Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs Galaxy S26: Which Android should you go for?

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S26 FE (Fan Edition), the affordable handset that offers an “accessible entry” to Galaxy AI.

But how does the Galaxy S26 FE compare to the slightly pricier Galaxy S26? Does the FE borrow the perfect amount of features from the Galaxy S26?

We’ve compared the specs of the Galaxy S26 to the Galaxy S26 FE below. If you’re not sold on a Samsung handset then visit our list of the best smartphones and best Android phones.

Price and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE is the cheapest of Samsung’s 2026 S-series, with a starting price of £699 for the 128GB variant which rises to £799 for 256GB.

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In comparison, the Galaxy S26 starts at £879 – however it comes with 256GB storage as standard. That means that actually, it’s only £80 more than the nearest S26 FE equivalent.

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Samsung Galaxy S26 has a 10MP telephoto lens

Both the Galaxy S26 and S26 FE are equipped with a 50MP main lens and a 12MP ultrawide, however they differ with their telephoto lenses. While the Galaxy S26 has a 10MP telephoto, the FE is equipped with a lower-res 8MP. This seems like a shame, as we concluded that the Galaxy S26’s telephoto’s digital cropping wasn’t as effective, which is due to the limits of the 10MP resolution. 

Otherwise, the use of the same main and ultrawide camera hardware as the S26 is unsurprising but still somewhat disappointing. It’s not that we found the S26 to be bad at photography – far from it – but the overall set-up just feels less exciting and somewhat outdated, especially when compared to some of the best camera phones on the market. 

Despite its lower resolution telephoto camera, Samsung promises that the S26 FE offers advancements within its hardware, including 3x optical zoom, up to 30x space zoom and sharper details between 1x and 2x zoom range.

We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on the S26 FE to see how its cameras really perform. However, considering it borrows many of the same features as the S26, we’d expect a similar experience.

Galaxy S26 FE has a larger battery

Samsung phones are never praised for having large batteries, and both the S26 and S26 FE are no exception – although the latter does have a larger cell at 4900mAh compared to 4300mAh. This, Samsung promises, means we can expect the S26 FE should offer around 29-hours of media playback time.

While the Galaxy S26’s 4300mAh cell might not sound particularly impressive, we should note that we found it easily saw us through a day without reaching low battery. In fact, even on busy days we ended the day with 40% left in the tank.

Galaxy S26 comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage as standard

As touched upon earlier, the base Galaxy S26 FE comes with just 128GB storage. That’s disappointing, as many brands have increased their base models to 256GB to make up for larger apps – even the affordable iPhone 17e starts with 256GB. 

So, although at first glance you might think the base Galaxy S26 FE is a lot cheaper than the Galaxy S26, you’re actually getting half the amount of storage for that price. In fact, if you upgrade the FE to 256GB, then it’s only £80 less than the Galaxy S26. 

Not only that, but the Galaxy S26 FE comes with 8GB of RAM while the S26 is equipped with a healthier 12GB which should mean the phone is able to run faster and handle multitasking better – though we can’t confirm this as we haven’t reviewed the FE yet. 

Both offer Galaxy AI

Samsung has hailed the Galaxy S26 FE as being an “accessible entry to Galaxy AI”, and is subsequently equipped with the whole suite of Galaxy AI tools. There’s enhanced photo and video editing capabilities, including Audio Eraser that reduces background noise on both user-created videos and playback during streaming, a more personal Now Brief with new daily updates from your Galaxy Watch and, of course, access to Gemini Live. 

Otherwise, you’ll benefit from familiar and actually useful AI-powered tools including Circle to Search, AI Document scanning and more.

Galaxy S26 FE is the first S-series to see Android 17

Following on from the above, some of the newer Galaxy AI tools, such as the more personalised Now Brief and also multi-object recognition within Circle to Search can be found specifically within One UI 9, which runs on Android 17. Other than the Z Flip and Z Fold 8 series, the Galaxy S26 FE will be the first to see Android 17 and, therefore, the new suite of tools. 

However, we should note that they will eventually trickle down to the rest of the Galaxy S26 series. 

Early Verdict

We’ll hold off from giving a conclusive verdict until we actually review the Galaxy S26 FE. However, judging by its specs and price tag, we’d likely argue that the Galaxy S26 makes more sense than the FE. 

Sure, you’ll benefit from a larger battery and access Android 17 sooner, but the Galaxy S26 comes with 256GB of storage as standard and promises an overall better camera set-up.

We’ll be sure to update this versus once we review the Galaxy S26 FE.