Samsung Galaxy S26 FE first impressions: The logical step up for Galaxy A users?
If you’re currently using an older Galaxy A series smartphone but want to take a step towards a flagship without spending Galaxy S26 money, Samsung thinks the new Galaxy S26 FE could be your next phone.
At least, that’s how Samsung is positioning their brand new ‘Fan Edition’ smartphone, with the Korean giant pitching the Galaxy S26 FE as the ‘entry ticket’ to a flagship mobile experience. The key here isn’t a flashy design or value-for-money hardware though, but instead Samsung is betting that by bundling in some features previously found only on their true flagships, midrange users would be tempted to make that step up to the Galaxy S26 FE.
On paper, the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE makes a lot of sense
In terms of performance, the Galaxy S26 FE comes pretty close to matching the regular Galaxy S26 and S26+, while comfortably beating out the Galaxy A57 5G. The Galaxy S26 FE packs an Exynos 2500 system-on-chip, which is Samsung’s previous generation flagship mobile platform. The Galaxy S26 meanwhile gets a slightly better Exynos 2600, while the Galaxy A57 is far behind with its Exynos 1680 instead.
On top of that, one slight oddity is that because of Samsung’s staggered release schedule, the Galaxy S26 FE actually comes with Android 17 and OneUI 9 skinned over it right out of the box. Combined with Samsung’s guarantee of 7 years of software and security updates, you could in theory use it till Android 24 rolls around. Both the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy A57 meanwhile come with Android 16, putting it already one step behind even before you account for the 7 and 6 years of software support respectively.
One other thing to note is that the Galaxy S26 FE comes with Galaxy AI and Google Gemini, matching the Galaxy S26 in terms of its AI-powered tools and features. The Galaxy A57 meanwhile is limited to Samsung’s Awesome Intelligence AI feature suite, losing some of the more advanced Galaxy AI tools like Now Brief.
Packing a main 50MP, f/1.8 shooter, a 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide and an 8MP, f/2.4 telephoto offering 3x optical zoom, its hardware doesn’t match up with the regular Galaxy S26, which has a slightly better 10MP telephoto. However, it’s the fact that it has a telephoto at all that makes it miles better than the Galaxy A57, which drops the telephoto for a less versatile 5MP macro camera instead.
It’s really in the camera features though that the Galaxy S26 FE stands out. According to Samsung, they’ve baked in a number of flagship camera features into the Galaxy S26 FE, giving it that ‘flagship experience’ we mentioned earlier while still being a fair bit more accessible than the regular Galaxy S26. These include the viral Super Steady Video with Horizontal Lock tool that stabilises your video even when attached on a drill, while My FanCam from the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 keeps your subject centred and in frame when you’re taking the shot.
As for the rest of the Galaxy S26 FE, it’s on paper a solid showing. It’s 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,900nits matches the Galaxy A57 for the most part, though the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ offer 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rates and up to a QHD+ resolution. It also matches the 4,900mAh battery on the Galaxy S26+, and while the Galaxy A57 has a larger 5,000mAh battery it doesn’t have the wireless charging capabilities of the Galaxy S26 FE.
Is it cheap enough?
Of course, the biggest stumbling block that prevents midrange smartphone users making the leap to flagship smartphones have traditionally been the matter of price. The argument has typically been that for half the cash, you’ll be getting a smartphone that does 80% of the job already, so why fork out that much more for diminishing returns?
Except, that’s no longer the case. Samsung’s Galaxy A series has steadily gone up in price over the years, and following news of its latest price revision which will go into effect from 7 September onwards, the Galaxy A57 5G now starts at RM2,099 for the 8GB+256GB configuration, rising up to RM2,899 for the 12GB+512GB top end model. Then if we take a look at the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+, things look even worse as they start at RM4,399 and RM5,399 respectively for the 256GB base models.
That’s probably why Samsung is positioning the Galaxy S26 FE as a nice in-between option among their smartphone models. Officially, the Galaxy S26 FE has a starting price of RM2,899, but when you take into account their various launch promotion rebates, here’s how much the Galaxy S26 FE will go for:
- Galaxy S26 FE, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage –
RM2,899RM2,499 - Galaxy S26 FE, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage –
RM3,299RM2,799 - Galaxy S26 FE, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage –
RM4,099RM3,399
Personally, I think the Galaxy S26 FE would’ve been an easy recommendation if they were still doing the old ‘double storage upgrade’ launch promotions of yesteryear, as suggesting a 128GB smartphone in the year of our Lord 2026 is a bit of a tough ask. But if you were to ask me to choose between the 256GB Galaxy S26 FE or the 512GB Galaxy A57 5G, then things start to get a little bit more in favour of the Galaxy S26 FE.
Of course, all of this doesn’t take into account the actual street price of the Galaxy A57 5G; a number of retailers have been heavily discounting Samsung’s midranger of late, though we’re not sure if that’ll continue when the price revision takes place.
Overall, first impressions of the Galaxy S26 FE is that while it isn’t necessarily the best value in town, it’s certainly the Samsung smartphone that should give Galaxy A series users an easier way to step up into flagship territory while staying in the Samsung ecosystem.
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