Today I’m diving into the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, the Fan Edition that’s supposed to give you flagship vibes without the flagship price tag. Even though it’s been out for a few months, the hype hasn’t really died down. Is it still a smart buy in 2026, or are you better off saving your cash? Let’s find out how it holds up in the real world.
Design
As always, I’ll start with the design. It’s actually gotten quite cool and gives off a more premium vibe. We’ve seen the aluminum frame and glass back before, but there are a few key differences here. First off, at 190 grams and 7.4 mm thin, it’s 23 grams lighter and 0.6mm thinner than the previous model. These two changes make the S25 FE way more comfortable to hold and feel much lighter than the S24 FE.
You can get the Galaxy S25 FE in four colors: Icyblue, Jetblack, Navy, and White.
The back panel is no longer glossy; it’s matte now, which I personally prefer. However, it’s strange that this matte finish doesn’t really resist fingerprints, you can clearly see the smudges under the light. The cameras still follow that vertical triple-island layout.
The display bezels have been trimmed down by 1%, which is a solid win for a non-flagship Samsung. My only tiny gripe is that the bottom bezel is still a bit thicker than the rest. Still, with an IP68 rating and a more refined build, the S25 FE feels way better in the hand than last year’s model.
Display
The Galaxy S25 FE’s 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with that 120Hz refresh rate and 1900 nits is undeniably smooth and bright. But let’s be real: in this price bracket, when rivals are flaunting 1-billion-color panels and even higher peak brightness, Samsung’s upgrade feels a bit more like playing catch-up.
Battery & Charging
I’ll say it straight: the battery isn’t great. Samsung increased the capacity by 200mAh, and now the S25 FE has a 4900mAh battery. But since the processor isn’t power-efficient, the actual battery life feels exactly the same as the previous model. If you’re gaming, you’ll be hunting for a charger after 6 or 7 hours. The only silver lining is the charging speed, which jumped from 25W to 45W, matching the speed of the S25 Ultra.
If Samsung switches to silicon-carbon batteries in the future, things might get better, but for now, don’t expect miracles. With moderate use, it barely lasts a full day.
Camera
Here’s the thing: the camera sensors on the Galaxy S25 FE are identical to the S24 FE. Not a single spec has changed. Better software processing? Not really. The 50MP main sensor takes good photos, but if nothing’s changed, why not just keep calling it the S24 FE?
That said, the photos are still high quality for this price point and you can definitely rely on them. It can get a bit noisy sometimes and still struggles slightly in low light, but portraits are great with nice bokeh and solid subject detection.
The 12MP ultrawide is like any other ultrawide, nothing extraordinary. There’s an 8MP telephoto that’s been tweaked a bit; it uses software to upscale to 12MP and gives you 3x optical zoom.
For video recording, you get 8K at 30fps (which nobody really uses), but the real star is 4K at 120fps. This was a feature Apple hyped up last year, and now you have it on a Fan Edition phone.
On the front, the selfie camera has jumped from 10MP to 12MP, but it’s not a revolutionary change. Low-light performance is a bit better, and you’ll see about a 20% improvement in detail, brightness, and clarity.
Performance
Okay, I don’t know why Samsung is so obsessed with Exynos. The Galaxy S25 FE uses the Exynos 2400 chipset, which shows very little improvement in benchmarks and is honestly disappointing when it comes to stability.
For everyday tasks, it’s smooth as butter. But play a heavy game for 30 minutes and it starts gasping for air, and performance drops by 50%. Even with a heat sink that’s 10% better than before, the temps still hit 45°C. It won’t burn your hand, but you’ll definitely feel that this chipset isn’t efficient.
Samsung, why not ditch Exynos and use an efficient Dimensity or Snapdragon chip instead?
OS & Updates
The Galaxy S25 FE runs One UI 8 and is promised 7 years of updates. Since Samsung gave the interface a total makeover in One UI 7, the tweaks in One UI 8 are more subtle and mostly focus on AI features.
What’s in the Box?
As usual, there’s no charger in the box. You just get the Galaxy S25 FE, USB-C cable, SIM ejector tool, and that quick start guide that literally nobody reads. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if the phone is still in the box in a couple of years. 🙂
