The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S24 FE finally hit the stores and like many phone enthusiasts, I was excited. FE stands for Fan Edition and as this implies, the phone features are a collection of fan’s most essential elements. Fan Edition phones are here to give users some of the premium feel of flagships but at an affordable price.
The device comes in quite a of colours to fit different personalities, ie blue, graphite, grey, mint and yellow. Colour is really just a matter of preference and I love that Samsung has given users choice.
Here are a few of my thoughts on the device, based on a brief interaction.
Design
The phone has a glass back, glass front and aluminium frame, materials that give it a premium finish, making it stylish and quite a statement. It is clutter-free with just the triple camera bumping slightly up, the flashlight, and very subtle Samsung branding. I’ve always been a fan of simplicity, and this hit all the right spots as far as that is concerned.
To further this clean minimalistic look, Samsung has kept only two buttons on the sides of the phone. The power button and the volume rockers. These are on the right side and the left side is completely free. The fingerprint is in-screen, freeing up the back even more. At the bottom we have stereo speakers, microphones, and USB charging port.
The phone does not have a 3.5mm jack but this is not really a problem for me since I’m a Bluetooth girl. Besides, it has really good stereo sound.
Cameras
As always, the first feature I go to when a new phone checks in is the camera. Samsung phones have always come with an assurance of good photography, and I could not wait to take some pics with the Galaxy S24 FE. The phone has a 50MP primary camera, an 12MP for ultrawide and an 8MP tele photo lens with 3X optical zoom. There is a whole lot that the camera can get upto especially if you tinker with the settings. Under the Pro mode for instance, users have ISO, white balance and exposure to play around with. These are settings which can be adjusted to transform the photography game from basic to professional. The front camera is 10MP, quite a win for selfie lovers and video calls. The selfie camera also has settings and a whole lot of AI for photo customization.
Samsung has also really done good with the video. The main camera will capture video content in 8k while the front camera will do 4k. Quite impressive!
Display
The screen is 6.7” with a 1080x2340p full HD resolution, making it pleasant to use due to great colour accuracy. It is highly responsive with a refresh rate of 120Hz, which is perfect for daily use and especially for gamers. At 213g, the phone is noticeably heavier than the average phone but still light and easy to carry around.
Battery
Speaking of battery, the phone comes with a 4700mAh battery, supported by 25W charging which will take the phone from 0-50% in about half an hour. A fully charged battery lasts me most of the day and early evening and I’m a heavy user since my work and entertainment are mostly on phone. To be fair, I’m using it alongside another device so workload is divided. I can however tell that even as an only phone, I wouldn’t struggle with a dead battery in the middle of the day. It would still carry me through the day and maybe only show signs of going low in the evening when I’d be headed home anyway.
Performance
My unit has 128GB ROM and 8GB RAM. There is no slot for MicroSD and therefore no storage expansion, but I’m not really worried about that. 128GB is quite a lot of storage and besides, there are lots of options for transferring data to cloud. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE features an Exynos 2400e (4 nm) chipset. As mentioned earlier, it has a 120Hz refresh rate. With the combination of good storage and a good chip, and Android 14, it is a fast phone with zero lags even for the most ardent multitaskers and gamers.
Being a Samsung, users have the power of Bixby in their hands and can make use of voice commands for tasks ranging from making calls to managing other smart devices.
Sound
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE comes with quite an impressive stereo sound which is further customizable in the sound settings. Users can play around with the equalizer to get their preferred sound to fully enjoy the stereo capabilities that are inbuilt. The bass is not up there but we can only expect so much from a phone.
Pricing
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is retailing at Ksh.82,995/- on Samsung’s official outlet, a price I find quite reasonable given the power, aesthetics and brand assuredness that Samsung elicits.