Samsung’s Unpacked September 2025 happened last week and I got my hands on the Galaxy S25 FE after that. Some might say that this phone isn’t exactly “new” new, but I’m not here to argue about that. There are certainly some new things, actually.
Design
Now, the Galaxy S25 FE is certainly sporting a brand new look. One big change is the back panel. It’s no longer a glossy glass finish like the S24 FE, and it’s now using a matte panel. That makes the 4 different color options great to look at, and also great to touch. We have both the Navy and Icyblue colors – and they look absolutely stunning. The Samsung logo definitely felt a bit weird to brush my finger across, by the way.
The frame is also trimmed slimmer, down to 7.4mm and also weighs at only 190g. These two are significant changes.
Screen
What’s not changed is basically the screen panel. We’re still using the same 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels, and also goes up to 120Hz refresh rate.
As expected, the maximum auto brightness is around 1200 nits, just like the S24 FE.
With the default settings of vividness level 1, yields very good color accuracy already.
We can indeed go into the settings menu and turn up the vividness to level 3 to get basically around 100% of sRGB and 97% of DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. As a quick recap, turning up the vividness slider is going to make the DCI-P3 color gamut coverage go up as well, and you’ll get more saturated colors on your screen. If you find your eyes getting tired easily, then turning down the vividness to level 2 or 1 might help.
By the way, for anyone asking, it’s using an optical under-display fingerprint scanner.
Performance
What’s also not changed is the performance. The Galaxy S25 FE is still using the Exynos 2400 chipset. This chipset is announced back in October of 2023 and was first found in the S24 series in January of 2024. So basically, this chipset is about 2 years old at this point.
I also did a gaming test for this phone mainly because I am curious how much has changed due to optimizations and also game updates. Many games have switched over to Vulkan as Android 15 also switched to Vulkan.
During the gaming test – we put our minds back to the days of early 2024 – and yeah, it’s pretty much in line with what we had back then. Samsung did say that the S25 FE has a 10% larger vapor chamber, but that won’t help much for a passively-cooled phone as our gaming tests last for a very long time and all phones will thermal throttle.
Genshin Impact with the highest graphical settings, we’re getting above 30fps all the time even when it did thermal throttle – so nothing much to talk about it here. Actually, Genshin’s switch to Vulkan really did improve the performance and efficiency.
Zenless Zone Zero is a supremely demanding game that even the highest-end smartphone will drop down to its knees – and at the highest graphical settings, the Exynos 2400 here managed to hover around 25fps. It’s actually playable, though lowering the settings is definitely necessary for a better experience. Higher frame rate is definitely better for an action game like this.
Wuthering Waves is an interesting one as we dialed up the graphical settings to the maximum and switched over to Vulkan API. It still managed to run at around 30fps with a supremely high render resolution. Again, we can dial down the graphics to get a higher frame rate.
I also want to quickly mention about War Thunder as it does have ray-tracing and we can get around 100fps on the S25 FE. It’s just the Xclipse GPU flexing its muscle thanks to AMD’s technology.
Overall, the Exynos 2400 held up really well, honestly speaking. Do remember that we’re playing it at the highest graphical settings too. However, I do wish that Samsung used the Exynos 2500 in the S25 FE instead of the Exynos 2400. It could be the issues looming over the Exynos 2500 yield rate, or maybe Samsung has moved past it and is looking forward to the Exynos 2600. Who knows?
Cameras
The other thing that hasn’t changed is the rear cameras’ hardware. All three of them remains the same sensor and lens, but the changes are within the software as it is now using the upgraded ProVisual engine that is also found on the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7.
To have a look at all the pictures taken with the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, watch our video at the top of this review.
Galaxy AI
By the way, the Galaxy S25 FE also supports all Galaxy AI that we know and love on the flagships. One of my absolute favorites is the Audio Eraser because it can do some magic like this.
Yes, we can remove the background noise and only have my sound go through, or block off my sound entirely and listen to the ambient noise. Maybe you just want to partially remove the background noise? That’s possible too.
There are many other features within the Galaxy AI suite, but the Audio Eraser easily became one of my favorites.
Software
So now, let’s talk about the software. The Galaxy S25 FE comes with One UI 8 out of the box on top of Android 16. It’s basically identical to the Z Flip7’s software as all of the features are found here too.
One UI 8 is super smooth to use and also fully customizable using Good Lock, so take your time to explore and make it uniquely yours. You can check out our other video regarding the best settings on the S25 Ultra, as those settings are applicable here too.
Battery life
Another improvement is actually the battery life. It is now using a larger battery with 4,900mAh in capacity. It can last around another hour more in our standardized battery life test when compared to the S24 FE, which is in line with what we’d expect given that they’re using the same chipset and display.
Charging speed
Another big upgrade is to the charging speed. It is now compatible with 45W USB-PD PPS, which is the same as all the other members within the Galaxy S25 Ultra. So, when we did the charging test, it took up to 41W peak but only for a small period of time. It takes around 70 minutes to charge completely, and that’s about it.
A few more things to mention
And a few more things to mention here – the Galaxy S25 FE has a USB 3.0 port at the bottom and also Samsung DeX support – which is great, and it does have dual SIM card slots.
Like any other Samsung flagships, it is rated for IP68 water and dust resistance.
Should you buy the Galaxy S25 FE?
The question now becomes – should you buy the Galaxy S25 FE? Well, I’d say yes. Okay, before you head to the comments section and be angry, hear me out. The Galaxy S25 FE is priced at USD $709.99 for 256GB, now discounted to USD $649.99 – or RM3,099 in Malaysia.
While that sounds high, it’s actually lower than the S24 FE for us in Malayisa, but the same USD pricing. With that said, it’s still at a high price. But – Samsung did have a huge discount for the S24 FE down to around RM2,099. And I think the same will hapen for the S25 FE too.
When that happens, the S25 FE is really affordable. While it’s very similar to the S24 FE, I’d still suggest getting the S25 FE. You do get another year of extra Android OS upgrade and security patches because of the release date, and also an upgraded selfie camera if you care about that.
Still, I do think Samsung should’ve used the Exynos 2500 in the S25 FE.
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