Walking into a phone store recently with a friend, I realised just how much smartphone prices have increased compared to a few months ago. The difference is like night and day, and it hurts, especially in a tight economy where inflation remains high and job security is uncertain due to AI.

Although I insisted that my friend get the phone on EMI, as many people do, he wasn’t sure whether the high price was worth paying for the smartphone he wanted. He decided to put off getting a new phone for the time being and said he might buy one if the deals were good enough during the Diwali period.

I get that money is tight for working professionals in this economy, but more than that, I could sense that people like him simply want more value from their phones. I am not sure which phone he will eventually choose or whether he will drop the plan altogether, but I have gotten my hands on the new Galaxy S26 FE, Samsung’s lower-cost flagship, which brings some of the features, including software features, found on the company’s high-end Galaxy S26.

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There’s a lot to like about the S26 FE based on my first impressions. However, Samsung has not yet announced its price in India (all I know it’s hitting retail shelves on Sepetmber 18) and if it plays its cards right and keeps the retail price below the figure I have in mind, it could be a great semi-premium phone for professionals and young consumers.

I really liked how the S26 FE feels in the hand.

Lightweight and easy to grip

Modern phones have either become too thin or too thick, and it’s a strange situation for buyers. Thankfully, the Galaxy S26 FE avoids the drama and keeps the design simple. I simply loved its minimal, understated design language.

While it’s not a small phone, the S26 FE feels good in the hand. It weighs just 193 grams, so it feels relatively light. I think it strikes the right balance between screen size and portability for most people.

It also has brushed aluminium sides, which not only provide a better grip and help protect the phone from accidental drops but also make the device look more expensive.

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I got the Pistachio colour option for review, and it has a very calm look. It doesn’t feel as aggressive as some of the brighter options, such as orange or dark pink.

Power up

The S26 FE’s 6.7-inch AMOLED display looks good, with a 1080 × 2340 resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Although the display brightness is capped at just 1,900 nits (and I am yet to take the phone outside and test it under bright sunlight), the screen is sharp, bright, and colourful indoors.

A phone that will likely be compared directly with the S26 FE is the Apple iPhone 17e, whose display supports only a 60Hz refresh rate. However, Google’s budget Pixel 10a has a brighter display, rated at up to 3,000 nits.

Inside the S26 FE is Samsung’s Exynos 2500 processor paired with 8GB of RAM. Performance should be fine, although it’s definitely not on par with the Galaxy S26 Ultra or the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It’s still early days, but so far, I have had no issues loading apps or scrolling through web pages, and the camera app feels a bit faster.

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The Galaxy S26 has an Exynos 2600 processor, making the S26 FE’s Exynos 2500 one generation old. That said, the S26 FE should be more than capable for everyday tasks like playing music and podcasts, watching YouTube, checking social media, and glancing at emails.

The screen size is generous and the bezels around the screen are slim.

My only concern is the storage. The phone ships with 128GB of storage, and if you prefer storing photos and videos on the phone rather than in the cloud, that 128GB could fill up pretty quickly.

The phone has a 4,900-mAh battery with 45-watt wired charging and 15-watt wireless charging speeds. This is the same battery size as the S26 Plus. I am hoping to get a full day of battery life, or maybe beyond a day. I cover more on battery in my detailed review.

Plenty of AI features and brand-new camera tricks

The S26 FE runs Android 17 with Samsung’s One UI 9, so its software experience will be comparable to the high-end Galaxy S26 series. A lot of the software and AI features available on the S26 will also be available on the S26 FE. Now Brief, for instance, continues to improve, providing more personalised updates based on your habits and routines.

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There’s also a new addition called Now Nudge, a feature built into Samsung’s keyboard that works like the usual predictive text options at the top of the keyboard, but it is contextually aware and can pull in data from elsewhere on your phone.

Circle to Search and Gemini Live, both with improved capabilities, are available on the S26 FE. There’s also a new document-scanning app that uses AI to clean up imperfections.

Personally, one feature I am excited to see on the S26 FE is Audio Eraser, which removes distracting background sounds from videos. I have used the feature on the S26 and Fold 8 and really liked it. Audio Eraser now also works for content consumption, rather than just content creation. This means it works with apps like Netflix and YouTube to boost dialogue and reduce background noise. I wasn’t expecting Samsung to bring this feature to the S26 FE, but it did, and I am glad to see it here.

The S26 FE comes with Android 17 and One UI 9 installed out of the box.

On the camera front, the core specifications remain unchanged from last year’s S25 FE. You still get a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and an 8-megapixel 3x telephoto camera on the back. Both the iPhone 17e and Pixel 10a lack a 3x optical zoom camera. Around the front, there’s a 12-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera, but it now has a wider field of view, letting you fit more people in the frame.

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The S26 FE’s camera should feel like a solid upgrade for those with older smartphones, but it depends on your needs. I just testing the camera and I am not a position to pass my final verdict yet.

As I said, the camera hardware remains unchanged, but the improved camera features, I would say, enhance the overall experience. One such feature is My FanCam, a brand-new feature that Samsung debuted a few days ago on the passport-style Z Fold 8. It lets you select a subject from a wide video and automatically crop and track it. It also supports multiple aspect ratios, making it useful for converting landscape footage into vertical content.

I would place the Galaxy S26 FE between the Galaxy A57 and the Galaxy S26.

A budget-friendly S26?

After briefly trying the Galaxy S26 FE, I realised not everyone will be in the market for a Galaxy S26 Ultra or an iPhone Pro. I am sure a lot of people are feeling the financial pressure and planning to tighten their budgets this year.

There isn’t as much disposable cash sloshing around as before, and people are looking for more affordable solutions. That’s why I think it’s worth taking a closer look at the S26 FE if you are in the market for a smartphone.

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I am still in the early days of testing the S26 FE, and while the phone lacks many of the features that would qualify it as a premium smartphone, it may still deliver all the functionality an average phone buyer is looking for without offering a watered-down experience.

While I wait for Samsung to announce its India price, internationally, the S26 FE retails for $700, which translates to around Rs 66,101. That may feel like a high price for some, which is why I am calling the S26 FE a semi-premium smartphone.