Today, we have the new Galaxy S24 FE, which, for the first time ever, takes after the Plus model in the flagship Galaxy S family. And then we have the previous, now cheaper Galaxy S23 FE, which is smaller in size. Do you get the new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE for its larger screen, or the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE for its more compact design and cheaper price?
Let’s find out!
Table of Contents:
- Design
- Display
- Battery Life
- Charging
- Speaker Test
- Performance
- Cameras
- Verdict
Size comparison
Display comparison
The Galaxy S24 FE has a slightly larger 6.7-inch 1080p OLED, while the S23 FE packs a 6.3-inch 1080p OLED. Both screens support HDR10+.
The Galaxy S24 FE display has a higher maximum brightness - 1372 nits vs about 1,000 nits on either Galaxy S23 FE models (Snapdragon or Exynos). The manual brightness is around 480 nits on the Galaxy S24 FE and the two Galaxy S23 FE variants.
We can argue that the Galaxy S24 FE wins here for its larger and brighter screen.
Battery life
The new Galaxy S24 FE model has a slightly larger battery than the S23 FE, 4,700 mAh vs 4,500mAh. But even if the battery capacity difference is small, the Galaxy S24 FE delivers better battery life than either of the S23 FE incarnations.
Charging speed
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE4700 mAh30%
56%
70min
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE4500 mAh29%
58%
70min
Both the Galaxy S24 FE and S23FE support up to 25W fast wired charging and up to 15W fast wireless charging. Reverse wireless charging is available, too.
Even if there is a small difference in the battery capacity, the new and the old model delivered similar charging times.
Speaker test
The Galaxy S24 FE and S23 FE have the same hybrid stereo speaker systems, where the earpiece acts as a speaker, and there is another standalone one at the bottom.
-24.6 LUFSVery goodloudness-23.7 LUFSVery goodloudnessThe Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy S23 FE scored Very Good marks for speaker loudness and offer similarly great audio output.
Performance
The Galaxy S24 FE has only one version, and it runs on Samsung's very own Exynos 2400e, which has the same CPU and GPU as the flagship Exynos 2400 inside the Galaxy S24 but with slightly lower core clocks. This means 10-core CPU and Xclipse 940 GPU.
The Galaxy S23 FE has two versions – the US one with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and the global one based on the Exynos 2200 chip. Both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Exynos 2200 are 4nm chips; both were the heart of the Galaxy S22 series. Both chips have similar octa-core processors with previous generation cores when compared to the S24 FE's. The Exynos 2200 has this Xclipse 920 GPU, the Snapdragon model has the Adreno 730 GPU.
The Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy S23 FE both come with 8GB LPDDR5X RAM.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE4nm
base config
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)4 nm
base config
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE4 nm
base config
Benchmark performance
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE1,548,896
6,299
13,257
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)1,129,280
3,947
9,919
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE1,134,250
3,964
8,494
There is a two-year difference between the chips inside the Galaxy S24 FE and the S23 FE, so it is no surprise the S24 FE is a noticeably faster phone.
Camera comparison
The Galaxy S24 FE and S23 FE feature four identical cameras – a 50MP OIS primary, a 10MP OIS 3x telephoto, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP selfie.
Image quality
The Galaxy S24 FE takes similar photos to the Galaxy S23 FE phones, with minor differences in to noise reduction and/or noise smearing.
Galaxy S24 FE: Main • UW • Tele 3x • selfie
S23 FE Snapdragon: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
S23 FE Exynos: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
The quality of the nighttime photos remains similar across the Galaxy S24 FE and the two versions of the Galaxy S23 FE.
Galaxy S24 FE: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE Snapdragon: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE Exynos: Main • UW • Tele 3x
Video quality
The Galaxy S24 FE has improved video recording capabilities compared to the S23 FE. The main camera can now take 8K30 and 4K120 videos.
The two phones capture identical videos in daylight. Note that we shot the S23 FE videos with the video stabilization turned off, hence the wider field of view.
Below, we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length.
S24 FE: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE: Main • UW • Tele 3x
The low-light videos are brighter and more detailed out of the Galaxy S24 FE.
S24 FE 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • 3x Tele
S23 FE Snapdragon 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE Exynos 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • Tele 3x
Verdict
The Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy S23 FE are wonderful reworks of their respective flagship versions. They are also quite similar devices, excluding the now different screen size. Naturally, the S23 FE is cheaper – it costs about €150 less than the new S24 FE in the EU and about $100 less in the USA.
The Galaxy S24 FE is a solid upgrade over the S23 FE because it jumps two chipset generations ahead and improves on the battery life, which was a weak point on the S23 FE. You also get a larger and brighter screen in almost the same footprint. And finally, Samsung promises much longer software support for the Galaxy S24 FE (7 years), which, coupled with the faster processor, will mean better future-proofing if you tend to hold on to your smartphones for longer.
The S24 FE is decidedly the better phone of the two. But the answer to whether it's worth the price premium will largely depend on how much you appreciate the extra features it provides so we suggest you weigh your priorities carefully.
- Larger and brighter screen.
- More powerful chipset.
- Longer battery life.
- Better video recording.
- Longer software support.
