Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S25 series has finally received a Fan Edition model. Over the years, the FE variants have served as excellent alternatives to Samsung’s premium smartphones, offering flagship-level specs at a more affordable price point. The Galaxy S25 FE is no different. It is powered by Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2400 chipset, which also carried out the processor duties on last year’s Galaxy S24 (our review here). With One UI 8 running on the device out of the box and 7 promised OS upgrades, the S25 FE’s software coverage will last 1 year longer than the rest of the series. Keeping this in mind, we used the smartphone as our daily driver for a week. Here is our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.
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In This Article
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Review: Design and Display
Before we dive into the review, let’s take a look at what you get inside the S25 FE’s retail box:
- Smartphone
- USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
The Galaxy S25 FE is by no means a compact phone. In fact, it is longer, wider, and a smidge thicker than the Galaxy S25+ (our review here). It weighs 190g, which is light by premium phone standards. The design language is similar to the two vanilla variants of the Galaxy S25 series. The flat glass back panel has three vertically-arranged cutouts for the camera lenses. The flat aluminium frame has slightly rounded corners. It carries a contrasting silver shade, as opposed to the body-coloured frame on the flagships. The camera cutout rings also carry silver accents. This slight tweak massively elevates the aesthetic appeal of the S25 FE, and, in our books, makes it the best-looking smartphone out of the lot.
The ‘enhanced armour aluminium’ frame houses the volume rocker and the side button on its right edge. The SIM tray, primary microphone, USB-C port, and primary speaker are placed at the bottom. The secondary microphone finds its way up top. The matte finish on this frame gives it a superior in-hand feel. It keeps the smudges and fingerprints at bay, too.
The 6.7-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display has a 120Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 1,900 nits. In outdoor conditions, it is easily able to overcome its bright surroundings and maintains total legibility. The touch response is smooth, fluid, and unparalleled by any display in this price range. The bezels around the screen are slim and uniform. The optical fingerprint scanner, positioned towards the bottom of the display, is not as quick as the ultrasonic sensor on the flagships, but it puts up a snappy performance.
The viewing experience on the Galaxy S25 FE is an absolute delight. The 1,080 x 2,340p AMOLED display produces stunning visuals that pack deep colours and impeccable details. The wide viewing angles make sure that you don’t have to adjust the positioning of the phone while watching a YouTube video with a friend. The stereo speaker setup produces a loud and well-balanced audio output.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Review: Performance and Cameras
This year’s FE model makes a slight upgrade under the hood. It packs the Samsung Exynos 2400 chipset instead of the slightly weaker Exynos 2400e that powered the S24 FE. There is only one 8GB RAM + 512GB storage variant on offer.
We ran a couple of benchmark tests on the S25 FE. Here is how it performed:
- AnTuTu 3D: 1,938,249
- Geekbench 6: 2,070 (single-core) | 6,575 (multi-core)
While the benchmark numbers put up by the Exynos 2400 SoC fall short of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it does not create a huge gap in the general performance. The Galaxy S25 FE runs through routine, everyday tasks effortlessly. These include calling, instant messaging, web browsing, photo editing, media streaming, navigation, and more. There is absolutely no lag to be seen, even when you load more than a dozen apps at once. To top it off, the well-tuned haptic feedback makes using this phone an incredibly fun experience.
The gap in benchmark numbers becomes apparent when it comes to the gaming performance. The S25 FE can run titles like BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile in high graphics and frame rate settings, but the Exynos 2400 chipset isn’t able to match the thermal management prowess of the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. The absence of the state-of-the-art cooling system doesn’t help its case either. The area around the camera cutouts started warming up after 20 minutes of continuous gaming. You can power through to the 40-minute mark before noticing the odd thermal jitter.
The S25 FE has a slight edge over the Samsung flagships when it comes to software. It runs the new Android 16-based One UI 8 OS out of the box. The 7 promised OS upgrades will take it to One UI 15. The Galaxy S25 series, being released in January, still runs One UI 7 out of the box. With 7 OS upgrades, it will go up to One UI 14.
Since One UI 7 ushered in big cosmetic changes, its successor has very few updates in this regard. The two skins look identical to each other. When it comes to features, you get the full Galaxy AI suite on this phone. This includes features like Call Assist for real-time call translation, Interpreter for translating in-person conversations, Note Assist for summarisations, transcriptions, and proofreading, Writing Assist for chat translation and coming up with replies, Photo Assist for erasing objects from images, and a whole lot more. This package is typically reserved for Samsung’s flagship devices, so it is nice to see it extended to the FE model.
The 4,900mAh battery pack holds enough juice to last through the day. During the week-long review period, our average daily screen time on the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE was between 4 and 5 hours. We ended each day with ~20% charge left on the phone. Our routine tasks involved calling, texting, emailing, video meetings, web browsing, media streaming, and gaming. The battery pack supports 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. It takes an hour to fully charge the phone.
The Galaxy S25 FE carries forward the rear camera array of its predecessor. It comprises a 50MP primary shooter, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The selfie camera has been upgraded to a 12MP unit.
The 50MP primary shooter captures incredible pictures in outdoor daylight conditions. The images are clear and vibrant. The dynamic range and contrast levels are tasteful. The punchy colours make the images ‘pop’. In limited lighting conditions, the Night Mode does an amazing job of lighting up the shot and getting rid of the grain.
Images taken with the 12MP ultrawide lens are a smidge softer, but what they lose in sharpness, they make up for in colour. The colour profile of these shots matches that of the main camera. The dynamic range is good, too. In limited lighting conditions, the Night Mode does a decent job of illuminating the subject, but some noise manages to creep into the shots.
The 8MP telephoto lens has 3x optical zoom. Images taken with this lens look very similar to the main camera shots. There’s very little that separates the colour profile and dynamic range of the results. This camera also kicks in while taking portrait shots at 3x zoom. The results are fantastic. The camera does a phenomenal job of focusing on the subject and bringing a lot of clarity to the portraits. The subject-background separation is flawless, with no blurred edges on display. The background blur effect is quite tasteful.
The 12MP front-facing camera takes bright and clear selfies. It retains the natural skin tone and texture of the subject. The sharpness of the selfie shots is exquisite. The selfie camera and the telephoto lens can record 4K videos at 30/60fps. The ultrawide camera is limited to 4K recordings at 30fps. Meanwhile, the main camera can shoot 8K footage at 30fps.
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Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE has got to be one of our favourite smartphones of the year. To begin with, its dual-tone colour theme for the back panel and aluminium frame gives it a smart and charming look. The silver accent on the camera rings is a nice touch, too. Flipping the phone around, you are greeted with one of the best displays in the segment. The Exynos 2400 chipset may not be the best in the game, but you won’t notice the difference unless you dabble in high-performance gaming. The triple rear camera array puts up an impressive display in a variety of lighting conditions. However, the cherry on top is the exquisite software experience. Like the Galaxy S and Z series flagships, you get the full Galaxy AI package on this phone. When it comes to software coverage, no one is doing it like Samsung – the Galaxy S25 FE has been promised to receive 7 major OS upgrades.
Pros
- Smart design
- Smooth display
- Galaxy AI
- 7 major OS upgrades
Cons
- Not the best phone for gaming
