We weren’t able to review Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S25 series earlier this year, or their flagship foldables Galaxy Z7 series. I thought we were shut out for a Samsung flagship review this year, until we were approached to review the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. It’s a flagship phone, sort of… but we’ll take it anyway.
Table of Contents
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Specs:
| OS: | Android 16, One UI 8 |
|---|---|
| Processor: | Exynos 2400 |
| Display: | 6.7″ 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2x HDR10+ 1080×2340 |
| Wireless Connections: | 5G, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, BDS |
| Memory: | 8GB+128GB 8GB+256GB 8GB+512GB |
| Connectors: | USB Type-C 3.2, OTG |
| Cameras: | Rear Camera: (Main) 50 MP, f/1.8 (Ultrawide) 12MP, f/2.2 (Telephoto) 8MP, f/2.4 Front Camera: 12 MP, f/2.2 |
| SIM Card Slots: | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 1 eSIM support |
| Battery: | 4900mAh 45W wired 15W wireless |
| Price: | 8GB+128GB: Php 30,990 8GB+256GB: Php 37,990 8GB+512GB: Php 42,990 |
The Looks and Feel
When I compared it to the picture of a Galaxy S24 FE review we did last year, I thought they looked eerily similar. What you wouldn’t notice until you hold the phone is it’s lightweight at 190 grams, lighter than its predecessor’s 213g.
The Galaxy S25 FE features an enhanced Armor Aluminum frame, sturdier than the 24 FE. The right side of S25 FE are the volume controls and power button. Found on top are two microphones.
At the bottom are the SIM Card Slots that can also accommodate an eSIM, Type-C USB port, and a speaker grille.
Looking at the back of the Galaxy S25 FE, we think it can be easily mistaken for a Galaxy S25+. Both its front and back panels are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus that prevents accidental scratches. There are three cameras in this model which we will be discussing later.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is pleasant to hold but my complaint here is it’s quite slippery. We can’t deny though that the phone feels premium like a true flagship.
The Display and Sound
The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE’s display is a 6.7″ Dynamic AMOLED Display 120Hz with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels. Screen-to-body ratio is 89.2% which means it has slightly thinner bezels than the S24 FE.
Being a Samsung phone, I already expected the Galaxy S25 FE’s display to be brilliant. I was not disappointed! Colors were fantastic, and the display overall were smooth and immersive.
Speakers were quite better than I initially expected. I found out that the second speaker is on the earpiece of the phone. After listening to a few songs streamed on Spotify, I noticed that the speaker on the earpiece is at par with the speakers at the bottom. Not bad at all!
The Performance
Under the hood of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is a 3.2GHz Exynos 2400 deca-core processor. It’s a tad higher than the Exynos 2400e used by the S24 FE last year. The storage of the S25 FE we’re reviewing is 256GB paired with 8GB of memory. They’re also available in 128GB/8GB and 512GB/8GB variants.
Here are the benchmark scores of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE:
The closest comparison we were able to find is the HONOR 400 Pro 5G we reviewed a couple of months ago. We expected the benchmark results of the HONOR semi-flagship phone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip would be better than the Galaxy S25 FE. We were wrong! The Galaxy S25 FE outran the 400 Pro 5G in every benchmark we tested.
The flagship performance of the Galaxy S25 FE is absolutely reliable for your daily tasks. Whether you are using the phone for phone calls, emails, social media or other apps related to your work, its speedy performance can help you get the job done.
Gaming on the Galaxy S25 FE is very much possible. We played Honor of Kings, Real Racing 3 and Genshin Impact all at their highest settings and they all played smoothly. For Genshin Impact, we were warned that we may experience some frame rate drops but I didn’t notice any whenever we are in a battle.
Like other reviewers, we also noticed that the S25 FE can get hot during long playing hours. A bit warmer than what we usually experience in other performance phones, but not to the point that we couldn’t hold the phone anymore.
Galaxy AI on the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE
Like the S25 flagship series, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE also gets the AI upgrade. Together with Samsung’s One UI 8 AI features like Gemini Live can be accessed just by pressing the power button. Ask it anything from today’s weather in another location far away, ask the recipe for one of the food served at a newly minted Michelin Star restaurant, or anything you can think of under the sun.
For productivity, aside from Gemini Live you can use Circle to Search whenever you see a word or a phrase that you’d like to know more about. The Galaxy S25 FE’s voice recorder can now transcribe recorded notes thanks to its AI Transcriber. It can also translate the transcription to another language! Choose among 25+ languages available which also includes Filipino.
On the Creative side, AI Photo Editing is what most users dabble in nowadays and thankfully Samsung also included this feature in the Galaxy S25 FE. We took a photo of our media colleague and used AI Photo Editing to convert her photo into Sketch.
The Cameras
Unfortunately, no upgrades were made to the triple camera system of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. It is still the same as last year’s cameras of the S24 FE, and we have no idea why there were no changes for them. These are the 50 Megapixel main camera, 12 Megapixel ultra-wide and 8 Megapixel telephoto.
We noticed a common issue based on the two photos above. The greens are quite oversaturated than what they actually look like. The sky on the right photo is evident. Both would’ve been good outdoor photos if the greens were not aggressive.
When zoomed in on the left photo, you will see the details on how the object was made. It would be seen better in its original resolution. The fishes on the right photo shows their natural colors.
These are our favorite portraits of our cats. The left cat’s photo was excellent thanks to the natural lighting in our stairway. The portrait of our cat on the right has good bokeh which other phones’ cameras usually fail with their uneven depth-of-field.
We zoomed in to the priest and we noticed his face looked like it was washed out. We won’t suggest using digital zoom and stick to the optical zoom as much as possible for the photo to have good details and accurate colors.
Night shot on the left photo would’ve been better if the lights were not slightly overblown. Overall it’s still a good photo with the skies adding more texture. Right photo’s HDR is balanced. None of the areas of the image were blown out whether it’s on the darkest or the lightest spot.
Image of the food on the left looked natural. It is well contrast with the shadows of the food. On the right, depth of focus on the duck was on point. Details were sharp to the point we can really see the crispness of the duck’s skin.
The selfie camera is now 12 Megapixels which produces better image details and natural-looking selfies.
Selfie on Portrait mode is perfect. Background was blurred and it didn’t spillover to the subject’s face. It can accommodate group photos on Selfie mode and still produce natural looking skin tones.
The Battery Life
Battery Capacity of the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is rated at 4,900 mAh. Based on our usage the Galaxy S25 FE usually lasts a day with 5G mostly on for work, social media, streaming audio and videos as well as occasional games.
Charging with its 45W fast charger may not be exactly the fastest compared to most flagship phones, but it can reach to 100% in a little bit over an hour.
DR’s Conclusion
After weeks of using the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, we now also consider it as part of the S25 flagship series, at a more affordable price. It has most of the Galaxy S25 features and we reckon users of this phone will be able to have the same flagship experience of the Galaxy S25 series.
For more information about the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, please visit: https://www.samsung.com/ph/smartphones/galaxy-s/galaxy-s25-fe-navy-512gb-sm-s731bdbhphl/.
