The Samsung phone I'm recommending to most people this Black Friday isn't a flagship model

ZDNET's key takeaways

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE starts at $649, with 128GB of storage and AI features included. Large 6.7-inch AMOLED display and an enduring 4,700mAh battery are the top two strengths. At its price, the S24 FE faces stiff competition from Google, OnePlus, and Samsung itself.

With the fall season in full swing, I've recently been catching up with more friends and family. It's during these times when I'm most in touch with "the average consumer," able to gauge interest in new features, understand which ones matter most to people, and know just how much money users are willing to spend on a new handset, headphones, laptop, etc.   

I also do this thing where I pass the latest phone I'm testingaround the room and ask people to guess its price. With the new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, the ballpark value was around $1,000 -- about $350 more than its actual cost.

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At a starting price of $649, the Galaxy S24 FE is not as premium as Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra or as budget-friendly as the brand's Galaxy A35 5G. So, who should buy the Galaxy S24 FE, and why? I've been asking myself those questions throughout my weeks of testing, and the answer, it turns out, is a little more obvious than expected.  

To Samsung's credit, the S24 FE has a large, vibrant, and sharp-looking display that gives off a very strong first impression. The Dynamic AMOLED panel measures 6.7 inches and supports Samsung's Vision Booster feature, allowing it to peak at 1,900 nits of brightness. The result is a handset that's refreshingly easy to see (and use) when you're out in the sun.

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I'm less enthusiastic about the thick bezels and rather uninspiring industrial design, though most of the people I showed the phone to didn't mind that it looks eerily similar to the more expensive Galaxy S24 Plus. I just wish Samsung had made the edges of the S24 FE curve into the back cover a little less and used lighter materials. At 212 grams, the phone's heftiness makes it feel like a slippery sandwich of frosted metal and glass. A protective case is basically mandatory.

Fortunately, the rest of the S24 FE's drawbacks, like the infrequent stutter, lack of a far-distance telephoto lens, and less durable glass build than flagships, are easier to overlook. While the phone is powered by Samsung's in-house Exynos 2400 -- and not a more tested Qualcomm Snapdragon chip -- the processor has proven capable of daily use. We're in the thick of sports season, so I often play YouTube TV in picture-in-picture mode while on social feeds and Reddit to keep up with commentary. 

This intermixing and swift navigation between apps typically gives me a sense of how well a phone handles multitasking and managing background tasks. Besides a few hiccups, where Threads took a few seconds to load videos, the S24 FE performed gracefully. What impressed me the most was how consistently the 120Hz refresh rate stayed on. 

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While more manufacturers are aggressively dialing down the refresh rate to preserve battery life (and stabilize performance), the S24 FE remains at 120Hz for most tasks, including scrolling through media-filled webpages.

After all of that, I'm still finishing most of my days with roughly 30% battery left, which is better than most phones I've tested, let alone mid-range ones. Now, if only Samsung can speed up the wired charging rate from 25W to at least 45W. That's a story for another day.

At its $649 price point, the S24 FE is one of the most affordable phones that supports Samsung's suite of Galaxy AI features. These include Sketch to Image, Circle to Search, note summaries, and an improved Bixby. While I haven't found an urge to use the AI tools -- they're mostly gimmicky and still inconsistent in output -- the ability to run them on-device gives the S24 FE added utility that you'll either ignore or greatly appreciate. There's no downside here.

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Lastly, I've been satisfied with the 50MP-led camera system of the S24 FE. Coming from the Google Pixel 9 series, I expected the S24 FE camera to dial up the saturation and sharpening of photos and videos, but that wasn't the case. Instead, subjects often came out natural-looking, with just enough dynamic range to portray the varying weather conditions in October. 

Samsung tries to compensate for its telephoto lens with a mere 2x optical zoom by filling in lost details via software, and this generally works for images captured as far as the 10x range. Anything further basically leaves you with a water-painting-like output.

ZDNET's buying advice

That's all to say: I recommend the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE to anyone who wants a competent, big-screen handset that won't break the bank. In lieu of ergonomics and flashier features, the S24 FE nails the essentials, from day-to-day performance to battery life to camera output. 

While AI shouldn't be the main reason you buy the S24 FE, the phone is slated to receive seven years of Android OS upgrades, so you can expect more useful software tools to come as companies like Samsung better understand the market and customer needs.

With the holiday shopping season just weeks away, I'd also advise checking major retailers and your preferred carrier to see what discounts, trade-in offers, and other incentives are available. I guarantee that you can pick up the S24 FE for less than retail in less than a month's time.