Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Review For Fans And Newcomers

The Galaxy S25 FE is the middle-of-the-road landing pad where Samsung’s constantly churning Fan Edition should live: a path to the flagship experience without having to pay the full flagship bill. While power users still have some things to wish for, successive refinements have brought the device closer to what I suspect is more or less Samsung’s vision: a phone that nails the core fundamentals of battery life, software longevity and display quality while offering perhaps just enough in the way of camera performance and raw speed. This is an easy phone to recommend for first-time Galaxy buyers or anyone upgrading from an S23 FE or older.

Design and display refinements on the Galaxy S25 FE

At first glance, the S25 FE retains that same minimalist look: a matte-finish glass back, sparse camera stack and a flat aluminum frame that’s thinner and lighter than last year’s model. It’s got a comfortable weight to it in hand and is ready for some abuse, with IP68 dust and water resistance as well as Gorilla Glass Victus Plus.

The 6.7-inch OLED operates at a 120Hz refresh rate and has maximum brightness hitting around 1900 nits, very comfortable to use outdoors. It’s LTPS rather than LTPO, so it’ll switch between 60Hz and 120Hz instead of dipping all the way down to ultra-low refresh rates. In real life use, Samsung’s dynamic behavior seemed to emphasize battery saving over slowing down the UI (which I’m sure everyone can appreciate). There is still an optical in-display fingerprint reader; it’s fast and reliable, though power users might have wanted the ultrasonic tech.

Performance, gaming stability, and thermals explained

Samsung keeps it in-house with the Exynos 2400 family, very slightly tuned beyond the S24 FE’s (preliminarily) sluggish 2400e but is close enough to be passed off as identical. Day-to-day operations are snappy for social apps, photo editing and multitasking. In synthetic benchmarks, like Geekbench 6, the phone falls behind the S25 and S25 Plus, though it can outdo last year’s FE in both single- and multi-core scores.

Extended GPU loads paint a more nuanced picture. Stress suites like 3DMark Wild Life reveal stability that plateaus in the low- to mid-60% range after a handful of loops, indicating efficiency dive-bombs during lengthy gaming assignments or under incubating conditions. Real-world performance is better than the charts would lead you to believe: titles like War Thunder Mobile and GRID Legends play smoothly at high settings, with only occasional hiccups and warm—though not scorching—temperatures.

The base model’s 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage are the most punishing limits. The 128GB version would be satisfactory if you are not a heavy multitasker, hoard offline media, or otherwise use high-res texture packs for mobile gaming.

Battery life gains and faster charging on the S25 FE

This is the biggest win. The S25 FE boosts that capacity with a 4,900mAh battery and brings in 45W wired charging, which is a material improvement over the generations-long glass ceiling of 25W on the FE series. This isn’t, however, a full-time-on device: you can expect to get around eight hours of screen-on time with mixed use and when its battery nears empty a charge will take no more than about an hour with a PPS-compatible charger.

Wireless charging is back, and Samsung described the phone as “Qi2-ready,” which should mean magnetic accessories will work with a dedicated case. It’s not the speediest system out there, but the endurance and sensible charging rates alter how often you concern yourself with battery life — read: almost never.

Camera performance and video features on Galaxy S25 FE

The camera stack is dependable but a little long in the tooth: 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP 3x telephoto. Colors are pleasing and exposure is mostly well-judged, but detail can appear soft in daylight 1x shots and the ultrawide’s corners exhibit noise and smearing. The 8MP telephoto is the weakest link in 2025, though; while images at 3x are usable, stretching up to 10x shows signs of watercolor textures and blown highlights.

Video records clean 4K/60 from the main camera, but the ultrawide and telephoto are capped at lower frame rates. The stabilization is trusted for walking shots. The enhanced 12MP front-facing camera produces natural skin tones, but it does lack autofocus — a feature Samsung saves for its more expensive tiers.

AI tools come in handy more than ever this year. Best Face can correct blinks in a group photo (à la Google’s Best Take), Audio Eraser suppresses distracting background noise, and Now Brief pushes up-to-date summaries. These are alongside the likes of Single Take, Expert RAW and generative edit tools that Samsung saves only for its in-house versions. (As with all computational systems, results vary, but the toolkit is strong and legitimately useful.)

Software experience and long-term support commitments

Seven years of Android OS updates and security patches place the S25 FE among the best in the business… it is in line with what Google offers on its own flagship lineup today. That means buyers can stretch this hardware out for much longer than average midrange phones, a benefit backed by studies on long-term updates done by firms such as Counterpoint Research that tie longevity to higher resale and lower total ownership cost.

One UI is still packed with features, and the Good Lock module has you covered for deeper customization. There are still preloads from partners such as Spotify, Netflix and Microsoft — which add removable clutter it doesn’t need.

Value for money and key rivals to the Galaxy S25 FE

At roughly $649 MSRP, the Galaxy S25 FE undercuts Samsung’s mainline models while delivering all the fundamental features. If you’re in search of a longer camera reach and exclusivity, Google’s newest Pixel sports a 5x periscope and similarly long support window for more money. If raw speed is your top priority, many of OnePlus’s performance-minded midrange offerings bring Snapdragon 8 series chips, lower but still big batteries and faster charging, but with less generous update guarantees and weaker water resistance.

Final verdict on whether the Galaxy S25 FE is worth it

The Galaxy S25 FE is the most balanced Fan Edition in a long time. It does it all again, adding battery and charging improvements plus software longevity. The performance is good rather than great, and those rear cameras are crying out for a hardware upgrade to match what the competition is doing. It’s not cheap, but for someone new to the Galaxy ecosystem (or trying to upgrade from an S23 FE or before), this is a solid, future-safe choice that gets all the everyday stuff right.