Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. S24 FE: Is the Higher-End Phone the Better Value?

The $650 Galaxy S24 FE went on sale this fall with a simple pitch: Get all of the features from Samsung’s most expensive phones at a lower price than the $800 Galaxy S24. I tested the S24 FE for six weeks, and it is capable of running everything I usually use a phone for. I enjoy most of the photos I take with its cameras, and I especially appreciate its large 6.7-inch display and loud speakers. The inclusion of the Galaxy AI suite adds tools for transcribing, which I used for a Fortnite press event to transcribe my audio recording of the press conference. I also used Galaxy AI for altering photos with Sketch to Image, notably to transform photos of coffee cups with photorealistic additions made by my doodles.

Then there’s the Galaxy S24 that has more processing power and better cameras but also a higher $800 starting price. At a time when Samsung has four different Galaxy S24 phones, the Galaxy S24 FE stands out, prioritizing its value and longevity over fancier bells and whistles.

After testing both phones, I found the Galaxy S24 is worth the extra $150 premium over the S24 FE. But if you’re looking for a phone that feels premium for the lowest possible price, the FE is a solid option.

At the time of this writing, the Galaxy S24 FE can be found for $575, which is even better than Samsung’s $650 list price. The higher-end Galaxy S24 is $700, which is a $100 discount, when also signing up for cellphone service with the unlocked model.

Design and features

The screen size is the most obvious difference between the Galaxy S24 and S24 FE. The S24 has a 6.2-inch display that looks diminutive next to the S24 FE’s 6.7-inch screen. Both phones’ screens have a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes Android animations like scrolling and video games look more immersive. The Galaxy S24’s smaller display has a higher pixel density: 416 pixels per inch compared with the FE’s 385 ppi. The S24 has thinner screen bezels.

The S24 FE’s screen has a peak brightness of 1,900 nits and was plenty visible for me in bright environments. Compare that with the Galaxy S24’s 2,600-nit screen, which when I had both phones side by side cranked to their top brightness, was certainly brighter.

Then there are the under screen fingerprint readers on each phone. The Galaxy S24 uses an ultrasonic sensor that my colleague Patrick Holland described as “blazing fast to unlock.” The FE however uses a slower optical fingerprint sensor, which is functionally the same, but it’s certainly not “blazing.” Aside from speed, the ultrasonic doesn’t need to shine as bright to illuminate your fingerprint, whereas the optical one does — which could be particularly annoying when unlocking your phone in the middle of the night.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Review: A Cheaper Way to Get Galaxy AI

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Both phones feature its three rear cameras stacked vertically on the top left of their body. Both are available in a variety of colors: four for the FE and seven for the regular S24. The base model for each phone comes with 128GB of storage, which can be doubled to 256GB for $60.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite is the headline feature for all of the company’s Galaxy S24 phones and has features like text message translation, expanding the frame of an image, turning a sketch into a photo and audio recording transcription. It’s worth noting that older Samsung phones, like last year’s Galaxy S23 line, now support Galaxy AI. We expect AI features like the Galaxy AI suite to continue to evolve, but for now I wouldn’t consider Galaxy AI to be a necessity when making a phone buying decision. 

Battery and charging

Both the Galaxy S24 and 24 FE have decent battery life, taking advantage of their respective 4,000mAh and 4,700mAh batteries alongside software enhancements. Both phones withstood long days of testing during our reviews, while ending the day at about 25% to 30%.

When we review phones, we use them as our daily driver: taking photos, recording videos, making calls (audio and video), using new features and playing games. The S24 FE’s battery life improved compared with last year’s S23 FE, which often ended the day with little battery left.

Both phones support 25-watt wired charging. During our 30-minute fast charging test the Galaxy S24’s battery recharged from 0% to 51% in 30 minutes, while the S24 FE recharged from 0% to 56% over the same time. Keep in mind that the S24 FE has a larger battery.

Performance

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 FE has an Exynos 2400E chip, while the regular S24 has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. Having different processors might partly explain why the S24 FE costs less, though in my experience it’s still a speedy device.

In the Geekbench 6.0 benchmark CPU test, the Galaxy S24 FE outperformed the entire Galaxy S23 line, while coming up a hair shorter than the Galaxy S24.

