Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Hands On: Galaxy AI Deja Vu

Samsung’s mid-range “fan edition” phones have always been a way for the Korean tech giant to get some of its most headline-grabbing features into the hands of customers who aren’t willing to drop $800 to $1,000 on flagship phones. This time, for the Galaxy S24 FE, Samsung is squaring off the sides while flooding their phone with all the Galaxy AI features from this year. 

The new $650 FE phones effectively encapsulate everything Samsung pushed on its mobile devices in 2024. I enjoyed the Galaxy S23 FE for its ‘less is more’ approach. For the newly announced S24 FE, Samsung has instead focused on implementing as many AI software features that came to the S24 series as possible, including the S24 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip and Fold 6. That includes several photo features like Portrait Studio, Generative Edit, and Sketch to Image, letting you add AI-generated objects to existing photos. 

It’s all features I’ve used before, and as I don’t have much use for AI image features beyond sticking silly images of purple dinosaurs in front of my group pics, I don’t see much joy in it. I tried Sketch to Image on the Galaxy S24 FE, and while it works about as well as before, it’s much harder to draw than on the larger screen of the S24 Ultra with the accompanying S Pen.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Has Slightly Revised Hardware

The new phones use the 4nm Exynos 2400e chip, compared to last year’s Exynos 2200. That should be enough to power on-device AI features like Live Translate for phone call translations. Otherwise, it’ll rely on the cloud for features like the Interpreter’s personal translation or the Composer AI text generator. I tried out Interpreter again on the S24 FE, and after several attempts to get it to comprehend my French speech in a loud, crowded room, I gave up.

The other small improvement over last year is slightly smaller bezels, which allow for more screen real estate on the 7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. That’s certainly bigger than last year’s 6.4-inch screen, but it doesn’t really feel much bigger in hand.

The cheaper phones are getting some of the S24’s camera sensors and photo editing software. It sports a 50 MP wide lens, an 8 MP telephoto with 3X zoom, and a 12 MP ultra-wide sensor. The Korean tech giant is promoting the ProVisual Engine and Nightography that were first on the S24 series and are coming to this year’s fan edition. It’s essentially a suite of AI-powered tools that can fix a photo’s framing or remove unwanted noise. It’s similar to the Magic Editor suite in the recent Google Pixel 9 phones that uses pixel replacement to make things look more professional.

Samsung Also Has a new Galaxy Watch FE with FTE Connectivity

There are a few new benefits to the boost in hardware, including a promised better Ray Tracing capabilities. The new phone includes a bigger vapor chamber that should help keep things cool, plus a larger 4,700 mAh battery compared to the S23 FE’s 4500 mAh. It will take more hands-on time to tell if the bigger battery results in better battery life, especially if it’s processing all these new AI features.

The Galaxy S24 FE costs $650 and comes in blue, graphite, gray, or a very subtle mint green. It’s available for preorder now and goes on sale Oct. 3.

Samsung also promoted its new LTE version of the existing Galaxy Watch FE. The added connectivity allows you to take calls or track your metrics in Samsung Health without needing a phone. It costs $250 compared to the original $200 version, so if you only need the base features without added connectivity, you may not need to spend the extra $50. That watch is going up on sale Oct. 3 as well.