Samsung unveiled its latest 'budget flagship' last fall Galaxy S23 FE. It is the successor of the successful "fan" models Galaxy S20 FE (5G) and S21 FE, launched in 2020, respectively 2022. Unfortunately, we have to state at the outset that the S23 FE will most likely not reach the popularity of its predecessors. It has an unusually poor price-to-performance ratio for a Samsung phone, and as we already wrote in our first impressions, it is rather Galaxy A54 5G on steroids than "relieved" Galaxy S23.
In recent years, Samsung has been packing only the essentials with its smartphones, and it is no exception Galaxy S23 FE. In addition to the phone, in the thin black box you will only find a charging/data cable with USB-C terminals on both sides, several user manuals and a clip for pulling out the nanoSIM card slot. In short, the Korean giant at one point embarked on the path of ecology (it would like to deliver at any cost), which in his eyes precludes adding a charger, a case, a protective film for the display or simply something extra to the package.
Gallery
Design indistinguishable from Galaxy A54 5G
Galaxy The S23 FE came to us in a mint color variant, which really suits the phone. Otherwise, however, it is practically indistinguishable from Galaxy A54 5G. Both phones have flat and equally sized displays with not quite the thinnest bezels and a centered circular notch for the selfie camera and three separate cameras on glass backs. The only difference in terms of appearance is that the S23 FE has a metal frame, while the A54 5G has a plastic frame. Let's add that due to the protruding cameras, the phone, like the A54 5G, wobbles rather unpleasantly on the table.
Gallery
Both smartphones are also very similar in terms of dimensions. The S23 FE measures 158 x 76,5 x 8,2mm, making it 0,2mm smaller in height and width than the A54 5G. However, the S23 FE is also slightly heavier due to the metal frame (209 vs. 202 g). The quality of the workmanship is otherwise exemplary, it does not throw anything anywhere, everything fits perfectly, and the perfectly balanced center of gravity also deserves praise. However, we have been used to all this with Samsung smartphones for years. Let's add that the S23 FE has a better degree of protection than the A54 5G, namely IP68 (vs. IP67), which means it can withstand submersion up to 1,5m for 30 minutes.
Comparison with Galaxy S24 +
The display was good, it's just a pity that the frames are thicker
Galaxy The S23 FE has a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a diagonal of 6,4 inches, FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2340 px), support for an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz (switching between 120 and 60 Hz as needed) and a maximum brightness of 1450 nits. It also has practically the same display parameters Galaxy A54 5G. The only difference is that the S23 FE has 450 nits more peak brightness, which you can tell almost immediately in practice. The quality of the display is unsurprisingly very high, displays are simply Samsung. The screen thus boasts a beautifully sharp image and rich colors, balanced contrast, great viewing angles and excellent readability in direct sunlight. It's just a shame that the display has such thick bezels, this is something we shouldn't see on a phone of this class.
Gallery
Performance between Galaxy S23 and A54 5G
Models Galaxy With the FE in the past they have always used two older flagship chipsets, one being Exynos and the other being Snapdragon. AT Galaxy The S23 FE is no different - it's powered by the two-year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the US, and by the same old Exynos 2200 in the rest of the world (including us). Both of these chipsets debuted in the series Galaxy S22. The first mentioned is infamous for excessive heating and throttling of performance under long-term load. However, Samsung has obviously optimized it since v Galaxy The S23 FE runs better than last year's flagship series - it overheats and throttles a little less. We saw this in the popular games Asphalt 9: Legends and Shadowgun Legends. Both ran smoothly and the phone didn't "heat" as much as we expected even when playing for a long time.
Gallery
In terms of benchmarks, the phone scored 763 points in AnTuTu and 775 points in Geekbench 6 in the single-core test and 1605 points in the multi-core test. The "paper" performance is somewhere in between Galaxy S23 to Galaxy A54 5G. As for normal operation, i.e. opening applications, transitions between animations, etc., the phone ran like butter, we did not notice the slightest stutter (with the A54 5G, slight jerks appeared here and there). The phone can also thank the well-tuned One UI 6.0 superstructure for smooth operation.
You could be interested in
One can easily handle a whole day
Galaxy The S23 FE is equipped with a 4500 mAh battery, the same as all previous models Galaxy With FE. Even though it's more of a below-average capacity in the world of smartphones today, in practice the battery life is solid. In normal use, which in our case included always-on Wi-Fi, listening to music and occasionally playing games and taking photos, the phone reliably lasted a full day and a bit on a single charge. If we play intensively, or watch a video for several hours, the battery life will decrease rapidly, but this also applies to smartphones with a higher battery capacity. On the other hand, the phone will last several days with minimal use. In case of emergency, there are energy-saving modes that can extend the battery life by several hours.