Moving to a more graphics-intensive 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, the Galaxy S24 thoroughly outperforms the S24 FE, with the cheaper phone coming in closer to the Galaxy S23 line.

I had no issues playing games on the S24 FE, including on-device as well as the cloud-based Xbox Game Pass. But a more power-hungry gamer should consider the S24.

Cameras

When it comes to cameras, I’ll be direct: Samsung’s more expensive phone takes better photos. That’s not to say the S24 FE is bad, far from it actually. Samsung’s cheaper flagship has a camera that features a wide lens with a 50-megapixel image sensor, an ultrawide camera with a 12-megapixel image sensor and — notably for this price — a 3x telephoto lens with an 8-megapixel image sensor.

Here are a few images from the Galaxy S24 FE.

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The Galaxy S24 similarly has a trio of wide, ultrawide and 3x telephoto lenses. The main camera is identical on both phones, but the regular S24 has the advantage when it comes to image processing. Here are a handful of photos from the Galaxy S24.

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Overall, the Galaxy S24 takes better photos in darker settings than the S24 FE. In side-by-side camera tests, I can see the difference between how the two phones handled these more challenging situations. It’s possible that the FE’s performance is “good enough” as long as you aren’t actually taking direct comparisons.

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I took the photos above on an overcast, rainy evening. Both images are from the main 50-megapixel camera, which is the same camera on both phones. Unsurprisingly, it’s hard to see any noticeable differences between the two images. If you look closely, the building in the S24’s photo is tack sharp whereas it’s softer in the S24 FE’s image — this might be from the way I was holding the phones when I took the photos. Interestingly, the FE’s photo shows more of the red car’s street reflection.

I pulled the black out curtains nearly completely closed in CNET’s TV lab to test how the phone’s handled a darker scene.

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The Galaxy S24 FE’s photo is brighter but has a purplish hue — notice the table. Meanwhile the S24’s image has more accurate colors. You can’t make out all of the different televisions in the background in either photo.

Then there are the selfie cameras. The S24 has a 12-megapixel front-facing camera, while the S24 FE has a 10-megapixel one.

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I took the selfies above with my boyfriend under the mixed lighting of a brewery. The photos aren’t that different, but if you look closely, the S24’s image (on the right) has better contrast, which helps the colors pop and our skin tones look more natural. The S24 FE’s photo almost looks like there’s a haze to it especially when it comes to our faces.

What about the Galaxy S24 Plus?

Even though the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus starts at $1,000, it offers similar benefits as the nearly identical S24 but with all the advantages of a 6.7-inch display. The S24 Plus is a similar size as the Galaxy S24 FE but supports 45-watt wired charging and comes with the same fast ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that the Galaxy S24 has. It comes with 12GB of RAM compared to the 8GB of RAM found in the S24 and S24 FE.

The base model for the S24 Plus starts with 256GB of storage for $1,000, but you can get the S24 FE with that much space for $710. This means that you’ll need to decide whether the better camera, faster charging and other upgraded specs are worth that price gap. And whereas the $150 difference to the Galaxy S24 is a bit easier to argue for, I think it’d be understandable to take the cheaper FE if you don’t consider the S24 Plus worth the extra $290.

Should you buy the S24 or the S24 FE?

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 FE is an easy recommendation for someone who wants a Galaxy phone that will last for years and has all of the latest features — as long as you’re content not having the fastest phone or the best possible camera. It’s also a tempting option for someone looking for a larger-screened Galaxy S24, but doesn’t want to scale all the way up to the $1,000 Galaxy S24 Plus. 

Samsung’s $800 Galaxy S24 might have a smaller display than the FE — which could be a perk for many people — but it also has a lot of additions that are worth its higher cost, like a faster ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, a more powerful processor and better support for graphically intensive tasks. Photos from the S24 have better image quality, with the phone being able to capture brighter photos in darker environments and telephoto images having a better overall dynamic range (the lightest part of the photo compared with the darkest part).

I recommend buying the S24 over the Galaxy S24 FE just for the benefits if your budget allows for it. Otherwise, the S24 FE is a valid choice if you need to pocket that $150 difference.

The biggest con to buying the S24 this holiday season though is that Samsung is expected to unveil its Galaxy S25 series early in 2025. And as such, if you decide the Galaxy S24 is the move for you, you should then also ask if you need a phone right now or if it can wait until this winter.