The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE might just be the best value-for-money phone you can buy right now. Its performance rivals pricier flagship models, housed within a beautifully sleek design.
When I reviewed the $549 Samsung Galaxy A35 earlier this year, I believed it to be the phone to suit most people. Not everyone needs all the bells and whistles that come with the fanciest phones. Conversely, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE makes a strong case for investing in a handset for the long run.
Most high-end phones in Australia run upwards of $1,300 for the base model, with the premium variants smashing through the $2,000 barrier. For the most part, I subscribe to the classic adage that you get what you pay for. But you eventually reach a point of diminishing returns with phones, where spending extra only gets you slightly better batteries, cameras, and processing power.
Not far off the well-rounded performance of Samsung’s most expensive phone, the Galaxy S24 FE is excellent. For a touch more than $1,000, you get one of the best Android handsets on the market, replete with seven years of software updates.
That last part is perhaps the most compelling. You no longer have to spend the most amount of money to get maximum post-launch support. And with performance that outpaces pricier competitors, the S24 FE is a well-priced star.
Table of contents
First impressions
It’s striking how similar the Galaxy S24 FE is to the conventional phone design popularised by Apple. Like the standard S24 handsets, the FE adopts a fairly standard rectangular design, capped off by its aesthetically pleasing rounded corners.
Even with a decent-sized 6.7-inch display, the S24 FE doesn’t feel too big to hold. My current daily phone is the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is a great device but is too big for my liking. By comparison, Samsung’s 2024 FE model is a Goldilocks compromise – it feels just right. I’ve had to get used to having both the power and volume buttons on the right-hand side again, but they’re easy to reach and press.
I really dig the phone’s silver-coloured edges, adding a classy layer to the blue rear colouring of my review unit. Compared to the plastic chassis of the cheaper Galaxy A35, the S24 FE is grippier, inducing far less anxiety about the device slipping from my sweaty hands.
Like just about every Android handset these days, the setup process is a breeze. Reviewing a bunch of Androids this year, I find it effortlessly easy to back up and restore content via Google so I can pick back up where I left off. There’s also the option of signing in via a Samsung account, which gets you full access to the brand’s Galaxy AI features.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE specs and price in Australia
| Display | 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 1080 x 2340 resolution 120Hz refresh rate |
| Dimensions | 162.0 mm x 77.3 mm x 8.0 mm 213 grams |
| Processor | Samsung Exynos 2400e |
| Storage and memory | 128GB / 256GB storage 8GB memory |
| Cameras | 50MP rear camera: f/1.8 12MP rear ultra-wide camera: f/2.2 8MP rear telephoto camera: f/2.4, 3x optical zoom 10MP front camera: f/2.4 |
| Battery and charging | 4700mAh |
| Connectivity | USB-C 3.2 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 Nano SIM eSIM NFC |
| Network bands | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (sub-6) |
| Software | Android 14 Seven years of OS and security updates |
| Durability | IP68 rating |
| Price (RRP) | $1,099 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Samsung Australia |
Performance
Remarkably, the Galaxy S24 FE isn’t that much different to its higher-priced S24 counterparts in terms of everyday performance. Based on Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2400e chipset, it’s marginally less powerful than the top-of-the-line Galaxy S24 Ultra. Considering the roughly $1,000 difference, that’s very impressive.
Take a look at the Geekbench 6 results below; the synthetic benchmarking tool puts the S24 FE’s CPU performance well above the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL’s Tensor G4 chip. Granted, Google is famous for not chasing raw power, but it shows just how good Samsung’s new flagship-lite is.
| Device | CPU single-core | CPU multi-core |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 3,350 | 8,021 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 2,141 | 6,690 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 2,051 | 6,428 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 1,961 | 4,736 |
That performance also carries over to graphical performance. Too powerful for the baseline 3DMark test, the S24 FE capably keeps up with the beefiest phones throughout the Wild Life Extreme benchmark. Again, note the gap between Apple and Samsung’s premium phones versus Google.
| Device | Wild Life Extreme benchmark |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 4,748 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 4,531 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 4,014 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 2,572 |
In terms of real-world implications, you can trust the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE to play games and run mobile video editing apps with aplomb. Not only that, but it’ll make anything you run looks great on its sharp AMOLED screen.
