7.5/ 10
SCORE

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

Pros

• Same One UI 8 experience as Galaxy S25 at lower price
• Same slim shape as the S25 Plus
• Fast charging with good battery life

Cons

• Scratches easily
• Gets warm to the touch on intensive tasks
• Mixed photography performance

When I needed to negotiate with my internet provider after seeing a sudden $30 price hike, Samsung’s $650 Galaxy S25 FE sure came in handy. The phone’s AI suite — which in this case includes Samsung’s Text Call feature — allowed me to skip the awful voice-activated menus of Astound Broadband that never seem to understand me. Instead, I could text my way through these menus, and Samsung’s own robotic voice would do the talking for me, saving my eardrums from listening to repetitive voice dialogs. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and the possibility is even highlighted in CNET’s review of Astound Broadband. But that doesn’t make it any less horrifying to see my internet bill had increased from $61 to $91 with little warning.

When I started testing the Galaxy S25 FE two weeks ago, I did not expect Text Call to be the feature that I was going to spotlight, but having access to this and other flagship-level features for less than the $799 Galaxy S25 has always been a key selling point for the FE series.

In this case, thanks to Text Call, I didn’t need to pick up the phone until the app started transcribing the representative. I then turned off Text Call and spoke with a human who lowered my internet bill back to a lower price.

It’s these software features that are the main reason to pick up the Galaxy S25 FE, because otherwise the phone has noticeable trade-offs that place it a clear step below the more expensive flagship. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing because the S25 FE provides an experience that’s similar to buying 2024’s Galaxy S24.

You get a still solid-performing processor inside a body similar to the Galaxy S25 Plus. This means apps launch quickly, some games like Fortnite play well at high graphics settings, and the phone should be fast enough to do these things for years to come, even though it’s not running on the latest hardware.

All in all, this should make the Galaxy S25 FE a very solid upgrade if coming from the S21 FE, especially if you’re loyal to Galaxy phones. But if you aren’t, there are a lot of similar phones that cost less than the S25 FE right now, and they might even be a better fit for your needs.

Galaxy S25 FE design, battery, performance 

Building on my first impressions of the Galaxy S25 FE, the most noticeable upgrade is its max 45-watt wired charging speed. It’s not the fastest available for the price range — the $550 Motorola Edge (2025) and $400 Moto G Stylus support up to 68-watt speeds for instance — but it’s a noticeable bump from the 25-watt to 30-watt speeds seen on prior Galaxy phones that cost $800 and less. In CNET’s 30-minute wired charging test, the S25 FE’s battery recharged from 0% to 69% in 30 minutes, which is faster than both the Google Pixel 9A and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus (these also support a 45-watt charging speed.)

The S25 FE also supports the Qi2 standard with a 15-watt wireless charging speed, which recharged from 0% to 17% in our 30-minute wireless charging test. Like the other Galaxy S25 phones, the FE doesn’t have the Qi2 magnetic profile, but you can take advantage of magnetic accessories with a third-party case. At this time, Samsung isn’t selling first-party magnet cases for the FE like it did for the other Galaxy S25 phones.

While the FE has a 4,900-mAh battery, one that Samsung touts as the biggest it’s included in an FE model, I found my day-to-day battery life to be fairly average. Most of my days would have the battery down to about 30% following 4 hours of screen time, which included a mix of texting, websites, games, video calls and a lot of YouTube. This puts the phone squarely into the territory of getting comfortably through a day of use without needing an overnight charge, but you should probably plug it in while getting ready the next day.

In CNET’s battery drain tests, the S25 FE performed averagely for its price., It depleted from a full battery to 83% after 3 hours of streaming a YouTube video at full brightness. 

And it went from 100% to 92% during a 45-minute endurance test featuring a mix of video streaming, gaming and social media scrolling. These measurements are comparable to the more expensive Galaxy S25, so it’s good to see that choosing the cheaper model doesn’t mean you’ll cheap out on battery life.

The phone’s oleophobic coating feels cheap, which somehow scratched up in my pocket after just two days of use. I had a similar complaint with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE — which was more of a fingerprint magnet — and so I’d say that FE owners would be best served by getting a case and screen protector as soon as possible.

The Galaxy S25 FE has the Exynos 2400 processor, which was also seen on the Z Flip 7 FE. I have mixed feelings about the Exynos 2400 after using it on two different FE phones. On one hand, it’s very capable of intensive tasks like gaming, AI, and low-light photo processing, and I have no issues at all multitasking with it. However, I do find it runs warmer than I prefer, especially during video calls or when I play Fortnite at high graphics settings. This is another issue that can be alleviated with a case, but is worth calling out for anyone who prefers not to use one.

