The Galaxy S26 FE is official, and Samsung still isn’t shaking things up much

Samsung has officially launched the Galaxy S26 FE, and as predicted, most of the hardware sticks pretty close to what we already saw on the Galaxy S25 FE. The phone uses the Exynos 2500, keeps the same 4,900mAh battery capacity, and carries over a familiar triple-camera setup.

The more interesting changes are on the software side. Samsung is making the Galaxy S26 FE the first phone in the Galaxy S26 lineup to ship with One UI 9, while also bringing over several newer camera and Galaxy AI features.

Most of the hardware stays familiar

The Galaxy S26 FE has a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz refresh rate and brightness reaching 1,900 nits. The Exynos 2500 is paired with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. Some regions will also get a 512GB version.

The cameras are largely unchanged. Samsung is using a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilization, a 12MP ultrawide, and an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. A 12MP camera sits on the front.

Battery capacity also remains at 4,900mAh, although Samsung says 45W charging can take the phone to around 69% in 30 minutes. There is also 15W wireless charging, Wireless PowerShare, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, and IP68 protection.

One UI 9 brings most of the new stuff

Samsung has added My FanCam, which can track a selected person and automatically keep them centered while recording. Super Steady also gets Horizontal Lock, helping keep footage level while moving.

Galaxy AI gets some attention too. Now Brief can show customizable briefing cards, while Now Nudge works with more third-party apps and notifications. Circle to Search can now identify multiple items inside the same image, and Photo Assist supports edits through natural-language prompts.

The Galaxy S26 FE will also receive seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates. Samsung will start selling the phone on September 4 in Blueberry, Graphite, and Pistachio. The 128GB model starts at $700, which is $50 more than the Galaxy S25 FE cost at launch.