Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S26 FE earlier this week – the phone is set to go on sale on Friday next week (September 4). Unfortunately, the new model costs more than its predecessor despite bringing a rather short list of upgrades.
Samsung.com doesn’t even have a pre-order page yet – you can just sign up to be notified when the S26 FE becomes available. As for the upgrades, it uses the Exynos 2500 (also seen on the Z Flip7) and it comes with Android 17/One UI 9 out of the box. That’s it. The phone has a 6.7” 1080p+ (120Hz) display, 50+8+12MP cameras and a 4,900mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging.
The Galaxy S25 FE is out of stock right now, which is a shame as it would have made for a solid alternative to the S26 FE for the reasons stated above. Instead, we’ll have to look at other options.
The Samsung Galaxy A57 also has a 6.7” 1080p+ OLED display. There are other cutbacks too – the Exynos 1680 is on an older node, the 50+12MP camera misses the 8MP 3x telephoto of the FE and the 5,000mAh battery only does 45W wired charging, no wireless. The A57 is also much cheaper, of course. You can have a peek at our Galaxy A57 vs. S25 FE article – it features the 2025 FE, but it serves as a good preview.
Then there is the mainline S26 series. The Galaxy S26 is smaller with its 6.3” display and 4,300mAh battery (and slow 25W wired charging), but it does feature the best Qualcomm chip at the moment, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. And it has 12GB of RAM to boot. Plus, the base storage on these three is 256GB, unlike the FE.
The Samsung Galaxy S26+ is the one to look out for – at the moment, the 256GB variant is just $100 more expensive than the 256GB FE. As mentioned above, the mainline series has the top Snapdragon chip instead of an old Exynos and 12GB of RAM. The 6.7” OLED display is a sharper LTPO panel with 1440p+ resolution, compared to 1080p+ for the FE. The cameras on the non-Ultra models aren’t that different, though. And on the Plus the 4,900mAh battery does have 45W wired charging.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra would be the one to get if the discounts line up just right. It has a 6.9” 1440p+ LTPO display with Privacy mode and S Pen support. It also has the only good set of cameras on an S-series phone – this includes a 200MP 1/1.3” main, 10MP 3x and 50MP 5x telephoto lenses, plus a 50MP ultra-wide.
Outside of the Samsung stable, there is the Nothing Phone (3). Its 6.67” display is a bit sharper than the FE with 1260p+ resolution. This phone has the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which is not on the level of the Exynos 2500, but it’s no slouch either. On the plus side, Nothing equipped the (3) with triple 50MP cameras, including a 1/1.3” main, a 3x telephoto and a 114° ultra-wide. Even the selfie camera has a 50MP sensor, unlike the 12MP sensors that Samsung likes to use. The 5,150mAh battery supports 65W wired and 15W wireless charging.
$700 (or so) either buys you an 8/128GB S26 FE or a 16/512GB Nothing Phone (3). Quite a difference, isn’t it? But the company has a cheaper offering too – the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro. While it’s no flagship, this phone has a 50MP main camera (1/1.56”) and a 50MP 3.5x telephoto, plus an 8MP ultra-wide and a 32MP selfie. It has a 6.83” 144Hz OLED display with 1260p+ resolution and a 5,080mAh battery with 50W wired-only charging. The body is only rated IP65, which is low for a phone in this price class, but it shouldn’t make a difference in day-to-day use.
Finally, we’re still keeping an eye on the Galaxy Z Fold8, Z Fold8 Ultra and Z Flip8. Their prices are still at MSRP, but the good news is that you can still get the Amazon gift card and trade-in bonus even weeks after pre-orders ended.
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