Samsung’s $700 Galaxy 26 FE Gets a Price Hike Even With Many Tradeoffs

Samsung Electronics Co. introduced the Galaxy S26 FE, its latest smartphone aimed at consumers who want a device that’s priced well below high-end models but still offers at least a few premium features.

The $700 device, announced Thursday, is $50 more expensive than its predecessor, marking another cost increase at a time when consumers have grown accustomed to routine price hikes amid an industry-wide memory chip shortage. The handset will be available from select carrier partners on Sept. 3, with direct sales from Samsung and other retailers beginning on Sept. 4.

To reach this price point — and avoid a steeper increase — the Galaxy S26 FE trades away the Qualcomm Inc. silicon found in the standard S26 for a less capable processor from MediaTek Inc. Its camera system can’t deliver the same image quality as Samsung’s pricier devices, and the new phone also contains less memory (12 gigabytes) and fewer on-device artificial intelligence features.

But the S26 FE does hold at least one advantage over its more advanced siblings: It’s running the company’s latest software and ships with One UI 9, based on Android 17. Meanwhile, the S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra currently remain on One UI 8.5 while users beta-test the more recent version ahead of a wider roll-out.

The handset includes a 6.7-inch display with a 120-hertz refresh rate, so buyers can still expect a high-quality screen. The phone’s 4,900-milliampere-hour battery can also charge to 69% in roughly 30 minutes when using a 45-watt charger, Samsung said.

Despite the memory constraints, the S26 FE offers some of Samsung’s hallmark AI features like Now Brief and Now Nudge, which are intended to proactively surface relevant data for users. Circle to Search, an AI-powered visual search function from Alphabet Inc.’s Google., can now identify multiple items in an image, Samsung said.

The company has also brought over some of its latest camera software tricks such as My FanCam, which can automatically crop in on a specific person in a recorded video and keep them centered, tracking them as they move throughout the frame. Another feature called Horizontal Lock helps keep clips level despite jerky movements or even if the phone is physically rotated.

But the Galaxy S26 FE finds itself in somewhat of a no-man’s land between more affordable budget options like Google’s $499 Pixel 10a, which already cover the smartphone basics fairly well, and more premium devices like Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra, which cost $1,300 when it debuted. Handsets of that caliber deliver superior performance and a more generous selection of niceties, including a unique Privacy Display that prevents passersby from seeing what’s on the screen.