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Samsung Galaxy S26 FE Review

NAIM

September 14, 2026 • 02:35 PM

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Samsung Galaxy S26 FE Review

Introduction

It's that time of the year again: The hot new Samsung's yearly "fan edition" smartphone. (Though no one really calls it that anymore.) Anyway. It's called the FE .

Whether it stands for Flagship Edition, Fan Edition, or whatever, the FE line has more or less been Samsung's value-oriented phone for tech enthusiasts over the years. With these devices, the company has been able to offer most, if not all, components of the flagship experience , up to 90% or more, , at a more affordable price.

In all the cases I've come across, the algorithm usually worked like this: Take everything that mattered for a flagship device, but give up on a few specific things. And this means that you end up with a slightly weaker camera sensor, a display that's not quite flagship, or a chipset that's a bit weaker.

In short, the FE is Samsung's answer to the modern-day "flagship killer" , manufactured by the same company behind the flagship phones.

Display: 6.70-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, up to 1,900 nits (HBM), 1080 x 2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 385ppi.

Chipset: Exynos 2500 (3nm).

Memory: 128GB/8GB RAM, 256GB/8GB RAM, 512GB/8GB RAM; UFS 4.0.

OS/Software: Android 17 with One UI 9; up to 7 major OS updates.

Rear cameras: 50MP wide (f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS); 8MP telephoto (f/2.4, 75mm, 1/4.4", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom); 12MP ultrawide

(f/2.2, 123-degree field of view).

Front camera: 12MP (f/2.2, 26mm wide, 1/3.2", 1.12µm).

Video capture: Rear camera supports 8K at 24/30fps, 4K at 30/60/120fps, and 1080p at

30/60/120/240fps, with gyro-EIS and HDR10+. Front camera supports 4K at 30/60fps and 1080p at 30/60fps, also with gyro-EIS and HDR10+.

Battery: 4,900mAh; 45W wired charging with PD and QC2, reaching 69% in 30

minutes; 15W wireless charging; Qi2 compatibility; reverse wireless charging.

Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC.

Miscellaneous: Optical under-display fingerprint reader, stereo speakers, Samsung DeX and Wireless DeX support.

On paper, that's a pretty compelling package. Unfortunately, there's one major factor we need to consider before getting too excited: the reality of the 2026 smartphone market .

Pretty much everything has become more expensive and harder to source. Memory is probably the most obvious example, but it is far from the only component affected by the current market conditions.

As a result, the Galaxy S26 FE is, somewhat disappointingly, largely unchanged from the S25 FE while arriving with a higher launch price. And this isn't an issue unique to Samsung. Increasing prices for products that offer relatively modest year-over-year improvements are becoming increasingly common across the smartphone industry.

With that unfortunate reality check out of the way, it's time to put the Galaxy S26 FE under the microscope.

As usual, we'll go through the phone with a fine-tooth comb and cover everything that matters , what's new, what's unchanged, where Samsung made compromises, and whether the S26 FE still makes sense as a value-oriented alternative to the company's flagship lineup.

It may be hard to ignore the pricing conundrum for now, but that doesn't mean we should stop looking at what you're really paying for.

Unboxing

The Galaxy S26 FE comes in a pretty generic Samsung package. It's a thin, two-piece packaging, but still strong enough to keep the phone protected all the way through to shipping

The box is gray with an all monochrome design and no fuss. There's nothing too fancy about it , and, actually, that might be for the best

Flaunting the good life when it comes to smartphone packaging is a thing of the past. Probably, at least when it comes to Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE box

In fact, there's not a lot in the box. In addition to the phone, Samsung gives you just a small 3A-rated USB-C cable .

And that's it.

No cable charger, no case, no ribbons, nothing. Packaging about as minimal as it gets these days.