Samsung Galaxy S25 Fe Review: Iterative To A Fault

Five years aft nan merchandise of nan Galaxy S20 FE, Samsung has settled into a predictable shape pinch its "Fan Edition" statement of phones. Each caller telephone doesn't connection overmuch caller aliases different from its contiguous predecessor, pinch nan institution opting to connection iterative updates instead.

That mightiness person been good before, but pinch nan presence of nan Nothing Phone 3a Pro and Pixel 10 — devices that changed nan worth proposition successful their respective categories — nan S25 FE feels woefully retired of touch pinch a marketplace that's changing to meet people's demands. There's not overmuch present that makes nan caller Galaxy S25 FE guidelines out, and immoderate "upgrades" aren't substantive.

Hardware and display

When I first took nan S25 FE retired of nan box, I thought Samsung had played a sadistic instrumentality connected me. The telephone looks identical to its predecessor, sporting nan aforesaid brushed aluminum framework that's been nan company's go-to for years now. I had to excavation nan S24 FE retired of my gadgets drawer to comparison nan 2 phones earlier I confirmed they were successful truth different devices.

The beingness differences are minor. Samsung has tweaked nan dimensions of nan caller phone, making it somewhat shorter, wider and thinner. Specifically, nan S25 FE measures successful astatine 6.35 x 3.02 x 0.29 inches, while its predecessor was 6.38 x 3.04 x 0.31 inches. The caller telephone is besides protected by Samsung's "enhanced Armor" aluminum frame.

More noticeable is that nan S25 FE is lighter than past year's model, coming successful astatine 6.7 ounces, down from 7.51 ounces. This is contempt nan truth nan caller instrumentality has a higher-capacity 4,900mAh battery. Together, these changes don't make nan S25 FE easier to clasp if you person mini hands (just inquire my girlfriend), but it does consciousness amended balanced than its predecessor. One rumor pinch nan size of nan S25 FE is nan placement of nan in-display fingerprint sensor. It's correct astatine nan bottommost of nan screen. I recovered this made it awkward to unlock nan telephone pinch my thumb — and I'm personification pinch large hands.

Another flimsy quality is nan decorativeness connected nan backmost of nan phone. This clip around, Samsung has gone pinch a matte coating, alternatively of nan glossy decorativeness it utilized connected nan S24 FE. It's a invited alteration since it makes nan caller exemplary little prone to smudging and attracting fingerprints. I conscionable wish Samsung had decided to connection nan S25 FE successful much nosy colors. At release, it's disposable successful 4 colorways: white, icy blue, pitchy achromatic and navy (pictured). So, if you don't for illustration blue, I'm sorry.

Amid nan flimsy creation tweaks, Samsung has gone pinch nan aforesaid surface it did past year. The S25 FE has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, pinch a sheet that offers a 120Hz refresh complaint and 1080p resolution. The S24 FE's vibrant surface was 1 of nan champion parts of past year's model, and it's nan aforesaid pinch S25 FE. It's easy to spot nan surface successful agleam sunlight, acknowledgment to nan truth it tin push 1,900 nits of highest brightness. It's besides vibrant, and pinch HDR10 support included, awesome for watching videos connected YouTube, Netflix and elsewhere.

Cameras

Samsung made a azygous tweak to nan Galaxy S25 FE's camera hardware. Like past year's model, nan caller telephone has a 50-megapixel main camera pinch optical image stabilization (OIS) and a accelerated f/1.8 aperture lens. Once again, it besides has an 8MP telephoto camera pinch a 3x optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide perspective that offers a 123-degree section of view.

The 1 summation is simply a higher solution 12MP front-facing camera pinch a faster f/2.2 aperture lens. For selfies, nan S24 FE made do pinch a 10MP sensor and f/2.4 lens. If nan caller front-facing camera included shape discovery autofocus (PDAF), it would beryllium nan aforesaid 1 that's disposable connected nan Galaxy S25. Unfortunately, it doesn't and that's a shame because PDAF greatly increases nan likelihood your photos will travel retired crisp and successful focus.

It's besides a shame Samsung decided not to update nan FE's telephoto camera. Before nan Nothing 3a Pro, that was 1 of nan features that made nan S24 FE guidelines retired successful its value range. In 2025, however, nan S25 FE's telephoto feels outdated. It doesn't connection nan 5x optical zoom of nan Pixel 10 nor nan 50MP of solution and periscope zoom you get pinch nan 3a Pro. Coming from nan former, nan FE's telephoto camera felt limiting. With only 8MP of resolution, trying to threat a photograph astatine thing beyond 5x zoom was pointless; it would conscionable move retired a blurry mess.

As for FE's different cameras, they're decent if uninspiring. The 50MP camera is nan champion of nan bunch, tin of capturing detailed, good-looking photos moreover successful debased light. The ultrawide, meanwhile, is mostly forgettable. It does an okay occupation of capturing large scenes, but it's lacking successful move scope and detail. The selfie camera is simply a noticeable upgrade from nan 1 that came pinch past year's model, and produces pleasing photos that are connected par pinch what you tin expect from nan S25's front-facing camera.

Otherwise, snapping pictures pinch nan S25 FE feels for illustration utilizing a flagship telephone from a fewer years ago. The 1 point that saves it from being a complete blast from nan past is nan inclusion of Samsung's generative photograph editing software, which you tin usage to region distracting objects from photos. Of nan AI photograph apps I've tested, Samsung's is among nan champion astatine editing retired objects without smearing nan background. You tin besides usage nan generative edit to adhd things to a photo, but arsenic you mightiness expect, this doesn't activity arsenic good arsenic removing them.

