Last year, I called the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Australia’s best value phone. 12 months on, its successor, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, is a similarly decent phone, albeit with very few changes.
Labelled ‘FE’ for its status as Samsung’s bridge between its Galaxy A and Galaxy S phones, the idea is that this phone borrows the core features of the brand’s top phones, repackaged in a cheaper device. In the case of the S25 FE, it’s $300 cheaper than the standard S25. Or, if you buy it at launch, $550 cheaper.
For nearly the first month of its Australian launch, the 128GB model of the S25 FE costs $849. At that price, it’s a great phone, competing with the best phones in Australia. Once it reverts to the standard $1,099 price tag, Samsung’s flagship gateway device gets caught in the congestion of handsets entering ‘premium’ territory.
There’s enough of a gap to get caught between saving a few hundred dollars by choosing the S25 FE and paying a bit more to have the better-spec S25. And perhaps that’s exactly Samsung’s intention. The company sees the FE as a way to migrate customers to its premium devices, and the narrow price gap could be enough to push people to aim higher.
As for the phone, you could read last year’s review, and most of the same points apply to the new model. However, the lack of major year-on-year upgrades is underwhelming. Which, to be realistic, may not be that big of an issue, considering most people don’t upgrade phones every year.
Table of contents
- What’s changed between the S24 FE and the S25 FE?
- Specifications and price
- Design
- Performance
- Battery
- Camera
- Who is the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE for?
What’s changed between the S24 FE and the S25 FE?
If you glance at the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and then look back at last year’s model, it’s extremely tough to notice much of a difference.
Compared to the S24 FE, the S25 FE is 23g lighter and 0.6mm thinner, which is nice for fitting in your pocket. Otherwise, it has a slightly larger battery (4,900mAh versus 4,700mAh) while using the marginally better Exynos 2400 chipset. Last year’s phone used Samsung’s Exynos 2400e processor, which, as you’ll see a bit later, only results in a fractional difference in performance.
Samsung also claims that the Galaxy S25 FE is more durable. I wasn’t able to put this claim to the test, but it seemed to hold up fine to normal wear and tear.
Beyond that, the phone’s display is near-identical, the cameras are the same, and the aesthetic is very similar. Actually, there are some different colours to choose from, so the S25 FE technically has a changed aesthetic.
Samsung really took the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach here. That’s not terrible, but when the competition between phones keeps getting tighter, you want to see something more than just an imperceptibly lighter design. At least Samsung’s seven-year software update commitment remains in place.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE specifications and price
| Display | 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 1080 x 2340 resolution 120Hz refresh rate |
| Dimensions | 161.3 mm x 76.6 mm x 7.4 mm 190 grams |
| Processor | Samsung Exynos 2400 |
| 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 12MP front camera: f/2.2 |
| Battery and charging | 4900mAh |
| Connectivity | USB-C 3.2 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.4 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) | 128GB: $1,099 ($849 at launch) 256GB: $1,199 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Samsung Australia |
Design
Like last year’s phone, I like the S25 FE’s two-toned aesthetic. Samsung loaned me the navy version, which pairs nicely with the silvery aluminium frame, creating a nice light-and-shade contrast.
What you’ll mostly look at, however, is the 6.7-inch AMOLED screen. It’s a fair bit taller than the 6.2-inch display of the standard S25, yet the FE variant doesn’t feel unwieldy to hold.
Said screen is nice to look at, producing vibrant colours and strong overall contrast levels. Brightness is where it doesn’t shine. The S25 FE maxes out at 1,900 nits, although its peak brightness is only attainable when leaving auto brightness on.
That’s always one of the first settings I disable on any phone, preferring to manually adjust the brightness to my liking. As a result, this phone isn’t overly bright, making it tricky to use when out in the sun.
With all three rear cameras aligned on one side, the Galaxy S25 FE wobbles a lot when placed down on a flat surface. Mind you, this is a gripe you could level at nearly any premium phone maker. On this phone, though, it feels particularly pronounced.
