Samsung Galaxy S26 FE unveiled with new chipset and One UI 9
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE was officially unveiled today. During the development of this smartphone, the company focused on new AI features and their everyday usability. There are also hardware upgrades, but these are limited.
The curious thing is that Samsung didn’t mention the chipset when they unveiled the S26 FE, but it’s quite likely to be the Exynos 2500. This 3nm chip has previously only been used in the Galaxy Z Flip7 and represents the biggest upgrade over the Galaxy S25 FE, which ran on the predecessor Exynos 2400.
Samsung Galaxy S26 FE with Exynos 2500 chipset
The Exynos 2500 was the first chipset manufactured using Samsung’s Gate All Around (GAA) process. It features newer CPU cores than the 2400, a more powerful AMD RDNA 3-based GPU with 33% more workgroups, and an NPU with 40% more computing power.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE ships with Android 17 and One UI 9, making it the first model in the S26 series with this software version. It also offers a range of features that previously premiered in Samsung’s premium flagship phones.
AI features
My FanCam was introduced alongside the foldable Galaxy Z8 smartphones. It works with videos in your gallery – it can automatically track people by zooming in and keeping them centered in the frame. There’s also Horizon Lock – this feature ensures your recordings remain level, even if the smartphone rotates 360° during video recording. Samsung also states that the improved Night Vision delivers brighter, higher-quality images when recording in low light.
Photo Assistant is another gallery feature – it uses AI to edit images according to your instructions. You can change the background, switch between day and night modes, or add or remove objects.
One UI 9 on the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE also improves Now Brief: You can create text widgets with simple voice commands, similar to editing images. This works in various categories: weather, health, and video. For example, you can say, “Summarize my protein and carbohydrate intake in relation to my weight and body composition.” And within seconds, the AI creates a map in Now Brief that does exactly that.
Display, battery and cameras
The remaining features show many parallels to the Galaxy S25 FE. The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE offers the same 6.7-inch 1080p+ OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,900 nits peak brightness, as well as the same 4,900 mAh battery with the same 45-watt fast charging and 15-watt wireless charging capabilities.
The cameras you use to record Horizon Lock videos or take photos for later AI editing are the same as before. There’s a 50MP main module, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom (and 30x digital zoom), and a 12MP ultrawide lens. The selfie camera has a 12MP sensor.
Like other smartphones in the S series – including its predecessor – the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE will receive operating system updates and security patches for seven years. And here’s a first for the S series: Samsung is including a six-month trial of Google AI Pro (worth €120/US$120) with the S26 FE, which includes 5 TB of cloud storage. Previously, this extra was reserved for the foldable Z models.
Prices
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE will be available from September 3rd in Blueberry, Pistachio, and Graphite. Some mobile carriers will offer it a day earlier, on the 4th. It comes in three storage variants: 128, 256, and 512 GB. The base model starts at €799/$700, which is $50 more than the launch price of the 128 GB S25 FE. The higher-capacity versions cost €899 and €1,099.
