We’ve gone hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE in the UAE, and this year’s FE is shaping up to be an interesting alternative for anyone who wants much of the Galaxy S26 experience without necessarily stepping up to Samsung’s more expensive flagship models.
The Galaxy S26 FE has a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 1,900 nits of brightness, packed into a 7.4mm-thin body weighing 193g. Inside, Samsung is using the 3nm Exynos 2500 processor with 8GB of RAM and storage options ranging from 128GB to 512GB.
Around the back is a triple-camera system led by a 50MP main camera with OIS, joined by a 12MP ultrawide and an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom and OIS. There’s also a 12MP front camera, while features such as My FanCam, Super Steady with Horizontal Lock, Nightography and Photo Assist add more software and AI tools to the camera experience.
Battery capacity sits at 4,900mAh, with support for 45W wired charging, 15W wireless charging and Wireless PowerShare. You also get IP68 water and dust resistance, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4.
AI is a major part of the Galaxy S26 FE experience, with the phone launching on Android 17 with Samsung’s latest One UI 9. Galaxy AI includes an updated Now Brief with customisable briefing cards for things like weather and wellness, while Now Nudge can surface contextual suggestions based on supported apps and notifications.
The camera gets its share of AI features too. My FanCam can automatically track a selected person and keep them centred while recording video, while Photo Assist lets you edit images using natural-language prompts, including adding elements or reconstructing missing areas. Circle to Search with Google has also been upgraded to recognise multiple items within a single image.
Samsung is bundling six months of Google AI Pro for eligible users, which includes access to Gemini Omni and 5TB of cloud storage. Some Galaxy AI features require a Samsung or Google account, an internet connection, or supported languages and regions, so the exact experience can vary.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE will be available from September 4 in select markets in Blueberry, Graphite and Pistachio.
