Samsung recently announced the new Galaxy S25 FE ahead of IFA, bringing a new more budget friendly option for those looking to update to the newest tech.
Launching today, the Galaxy S25 FE is priced at a RRP of $1,099, a $300 saving on the standard Galaxy S25.
The line of Samsung ‘Fan Edition’ (FE) products is pretty well established, born from the almost literal ashes of the Galaxy Note 7 ‘troubles’, the FE line of devices brings the best features of Samsung’s range at a more affordable price.
The Galaxy S25 FE is no different, keeping the familiar Galaxy S25 design but with some tweaks to the specs to bring the price down while retaining the essence of the Galaxy S25 line-up.
I’ve been using the Galaxy S25 FE as my main device for a couple of weeks now, and here’s how it went.
As far as design goes, a Samsung phone these days has a ‘look’ and the Galaxy S25 FE continues this, with the handset almost indistinguishable from the Galaxy S25/S25+ – or even last year’s Galaxy S24 FE.
The lack of design updates has become somewhat of a trend across manufacturers over the last year or so, with Apple, Google and Samsung sticking to almost the same design for at least a couple of years.
The new Galaxy S25 FE is slightly lighter and smaller than last years model, though the design keeps the ports, SIM tray and buttons in the same place, adding to that familiarity that makes it easy to upgrade to the new model.
The Galaxy S25 FE comes in three colour options: Navy, Jetblack, and Icyblue, with the bi-coloured ‘Armor Aluminium frame’ coloured slightly differently to create a unique and distinctive look.
That back panel is covered in Gorilla Glass Victus, with Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on the front offering great protection, and IP68 certification ensuring the phone is protected from dust and water.
Including a generous 6.7″ FHD+ resolution AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and stereo sound, the Galaxy S25 FE is ready to watch your favourite YouTube videos, or latest streaming episodes or movies while on the go.
While Samsung doesn’t state it on their website, the AMOLED 2x display on the Galaxy S25 FE comes with a max peak brightness of 1900 nits (according to GSMArena) which is a decent bump under the 2600nits peak that the regular Galaxy S25 line includes. The display on the Galaxy S25 FE is bright enough to see in full sunlight, though it’s not as bright as the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra or Pixel 10.
The phone supports up to 120Hz refresh rate, with the ability to scale down to as low as 1Hz getting into LTPO territory, though Samsung never lists LTPO on the spec sheet.
The refresh rate can be changed under ‘Motion Smoothness’ in settings with options to use the Adaptive 1-120Hz option, or switch to a more sedate 60Hz refresh rate which Samsung advises will give you longer battery life.
I personally am willing to wear any battery hits for smoother scrolling, and with the battery lasting all-day I couldn’t justify the small battery saving by stepping down to 60Hz.
Samsung has built the fingerprint sensor into the display, and while convenient it appears to be an optical, rather than ultra-sonic fingerprint scanner. It’s still fast, just not as accurate. The sensor is also fairly low on the screen, so it can be a little difficult to scan when holding the phone in one hand.
Running a Samsung Exynos 2400 deca-core processor, the same processor from international versions of last years Galaxy S24 series, the Galaxy S25 FE also includes 8GB of RAM and 256GB of on-board storage.
While Samsung hasn’t used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen3 from the rest of the Galaxy S25 line-up, the Exynos 2400 is a very capable processor as proven by the S24 series – though the 8GB of RAM can be lacking at times when multi-tasking or loading multiple apps.
It’s a decent setup, and here’s how it handled GeekBench and 3DMark benchmarks.
Connectivity wise, the Galaxy S25 FE has pretty much most things you’d want. 5G support with Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 and a load of GPS options. The phone includes a USB 3.1 port, offering fast data transfers, and connectivity to a display (with Samsung DEX) if required.
Samsung hasn’t changed a lot from last year’s Galaxy S24 FE, using the same hardware on the rear though updating to a 12MP front-facing selfie camera embedded in the display.
The rear of the phone has what Samsung refers to as a ‘floating camera design’, with three sensors and LED flash on the rear. The floating cameras include a 50MP main sensor, 12MP UltraWide and an 8MP Telephoto sensor.
The main sensor takes great shots in daylight, offering good clarity and colour reproduction with a crisp image that’s hard to stuff up if you just take the phone out and snap a pic. There’s also some good results on low-light, though the night mode can be prone to blowing out any excess light.
The ultra-wide sensor offers wider options for capturing more in the frame, though at a lower 12MP resolution, capturing a 123˚ field of view. Surprisingly there’s no dedicated macro-vision function on offer as usually found on ultra-wide sensors, so you’ll have to rely on the telephoto sensor to get up close and personal. The 3x optical zoom lens on the 8MP sensor offers a decent way to get up close, and if you want you can blast out to 30x, though the digital artifacting can be quite intense.
The Galaxy S25 FE includes a generous 4900mAh battery with support for 45W wired, and 15W wireless charging which is technically Qi2 ‘ready’.
The battery supports ‘all-day performance’ says Samsung, and it easily breezes through a full day of fairly decent use.
As with most phones these days you won’t find a charger inside the box. Instead if you need a 45W charger to take advantage of the faster charging speeds, you’ll need to buy one, with Samsung asking $84 for their 45W charger.
Wired charging with a 45W PD charger is fast thought, with Samsung spruiking you can get up to 65% charge in just 30 minutes.
Wireless charging is at 15W, that technically supports Qi2. On their website, Samsung says the S25 FE is ‘Qi2 supported; enables up to 15 W wireless charging when used with a compatible case’ . What this means is that you get 15W wireless charging but need a case to get the magnetic alignment.
Is wireless charging fast? Not really, but it is convenient to put it down on a charger – or into a Qi2 supported dock in your car.
The Galaxy S25 comes with Android 16 running Samsung’s One UI 8.0 over the top.
Samsung has become one of the best companies for delivering updates for their phones, indeed the Galaxy S25 FE will receive 7 OS upgrades and up to 7 years of security updates.
The Galaxy S25 FE comes out of the box with the August 2025 software update, and no Over-The-Air updates available – so likely expect quarterly updates for this one.
OneUI has become quite pleasant to use over the years. After a relatively rough start in the early days of Android with TouchWiz, OneUI has taken a lot of the best parts of the Android experience and meshed them with interesting features of their own.
There are a few apps pre-installed on the Galaxy S25 FE, including of course a suite of Samsung apps, however you will also find more including the Facebook, Instagram, Spotify app and Netflix ready to go. Microsoft also has some apps pre-installed including Outlook, OneDrive, Office 365 – and of course LinkedIn. Thankfully you can uninstall these apps if you don’t want them.
Samsung’s Fan Edition line really does offer some value, though not at the full retail price.
At $1,099, the Galaxy S25 FE really doesn’t stand out from the crowd. Where it does get a boost though what appears to be a sale at launch, bringing the 128GB model to just $849 – which does make it a bit more of an interesting proposition.
The phone offers a nice design if you like Samsung’s design language, with durable features to keep it protected. The processing is generally sufficient, though lacks a bit of the oomph of the main-line Galaxy S25 series devices with the Qualcomm processor, and the camera is perfectly serviceable without being outstanding.
The overall takeaway is that if you like the design of the Galaxy S25 series, this is a good budget option to try – if you get it at the right price.
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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