Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

There are plenty of fans out there of Samsung’s lineup of phones, and the South Korean giant likes to flatter them with a phone that’s made specifically for them – conveniently called the Fan Edition. This year, the fans have another such edition to cheer for, and it’s called the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Fan Edition).

As we have seen before, the FE variant tends to retain the premium-ness of the flagship series, while toning down the specs, and most importantly, the price tag. It’s no different with the Galaxy S23 FE. We’ve spent the past few days putting the new phone through its paces, and here’s our Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE design

The phone’s design is premium, minimal, and a typical Samsung affair. The phone is sandwiched between two glass panels and features aluminium edges that are curved to fit better in one’s palms. With just the Samsung logo and three camera lenses protruding in the top-left corner that remind you of old school car dials, many would call the back panel as plain. But design is purely subjective. While some would call it plain, others find minimal design as classy.

The S23 FE colours too are a bit subdued, and we particularly liked the Mint colour. But the combination of the glass and muted colours is fingerprint magnet, and we found ourselves regularly wiping the back panel. A clear case would go a long way in protecting the phone without hiding its looks.

The front of the phone is dominated by the display, which is surrounded by surprisingly thick bezels. This black strip running around the screen gives away the fact that this phone doesn’t qualify for the flagship grade. The display size is just about perfect, but more on that in the next section.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE display

At 6.4-inches, the Galaxy S23 FE’s screen sits comfortably between the Galaxy S23 (6.1-inch) and the pocket-busting Galaxy S23 Ultra (6.8-inch). It is a Dynamic AMOLED 2x display with FHD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) resolution, and adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, and the overall viewing experience is unsurprisingly comparable to any high-end Samsung phone.

Whether you’re reading articles on Unboxed by Croma or binging on your favourite web shows on your commute back home, the screen delivers sharp text, rich colours and good viewing angles. Even when playing fast-paced games on the phone, the display is top-notch. While on paper, the S23 FE’s peak brightness is lower than the flagship S23 series, it is barely noticeable in day-to-day usage.

There’s an optical fingerprint sensor sitting below the display, which is accurate and works as advertised. Alternatively, one can also opt for facial recognition, which we found to be a tad faster than the fingerprint sensor.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE performance

Under the hood sits an octa-core Exynos 2200 processor paired with 8GB of RAM, which is good enough to handle day-to-day tasks with ease. In our time with the phone, we rarely noticed any stutters or lags when using social media apps or some Office apps for work.

That said, you do notice the chip working hard when trying to handle graphics-intensive games like Asphalt 9: Legends. We noticed framerate drops a couple of times in races where multiple cars were ramming each other to get to the lead position. The phone also got a tad warm in such times, but at no point did it reach uncomfortable levels.

Much of the smooth performance is also down to Samsung’s One UI 5.1, which runs on top of Android 13. In our opinion, the One UI is among the best one’s out there in the Android world, and the Galaxy S23 FE continues to prove that point. Samsung has also promised that the phone will get Android 14-based One UI 6.0 in the coming weeks.

Making sure the phone ticks is a 4,500mAh battery that is unlikely to set any battery test charts on fire. But in real world usage, it easily lasts a day when the phone is used judiciously. Needless to say, if you spend the day playing games on the phone, you will see the battery life dip. When it comes to charging, there’s support for 25W wired charging, and also wireless charging. In our test, we noticed the battery charging from zero to 100 per cent in just over an hour.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE cameras

In the photography department, you get a triple-camera setup at the back, comprising of a 50MP primary sensor, 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and an 8MP telephoto sensor. The cameras perform well and manage to capture a good amount of details and colours in the shots. Even when lighting conditions are not ideal, you get photos with a decent amount of details, especially when using the dedicated Night mode.

The Portrait Mode warrants a mention for the way it produces rich bokeh and subject separation. In simpler words, the portrait photos look professionally shot and worthy of showing off to your social friends.

The front 10MP camera captures selfies with a natural colour tone, which is something we really appreciate. While colour boosted snaps look good on social, natural looking photos are what we prefer. While it may not match the quality of the rear cameras, the front camera is also able to shoot some decent portrait selfies.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review verdict

Having used the Galaxy S21 FE, we are happy to report that Samsung has levelled up the overall experience with the new Galaxy S23 FE. There’s a lot to like here from the way this phone looks to the way it performs. And most importantly, its price tag – starting from Rs 59,999. At this price range, it makes a great alternative to the full-priced flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 or the Galaxy S23+.

If however, you’re looking for something outside the Samsung ecosystem, you can consider phones like the OnePlus 11, Oppo Reno10 Pro+ or the Vivo X90, which too are available in this price range.