Samsung Galaxy S24 FE vs Galaxy S24: Which should you buy?

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE vs Samsung Galaxy S24: Samsung has officially announced the heavily-leaked Galaxy S24 FE, the mid-cycle ‘Fan Edition’ that promises flagship experiences packed with AI features at a lower cost. Here’s the difference between the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 FE.

Samsung has done it again, with a slightly lower priced version of the Galaxy S24 flagship range. The so-called ‘Fan Edition’ was leaked earlier this month, but now it’s ready for prime time.

There’s lots of similarities, including the overall design language. You’ll also get the same Galaxy AI experience as the Galaxy S24, for starters, as well as Samsung Knox’ security protections.

Much of the camera experience, including AI-enhanced shooting and editing, is also along for the ride. You’ll get the signature Nightography feature, alongside Super High Dynamic Range (HDR) for vibrant photos.

Now, let’s take a look at what’s different.

The Fan Edition is cheaper.

As usual, the S24 FE undercuts the price of the Galaxy S24. The Galaxy S24 FE starts at £649/$649. On paper, that’s a significant saving of £150/$150.

The Galaxy S24 started at £799/$799. However, the phone came out eight months ago and we’re starting to see deals that are close to undercutting the value proposition of the Galaxy S24 FE. It was the same as when we reviewed the Galaxy S23 FE last year. Better deals were already available on the standard, and better Galaxy S23

Galaxy S24 FE has a much larger, but inferior screen

Samsung is fitting the S24 FE with a 6.7-inch AMOLED 2X panel and a Full HD+ resolution of 2,340 x 1080. There’s a 60-120Hz refresh rate too.

That’s significantly larger than the 6.2-inch AMOLED panel on the Galaxy S24, which has the same resolution. However, the S24 has support for a variable 1-120Hz refresh rate as well as support for HDR10+.

The larger display means a larger and heavier footprint overall too. The S24 FE’s dimensions are 77.3mm x 162.0mm x 8.0mm and it weighs in at 213g. The original is 70.6mm x 147mm x 7.6mm with a weight of 167g.

Power slightly favours the standard S24

There’s no Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy option on the S24 FE. Instead you’ll get the Exynos 2400e processor which is a slightly under-clocked version of the Exynos 2400 chip that ships with the Galaxy S24 globally. You’ll get 8GB of RAM on both devices, while the FE has up to 512GB of storage compared to 128GB and 256GB only on the early 2024 standard model.

The Galaxy S24 FE has a bigger battery

The 4,700mAh battery within the Galaxy S24 FE is significantly larger than the 4,000mAh cell within the Galaxy S24. However, there’s nothing to choose between the two devices when it comes to charging speeds. 25W wired, 15W wireless charging, and 4.5W wireless powershare are available on both phones.

Cameras are quite similar in terms of specs

Both phones boast a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilisation, as well as an ultrawide 12-megapixel sensor to back it up. The telephoto lenses both offer 3x optical zoom, but is 10 megapixels on the Galaxy S24 and just 8-megapixel on the S24 FE. It’s a similar story with the front camera, at 12-megapixel and 10-megapixel respectively. On paper, the specs shade it for the Galaxy S24, but we’d need to see how the sensors perform during testing.