The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE arrives with a new chipset and a host of One UI 9 features

The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE may as well have been called the S26 AI. When designing this phone, the company’s focus was on new AI features and the utility they offer in day-to-day tasks. There are hardware upgrades too, though pluralizing that word may be a stretch.

The funny thing is that when Samsung unveiled the S26 FE, it didn’t mention the chipset – we're quite certain that it is the Exynos 2500. This 3nm chip was only featured on the Galaxy Z Flip7 until now and it is the biggest upgrade over the Galaxy S25 FE, which used the Exynos 2400. The 2500 was the first chipset to be fabbed on Samsung’s Gate All Around (GAA) node. It uses newer CPU cores than the 2400, it has a beefed up AMD RDNA 3-based GPU with 33% more work groups and an NPU with 40% more compute hardware.

The S26 FE will run Android 17 with One UI 9 out of the box, making it the first in the S26 series to do so. It also has a number of features that premiered on Samsung’s premium flagships.

My FanCam was introduced with the Galaxy Z8 foldables. This works on videos in your gallery – it can automatically track a person by zooming in and keeping them in the center of the frame. Here’s a demo:

Then there’s Horizon Lock – this feature will keep your footage leveled even if the phone rotates 360° while you are recording a video. Samsung also says that its upgraded Nightography will produce brighter, higher quality images when recording in the dark.

Photo Assist is another gallery feature – this one uses AI to edit images per your instructions. You can tell it to change the background to one of your choosing, switch from day to night, add or remove things from the image.

One UI 9 also improves Now Brief – you can create a text widget with plain language commands, just like editing an image. This works in several categories: weather, health and video. For example, you can tell it “summarize my protein and carb intake in relation to my weight and body composition”. And in a few seconds, the AI will conjure up a card in Now Brief that does just that.

We're pretty sure some or even all of these features will be available on older models – maybe the S25 FE will never get Horizon Lock. Maybe the S25+ won't either. The S26+ does have Horizon Lock, though, which is something to consider when comparing the prices of the two 6.7” S26 models.

So, we covered the chipset, now for the rest of the phone – it very much reads like "S25 FE, part 2." It offers the same 6.7" 1080p+ OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 1,900 nits peak brightness and the same 4,900mAh battery with the same 45W fast charging and 15W wireless charging.

The cameras that you will be using to film Horizon Lock videos or snap photos to edit with AI later are the same as before. There is a 50MP main module, an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom (and 30x digital) and a 12MP ultra-wide. The selfie camera has a 12MP sensor.

Like other S-series phones – its predecessor included – the S26 FE will receive OS updates and security patches for 7 years. And here’s a first for the S-series – Samsung is bundling a 6-month trial of Google AI Pro (valued at $120), which includes 5TB of cloud storage. Previously, this perk was reserved for the Z foldables.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE will be available in Blueberry, Pistachio and Graphite starting on September 4. Some carriers will have it a day early on the 4th. There are two storage options available, 128GB and 256GB, with the base variant starting at $700. This is $50 more than the launch price of a 128GB S25 FE. Note that some regions will also receive a 512GB variant.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE

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Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

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Samsung Galaxy S26+

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