The introduction of ‘Fan Edition’ (FE) devices was a way for fans of the Note7 to get hands-on with the device after its unfortunate demise. Samsung obviously found a winning strategy, continuing to sporadically release Fan Editions, and this year we have the Galaxy S24 FE which went on-sale last month.
What is a ‘Fan Edition’? Well, according to Samsung, they ‘take on your feedback and produce a device packed with all of your favourite features’. It’s been nine months since the launch of the Galaxy S24 series, so now we see what their 2024 Fan Edition contains.
Priced from $1,099 with 128GB of on-board storage (256GB is also available), the Galaxy S24 FE went on-sale last month with a large 6.7-inch FHD+ resolution AMOLED Display with 120Hz refresh and powered by an Exynos 2400e processor with 8GB of RAM and a 4,700mAh battery powering it.
Samsung have sent over a Graphite coloured Galaxy S24 FE for review and I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and here’s how it went.
The Galaxy S24 FE retains the same metal meets glass construction as the rest of the Galaxy S24 series, with the familiar three camera ring fixtures on the rear. The materials do make the Galaxy S24 FE quite slippery to hold, and you’ll definitely see fingerprints, so a case, or a handy cleaning cloth are a must.
The phone also retains the IP68 dust/water resistance of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S line for peace of mind around water, or dusty areas like the beach.
The port and button placement should be familiar for any Galaxy phone users with a volume rocker above the power button on the right hand side, and the USB-C port and speaker on the base.
Samsung has moved the SIM tray to the top of the phone on the S24 FE from the base to the top, which IMHO is a great move, given the SIM Card eject slot on the S24/S24+ and S24 Ultra are all dangerously close to the microphone.
The S24 FE does support eSIM in addition to a standard Nano-SIM if you don’t want to stuff around with physical cards, just use the utility and you’re off and racing.
The large 6.7” display on the front is in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio which is quite wide, and can be a stretch for your thumb to hit the other side of the display.
The phone comes in three colour options: Graphite, Blue and Mint. The Graphite is nice, but I do like the look of that Mint colour – but it’s all a personal choice.
The 6.7” AMOLED display is bright and colourful, and is paired with stereo speakers.
The Galaxy S24 FE display doesn’t include the LTPO option of the main S24 line, which offers refresh rates from 1-120Hz, instead you can use the adaptive refresh which works up to 120Hz as required, or use standard 60Hz. I couldn’t see a large battery hit when using Adaptive, so I kept it up and the smoothness of the display is excellent.
The display, as you’d expect is bright and easy to read in bright daylight or indoors, with Samsung advising the Galaxy S24 FE can achieve peak brightness of up to 1900 nits – impressive, though it is less than the 2600nits brightness you get on the display of the main S24 line.
The in-display fingerprint scanner is fast and reliable, or you can use the face unlock available in settings.
Samsung uses their usual setup for audio, pairing the earpiece above the display with a downward firing speaker on the bottom. The audio is ok without being fantastic, however you can simply pair some good quality Bluetooth earphones to the phone and you’re good to go.
Powered by the Samsung Exynos 2400e processor, with 8GB of RAM, the Galaxy S24 FE comes with either 128GB or 256GB of on-board storage – and like the rest of the family, no microSD card slot.
The phone is fast and fluid in terms of performance, easily launching apps and flipping through multi-tasking or playing games without a hiccup. The phone does tend to get a little warm at times, especially under load, but the phone itself never stutters or freezes.
As usual I ran it through 3DMark and Geekbench and here’s how it went.
There’s Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.3 – similar to the Galaxy S24/S24+ – though misses out on the Wi-Fi 7 support on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. If you need to get directions, there’s support for all the GPS systems you could want.
The modem handles 5G support quite well, though as usual it will depend on your network availability. You can also flick it into a hotspot easily with great solid connections as well.
There’s a big 50MP main sensor and 12MP ultra-wide sensors on the rear of the Galaxy S24 FE, similar to the main line Galaxy S24/S24+, though the telephoto sensor gets dropped down to 8MP (from 10MP) with a 3x Optical zoom. Samsung also drops the selfie camera on the front from 12MP on the main Galaxy S24 line to 10MP on the S24 FE – though it does a pretty decent job.
