It’s hard to make a great Android flagship but even harder to make a great mid-range Android phone. With a flagship, you can let your mind run wild, combining a powerful chipset with high-end cameras and setting a price that bumps right up against the $1,000 mark without anyone batting an eye. As soon as you limit yourself to a cost of, say, $600 or $650, you realize just how many sacrifices you have to make. For a while, that’s where Samsung struggled — its Fan Edition launches always made cuts, but we were never sure if they were the right ones.
Now, though, Samsung might be turning a corner. It’s packed more power into the Galaxy S24 FE, seemingly with fewer omissions, and it’s put me in a tight spot. As much as I want to continue to beat the drum for the pocket-friendly Galaxy S24 that I carried in early 2024, I’m coming around to the idea that Samsung’s latest upper-mid-ranger might be one of the best values on the market. Here’s why I might stick with it for a bit longer.