Take a look at the best Samsung phones, and you'll find a lot of Galaxy S25 models topping the list. That's no coincidence — Samsung's latest phones boast excellent cameras, long-lasting batteries and some pretty polished AI features that help them stand out from the Android crowd.
By that same token, the Galaxy S25 FE, unveiled this week by Samsung and now on sale, offers some compelling features in its own right. And by doing so, you could make the case that you'll never have to pay full price for a Samsung device again in order to enjoy the phone maker's most compelling premium features.
Again, that's no knock on the current Samsung flagships, which include the standard model as well as the slightly larger Galaxy S25 Plus, the much thinner Galaxy S25 Edge and the extremely premium Galaxy S25 Ultra. It's just a reflection of the fact that the Galaxy S25 FE promises much of what you need from a phone without racking up a huge price tag.
Samsung's FE phones explained
Technically, the Galaxy S25 FE is part of the Galaxy S family, though I'd hesitate to call it a flagship. Unlike the other S25 models, you don't get the powerhouse Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon inside the Galaxy S25 FE. Instead, you get an Exynos system-on-chip, and an older one at that. The Exynos 2400 powering Samsung's new phone arrived at the start of 2024, which is one of the trade-offs you make to save $150 off the starting price of the standard Galaxy S25.
Tom's Guide hasn't run benchmarks on the Galaxy S25 FE yet, but I'd be very surprised if it doesn't noticeably lag behind the CPU and GPU performance turned in by other S25 models. Then again, unless you're running processing-intensive apps on your phone, you could argue that's a difference the average user isn't going to notice or care about — not when their wallet is at least $150 fuller.
Instead, with the Galaxy S25 FE. Samsung puts the effort in where it counts. The phone offers three rear cameras, including a dedicated telephoto lens. That's a feature missing from top midrange models like the Pixel 9a and iPhone 16e. And while Google's photo processing chops makes the Pixel 9a the model to beat when it comes to the best camera phones for $500 or less, you're going to get a lot more versatility with the S25 FE's extra rear lens.
It's not just the lower price tag and flagship-quality camera setup that make the Galaxy S25 FE a worthy alternative to Samsung's higher-profile phones, though. It's Samsung's decision to make sure that most of the Galaxy AI features you can get on a premium model are also available on this lower-cost handset.
Extending the Galaxy AI experience
When my Tom's Guide colleagues and I tested out devices for our AI phone face-off, we agreed that Google's Pixel devices set the standard, but the Galaxy S25 models didn't linger too far behind. And that's good news for the Galaxy S25 FE because a lot of the features that impressed us when we put AI capabilities through their paces this summer are in evidence on this new phone.
The Galaxy S25 FE boasts writing tools and photo-editing/image generation features on par with what the other S25 models offer. There's a browsing assist feature that summarizes the content on web pages or provides needed translations, and, as you'd expect, Circle to Search capabilities are very present here.
But I think the big AI additions to the Galaxy S25 FE include Gemini Live, which brings multimodal capabilities to the on-device assistant. Point the S25 FE's camera at something, and the assistant can tell you what you need to know, whether it's identifying parts in a how-to project or figuring out washing instructions from laundry tags.
Additionally, the Now Brief feature that debuted on the Galaxy S25 this year comes to the S25 FE, so you'll get a daily summary of appointments and vital information that adapts to your preferences and activities.
It's unclear if every Galaxy AI feature on board the other S25 models made the grade for the Galaxy S25 FE. There's no mention of my favorite addition from earlier this year — cross-app actions that let you tap into the on-board assistant to perform multiple tasks in different apps with one command. (Think adding a dinner reservation to your calendar and texting that info to a friend, all in one go.)
Samsung doesn't tout that capability in its S25 FE promotional materials, and if it were there, I'd imagine the phone maker would be shouting it from the mountaintops. Still, that's something we'll find out once Tom's Guide gets a chance to fully review the phone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE outlook
In his hands-on with the Galaxy S25 FE, my colleague John Velasco makes the case that the latest phone from Samsung is the perfect counterpoint to the Galaxy S25 Plus. It's got the triple-camera setup, the AI features and the big screen, but at $649, it's $350 less than the $999 Plus.
That sounds about right to me. People will always gravitate toward more premium phones. But for some people, a lower price is a key piece of the smartphone puzzle. If the Galaxy S25 FE can truly provide a comparable experience in terms of photos and AI — and that's what we'll be looking for when we review the phone — it should be among the first devices you consider when shopping for a Samsung handset.
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