I love that Samsung is making Galaxy AI phones more affordable

Samsung has officially announced its new Galaxy S24 FE model, a mid-range AI smartphone with prices starting at just $649.99 / £649. While this might not necessarily fit the category of one of the best budget smartphones, I love that Samsung is at least attempting to make affordable AI-ready devices that are accessible to more users (not everyone can afford $1,300 for a new phone each year).

Compared with some of the best camera phones on the market, such as the flagship Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (my current smartphone) and Apple's iPhone 16 Pro models, the new Galaxy S24 FE is roughly half the price of next-gen premium smartphones. Surely, there must be some compromise on quality here to allow for such competitive pricing. I'll be getting hands-on experience with the S24 FE next week, and I'm excited to see how the performance of this budget-friendly handset matches up to my S24 Ultra model.

From what we know so far about Samsung's S24 FE, it will have all of the same Galaxy AI features as its siblings, including the Samsung Z fold 6 and Z Flip6 models. This includes the Circle to Search feature with Google, live translations during in-person conversations and phone calls, AI Note Assist for organising your thoughts, plus transcript assistance.

There's no mention of whether the popular AI feature sketch-to-image will be available on this model, although it will undoubtedly be a standout feature of the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 and S10 Ultra models also announced this week.

Introducing Galaxy S24 FEã…£Samsung - YouTube

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The Galaxy S24 FE boasts a generous 6.7-inch AMOLED display (larger than the standard S24) with a 120Hz refresh rate, an all-day battery life, plus a 1.1x larger vapour chamber for enhanced gaming performance. All of this combined with the Exynos 2400 series chipset makes for an extremely capable handset for creatives on the go, and the inclusion of premium Galaxy AI tools is a bonus that you rarely get for under $700.

As for the camera specs, the S24 FE will come equipped with a 50MP main camera that matches the standard Galaxy S24 model, plus an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 10MP front camera. The smartphone will also benefit from the company's AI-driven ProVisual camera engine, plus AI tools such as Photo Assist, generative editing, the ability to remove objects from photos, instant slow motion for videos, and a portrait studio to enhance your selfies.

The S24 FE might not be a match for some of the best iPhones for photography, but it sounds like consumers will certainly be getting a lot for their money. If you're sold on the S24 FE, you can preorder it directly from Samsung. Prices start at $649.99 / £649 for 128GB of storage or $709.99 / £699 for the 256GB model.

With that said, If you're looking for a reasonably priced smartphone that takes exceptional photos then I would highly recommend the Honor 200 Pro as an alternative. This camera phone is endorsed by pro photographer, Rankin, and prices start at £699.99 in the UK, which is just £50 more than the entry-level S24 FE. For more mid-range smartphone deals, check out our widget below.