Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Review: If the Price Is Right

Alex Choros

Updated 16 January 2025

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

Our verdict

The Galaxy S23 FE is a great semi-premium phone, as long as you're not paying full price. Thankfully, we've already seen plenty of discounts that make Samsung's latest a much more attractive proposition.

$799.99 launch price

What we love

Premium look and feel
Extensive software support
All three cameras are solid

What could be improved

A bit too expensive at full price
Short battery life
Can stutter when gaming

The essentials

Performance

Silky smooth day-to-day performance, but not ideal for gaming.

Battery

On the shorter side. Around four hours of screen time per charge, which translates to a full day of moderate usage with no buffer.

Screen

Excellent, as is par for the course with Samsung.

Camera

All three camera lenses can capture great shots, but struggle with motion - especially in dark environments. Photos from very dark environments can be a little blotchy.

View Galaxy S23 FE Plans

With Samsung phones, the price isn’t always the price, and that can make them tricky to review. In some cases, pre-order offers can knock a few hundred dollars off the RRP before it even goes on sale. In others, phones can see steep discounts soon after launch.

The Galaxy S23 FE is an example of the latter. It launched at $799.99, but we've already seen it discounted. At $799 it’s a tough sell, but if you can find it at a discount, it's more worth your consideration. The Galaxy S23 FE is a solid phone, but one you should only buy if the price is right.

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Mostly there

As part of Samsung's S-series, the Galaxy S23 FE is undeniably a high-end phone. The bezel is a bit chunkier than the standard Galaxy S23, but it's hard to fault the overall look and feel. You get Samsung's lovely industrial design paired with the kind of gorgeous display that has become synonymous with the brand.

It is worth noting the Galaxy S23 FE is made from slightly less durable materials than the Galaxy S23, however. It uses Gorilla Glass 5, rather than Victus 2, making it less drop and scratch-resistant. If you don't use a case and you're prone to clumsiness, this is worth considering. The Galaxy S23 FE is still rated IP68 for water resistance.

While the Galaxy S23 FE looks the part, it doesn't always hold up under scrutiny. To start, it's powered by one of Samsung's Exynos 2200 chips rather than the faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the mainline Galaxy S23 series.

The Galaxy S23 FE is no slouch when it comes to day-to-day usage, but isn't the best pick for more demanding users. Even a game as basic as Marvel Snap looked a touch janky. It's completely playable, but the animations weren't as smooth as they should be.

Samsung's decision here is curious, as some international Galaxy S23 FE variants are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. While that's still obviously a step behind the Gen 2, it's a faster chip than the Exynos 2200 in the Australian model.

Heavier users could also run into issues with battery life. I was only able to achieve around four hours of screen time per charge, while connected to a 5G network. That should still be enough for a full day of moderate use, but without a buffer. You'll likely need a top-up if you're planning to be away from a charger at the end of the day.

Four hours of screen time isn't dissimilar to my testing with the Pixel 7a, which is one of the Galaxy S23 FE's key competitors. The Pixel 7a is however cheaper.

On the camera front, the Galaxy S23 FE's primary lens does a pretty good job most of the time. With enough lighting, you'll get a great photo, and it also delivers reasonably consistent results in darker environments. It does however have the classic Samsung issue where the lens can be a bit slow to shoot, so it's not always great with moving subjects. It took a handful of attempts to get sharp photos at a concert and when chasing my dog around.

The Galaxy S23 FE isn't any slower than other Samsung flagships, however. I tested it side by side against the far more expensive Galaxy S23 Ultra, and low-light shots used identical exposures for night mode. While the Ultra naturally got better results, the Galaxy S23 FE held its own in many situations. In darker environments, images taken by the Galaxy S23 FE started to look a bit smudgy, however.

The Galaxy S23 FE's primary lens is joined by a zoom and ultra-wide lens, and a similar story holds true: they work well in good light, but performance starts to fall off as it gets darker. But by and large, I still found value from both. They're useful additions, rather than token inclusions designed to make the S23 FE seem fuller-featured.

Galaxy S23 FE camera samples

Check out these camera samples taken on the Galaxy S23 FE. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.

As always, it's worth touching on Samsung's solid support policy. Galaxy S23 FE users will get four years of operating system updates, and five years of security. That's far better than most Android phones, especially ones that cost less than $1,000.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE—final thoughts

At its full price of $799.99, the Galaxy S23 FE is hard to recommend. The situation is further complicated by the fact Samsung's next flagship phones are right around the corner.

Samsung typically announces its new S-series devices in January or February. Even if you're not interested in what will presumably be known as the Galaxy S24, its arrival will almost certainly herald price drops across 2023 models.

But like I said, with Samsung phones, the price isn't always the price. The Galaxy S23 FE value proposition naturally increases with the size of the discount being offered. For me, the Galaxy S23 FE becomes easier to recommend and its compromises feel more in line with what I'd expect from a cheaper price tag.

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Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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