The Galaxy S24 FE is the phone the Pixel 9 should have been | usagoldmines.com

I loved reviewing the Google Pixel 9, however the little flagship hasn’t fairly made it into my day by day life. The Pixel 9 is a good little telephone, however its $799 price ticket isn’t the worth proposition we’ve grow to be accustomed to from Google. Worse for the 9, the far superior Pixel 9 Pro is completely value that $200 further.

Regardless of its simple strengths, the Pixel 9 is a tough promote, however clearly, constructing inexpensive flagship telephones remains to be doable — take a look at the brand new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. It’s simply the form of telephone that I actually wished the Pixel 9 to be and it’s solely $650. That’s $150 lower than Google’s flagship and so much cheaper than Apple’s iPhone 16. Samsung could have simply out-Pixel’d the Pixel.

The traditional Pixel method, if we are able to name it that, was a mixture of fine sufficient specs, premium software program, and an unbeatable worth. Google has slowly diverted from that path lately, however Samsung has put collectively simply such a package deal with the most recent FE.

One of many largest upgrades is discovered within the chipset division. The growing old Exynos 2200/Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 makes method for the Exynos 2400e. It’s not Snapdragon, and this variant isn’t fairly as highly effective because the Exynos 2400 present in international Galaxy S24 variants, but it surely shouldn’t be far off and can, subsequently, be snappier, cooler, supply smoother gaming, and that bit extra future-proof than last-years mannequin and Google’s placeholder Tensor G4.

Samsung has chucked in a number of flagship staples for good measure. The Galaxy S24 FE boasts the identical visible ProVisual Engine as its flagship fashions, making the FE a bit extra aggressive with flagship-tier camera phones. It additionally has an choice for 512GB of storage (although not within the US), solidifying its place as an excellent choose for the household digital camera. Google faucets out at simply 256GB on the Pixel 9, and a 512GB iPhone 16 prices an eyewatering $1,129.

The Galaxy S24 FE additionally boasts seven years of OS upgrades, matching one of the best within the enterprise: Samsung’s Galaxy flagships and Google’s newest Pixels. Should you’re on the AI hype practice, Galaxy AI makes an look, boasting Circle to Search, Stay Translate, Prompt Sluggish-mo, and extra. It’s by no means been extra inexpensive to dabble in among the business’s newest toys, and it’s constructed to final.

Slap within the flexibility of a 3x telephoto digital camera, satisfactory 25W wired charging and 15W wi-fi charging, an IP68 ranking, Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on the back and front, and a 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED show, the S24 FE is a stable package deal that may have handed for a dearer flagship two or three years in the past.

Now, I’m not saying the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is completely good; $650 will at all times result in some compromises in comparison with its flagship brethren.

Its digital camera {hardware}, as an illustration, may use an improve if it actually desires to punch above its weight, because the Pixel 9 does. Samsung’s infamous oversaturation will little question have me working for a third-party digital camera app. The heavier weight can be not nice, and it doesn’t function the identical snappy fingerprint scanner as its dear siblings.

Nonetheless, these are all minor compromises which might be removed from deal breakers, which is the artwork of constructing a superb inexpensive telephone. You don’t want the completely newest picture sensors, glass safety, wi-fi charging speeds, or pinnacle of chipset efficiency, so long as the necessities are coated and the FE covers them greater than properly sufficient.

With seven years of software program help and AI extras, $650 appears to be like like an excellent deal. Nevertheless, when you issue within the common Galaxy S24 reductions we’ve seen, you’re simply $100 or so shy of an much more refined expertise. In that sense, the FE suffers from the same drawback because the Pixel 9 — a greater mannequin isn’t that distant.

Google is clearly charting a way more premium course with the Pixel 9 sequence, however that’s left a niche available in the market for a flagship that gained’t trigger me to grimace when coming into my card information. Maybe the Pixel 9a will fill that $600 void, every time it arrives. Till then, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE appears to be like just like the inexpensive flagship to beat.