Comparison with Galaxy S21FE
When it comes to charging, it's been the same song for years now. Galaxy Like many other Samsung smartphones, including the flagship ones, the S23 FE is charged at 25 W. We didn't have a charger available, but according to foreign reviewers, the phone charges from 0-100% in about an hour and a half. That's unbearably long these days. Four or five years ago, it would have been fine, but Samsung has missed the train in this direction and apparently is not going to catch up in the near future. Damage. For comparison: some Chinese phones, and they are not necessarily flagship models, can fully charge in less than 20 minutes. Otherwise, the S23 FE will be fully charged with the cable in approximately two and a half hours.
One UI 6.0: Perfectly tuned and customizable system
As stated above, Galaxy The S23 FE software runs on the One UI 6.0 superstructure, based on Androidu 14. It brings a number of novelties and improvements, such as a redesigned one panel with quick toggles, new lock screen customization, new font and simpler icon labels, new widgets Weather and Camera, new emoji style in Samsung keyboard, app improvements Gallery or improvements camera. The environment is otherwise perfectly tuned and maximally intuitive. The phone will receive three more major system updates in the future (it was launched with Androidem 13 and immediately got Android 14 with One UI 6.0) and will be supported by security updates until 2028.
Gallery
The camera does not disappoint day or night
Rear photo lineup Galaxy The S23 FE includes a 50MPx main camera with an aperture of f/1.8 and optical image stabilization, an 8MPx telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.4, optical image stabilization and 3x optical zoom, and a 12MPx ultra-wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/2.2 and a 123° angle of view. The main camera can record videos in resolutions up to 8K at 24 frames per second or 4K at 60 fps. Let's add that the front camera has a resolution of 10 MPx and supports video recording in a resolution of up to 4K at 60 fps.
Gallery
The main sensor in good lighting conditions produces very successful images that are sufficiently sharp and detailed, have a good dynamic range, adequate contrast and, unlike photos taken Galaxy A54 5G is their color presentation a bit more realistic. The triple optical zoom will also please you - photos taken in this way maintain color fidelity, details do not blend in, and are sharp enough. Higher zoom levels are also more than usable (the phone supports up to 30x digital zoom), even in not very clear weather. As for the ultra-wide-angle sensor, it also gives very good results, the distortion on the sides is minimal and the color rendering is practically the same as in the photos taken by the main camera.
Gallery
When taking pictures at night, night mode is automatically activated, which in our experience works better than u Galaxy A54 5G. In this mode, photos are visibly clearer, more true to color and have a little less noise. We do not recommend using the telephoto lens and the "wide-angle" at night, the images taken with the first one have too much noise (at least those with a higher zoom level than three times) and the details merge in them, with the second one, the photos are too dark, especially at the edges, which completely defeats the purpose of this kind of sensor.
As already said, the phone is capable of recording videos in 8K/24 fps mode, but it is better to use 4K/60 fps mode. The quality of the recording will be only slightly lower, but the fluidity will be somewhere completely different. We praise that electronic stabilization is available across all cameras, resolutions and frame rates.
The video quality itself (we are talking about the 4K/60 fps mode) is very solid - during the day, the recordings have an absolute minimum of noise, a wide dynamic range, lavish details, and the color presentation is relatively close to reality. At night, the quality drops rapidly, there is too much noise, details are lost and overall the recordings are just "usable". We're a little disappointed here, especially considering how good the night photos are.
Gallery
Conclusion? Better buy it Galaxy A54 5G or straight away Galaxy S23
Overall, we can state that Galaxy The S23 FE didn't do too well for Samsung. It offers a really bad price/performance ratio, and in some ways it's closer to a mid-range phone than a high-end one. By this we mean, for example, the incomprehensibly thick frames around the display or the Exynos 2200, which nowadays is essentially an upper-middle-class chipset in terms of performance (today it is still sufficient, but in a year or two it may already be suffocating). And the phone itself could be described as upper middle class, as "lightweight" Galaxy The S23 didn't really hit our stride during our several weeks of testing.
You could be interested in
Samsung sells it here from CZK 16, while the basic Galaxy S23 offers starting at 20 CZK. However, you can get it from around 999 CZK, which might be worth considering. But here it is again basic Galaxy S23, which some merchants offer starting at less than CZK 15. And then there is Galaxy A54 5G, which will do you almost the same service as S23 FE and which can be purchased from 7 CZK. No, Galaxy We cannot really recommend the S23 FE to you in good conscience, it is too contradictory and it is very difficult to justify its price-to-performance ratio. But if you really want it, you can buy it here, for example.
Updated
Samsung at the end of March 2024 already for the model Galaxy S23 FE released One UI 6.1 update which adds great features to the device Galaxy AI. This is what distinguishes the model especially from the cheaper series Galaxy And who cannot enjoy these functions.
Can I have a question for the reviewer? How is it possible that the result of the test in antutu came out quite low when everywhere else where the phone was tested they have a result of over a million, even with Exynos? Isn't it a mistake? Your result is very similar to the A55, while the S23Fe has a much better processor.