Performance
In terms of general use, the Galaxy S25 FE is a smooth operator. Apps, web browsing, and standard phone use run without issue. It’s not a world-beater, by any means, but performs capably alongside its similarly priced peers.
| Phone | CPU single-core | CPU multi-core | GPU |
| Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max | 3,768 | 9,443 | 45,451 |
| iPhone Air | 3,115 | 6,593 | 37,754 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | 2,360 | 8,911 | 14,671 |
| Apple iPhone 16e | 2,679 | 6,144 | 23,732 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 FE | 2,154 | 7,057 | 13,588 |
| Google Pixel 10 Pro | 2,317 | 6,455 | 3,233 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 2,051 | 6,428 | N/A |
| Xiaomi Poco F6 | 1,899 | 4,734 | 8,762 |
| Motorola Edge 60 Pro | 1,432 | 4,695 | 9,107 |
| Google Pixel 9a | 1,716 | 3,895 | 8,011 |
| Samsung Galaxy A56 | 1,364 | 3,898 | 6,539 |
| Motorola Edge 60 Fusion | 1,050 | 3,014 | 2,581 |
What you’ll notice, however, is how little has changed between the S24 FE and the S25 FE. Multi-core CPU performance is less than 10 per cent better, while the same applies to graphical performance according to 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme benchmark test.
| Device | Wild Life Extreme benchmark |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | 5,533 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 4,531 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 FE | 4,399 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 4,014 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 2,572 |
Again, people don’t upgrade their phones every year as a general rule. Still, 10 per cent is a minimal improvement, even by annual release cycle standards.
These numbers are still pretty decent, so it’s not a complete wash. However, the S25 FE struggles under sustained heavy workloads.
When subject to the 20-minute Wild Life Extreme stress test, there was a 39.5 per cent performance difference between the best and worst results. It got hot, too. Really hot. Just holding the phone was enough to make my hands sweaty. More than usual, at least.
Battery
I’m a fairly light phone user, so I’m usually left with plenty of juice by the end of the day. So, I like to run a few repeatable tests to try and quantify some data that gives a reasonable indication of battery life.
After playing an hour of YouTube videos at 50 per cent brightness and audio volume, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE drained from 100 down to 96 per cent of its battery capacity. That’s on par with the S24 FE and the slimline S25 Edge. Not outstanding, but fair.
When running the 20-minute Wild Life Extreme stress test, the phone’s battery dropped 11 percentage points. That’s not too bad, particularly given the aforementioned heat levels. It also indicates better long-term battery performance than the S25 Edge, which dropped 16 points during the same test.
All of which is to say that moderate users should last a day before needing to charge.
Camera
Using an almost identical camera array to last year’s phone, there’s not much for me to add regarding the S25 FE. It has a slightly better 12MP selfie camera, but nothing eye-popping.
What’s there is still a decent set of cameras, including a 3x optical zoom telephoto lens. Well-lit photos look lush and clear, capturing a decent amount of depth. I like the contrast between the overcast sky and the nicely manicured footy oval in these photos.
Unfortunately, only the main camera benefits from a 50MP mode, so you can’t zoom in much when using the telephoto lens. As such, trying to crop in and look closer makes people look like blocky little Lego figurines.
I got better performance from the macro sensor, thankfully. Getting up close to my Lego flowers resulted in a sharp photo with a nicely satisfying shallow depth of field. Importantly, the colours remained fairly true — cheaper phones often capture wildly different colours when using a macro sensor.
And, of course, my cat, Billie, looks as resplendent as ever. Then again, doesn’t she always?
Who is the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE for?
There is one type of person for whom the S25 FE is not: anyone who has the S24 FE. Without getting out a magnifying glass, it’s tough to discern many notable differences between this year’s phone and the last.
But it is a decent phone as a slight step up from the packed mid-range Android ecosystem. Especially if you grab the S25 FE at its introductory $849 price, or on sale at a later date. With how increasingly saturated the $1,000 phone market has become, Samsung’s flagship gateway device is no longer an assured slam dunk.
This phone has a nice, albeit dim, screen, a reasonable set of cameras. It’s a statement that also applies to 2024’s S24 FE model. Which pretty much sums up how I feel about the S25 FE.
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