Samsung's Galaxy FE Is Back, It's Here to Stay, and It Brought Some Friends

In 2020, Samsung had a problem. At the beginning of the year, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S20 line with its usual high-end specs, but those improvements came at a cost: the least expensive Galaxy S20 model started at $999. The price point was neither unprecedented nor unwarranted, but it left a huge chunk of the premium smartphone market unserved without an updated Galaxy phone in the high-volume $650 - $850 price bracket. Then the pandemic hit, and it was not clear if the super-premium market would hold up at all. (It did, but that came later.) For fall 2020, Samsung rushed to market a new, lower-cost Galaxy S20 with most of what consumers actually needed in a premium phone for $699, and called it FE, or “Fan Edition.” This crucial addition ahead of the 2020 holiday sales season solved a serious problem for Samsung, and consumers loved it.

In 2021, Samsung wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, and when the Galaxy S21 line launched in February, it came in multiple versions, starting at $799, obviating the need for a FE. One came a bit later anyway when Samsung announced the Galaxy S21FE at CES in early 2022.

Since then, it appeared that Samsung retired the FE smartphone, but now it's back and it came with friends: a new tablet and wireless ANC earbuds. It's also going to stick around: Samsung told me that this isn't a one-off to address a specific price hole, but a new mid-tier sub-brand.

This is a smart move, as it allows Samsung to position its globally popular Galaxy A line for more budget-oriented buyers. Above the FE, Samsung has the regular Galaxy S as its standard premium offering, with Ultra pushing the technical envelope and price points. In the U.S., the Galaxy FE smartphones will compete against older iPhones and Pixels; in Europe, this should help Samsung compete against a slew of Chinese competitors as well.

To round out the upper-mid-tier line, Samsung is adding FE models to the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Buds range as well. Techsponential is looking forward to getting in some of the new products to review; in the meantime, here's a quick breakdown of the new products:

Galaxy S23 FE (starts at $599, Oct 26 across major U.S. and international carriers and retail):

50MP main camera, 3X zoom, "Nightography" and digital image stabilization (VDIS)
IP68 water and dust resistant
4,500mAh battery; fast charge up to 50 percent in 30 minutes
6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display

Galaxy Tab S9 FE (10.9", starts at $449, Oct 5) and FE+ (12.4"):

Vision Booster technology for outdoor brightness
Optional 5G on Tab S9 FE
S Pen included in-box
10.9 or 12.4-inch display with adaptive refresh rate up to 90Hz.

Galaxy Buds FE ($99, Oct 5):

Newly redesigned wingtip
Three-microphone system
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Ambient Sound
IPX2 splash resistant

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