Samsung’s Fan Edition series of phones has had a topsy turvy ride since it was introduced three years ago. The original Galaxy S20 FE was actually a surprisingly good phone for the price, but last year’s S21 FE didn’t exactly move the game on. Having skipped the FE treatment for the S22, the company has brought it back this year as it takes another stab at the upper midrange/entry-level flagship market.
According to Samsung, the Galaxy S23 FE brings the design, cameras and performance of the flagship S series to a more accessible price point. But the links to the full-fat S23 are tenuous at best, and in fact, the FE’s hardware is closer to that of a much cheaper phone—the A54. That’s not a good look, considering the FE is over RM1,000 more expensive, starting at a hair under RM3,000.
Therein lies the question: how much of the S23’s user experience has Samsung retained with the FE model? And is it enough to justify the price? We spent a brief amount of time with the new phone to give you an answer.
FE-els better than it looks
At first glance, the S23 FE looks so similar to the A54 that you wonder where the extra money has gone. Like its midrange sibling, it has a matte frame (instead of gloss for the S23) and a gloss Gorilla Glass 5 back (the S23 uses matte Gorilla Glass Victus 2). But the aluminium construction does give the device an appreciably more premium feel in the hand.
Interestingly, the FE uses a silver frame no matter which colour you choose (with the notable exception of the Graphite model, which has a darker frame). The colour contrast is especially noticeable on the Purple Indigo variant, making for a rather disjointed look. Personally, I’d have preferred the dark frame with the purple, which would have brought to mind the online exclusive colours on the flagship S and Z series phones. Still, on the whole, the FE is an inoffensive-looking device that will blend into the background instead of standing out—for better or for worse.
It’s at the front where the cost-cutting starts to show. There’s nothing wrong with the display itself—a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It has the same Full HD+ resolution as the S23’s 6.1-inch panel, so it’s less pixel dense, although 403ppi is still nothing to be sneezed at. But as it’s an almost identical display to the A54—albeit a bit brighter, with a peak brightness of 1,450 nits—there are a few drawbacks that belie the FE’s upmarket positioning.
The first is the visible chin at the bottom, which is not in keeping with the FE’s decidedly ambitious pricing. The second is the selfie camera cutout, which inexplicably has a silver ring that inevitably draws the eye to it. At least it’s a hole punch instead of a teardrop cutout, which would’ve been unacceptable.
Cameras that are par for the course
Speaking of cameras, the S23 FE features a triple camera setup, sharing the “floating lens” design with the rest of Samsung’s latest phones. The snappers themselves are nothing to write home about—like the S23 and, indeed, the A54, the FE features a 50MP main camera with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilisation, as well as a 12MP ultra-wide with an f/2.2 aperture. As yet, it’s unclear if the FE’s imaging hardware is closer to its cheaper or more expensive brethren, or if they’re all actually one and the same. It does, however, shoot 8K videos at 24fps—a feature the A54 lacks.
We took a few photos during our limited time in sub-optimal lighting conditions, and we discovered that the FE’s main camera delivers decent but not exceptional images. There’s a good amount of detail here, although you do also get quite a bit of noise in low light. As for the ultra-wide, Samsung’s image processing works overtime to retain some detail, but there are patches of softness particularly in the corners.
One big benefit of going for the FE is the inclusion of a dedicated telephoto camera. In this case, however, it’s a measly 8MP unit with an f/2.4 aperture and no OIS, meaning that you will have to keep your hands very still to capture a sharp photo. Curiously, it still spits out 12MP files, but as expected, the photos are soft and generally this camera should really only be used in a pinch. Still, it’s a nice luxury to have, especially at this price.
Flip the phone around and you’ll notice quite a big downgrade with the selfie camera. In terms of resolution, the 10MP f/2.4 shooter is not only inferior to the 12MP unit on the S23 but also the 32MP unit on the S21 FE and even the A54. It has to be said, however, that the pure image quality is better than that figure suggests, with an acceptable level of detail.
Exynos chip doesn’t inspire confidence
The only big question mark left concerns the S23 FE’s performance. Samsung has confirmed that the Malaysian version uses the in-house Exynos 2200 chip which, while still a flagship-class 4nm processor, doesn’t come with the cachet of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 available in certain markets. It was also beset with performance and thermal issues when it debuted on the S22 last year (not in Malaysia, as we got the 8 Gen 1).
Samsung does say that the FE comes with a vapour chamber to help mitigate this, and there has likely been some software optimisation since the 2200’s release to improve performance. For what it’s worth, the FE did feel fast and snappy during our very short time with it—as expected for demos like this one—but you’ll have to wait until we put the device through its paces in our review for the full lowdown.
Other bits of note is the inclusion of a 4,500mAh battery—the same one found in the A54—which should provide better battery life compared to the S23’s tiny 3,900mAh cell. Additionally, the S23 FE benefits from 15W wireless charging that’s not available on the A54; this is shared with the regular S23, as is the 25W wired fast charging. You can also rest assured knowing that the FE has the same IP68 dust and water resistance rating as the S23, an upgrade from the A54’s IP67 rating.
Cut off at the knees from the get-go
On first blush, the S23 FE mostly delivers on Samsung’s promises. While there are some notable omissions over the standard S23, the basics are mostly there; in fact, the larger display and battery means the FE is likely a more usable device for the vast majority of people. The trouble is, the FE is also too similar to the A54, which just goes to show how much of a good deal the latter is. That in itself says a lot, considering the A54 doesn’t exactly offer the best value for money next to its immediate competition.
The real sticking point will most likely be the chip powering the FE. Even if the Exynos 2200 does end up providing a satisfactory level of performance, the fact of the matter is, most people shopping for phones in this price range will be looking for a flagship Snapdragon processor. And at this level, there are just too many great options to pass up, not least of which being the Nothing Phone (2) with last year’s 8+ Gen 1.
Ironically, the FE’s biggest threat comes from Samsung itself. The S23 appears to be perennially on sale—going as low as RM2,299 at points—and you can currently get a 256GB unit on Samsung’s own Lazada store for RM3,550, or RM649 less than retail.
That’s not to say that the FE won’t come with its own deals; in fact, Samsung is offering double the base storage (256GB) at the RM2,999 starting price until November 30, resulting in a RM300 saving. On top of that, you can register to get a RM500 voucher, effectively bringing the price down further to RM2,499 (details here). Even so, the circa-RM1,000 price difference barely justifies the disparity in specs—including what will almost certainly be a chasm in performance between the two phones.
But the real killer is that on the same day the S23 FE goes on sale (October 10), Samsung’s Lazada store will sell you an S23 with the same 256GB of storage for the exact same RM2,999 during its 10.10 sale. Did someone say “checkmate”?