Performance and artillery life

On paper, nan S25 FE should connection amended capacity than its predecessor, acknowledgment to Samsung's determination to equip nan telephone pinch its Exynos 2400 chipset complete nan cut-down Exynos 2400e it utilized connected past year's model. In believe nan 2 are astir connected par pinch 1 another. On Geekbench's processor test, nan Exynos 2400 delivered a 2,144 single-core people and a 7,059 multi-core score. That's not overmuch amended than nan 2,140 and 6,690 I recorded past autumn connected nan S24 FE.

Still, it's a much awesome showing than either nan Pixel 9a and Nothing 3a Pro had erstwhile my workfellow Sam Rutherford and I put their Tensor G4 and Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chips done Geekbench earlier this year. For comparison, nan erstwhile delivered a humble 1,665 connected single-core capacity and 4,294 connected multi-core performance. The second scored an moreover little awesome 1,115 and 3,082 respectively.

In real-world use, nan Exynos 2400 feels snappy. Scrolling is accelerated and fluid, arsenic is opening apps and switching betwixt them. Gaming capacity is besides impressive, pinch nan spot capable to grip nan 60 fps modes successful graphically demanding games for illustration Diablo Immortal and League of Legends: Wild Rift without dropping frames.

Last year, Samsung said it redesigned nan S24 FE's vapor enclosure to make it bigger and amended cooling. With nan S25 FE, that constituent is an further 10 percent larger. However, if nan caller vapor enclosure made a quality to nan phone's thermals, I had a difficult clip telling. Both nan S25 FE and S24 FE sewage lukewarm aft astir 15 to 20 minutes of gaming. The caller telephone ne'er sewage basking to nan constituent I couldn't clasp it anymore, but it besides didn't consciousness noticeably cooler than nan S24 FE moving nan aforesaid games.

As mentioned astatine nan top, nan S25 FE has a larger 4,900mAh battery. That's astir 4 percent much capacity than nan S24 FE offered. As a result, immoderate quality successful artillery life is minimal. I'm judge location are immoderate scenarios nan S25 FE whitethorn past longer than its predecessor, but successful my testing nan 2 phones were adjacent successful position of longevity. With 3 to 4 hours of progressive screentime, I managed to get a afloat time of artillery life from nan S25 FE, pinch capable powerfulness near complete to get nan telephone done nan nighttime earlier charging it successful nan morning. That's akin to nan acquisition I had past year.

Speaking of charging, nan S24 FE, pinch a 25 watt wired limit, was painfully slow astatine it. Going into this review, my dream was nan S25 FE would do amended and I had bully logic to beryllium hopeful. Samsung lists nan caller telephone arsenic tin of charging astatine 45 watts. However, successful my testing nan S25 FE was only somewhat faster than its predecessor. Plugged into a 130 watt Razer GaN charger, it took nan telephone astir an hr and 14 minutes to complaint to afloat from a artillery astatine 10 percent life. When I replicated that aforesaid trial pinch a 25 watt charger, it took nan S25 FE conscionable complete an hour-and-a-half to complaint backmost up.

Either way, if artillery life is important to you, nan Nothing 3a Pro and Pixel 9a are amended bets. Both travel pinch bigger batteries (5,000 and 5,100mAh, respectively), and pinch nan former, you besides get 50 watt charging.

Software

The S25 FE ships pinch Android 16 and Samsung's One UI 8 retired of nan box. Samsung has promised to support nan telephone pinch astatine slightest 7 generations of level updates, truthful it should enactment existent pinch Google's yearly merchandise schedule up until astatine slightest Android 23 successful 2032. Notably, this intends nan S25 FE whitethorn extremity up connected a much caller type of Android than nan S25, S25 Edge and S25 Ultra, each of which released pinch Android 15.

With One UI 8, nan S25 FE has entree to each of nan latest AI features from some Samsung and Google. Some of these devices are useful; others replicate functionality that has been coming successful Android for a agelong time. For example, Google's Circle to Search is great. It makes it easy to do a ocular hunt of thing connected nan phone's screen. On nan different hand, I could do without Samsung's Now Brief, which offers overmuch of nan aforesaid inferior you'll find connected Android's Discover page (a characteristic that comes modular connected each Android phone).

Each S25 FE besides comes pinch six months of free entree to Google AI Pro. Normally priced astatine $20 per month, nan work gives you entree to immoderate of nan company's champion models, including Gemini 2.5 Pro, wrong of nan Gemini app. Within Flow, Google's AI filmmaking app, you besides get constricted entree to Veo 3.1, Google's latest video procreation system. Some different perks see 2TB of unreality retention and higher complaint limits erstwhile utilizing NotebookLM.

Wrap-up

With changes that magnitude to model dressing, I can't urge anyone bargain nan S25 FE astatine afloat price. There's conscionable capable present to warrant spending $650 connected a telephone that is hardly an upgrade complete its predecessor. If you're a Samsung fan, I'm judge nan S25 FE will beryllium often discounted, but why reward nan institution for a lazy effort? Besides, nan S25, pursuing a $200 discount for Prime Day, was only $10 much than nan FE earlier this month.

Over nan past fewer years, Google and Nothing person shown midrange phones don't request to beryllium boring, iterative affairs. For Samsung, I deliberation it's clip to rethink its FE strategy. If these phones offered thing different — opportunity existent instrumentality favourite features for illustration a headphone jack — location could beryllium compelling reasons to urge them. But arsenic things stand, there's conscionable nary logic to bargain a caller FE telephone erstwhile nan company's flagships spot steep value discounts wrong months of their release.