Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

Summary:

introduction

The Fan Edition no longer exists, but the FE series lives on. Indeed, the new Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is bringing back the beloved flagship atmosphere at affordable prices, but there is no mention of the original FE meaning, only extraordinary features. And the Galaxy S23 FE has many of them.

We’re reviewing the US version of the S23 FE, which is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

The Galaxy S23 FE is an update to the rather popular Galaxy S21 FE, improving its design, performance and camera quality. The usual stuff, of course.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

The design is the real highlight here, especially our purple version. It’s one of the most strikingly beautiful colorways we’ve seen in recent years and we’re simply in love with it.

The phone has an IP68 rating, looks a lot like the Galaxy S23 models, but has a matte bezel. It borrows the display from the Galaxy 21 FE: it is a 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

The chipset upgrade is obviously inevitable. The Galaxy S23 FE takes a generation leap forward with the Exynos 2200 (the SoC of the Galaxy S22 series), compared to the Exynos 2100 in the S21 FE. This is for the international version. The US model is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, compared to the Snapdragon 888.

The base model remains 128GB, but the base RAM is now 8GB. There’s no microSD expansion, a feature known to be, well, a fan favorite.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

Moving on to the camera. The setup on the back is like the S21 FE but with a higher resolution primary camera: it’s now a 50MP OIS main camera, accompanied by an 8MP OIS 3x telephoto camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The selfie camera uses a 10MP imager.

And this is all. The rest is the same as the S21 FE: a pair of speakers, a 4,500 mAh battery with 25W fast charging, wireless charging, UD fingerprint scanner. The S23 FE arrives with Android 13 and One UI 5.1.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE specifications in brief:

Body: 158.0×76.5×8.2mm, 209g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes).
Screen: 6.40″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120 Hz, HDR10+, 1450 nits (peak), 1080×2340 px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 403ppi.
Chipsets: Exynos 2200 (4 nm) – International, Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) – US: Octa-core (1×2.8 GHz Cortex-X2 and 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 and 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A510) – International, Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 and 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 and 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510) – USA; Xclipse 920 – International, Adreno 730 – USA.
Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM.
Operating system/software: Android 13, a 5.1 user interface.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, PDAF, OIS; Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 12MP, f/2.2, 123˚.
Front camera: 10MP, f/2.4, 26mm (wide).
Video Capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 720p@960fps; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps.
Drums: 4500mAh; 25W wired, PD2.0, 50% in 30 minutes, wireless.
Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6e; BT 5.3; NFC.
Various: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers; Virtual proximity sensing, Samsung DeX.

The Galaxy S23 FE looks like a compact and affordable premium smartphone with an excellent display, powerful hardware and a solid photography kit. You can easily see where Samsung had to cut some corners to maintain a decent price: last year’s chip, low-resolution camera and even Gorilla Glass have moved from the Victus to the Glass 5. Still, the carefully chosen features make for an all-round smartphone, at least on paper.

The upgrades over the Galaxy S21 FE aren’t major – next-gen chips and a higher-resolution main camera – so we doubt S21 FE owners would find it intriguing. And that’s the only thing we can think of ahead of time that some might find upsetting.