Battery life
Turning to my standard battery life test, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a fair competitor. From a full charge, an hour of YouTube video playback at 50% brightness and audio volume saw the battery drop to 96%. That’s pretty good, indicating multi-day battery life depending on your usage.
Aside from the video playback test, the phone had plenty of juice left after a day of general use. I tend not to slam phone batteries too hard – unless I get particularly stuck doomscrolling social media – so moderate users should get close to two days of battery life between charges.
Galaxy AI features
According to Samsung, roughly 80% of Galaxy S24 owners use the company’s AI features every month. That’s a rather broad claim, considering it encapsulates features like Google’s Circle to Search lookup tool, in addition to generative AI features like Chat Assist and Photo Assist.
While I don’t claim to be indicative of the average user, I rarely found the need to use many of the AI features on offer. A lot of them appear to be a solution seeking a problem. It could also be due to my distaste for generative AI images; they all give off this overly polished uncanny valley sheen that gives me the ick.
There are exceptions, however, like the live language translation features. They’ve produced amusingly mixed results in the past but show promise.
Then there’s the transcription feature that turns your voice recordings into text, which I get a bit of use out of mainly because of my job as a writer. Samsung’s transcription, like Google’s Pixel Recorder, currently has a leg up on Apple’s belated implementation because it separates speakers, making it easy to skim through interviews.
Otherwise, Circle to Search provides the most daily utility. By holding the bottom of the screen, it activates the visual search feature, letting you tap or circle anything on the phone’s display to look it up on Google. It even works when viewing something through the camera app, so it’s a pretty versatile tool, especially when you don’t know what phrase to use in a search query.
That’s all well and good, except for the topic of availability. Samsung has committed to making its Galaxy AI suite of features freely available until the end of 2025. After that, who knows?
Some of Google’s biggest AI features, like Gemini Live, already require a $32.99 monthly subscription. After using some of these features on the Pixel 9 Pro for a while, I can confidently say that I enjoyed experimenting with them, but I didn’t get enough use to warrant paying an ongoing subscription.
The same goes for Samsung’s Galaxy AI platform. I like the local transcription features but there’s not enough for me to pay more on top of the cost of a phone.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE camera
I like how much colour and vibrancy the S24 FE’s camera captures. As you’d reasonably expect, it’s not quite as sharp as the most expensive phone cameras though. Compared to the much pricier iPhone 16 Pro Max, the S24 FE isn’t quite as crisp. You can also see how the warm yellow tinge filters throughout the rest of the image, while the iPhone photo retains more colour consistency.
In good lighting conditions, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE camera holds up strongly alongside the iPhone 16 Pro Max. My plush Pokemon looks crisp and the colours are accurate. If there’s anything to nitpick, it’s that the iPhone illuminates the area around the subject slightly better.
Samsung’s impressive camera performance continues in low-light situations too. Using the default shutter mode, photos still display a decent level of clarity with the room in near-complete darkness. As you can see below, it’s easier to see the subject in the Samsung photo than in the one taken by the iPhone. There is a trade-off, however, in that you start to lose colour, producing a desaturated look.
Switching on night photography, which uses a slower shutter speed, you start to get more vibrancy. Here’s where the iPhone succeeds from a lighting perspective, although the result is an over-sharpened image. Either way, it’s pretty good considering how dark the room was.
Samsung’s handset takes nice selfies, particularly when you have a natural light source nearby, like a window. Without editing, its pictures are slightly cooler than the iPhone’s snaps, which I don’t mind. There’s a nice level of detail too, clearly depicting individual strands of hair on my head.
And how could I resist the temptation of sharing some cat photos? Even under the living room downlights, the Galaxy S24 FE camera performed strongly. After she decided to sniff Samsung’s hardware, the camera’s macro mode kicked in, snapping a cute action shot.
Who is the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE for?
Without a doubt in my mind, this is the best-value phone in Australia right now. With performance rivalling pricier phones and seven years of software updates, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a great Android handset at an even better price.
It’s versatile, durable, and takes nice photos. Want a premium Android device without blowing your budget to smithereens? This is the phone to get.
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