What you need to know
- Rumors have been swirling about the unannounced Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, a slightly scaled-back version of the Galaxy S24 available at a lower price.
- Recently, the Galaxy S24 FE appeared in regulatory filings, signaling that a launch may be imminent.
- However, the Galaxy S24 FE’s rumored launch window might align with holiday sales, and buying another flagship at a discount might be a better option.
All signs point to Samsung gearing up to release its next “FE” model, the Galaxy S24 FE. It’s a slightly more affordable version of the Galaxy S24 with a pared-down feature set to match. Following months of leaks and rumors, it’s now time to get excited. The smartphone has appeared in regulatory filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the phone world, that means a launch could be imminent.
Typically, Galaxy FE models don’t have breakthrough designs or creative form factors. They’re often just a derivative of the current Galaxy flagship design or the last “Fan Edition” smartphone. However, a leak from April 2024 indicates that the Galaxy S24 FE could be coming in a bunch of new and fresh colors from Samsung this year. Smaller bezels could be coming too, and multiple leaks have pointed to an October release window.
However, it’s hard to see a way that the Galaxy S24 FE becomes a surefire recommendation, even as the regular Galaxy S24 season nears a year old. We don’t know the exact specifications yet, but Samsung will have to shave off some Galaxy S24 features to offer the Galaxy S24 FE at a lower price point. Last year, the Galaxy S23 retailed for $800 and the Galaxy S23 FE later debuted at $600, offering a mid-tier variant $200 cheaper than Samsung’s base flagship phone.
We liked the Galaxy S23 FE when it arrived, but it launched when the Galaxy S23 was frequently discounted and the S24 was just a couple months out. No matter how good it was for its mid-range price, that made it an odd phone to recommend.
This year’s Galaxy S24 retailed for $800 too, and it’s available for that price from most retailers at the time of writing. However, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that the base-model Galaxy S24 goes on sale a lot. Just last weekend, the phone was $150 off at major retailers, bringing the price down to $650. These massive discounts happen often, and deals holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday net you even bigger savings.
While it’s great that you can get a Galaxy S24 for between $600 and $700 if you buy it at the right time, this creates a problem. There’s little reason to buy an “FE” model for $200 less than Samsung’s flagship if the flagship is also heavily discounted. Let’s say the Galaxy S24 FE comes in at $600, keeping in line with last year’s pricing. Would you want to buy that phone, or hold out for a Galaxy S24 deal? We can’t say for absolute certainty which would be the better deal — we haven’t tried the Galaxy S24 FE, of course, and it hasn’t been announced — but my money’s on the discounted Galaxy S24.
If you’ve been following the smartphone market for a while, this isn’t a new problem, and it isn’t unique to Samsung. A similar discourse follows the Google Pixel lineup. Originally a tiny sector with only a few devices, the Pixel lineup now features seven phones that are still being sold from the Google Store, including the Pixel 9 series, Pixel 8a, and Pixel 7a. That might be bumped up to eight devices soon, as Google confirmed it’s brining back the original Pixel Fold when the Pixel 9 Pro Fold originally launches.
Google’s now-bloated lineup feels like overkill where the Pixel A-series is concerned. By the time the Google Pixel 9a comes out, the Pixel 9 will probably cheap enough to make the difference negligible. The same now goes for the Galaxy FE series. If I had to guess, the Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S24 FE will be very similar in price when the new midranger launches.
You should hold out for Black Friday deals instead
It all begs the question of whether we need these pared-down midrangers in the first place. The Galaxy FE and Pixel A series both undercut their flagship counterparts only slightly, and I’d rather see Samsung and Google discount their base-model flagships than develop and produce a whole new phone. The tech industry wants to tout how environmentally conscious it is, but the best way to be sustainable is to simply make fewer things. Even if something is 100% recycled and carbon-neutral, it’s still more harmful than just making use of what we already have — the Galaxy S24.
That’s wishful thinking, I know. There’s more to it than that, though. After testing many of the best phones and scouring the internet for deals for years, I’m convinced that buying a Galaxy FE or Pixel A phone at full price is usually a bad deal. If you can hold out for a discount on a flagship or have just a bit extra money to spend, you’d be better off buying a Galaxy S24 or Pixel 8.
I bet this will be even more true with the Galaxy S24 FE. It’s slated for release in October, if the rumors are correct, which is about a month before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I can’t predict the future, but I would expect the Galaxy S24 to see a significant discount around the holiday shopping season, making it a more attractive buy than the Galaxy S24 FE for budget buyers. If that’s the case, why even bother with the Galaxy S24 FE?
