Samsung unveils the Galaxy S26 FE – a Galaxy S for the fans

On 27 August Samsung introduced the Galaxy S26 FE. It is the cheaper phone in the Galaxy S26 line, and the first Galaxy S to ship with the new One UI 9 interface. I had it in my hands at the event in Vilnius, so alongside the specifications there are my own impressions.

In person the pistachio and blueberry finishes look better than in photographs. Graphite is the classic and the safe choice. In the hand the phone is lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra I carry every day, and it feels premium overall. The one thing that undercuts it is the glossy glass back, which picks up marks the moment you touch it.

Screen and battery

A 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display at 120 Hz, and a 4,900 mAh battery that charges at up to 45 W over a cable.

The screen is bright enough, and outdoors everything was readable in direct sun. The resolution is lower than on the Galaxy S26+, but movement is just as smooth. What did catch my eye is the thicker bottom bezel, which leaves the edges of the screen looking asymmetric.

Camera and 3x zoom

There are three rear cameras. A 50 MP main, a 12 MP ultra-wide and an 8 MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The front camera is 12 MP.

The most interesting addition is My FanCam. While filming, it follows a chosen person and keeps them in the centre of the frame. Super Steady now stabilises the horizon as well. The feature comes down from the Galaxy S26 series. Even when the phone is shaken hard, the picture holds up.

Quality is good enough, but the ultra-wide and the telephoto could do with more resolution. I noticed one more small thing in person. The camera island looks and feels cheaper than the one on the Galaxy S26 series.

Once you have filmed something, Audio Eraser earns its place. It reduces unwanted background noise so that voices come through more clearly, and it works while you play the clip back rather than as a separate edit. For filming on the street or in a cafe it is one of the more useful things this phone does.

Seven years of updates

The Galaxy S26 FE will get seven Android generations and seven years of security updates, as many as the most expensive Galaxy S models. A phone bought today is supported until 2033.

One UI 9 and Galaxy AI

Now Brief and Now Nudge offer up information based on what you are doing on the phone at the time. Gemini handles multi-step tasks from a single request, and Circle to Search now looks up several objects in a frame at once.

For students the most useful addition is probably document scanning. It is built into the system itself, so a sheet of paper can be scanned without an extra app and saved as a JPEG or a PDF.

What it costs in Lithuania

On sale since 27 August. All three capacities are sold in graphite, blueberry and pistachio.

Until 13 September samsung.lt is running a launch voucher. The code LIVEAI takes €150 off, which brings the 128 GB down to €649 and the 256 GB to €749. The table keeps the list prices, because the voucher will be gone shortly and the prices will not.

These are prices at official resellers, where the FE costs €20 less than on samsung.lt. Yes, the FE is the most expensive of the three. The basic Galaxy S26 costs €150 less, and the larger-screened Galaxy S26+ is €60 cheaper.

What to know before buying

In the hand it is a pleasant phone that feels like a flagship, but to me it sits closer to the Galaxy A57 than to the Galaxy S26. The processor is more powerful than the A57’s, but it is an older generation than the one in the Galaxy S26, which is cheaper besides.

Take at least the 256 GB. That €100 is the one thing you cannot fix later, and photos and video take up more space every year. Samsung’s own figures show that five years ago 13 per cent of Galaxy S21 FE buyers chose 256 GB, while among Galaxy S25 FE buyers it was already 49 per cent.

Whether another €200 for 512 GB is worth it is a different question. If you do not shoot much video, probably not.

I have lived with an FE before, so my review of the previous generation, the Galaxy S24 FE, is worth a read too.

Photographs: G. Jauniškis, Samsung launch event, 24 August 2026.