Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy S26 FE, its latest mid-range Fan Edition smartphone that brings some of the best bits of the flagship Galaxy S26 at a cheaper price point, starting from £699. Hardware-wise, the Galaxy S26 FE isn’t a massive upgrade on its predecessor. It features a 6.7in 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, a 4,900mAh battery, 45W charging and a triple-camera system. The biggest upgrade is under the bonnet, with the phone boasting a newer Exynos 2500 processor. But that’s never really been the point with an FE phone. With the latest Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, the tech giant is zeroing in on what the phone can actually do. It brings onboard more of the software and Galaxy AI features found on the flagship Galaxy S26 series. Except, with the cheaper Galaxy A-series getting better every year, where does the Galaxy S26 FE fit in? I spoke to Samsung ahead of the launch to find out. Here’s everything to know about the new Samsung Galaxy S26 FE. Read more: Best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 deals Samsung Galaxy S26 FE The phone ditches the individual camera rings on its predecessor (Alex Lee/The Independent)You’d be forgiven if you mistook the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE for the regular Samsung Galaxy S26. Its latest Fan Edition phone has had a glow-up, with the phone ditching individual camera rings on the predecessor for the island-like camera housing found on the flagship S26 series.The new design is something Kadesh Beckford, Samsung’s smartphone specialist product manager, is particularly keen to highlight when I ask him what he thinks are the biggest upgrades this year. “When you look at the rear of the device, you'll actually see the camera housing and the design and the colours. It’s something that's just really understated,” he says. “There’s a colour for everybody.” The Galaxy S26 FE comes in three colours – graphite, pistachio and blueberry – with the latter my favourite of the three during my short hands-on session. They all feature this rather lovely iridescent finish that is annoyingly difficult to capture on camera. But FE phones have always been a bit of a head-scratcher for me. Pay a little less, and you get the increasingly capable Samsung Galaxy A57 (£529, Samsung.co.uk), which has a lot of the features found on the S26 FE. Pay a little more, and you can get the full-fat Galaxy S26 (£999, Samsung.co.uk). So, who exactly is the Galaxy S26 FE for? The display is a good example of that confusing positioning. On the front, there’s a 6.7in Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and Samsung’s Vision Booster technology. Curiously though, Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy A57 already has a similarly sized 120Hz AMOLED display, and it’s cheaper. Samsung, however, says the FE’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X technology delivers more accurate colours and greater contrast, with Dynamic Tone Mapping adjusting colour and contrast depending on what’s on screen. Beckford says it’s something you’ll only really notice when in use. “If you’re playing a game on your phone, you’re going to get 120Hz, so you’re going to get a smooth scrolling experience,” he says. “But visually, the colours and contrast adjust accordingly to ensure that you get the best visual experience. It’s not just about boosting your brightness.”It boasts a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display (Alex Lee/The Independent)For Samsung, the FE is a natural next step for people coming from its cheaper A-series phones. Beckford gives the example of someone upgrading from a Galaxy A52, describing the S26 FE as a “natural progression” and “the entry point to a full Galaxy AI experience and our entry into premium”. He also points to improvements to Smart Switch, which can bring over everything from your call logs and accessibility settings.Another dividing line can be found under the bonnet. While the Galaxy A57 uses the mid-range Exynos 1680 processor, the S26 FE uses the higher-end 3nm Exynos 2500, which replaces the older 4nm Exynos 2400 found in last year’s S25 FE. “The processor does boost performance significantly,” Beckford tells me, comparing the S26 FE and S25 FE. “You’ll see about 24 per cent improvement on gaming and about 54 per cent on the NPU,” adding that the extra AI grunt should help with Galaxy AI features running both on-device and in the cloud.While Galaxy AI isn’t new to the FE, the S26 FE brings onboard some of Samsung’s newest AI features from the S26 series, Z Fold 8 and Flip 8. Samsung’s cheaper A-series gets a more limited selection of AI features with the company’s Awesome Intelligence suite.Launching with One UI 9 straight out of the box, you get features like Now Nudge, which can recognise what you’re doing and suggest what to do next. If someone messages you with a time and place to meet, for example, it can suggest adding the event to your calendar or opening the location in Maps.Now Brief has been upgraded too. It doesn’t just serve up personalised information throughout the day, but it can deliver even more personalised briefings. It also lets you create custom cards around the information you want to see. As an example, Beckford says he uses a custom Now Brief card to keep track of his body composition, weight, water intake and macros. “I can customise that card to my own liking, and that’s what I like. I can get insights that are important to me,” he explains. “It gives me all of my insights and information in one place.”Photo Assist has been upgraded as well. You can now describe the edit you want to make by speaking rather than typing, or have Galaxy AI analyse a photo and suggest edits for you. Samsung has also improved the Audio Eraser feature, so it now works with third-party content, like YouTube and Instagram. Samsung says One UI 9 will roll out to other Galaxy devices at some point, although it hasn’t confirmed exactly which AI features will be supported on older models. Samsung says it has improved image quality between 1x and 2x zoom and in the 3x to 30x zoom range (Alex Lee/The Independent)In terms of cameras, the S26 FE boasts a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom – that’s the same as the S25 FE. Samsung says it has improved image quality between 1x and 2x zoom and in the 3x to 30x zoom range, however. You still get a 12MP selfie camera on the front, but it now has a wider 85-degree field of view, compared to the 80 degrees on the S25 FE. Nightography video has been upgraded as well, with Samsung promising less noise and colour distortion and more detail when shooting in low light. The S26 FE also borrows some of the neat camera tricks found on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the S26 FE the first Galaxy S-series phone to get every TikTok dancer’s favourite feature: My FanCam. It lets you take a video you’ve already recorded, focus on a single person, and export it in a different aspect ratio, meaning you can clip yourself out for socials. Horizontal Lock, which keeps your footage level even if you rotate the phone 360 degrees, has also been brought in from the S26. When I asked whether Fan Edition still means a phone created for the fans, with features shaped by their feedback, Beckford says these features are partly a response to exactly that. “Everything that we’ve done was based on customer feedback,” Beckford explains. “Key things that customers loved: Super Steady with Horizontal Lock. Obviously, we’re able to implement that. My FanCam. Customers want key fundamentals like long battery life and faster charging.” The S26 FE still features a 4,900mAh battery on the inside, with 45W wired charging. The newer 3nm processor does appear to eke a little more life out of the device, however, with Samsung claiming up to 29 hours of video playback – an hour more than last year. Samsung also says the S26 FE can reach 70 per cent charge in around 30 minutes, compared with 65 per cent on the S25 FE.You’ll also get seven generations of operating system upgrades and seven years of security updates.The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE starts at £699 for the 128GB storage model. There are also 256GB and 512GB storage options. That’s £50 more expensive than the S25 FE at launch, although Samsung is throwing in six months of Google AI Pro to sweeten the deal. Available to pre-order now, it’ll launch on 4 September.Pre-order now For more, we’ve found the best cheap phones for every budget