The Galaxy FE models have always enjoyed the attention of loyal and savvy Galaxy fans, but Samsung may be cutting it a bit too close with the Galaxy S26 FE. We called it the “Galaxy S26 AI and the Galaxy S25 FE Part 2 in our announcement news, and we still stand by that.
To start with, the Galaxy S26 FE is nearly identical, spec-for-spec, with its predecessor. The major aspects of the phone are the same: the same 6.7-inch screen, triple camera system, battery and charging, and overall feel in the hand.
Well, okay, the S26 FE has a camera island, whereas the older phone’s camera system sits flush with the panel.
A familiar-looking phone
So what’s not the same? The chipset and the software. The new phone uses a newer Exynos 2500 chipset that’s 3nm (vs the 4nm Exynos 2400). The newer CPU cores should mean faster apps, and the new AMD RDNA 3-based GPU has up to 33% more work groups, and the NPU has 40% more compute units – nice.
The software is Samsung’s One UI 9, and the Galaxy S26 FE is the first in its series to run it out of the box. There’s a whole lot of AI stuff that’s new on this phone (but could very well make it to its predecessor).
The updated Now Brief offers more personalized and customizable briefing cards, while Now Nudge can surface contextual suggestions from select third-party apps and notifications. Circle to Search can now recognize multiple objects in a single image, while Photo Assist supports natural-language edits, including adding or restoring elements in photos. There’s also Gemini Omni for creating and editing video clips from Gallery content, and My FanCam uses AI to track a selected subject and automatically keep them centered in the frame.
Alright. Before we get back to our busy lives of reviewing the heap of phones we’ve got in the queue, let’s unbox the Galaxy S26 FE. It should come as no surprise that it ships with nothing but a USB-C cable in the box. You’d need to supply your own case and charger.
The phone is available in Blueberry, Pistachio, and Graphite, and in either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. Prices start from $700/€700/£700.