Despite the cuts to the camera sensor hardware, the rear camera is fantastic in most lighting conditions, with even low-light shots quite impressive overall.
The pictures have a lot of pop, though still lack the zip of HDR shots. Shots are, for the most part, clear and you can lock focus fairly easily, though I found occasionally you had to fight the auto-focus to really nail a clear shot of your subject.
The complete camera system goes from 0.6x through to 3x optical zoom – though obviously you use different sensors. You can also bolster the 3x optical zoom up to 30x with digital zoom, and though it’s not the clearest image – it’s still very good.
You do get the AI Camera tools in the Samsung camera app, letting you edit and modify the image, including adding in Generative AI effects using Photo Assist.
There’s a decently large 4,700mAh battery in the Galaxy S24 FE, and like most other phones these days, it doesn’t include a charger in the box.
In terms of battery life, the Galaxy S24 FE gets a small bump from last year’s Galaxy S23 FE’s 4500mAh battery, and it easily lasts through the day from 6am until 10pm – though it’s in need of a charge by that stage.
On the charging side, Samsung says you’ll get up to ‘50% charge in around 30 mins with 25W Adapter and 3A USB-C cable’. I used several chargers, including a 100W USB Type-C, and a 45W PD charger and got 36% in 30 minutes, with a full charge in 90 minutes.
For those wanting wireless charging, the Galaxy S24 FE supports 15W fast charging which is relatively slow, but great for trickle charging at your desk or overnight.
Overall, it charges quite fast – if you have the right charger combo, though it’s frustrating to have to get that together yourself.
The Galaxy S24 FE includes Android 14 with Samsung OneUI 6.1, which includes all the Samsung goodness like their DEX desktop experience, KNOX security suite and more.
As with other devices in their Galaxy S range, the Galaxy S24 FE also includes Galaxy AI which brings features like Live Translate and Interpreter, as well as Circle To Search, and Note, Chat and Transcript Assist for summarising and giving options for different generative AI outputs in your SMS, Email and more.
The phone is designed for longevity, which includes seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates – including an OTA update out of the box. Samsung also offers parts for their phones through SamsungSpareParts.com run by Encompass – though the S24 FE parts don’t appear to have quite made it there yet.
As far as pre-installed apps, the review unit is running an international ROM with the only pre-installed app being OneDrive. It’s likely you will see a number of Microsoft apps – LinkedIn, Office 365 etc. – pre-installed as we saw on the Galaxy S24/S24.
All that said, the OneUI software offers a user friendly interface with a host of features that are actually beneficial and enhance your experience while using the phone. It’s not clean Android, but it’s clean enough and polished enough that it feels good to use.
Of course the big buzz this year is for AI and the Galaxy S24 FE includes all the AI features we’ve seen on the rest of the Galaxy S24 series – all powered by Google AI.
You get the big one – Circle to Search, as well as Live Translate, as well as Chat and Note Assist offering samples of text to write or summarise your meetings. You also get Generative AI functions for the camera which is live in the Samsung Gallery app.
Samsung even includes more of the new Galaxy AI features launched with the Galaxy Z Fold/Flip 6, including Instant Slow Mo and Generative Edit. You also get Sketch to Image and Portrait Studio to help in the camera.
The AI is good, and we’ve tested it out repeatedly on the Galaxy S24/S24+ and S24 Ultra reviews, as well as the Pixel reviews.
Overall, the AI inclusions are there – how much you use them depends on you.
The Galaxy S24 FE really blurs the line between a Fan Edition and the real deal.
There’s definitely less hardware included in the Galaxy S24 FE, but when comparing the results, the phone just keeps delivering. The phone performance is excellent, battery life is great and the camera system rocks.
There are very few concerns with the Galaxy S24 FE in terms of hardware, and the software is backed by the same 7-years of updates you get with the rest of the series – it even has the same Galaxy AI features. Overall, the majority of people will be very happy with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, with only a few occasional performance bumps any concern at all.
In the end, the Galaxy S24 FE is a very good phone, that you should be checking out before you even look at the mainstream models. Why pay more if you don’t have to? And there’s not a lot of people who do.
You can check out the Galaxy S24 FE at selected retailers, with prices starting from
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
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