It’s tough times for the midrange phone.
The Galaxy S26 FE is the latest edition of Samsung’s “fan edition” phone series, which attempts to strike a middle ground between its flagship “S” phones and its cheaper entry-level A-series. Maintaining that balance is difficult. What features and specs do you try to match? What compromises need to be made? Some of us will be taking a more considered look at this year’s FE phone, as the RAM crisis nudges prices upwards, not only for flagship phones, but also for the middle ground occupied by the $700 S26 FE. What constitutes value for money in a new smartphone in 2026?
Hardware
Like the Galaxy S25 FE, the S26 FE feels more like the Galaxy S26+ than the S26, with a larger 6.7-inch display and a trio of cameras on the back. It’s hard to spot the differences from its predecessor since there are only a few minor design changes, including a new glossy back finish. It’s a choice: The S25 FE had a matte finish, as does the flagship S26 family. I guess it’s been done to differentiate, but I’m not sure why. The newest Galaxy phone is also marginally taller, wider and heavier (3 grams) than the S25 FE, though the 7.4mm thickness remains identical. It also has a slightly more pronounced chin at the bottom of the device.
Otherwise, it looks and feels like a flagship Galaxy phone that costs several hundred dollars more. Plus, I love the pistachio colored device I received for review. I’m always happy to see more diverse color options appear alongside the monochrome status quo.
The S26 FE also has a new connected camera island, replacing the camera lenses that slightly jutted out of the back of the S25 FE. It’s a minor design tweak, but it does help unify the device with both the Galaxy S and Z families.
The 6.7-inch OLED display looks crisp and vivid, though anyone coming from flagship devices will notice the lower max brightness on sunny summer days. It peaks at 1,900 nits, while the Galaxy S26 series cranks out up to 2,600 nits. The display does, however, reach up to 120Hz, so it’s at least a smooth experience, and compared to the base S26, I appreciate having more screen on a device that’s currently $200 less.
Diving into the rest of the technical specs reveals the tough economic choices made to keep the price low. That said, it’s still $50 more than the S25 FE, with the same 8GB of RAM and only 128GB of storage on the base iteration. This fills up quickly, especially with asset-dense games like Wuthering Waves. (There is a 256GB version, if needed.)
This year’s Fan Edition now has an Exynos 2500 chip, which makes it at least a little more capable for gaming. It’s certainly not a flagship experience, however. The S26 FE struggled with the demands of Wuthering Waves, with frame rates often choking in prettier, more detailed environments or hectic fights. Some may argue this is one sign that this isn’t a fully fledged Galaxy S phone, but it uses the same chip as last year’s Z Flip 7. Unless you’re pushing the phone to its limits, it’s otherwise fast and responsive most of the time.
One thing I did note was that the camera app was occasionally so sluggish it felt like a much cheaper A-series phone. This was intermittent, but also frustrating. Trying to snap an in-the-moment shot demands a zippy camera app. It’s been years since phone companies have bragged about how responsive their camera launchers and shutter are, because they are all pretty swift now, making the S26 FE’s struggles all the more jarring.
At least the battery’s big, matching the 4,900mAh cell in the similarly sized S26+ (and last year’s FE phone, again). In our video rundown test, we eked out just over 21 hours of playback in day-to-day use. Despite the larger battery than what’s in the S26, that’s a big drop in longevity. This means the S26 FE demanded daily charging. Those speeds top out at 45-watt wired charging with support for 15W wireless charging, too. No magnetic rings for mounting, but hey, at least there’s wireless charging.
Software
There’s a decent selection of upgraded software this time, with support for Now Brief and Now Nudge, Samsung’s attempt at contextual AI. Now Brief can summarize your smartphone life throughout the day, while Now Nudge is arguably the more useful of the pair, bypassing app switching and streamlining tasks. It’s similar to Google’s Magic Cue, surfacing real-time shortcuts to your calendar or contacts apps without manually copying and pasting dates or phone numbers. Samsung has also improved object erasing and other AI photo editing tasks, which all seem much swifter and more accurate than on older FE phones.
Cameras
When it comes to cameras, it’s more of the same for the FE series. The S26 FE has a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. It is… what it is. While it has a dedicated telephoto camera, making it at least a smidge versatile, don’t expect particularly stunning photos. Many telephoto shots were blurry or overexposed. In good light, the main camera captured some detailed shots, with support from Samsung’s new ProVisual Engine helping enhance detail and textures without looking overly exaggerated or unrealistic.
Like some phones from Nothing, I noted that the photo preview when capturing images was often not reflected in the eventual image saved — in a good way. Saved photos looked crisper and more color-accurate than they did on the phone’s camera app. (Even if it was still pretty sluggish.)
The S26 FE also arrives with several of Samsung’s latest camera features. That includes additions like My FanCam, which can isolate, crop and track a selected person in group videos. It also features horizon-lock video recording, meaning it’ll keep footage stable across the horizontal axis regardless of how much you rotate the S26 FE, capturing up to 4K video in the process. It’s a useful feature, once the domain of action cams, to pack into a mid-range device like this.
Wrap-up
The S26 FE is a hard sell. On paper, sure, it’s $200 less than the $900 Galaxy S26+, but is it $50 better than the S25 FE — still on sale and actually typically cheaper than $650 a year later? The company still sells its own S24+ as a certified refurb for $650, with more RAM and a substantially brighter screen. It’s a tough time to price midrange smartphones, even when they’re substantially better than their predecessor. When the changes are minimal, as with the S26 FE, it’s even trickier. On Samsung’s own web store, it compares the S26 FE to the S21 FE, from 2022! It’s a symptom of pricier components and perhaps prioritizing the wrong things in the company’s latest midrange, big-screen smartphone. Did it have to launch the S26 FE? Maybe not.
Outside of the Galaxy family, Google’s Pixel 10a, at $500, is the biggest rival. Admittedly, it lacks Samsung’s latest software additions, a smaller screen and a telephoto camera, but it has a bigger battery and a brighter screen. It is also, I repeat, 200 bucks less.
Barring retail discounts and holiday sales, I’d suggest looking at older Galaxy S devices before the S26 FE. It’s simply not doing enough.
