Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs Apple iPhone 17
80
out of 100
VS
87
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 FE (with Exynos 2500) that was released on August 27, 2026, against the Apple iPhone 17, which is powered by Apple A19 and came out 11 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Comes with 1208 mAh larger battery capacity: 4900 vs 3692 mAh
- Delivers 83% higher peak brightness (1857 against 1016 nits)
- Has a 0.4 inch larger screen size
- The phone is 11 months newer
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- CPU with a higher amount of cores (+4)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 17
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- Compatible with the latest Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
- 19% higher pixel density (460 vs 385 PPI)
- 69% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3736 and 2217 points
- Better grip in hands – the body is 5.4 mm narrower
- Weighs 16 grams less
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.7 inches | 6.3 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 pixels | 1206 x 2622 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 385 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (1-120 Hz) | Yes (1-120 Hz) |
| Max rated brightness | 1300 nits | 3000 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 1900 nits | 1600 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus Plus | Ceramic Shield 2 |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 88.6% | 91.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
| RGB color space | - | 99.6% |
| PWM | - | 241 Hz |
| Response time | - | 1 ms |
| Contrast | - | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S26 FE
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
iPhone 17
6.3″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.1 in2
~13% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 161.6 mm (6.36 inches) | 149.6 mm (5.89 inches) |
| Width | 76.9 mm (3.03 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.4 mm (0.29 inches) | 8 mm (0.31 inches) |
| Weight | 193 g (6.81 oz) | 177 g (6.24 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Gray, Blue, Purple | White, Black, Blue, Green, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
| Repairability | - | Average (2.82/5) |
| Drop resistance | - | Very good (B) · 180 drops |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 2500 | Apple A19 |
| Max clock | 3300 MHz | 4260 MHz |
| CPU cores | 10 (1 + 2 + 5 + 2) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 2 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A520 - 5 cores at 2.36 GHz: Cortex-A725 - 2 cores at 2.74 GHz: Cortex-A725 - 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X925 |
- 4 cores at 2.6 GHz: - 2 cores at 4.26 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 16 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 3 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Xclipse 950 | 5 core Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 1024 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 999 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~4091.9 GFLOPS | ~2073.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 22100 | 37553 |
| Single-core score | 2217 | 3736 |
| Multi-core score | 7699 | 9226 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 771016 | 598735 |
| GPU | 723824 | 803562 |
| Memory | 356421 | 200566 |
| UX | 438435 | 553263 |
| Total score | 2289696 | 2156126 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [19 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | - | 72% |
| Graphics test | - | 16 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2147 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | - | 36 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 40 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 36 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 31 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 9465 |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#188th place)
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
No benchmark results yet
Apple iPhone 17
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-27 (Zharkyn) | AnTuTu | 2243285 |
| 📘 2026-08-07 (Aarav) | AnTuTu | 1776737 |
| 📘 2026-08-06 (yuki) | AnTuTu | 2352837 |
| 📘 2026-07-25 (Taelnwza) | AnTuTu | 2117495 |
| 📘 2026-07-21 (fanz) | AnTuTu | 2109654 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 256 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 17 | iOS 26 (Can be upgraded to iOS 26.5) |
| ROM | One UI 9 | - |
| OS updates | 7 years | 7 years |
| Security updates | 7 years | 7 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 4900 mAh | 3692 mAh |
| Max charge power | 45 W | 40 W |
| Battery type | - | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (25 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | Yes |
| Bypass charging | No | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (69% in 30 min) | Yes (63% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:08 hr | 1:25 hr |
| Battery cycles | - | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 09:42 hr | 09:21 hr |
| Watching video | 17:42 hr | 19:24 hr |
| Gaming | 06:12 hr | 06:44 hr |
| Standby | 117 hr | 109 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#147th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 48 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8160 x 6120 | 8064 x 6048 |
| Zoom | Optical, 3x | Digital |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 30FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 123° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 8 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 48 MP 2) Ultrawide: 48 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 24 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 | Sony IMX904 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | - |
| Focal length | 75 mm | - |
| Sensor | OmniVision OV08A10 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/4.4" (≈ 0.23 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 13 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3L6 | Sony IMX972 |
| Sensor size | 1/3.0" (≈ 0.33 inch) | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | - | 170 |
| Zoom | - | 105 |
| Samples | - | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 17 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 12 megapixels | 18 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3648 x 2736 | 4896 x 3672 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/1.9 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | CMOS | Sony IMX914 |
| Sensor size | 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | No | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Digital | Optical |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.4 | 6.0 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | - | Yes |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | - |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | eSIM |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 20 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | August 2026 | September 2025 |
| Release date | September 2026 | September 2025 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $699 | $799 |
| Sensors | - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Not included | Not included |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 17 is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 13
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