Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE is official at $699, cheaper than leaks

Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S26 FE, confirming the phone that its teaser had pointedly declined to name. It starts at $699.99 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with a 256GB option alongside it, in Blueberry, Graphite and Pistachio. Select carriers begin sales on September 3, with nationwide availability from September 4.

The price is the detail the leaks got wrong. Reports circulating before the event pointed to $799, and the actual figure lands a hundred dollars below that. It is still an increase, though: the S25 FE launched at $649 last September, making this a $50 step up and ending a run of stable Fan Edition pricing. In the UK the range runs £699 for 128GB, £799 for 256GB and £949 for a 512GB tier.

On hardware, the pre-event reporting held up almost exactly. Samsung confirmed a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display at 120Hz, now rated for 1,900 nits peak brightness, the 3nm Exynos 2500 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 4,900mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging, IP68 water and dust resistance, and a rear camera array of a 50MP main sensor with optical stabilization, a 12MP ultra-wide and an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, plus a 12MP front camera.

The software is where Samsung put its emphasis. The S26 FE is the first phone in the S26 family to ship with One UI 9 on Android 17, carrying seven years of Android updates, and it is the first non-foldable Samsung phone to get My FanCam — the feature introduced on this year's foldables that automatically tracks a chosen person and reframes video to keep them centered. Samsung also highlighted Horizon Lock for steadier video, improved Nightography, Photo Assist, and the Now Brief and Now Nudge assistant features, and is bundling six months of Google AI Pro with purchase.

What did not change is most of the rest. The display, battery capacity, charging speed, camera hardware and RAM tier all carry over from the S25 FE, making the newer chip and the software additions the substance of the upgrade.

This article was updated after Samsung's presentation with the phone's confirmed name, price, specifications and release dates.