Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Review: (No) Budget-Friendly Variant

Samsung provides a cheaper variant for its flagships with the FE models. This time it’s the Galaxy S25 series’ turn.

Samsung offers an affordable alternative to the S25 series that launched earlier this year with the Fan Edition (FE). The Samsung Galaxy S24 also received an FE variant last year. Both FE models are priced at €749 including VAT at release.

While Samsung presents the FE variants as a cheaper alternative to the flagships, we should take this with a grain of salt. The Galaxy S25 FE has strong similarities to the ‘middle’ model in the series, namely the Samsung Galaxy S25+.

The Galaxy S25+ has a recommended retail price of €1,149 including VAT, but you can now get it at a sharper price since it’s been on the market for a while. This makes the price difference with the new FE variant smaller.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE costs €749 including VAT as mentioned and is available in white, black, navy, and light blue colors. There’s also a choice of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB storage, with 8 GB RAM. We’ll explore in this review why you should or shouldn’t choose the new FE variant.

Picture Perfect

First, let’s zoom in on the display quality of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. At first glance, it’s excellent. The 6.7-inch AMOLED screen has a resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

If you squint slightly, the smartphone is almost indistinguishable from the Samsung Galaxy S25+. Samsung has stuck to a similar design for years, and this newcomer is no different. The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE has, like the Galaxy S24 FE, slightly wider screen bezels than the Galaxy S25+.

Furthermore, the strong aluminum frame creates a luxurious appearance. The maximum brightness of 1,900 nits ensures you can read the screen well even in sunlight.

No Charging Champion

The battery has long been a pain point for Samsung. The brand does equip the Galaxy S25 FE with a larger battery (4,900 mAh) compared to the Galaxy S24 FE (4,700 mAh).

With a battery capacity of 4,900 mAh, you’ll get through the whole day, but a second day without a charger is optimistic. Charging to 50 percent takes 19 minutes, to 80 percent about 36 minutes. The capacity could be better in our opinion: less than 5,000 mAh is limited in this price range. However, the S25 FE performs better than its predecessor, the S24, which needs almost an hour to reach 80 percent.

The charging capacity for the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE remains at 45 watts wired and 15W wireless, just like the Samsung Galaxy S25+. The device also receives an Ecolabel B rating, which is probably due to the standby time of 42 hours 37 minutes falling below the symbolic 50-hour threshold.

Exynos Chip

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series got the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on board. For the FE variant, Samsung reaches into its own collection and chooses the Exynos 2400 chip, just like with the Samsung Galaxy S24.

In benchmarks, we notice similar performance between the S25 FE and S24. The Galaxy S25+ clearly stands out, but that’s not surprising with the more powerful Snapdragon.

Still, Samsung’s Exynos chip doesn’t disappoint us. The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is a very smooth and fast phone for this segment.

The GPU choice goes to the Xclipse 940, which the Galaxy S24 (FE) also got on board. This performs well on average, although we notice a striking difference in benchmarks with the Galaxy S25+. This model got a more powerful Adreno 830 on board. So if you regularly use heavier 3D apps or graphics applications, you’re better off with the Galaxy S25+.

Camera Disappointment

The FE variant is not a camera champion. The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE gets the same cameras on board as the Samsung S24 FE: a 50 MP behind a wide-angle lens, 8 MP sensor with telephoto lens (3x zoom), and 12 MP wide-angle camera. With the telephoto lens, you can zoom 3x optically. Compared to most other smartphones, that’s not very spectacular. The photos with the wide-angle lens are okay, although you notice at the edges of an image that the quality could be better.

The colors in the images come out bright, sometimes a bit too much. Additionally, the FE variant loses its strength in the dark. The night photos lack sharpness and here too the colors come forward just a bit too much.

FE or S25+ after all?

The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is a smooth smartphone with a luxurious appearance and has the basic qualities on board. The FE variant was created as a cheaper alternative to the Galaxy S25 series and comes closest to the Galaxy S25+. This device got a powerful Snapdragon chip, although Samsung’s own chip in the S25 FE performs fine for professional and daily use. With the FE variant, you enjoy seven years of OS and security updates.

The Galaxy S25+ had a recommended retail price of €1,149 including VAT at launch, versus €749 including VAT for the FE variant. While the price difference seems large for a smartphone that’s very similar, we should take this with a grain of salt. You can now purchase the Galaxy S25+ much cheaper, making the price difference with the FE variant almost negligible. Online we could find the S25+ for €815 including VAT.

While most specifications are similar, we notice the biggest difference under the hood. The Samsung Galaxy S25+ is blessed with a better chip and more powerful GPU. If graphics applications and stronger performance aren’t important requirements for you, then you’re well served with the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.