Is it that bad?

The Galaxy S23 FE is an interesting device, not because of performance or any significant surprises, but more of the fact that while this has pretty much the same design uniformity as the rest of Samsung’s lineup this year, the one thing that would’ve separated it from the A series design wise are those bezels around the display. It’s noticeably thicker than what we got with the S21 FE, and can barely be told apart from the Galaxy A54. And the whole tech community can’t seem to get over it cos this is probably the only phone that costs this much, with bezels this thick.

That is also accompanied by the fact that some regions are getting the Exynos 2200, Africa included. But are these actual deal breakers? Well, that is left for you to decide. Granted, those bezels are thick, but does the average consumer really care or even know what bezels are?

It might also interest you to know that the Exynos 2200 has been optimized quite well and is probably a solid fit for this device. I said probably because there’s still some grey area which we’ll discuss later on in this review.

Galaxy S23 FE – Pricey!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE costs about $600. I got mine at ₦613,000 here in Nigeria, but with the constant decline of the naira, it has already increased in price and is now ₦717,000. That’s wild! For around this price, if you look well enough, you can get an S22 Ultra, a Snapdragon version, or even an S23 Plus. Although you might only get these as open boxes, unless you’re particular about getting a brand-new device, the S23 FE probably won’t be your first choice.

Let’s also not ignore that you can get a Pixel 7 or the Xiaomi 13T that costs less.

So where does that leave the S23 FE, and who is it for?

For now, let’s focus more on how this device fares and if it’s good enough should you decide to pick one up.

The story so far

The FE line of devices has always been the bridge between the flagship and the midrange Samsung devices. It’s flagship but not quite flagship, and midrange but not quite midrange.

It features primarily specifications from last year’s S22 series but toned down a bit in build quality and other features.

Samsung didn’t release an A74 this year, probably because the A70 series was getting too close to the FE. I always recommended the S21 FE last year whenever someone mentioned getting an A73 cos it wasn’t that far apart in price.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

Design and display

The S23 FE comes in the signature flagship packaging, which provides little to no unboxing experience, just phone and cable. We got a couple of exciting colors, and I chose the purple one, which is the most popular.

There’s nothing much to say about the design other than the bezels being as thick as what’s on the A54 while having the same Gorilla Glass 5 on the display and rear. But to properly separate it from the A series in build quality, it has an aluminum frame, which makes a lot of difference in how it feels on the hands. You can quickly tell it’s a more premium phone.

Its display is Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED with up to 1450 nits of peak brightness and HDR10+ support. I need not dwell on the quality of Samsung displays, and I believe we all know what they’re capable of.

As for the bezel, everyone seems to be complaining about it; while I think it should’ve been slimmer, it does not affect user experience in any way, and it’s something you don’t spend time looking at, nor does it make the display unattractive. All while I’ve used it, at no point did I pick it up and was conscious of the bezel size.

But that doesn’t excuse the fact that it has the most bezels on any phone around its price.

Samsung Galaxy A54 and S23 FE bezel compared

While it’s not a deal breaker, it should’ve been better. I mean, the S21 FE had slim bezels, and it also had Gorilla Glass Victus on the display by the way, plus a plastic back, so it’s a more durable phone.

The Galaxy S23 FE gets a 120Hz refresh rate, which is smooth. As much as you want to liken this to the A54, 120Hz here compared to the A54, you can tell it offers that flagship One UI fluidity. From my observation, the refresh rate, while set to adaptive, only switches between 60Hz and 120Hz, not lower, not in between. This makes me want to compare it to Xiaomi’s 13T, which has a 144Hz refresh rate and goes as low as 30Hz.

The software experience

Performance and gaming

There are two storage variants for the S23 FE – 128 and 256GB, with 8GB of RAM. There is no expandable storage option. As an improvement from the S21 FE, this supports eSIM alongside dual nano SIM cards. The optical fingerprint scanner works just fine, in my experience.

Performance-wise, I’ve had no problems using the S23 FE for day-to-day tasks. While it’s an FE device, it does perform like a flagship, thanks to the Exynos 2200, which has been optimized well. Some might prefer the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 version, which is meant for the US, but there’s nothing to complain about the Exynos 2200 except for gaming, which we’ll talk about shortly.

It doesn’t heat up, nor does it have any of the early complaints associated with the S22 series of last year, which has the same processor. Samsung has properly optimized it, improving the cooling system for better efficiency. That is also evident when running high graphic games for long gaming sessions. I’ve never had it overheat or show any signs of abnormal heating when gaming.

It games just fine, but. While playing Call of Duty, I get occasional skips, not exactly lags, just frame skips, which shouldn’t happen with a device of this caliber. It doesn’t happen frequently, but it happens. That aside, you can game just fine with no heating concerns or frame drops for long gaming sessions.

The max settings you can go for Call of Duty mobile are high graphics and max frame rate or very high graphics and very high frame rate. It also plays PUBG Mobile well and offers HDR graphics settings and Ultra frame rate. If you drop the graphics to smooth, you can get extreme frame rate option. There’s no 90fps option.

It has come a long way in optimization compared to what it was initially with the S22 last year. However, compared to the Xiaomi 13T, it doesn’t do as well. It offers an Ultra frame rate for Call of Duty mobile, as high as Ultra HDR graphics for PUBG, and 90fps. So, if you’re a core gamer, that’s an option.

Battery and charging

We get a 4500mAh Battery with the S23 FE and 25 watts fast charging. It also supports 15 watts fast wireless charging and reverse wireless wireless charging. Battery life has been solid for me. It can go the whole day and average 6 to 7 hours of screen time with average use. The phone goes from zero to 50% in 30 minutes, and it takes around an hour to charge it completely. As far as battery life is concerned, even though the phone has a 4500mAh battery, it’s still capable of giving you good performance.

Flagship cameras?

In the camera department, we see an improved 50MP Main camera alongside an 8MP Telephoto Camera with 3x optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide. The selfie camera is 10MP. That’s less than the 32MP we had on its predecessor.

The Galaxy S23 FE can shoot 8K videos at 24 frames per second. That’s solid. You will get good 8K footage, however, stabilization at 8K is not as good as with 4K and below. 8K is only possible from the rear camera. It can shoot 4K at 30 or 60fps from selfie and rear cameras. The low-light video performance is impressive.

So are shots taken in low light. In some settings, It automatically detects and processes the images well, even when you don’t engage super night mode.

Overall, the cameras are impressive, and there’s barely anything to complain about.

While the selfie camera is just 10MP, the results are sharp and impressive.

Verdict – Recommendable?

So, to answer the question of who the S23 FE is for?

It is a Fan Edition phone, so I’d say it is for the hardcore Samsung fans who are not bothered about the cost or how it compares to the competition. Cos, say what you will; this still offers flagship performance for the most part. It stands high above the A series in performance and build quality.

However, it is still a hard phone to recommend, especially here in Nigeria, for its price, which can get you an S22 Ultra or S23 Plus, as I mentioned before. Simply put, the S23 FE is overpriced.

If you can get it at a significantly discounted price, then it’s a good one. Another option is the Xiaomi 13T, which you’ll find the better gaming device, and is more affordable.