GoKawiilTL;DR The Galaxy S26 FE has launched with nearly the same hardware as last year’s model but a more capable Exynos chip.
The biggest upgrades involve new camera features, such as Horizon Lock and My FanCam, borrowed from more expensive devices.
The phone also comes with One UI 9 preinstalled and will get seven years of updates.
The Galaxy S25 FE was one of the most fascinating Samsung devices to launch last year. It wasn’t a true flagship, and it didn’t have the best screen, cameras, or chipset; a comparison with the more capable Galaxy S25 — or the newer Galaxy S26 — series phones would easily dwarf it in a tabular comparison. Yet its allure holds up because of the strong value it offers, especially with its battery and charging advantages over the base S series models.
Now, Samsung is announcing a follow-up in the form of the new Galaxy S26 FE, which comes with subtle design changes, a new processor, and a host of software upgrades.
Processor gets its due upgrade
Paul Jones / Android Authority
The Galaxy S26 FE aims to bridge the wide performance gap between the Galaxy A57 — Samsung’s most premium mid-ranger — and the base Galaxy S26. Up from the Exynos 2400 last year, the Galaxy S26 FE now gets a (relatively) newer Exynos 2500 (the chipset actually launched with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 last year).
The upgrades include a newer 3nm architecture, slightly boosted clock speeds across all 10 CPU cores, an improved Xclipse 950 GPU with AMD’s RDNA architecture for better efficiency, and a more capable NPU. The Exynos 2500 still lacks the Heat Pass Block, a passive heat radiator, that Samsung later added to the Exynos 2600, which launched earlier this year.
Design gets subtle tweaks
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