Based on my short time with the Galaxy S26 FE, Samsung should probably have taken the year off

Samsung’s latest mid-range hero has arrived, right on schedule, to bridge the gap between this and next year’s flagships. The S26 FE sticks closely to the established ‘Fan Edition’ concept – so much so, in fact, that I’m left wondering why any true Samsung phone fans would bother.

The Galaxy S25 FE has been given the mildest of refreshes here, with a new chipset promising marginally better battery life, the Galaxy AI features that debuted on the firm’s new foldables earlier in the year, and a few new colour choices. Oh, and a £50/€50 price hike.

While no-one in the tech world has been immune from AI-inflicted component cost increases, that price stings a little when the outgoing phone is still readily available for cheaper – and even the full-fat S26 can be had for less cash if you shop around.

After a brief hands-on with the S26 FE, hre’s why I think only true die-hards with ageing Samsung mid-rangers need apply.

Haven’t I seen you before?

Revised rear camera bump aside, there’s little here that marks the S26 FE out from its predecessor – but importantly that means it still does a convincing impression of the pricier Galaxy S26+. This doesn’t look or feel like a mid-range handset, with flat glass at the front and rear, and a flat frame built from Samsung’s Armor Aluminium. It’s also IP68 resistant.

The Pistachio version seen in my photos is arguably the pick of this year’s bunch – it’s a light hue that’s very easy on the eye. Blueberry is a close second, while Graphite is the safer option.

The 6.7in screen is a repeat of last year, but that’s not a major issue – the old phone was very easy on the eye, after all. The FHD+ resolution looked sharp enough for a mid-ranger to my eyes, while the 120Hz refresh rate delivered smooth scrolling. Bezels are suitably slim and brightness still peaks at 1900 nits, which should be just enough for decent outdoor visibility. Samsung’s punchy colours are of course present and correct.

AI all the way

Samsung spent the most time talking about how the S26 FE was the first Galaxy S handset to get the latest Galaxy AI features. It seems like virtually everything seen on the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Flip8 has been ported over, including generative image editing and real-time voice transcription.

The Now Brief page has gained custom cards, which you can tailor to surface useful info in just a couple of taps. It’s nice to have, though I wonder how many of these features will just end up ported back to the older S25 FE in the future.

You’re getting Android 17 out of the box, with seven years of new OS generations and security updates promised.

Samsung has also brought along the new Horizon Lock video recording mode for smoother handheld footage using the three rear cameras, along with the My FanCam mode. This uses subject detection to smartly pan and zoom, letting you focus more on the moment than what’s centred in the phone’s viewfinder.

Camera hardware is virtually unchanged, with just the 12MP selfie cam getting a wider 85-degree field of view lens. There’s a familiar 50MP main snapper, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP telephoto at the rear, with the latter good for 3x optical zoom. Samsung reckons algorithm updates have brought sharper 2x zoom and ‘better processed’ digital zooms up to 30x, though I’ll have to wait for a full review to verify.

Another year, another Exynos

There have been a few changes under skin, but Samsung’s reps didn’t even mention the new Exynos 2500 chipset during my briefing presentation. It promises to be a little quicker and a little more efficient than the outgoing phone’s Exynos 2400, although how much that’ll translate to real-world gains remains to be seen.

8GB of RAM is the standard, whether you go for 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of on-board storage.

With all the demo units running pre-release software I wasn’t allowed to run my usual bunch of benchmarks to judge performance. Android felt smooth enough, with apps opening fairly quickly. The chip was a decent enough performer in the Galaxy Z Flip 7, so I’m expecting just the right amount of mid-range oomph here.

Samsung reckons it has eked an extra hour of video playback out of the 4900mAh battery, which is unchanged from last year. To me that sounds like it’ll be another all-day phone, but not one that’ll last two days of regular use – you’ll still need to head for big battery rivals from Chinese brands for that.

45W wired charging is competitive, at least, and 15W wireless charging makes a return too.

Even more marginal gains than usual

Samsung has smartly kept to the same launch schedule as last year, so there’s enough clean air between the Galaxy S26 and its successor (which will inevitably arrive in Jaunary 2027) to keep the FE relevant.

However, the lack of meaningful upgrades over a predecessor that can be bought for considerably less cash could be a major stumbling block.

The Galaxy S26 FE is up for pre-order right now, with prices starting at £699.

What are the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE’s technical specifications?