even if they still have high RRPs.
The other option, if Samsung does stick to its late-year release schedule, is to make the Galaxy FE a little bit cheaper – though with high development costs and expensive components, that’s certainly easier said than done.
It’s arguably not as big of an issue this year with the phone’s larger screen bringing it closer to the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus than the regular 6.2-inch S24, which does tend to stay around its £999 RRP, but I still feel that the regular Galaxy S24 would be the better buy of the two – and a cheaper one, at that.
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