Aside from not featuring the latest and greatest specs, you likely wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the Galaxy S25 FE and the Galaxy S25 Plus by looking at it. If anything, it creates a bit of an issue for someone looking for a cheaper Galaxy phone with the smaller dimensions of the Galaxy S25, but that has a 6.3-inch display. Since there isn’t a «mini» Galaxy S25 FE, it’s possible that someone looking for a smaller flagship might want to turn to last year’s Galaxy S24, which you can still buy new for $545 on Amazon.

Galaxy S25 FE cameras

Samsung’s FE models typically skimp on cameras, but I’m quite happy with photos and videos taken on the Galaxy S25 FE.

Starting off with the good, this sunset photo I took on the waterfront with the wide-angle lens in New York’s West Village came out spectacular. There’s the twinge of orange, the ripples of the water and only a smidge of noticeable image noise in the darker portions of the sky and in the darkness of the walking path on the right of the photo.

I took the phone to my 20th high school reunion, and considering this was a crowded and dark event set at the Dublin Deck in Patchogue, New York, my photos of alumni at the bar along with videos taken of the cover band, fared reasonably well. There is some blurriness, but these are challenging environments for any phone.

The Galaxy S25 FE uses a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide and an 8-megapixel telephoto with a 3x optical zoom. And in my examples with more ideal lighting than the high school reunion, the S25 FE’s photos have a lot of detail and bold colors. This photo of a chicken alla vodka sub from Mama’s Too in New York’s West Village, zoomed closely using the telephoto camera at 3x zoom, shows the drippiness of the sauce and the cheese for instance. Some of the sandwich’s detail is softer due to noise reduction that the phone likely applied.

Despite being taken in sunlight, I noticed the Galaxy S25 FE struggled a bit with this wide-angle photo of my friend’s dog, Mel. It focuses on Mel’s face, but the rest of Mel is blurrier than I’d prefer, considering the availability of light and the phone’s processing power. Still, it’s a nice photo, though.

Selfie photos taken on the 12-megapixel front-facing camera were also mixed, depending on the lighting situation. I took a twilight selfie by the waterfront in New York’s West Village using both the Galaxy S25 FE and the $550 Motorola Edge. The Edge has a 50-megapixel selfie camera, and it did a clearly better job at rendering both me and the water behind me. The S25 FE’s selfie, by comparison, has a blurry look on the water behind me. Which is unfortunate, as it’s the same lovely looking water as the earlier photo I took with the wide-angle camera.

The S25 FE’s front-facing camera does much better in broad daylight. This photo, taken at my friend’s Oktoberfest party, shows a lot of the details on my face and hair, for instance.

The S25 FE is one of the cheaper phones available right now that can shoot video at 8K resolution at 30 frames per second and 4K resolution at 60fps. The actual quality of the video mirrors the photos, although my 4K/60fps footage taken of the cover band at my high school reunion renders very smoothly. It’s worth noting that there are fewer available options when shooting in 8K over 4K, including a reduced zoom range.

You also get access to Samsung’s Galaxy AI features for touching up photos, which include sketch to image for adding photo-realistic items into a photo or removing unwanted objects for a photo with the space filled in by AI based on the surrounding environment.

Galaxy S25 FE: Bottom line

The Galaxy S25 FE will be a particularly good fit for two different audiences: people moving up from more budget-minded devices like the Galaxy A or Moto G phone series, and people moving over from a device like the Galaxy S21 FE or earlier. These two groups will see the biggest upgrades if they move to the Galaxy S25 FE without having to spend $800 for the base Galaxy S25.

But outside of those fields, there are a lot of options right now. If you’re looking for a smaller phone in this price range, for instance, last year’s Galaxy S24 has many of the same features as the Galaxy S25 FE and runs faster on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. And if you’re coming from an iPhone and are Android-curious, yet skeptical about spending $800 or more, you could save money by getting the $499 Google Pixel 9A for Android 16, or the $550 Motorola Edge for its camera system and fast charging. Or you could stick with Apple with the $599 iPhone 16E or the recently discounted $699 iPhone 16. 

And that could be Samsung’s biggest hurdle with the $650 Galaxy S25 FE. It’s an all-around good value for the price, but right now there’s a lot of competition in the space.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays, among others that can be useful. We balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value. While these tests may not always be reflected in CNET’s initial review, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.