Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs S23 FE (Exynos)

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 Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos), which is powered by Exynos 2200 and came out 3 years 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
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
  • Shows 45% longer battery life (25:38 vs 17:40 hours)
  • Delivers 103% higher peak brightness (1860 against 917 nits)
  • 55% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2289K versus 1479K)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • The phone is 3 years newer
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 16
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 25W)
  • Thinner bezels – 5.4% more screen real estate

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S26 FE and S23 FE (Exynos) crucial features
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.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 89% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos) to Samsung Galaxy S26 FE is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, battery life, and performance.
Be aware: the newer phone is weaker in connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.4 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 385 ppi 403 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1300 nits 1450 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1900 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Plus Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 88.6% 83.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.4%
PWM - 120 Hz
Response time - 1 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S26 FE
6.7β€³ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos)
6.4β€³ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
~9% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1860 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 161.6 mm (6.36 inches) 158 mm (6.22 inches)
Width 76.9 mm (3.03 inches) 76.5 mm (3.01 inches)
Thickness 7.4 mm (0.29 inches) 8.2 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 193 g (6.81 oz) 209 g (7.37 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Gray, Blue, Purple White, Black, Green, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S26 FE and Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos)
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2500 Samsung Exynos 2200
Max clock 3300 MHz 2800 MHz
CPU cores 10 (1 + 2 + 5 + 2) 8 (1 + 3 + 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 1.82 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.52 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-X2
L3 cache 16 MB 4 MB
Manufacturing Samsung Samsung
Lithography process 3 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Yes
GPU
Graphics Xclipse 950 Xclipse 920
GPU shading units 1024 384
GPU clock 999 MHz 1306 MHz
FLOPS ~4091.9 GFLOPS ~1003 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S26 FE and Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 22100 9946
Single-core score 2217 1588
Multi-core score 7699 3775
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
2289696
CPU 771016 485443
GPU 723824 480762
Memory 356421 189036
UX 438435 324663
Total score 2289696 1479904
Samples Less than 3 [17 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 69%
Graphics test - 7 FPS
Graphics score - 994
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 69%
Graphics test - 17 FPS
Section 1 - 20 FPS
Section 2 - 17 FPS
Section 3 - 14 FPS
Graphics score - 4422
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score - 11932
Video editing - 7385
Photo editing - 24230
Data manipulation - 12323
Writing score - 16664

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-11-02 (Mikl)AnTuTu 122981426
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-15 -> Malagau2AnTuTu 122751051
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-13 (Feran)AnTuTu 122750381
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Exynos)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-25 ((tiktok:frowners_tech_))AnTuTu 121674395
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-09 (Basiks)AnTuTu 111227101
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-26 (Relakser)AnTuTu 111478914
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-03 -> Otchem1488AnTuTu 111592471
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-08 (Leksa)Battery lifeSatisfaction 1/10

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock - 3200 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 17 Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 9.0 One UI 8.0
OS size - 21 GB
OS updates 7 years 4 years
Security updates 7 years 5 years

Battery

Capacity 4900 mAh 4500 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 25 W
Battery type - Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging No -
Fast charging Yes (69% in 30 min) Yes (58% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:08 hr 1:10 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:42 hr 06:25 hr
Watching video 17:42 hr 10:03 hr
Gaming 06:12 hr 03:27 hr
Standby 117 hr 96 hr
General battery life
25:38 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 123Β° 123Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 24 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 Samsung GN3
Sensor size 1/1.57" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch) 1/1.57" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 8 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
Focal length 75 mm 76 mm
Sensor OmniVision OV08A10 Hynix Hi847
Sensor size 1/4.4" (β‰ˆ 0.23 inch) 1/4.4" (β‰ˆ 0.23 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Digital
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3L6 Samsung S5K3L6
Sensor size 1/3.0" (β‰ˆ 0.33 inch) 1/3.1" (β‰ˆ 0.32 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 3648 x 2736 3648 x 2736
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.4
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Sensor CMOS Samsung S5K3J1
Sensor size 1/3.2" (β‰ˆ 0.31 inch) 1/2.65" (β‰ˆ 0.38 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
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 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 3.2
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
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 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 October 2023
Release date September 2026 October 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $699 $599
Successor - - Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
SAR (head) - 0.76 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.04 W/kg
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
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 Samsung Galaxy S26 FE is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
3 (30%)
7 (70%)
Total votes: 10

User opinions

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