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Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Review

Charles TYK

A couple of weeks ago, we had our first look at the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, which is the company’s latest FE series smartphone. After using it for a couple of weeks, I finally know why it exists in 2023. Without further ado, let’s dive into the full review of the phone.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Specs

Design

In terms of design, I would say that the Galaxy S23 FE is pretty much like the A54 that we reviewed a few months ago. It has a flat 6.4-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display on the front with thick bezels and a silver trim around the front camera cutout.

The phone also has an unpolished aluminum frame, but I prefer it since it doesn’t attract fingerprints. The back also features the same three-camera ring design with a glossy finish that will attract fingerprint smudges.

Display

The Galaxy S23 FE sports a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which is the same one as the Galaxy A54. It has the best-in-class display with vivid colors and great outdoor visibility. There are still certain features lacking compared to the flagship Galaxy S23 series, but I would say it is more than enough for most consumers.

Performance

Powering the Galaxy S23 FE is an Exynos 2200 processor with 8GB RAM and up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. In case you didn’t know, the Exynos 2200 chipset was actually on last year’s Galaxy S22 series for certain regions, which is equivalent to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. In terms of performance, I find that the frame rate isn’t that consistent when playing games like Monopoly Go, which seems pretty weird since I didn’t face the same issue on the S22 Ultra. However, the overall performance of this phone is pretty good.

Software

The Galaxy S23 FE runs on One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 with a guarantee of up to four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates. The overall software experience is rather similar to the flagship Galaxy S23 series. If you are familiar with One UI, this phone works the same, you’ll even get Samsung DeX.

Camera

Like the Galaxy A54, the Galaxy S23 FE also has a triple-camera setup on the back — 12MP ultra-wide + 50MP main with OIS and Dual Pixel AF + 8MP 3x telephoto. Yup, the third camera is a usable 8MP 3x telephoto lens, kudos for Samsung to do that. The phone has a 10MP front camera for taking selfies.

Image quality generally is pretty good! The captures excellent daylight photos with a wide dynamic range. Low-light photos captured with the main camera look great with well-balanced exposures and excellent detail. The ultra-wide camera, however, took average low-light photos with washed-out colors. As for the 3x telephoto lens, it is still quite acceptable, better than nothing, right?

Battery Life

The Galaxy S23 FE packs a 4,500mAh battery with 25W charging, which is weird since the A54 has a larger 5,000mAh battery. In terms of battery life, I was able to get 2 days of battery life with around 7 hours of screen-on-time easily. Charging the phone from 15% to full took me around an hour.

Final Words

Retailing at RM2,999 (128GB) and RM3,299 (256GB), the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE sits above the Galaxy A54. If you have been following Samsung for a few years, you’ll notice that the successor for last year’s A73 went missing. The S23 FE is more like the A74, which Samsung didn’t announce this year since it’s not a good strategy to have two almost identical products in one year. Why did this phone exist in 2023? The Galaxy S23 FE is there to fill the gap between the A54 and S23. If you are a Samsung fan and you think the S23 is out of your reach, the S23 FE is the right choice for you. It’s a fan edition smartphone after all!

From now until November 30, you get to enjoy an exclusive RM500 off when you register as #Galaxy Troop. Samsung Malaysia also offers a free double storage upgrade worth RM300, and an additional rebate of up to RM350 when you trade in. Plus, up to 30% off PWP.

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