Samsung Galaxy S25 FE review

A trio of cameras

The camera hardware on the back remains unchanged. The main unit is still 50MP and is aided by a tiny 8MP sensor paired with a 3x telephoto lens and a 12MP ultrawide shooter.

The selfie is the only camera that's changing this year, and it's borrowed from the Galaxy S25 series that uses a 12MP sensor, a slight upgrade over the 10MP one thus far.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; 8K@30fps, 2160p@120fps
• Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 1/3", 1.12µm; 2160p@30fps
• Telephoto: 8 MP OmniVision OV08A10, 3x zoom, 75mm, f/2.4, 1/4.4", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; 2160p@30fps.
• Front camera: 12MP, 1/3.2", 1.12µm, f/2.2, 26mm; 2160p@60fps

We couldn't retrieve detailed sensor information, but we can say with a high degree of confidence that the S25 FE likely uses the same hardware as the S24 FE.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The main camera produces decent-looking photos with quality that's comparable to flagship phones from a few years ago. Detail and sharpness are good, dynamic range is more than decent, color reproduction is accurate, but you can spot occasional noise on uniform areas and when you take pictures indoors. Contrast could use some boost indoors, too.

Main camera daylight photos

Here are some full-res photos, too. However, this mode is hard to recommend as stills look softer and have limited dynamic range.

50MP photos

The people shots turned out flat, soft and contrast-less. You can see a side-by-side comparison between the standard Photo mode and dedicated Portrait mode.

People photos: Photo mode • Portrait mode

2x crop zoom

The 2x zoom photos taken with the main camera are pretty good. There's minimal loss in sharpness, and the post-processing is identical to the 1x mode.

2x crop zoom daylight photos

The photos of people are quite soft, but we like how the Portrait mode shots look at 2x, even though they don't shine in any of the usual technical aspects.

2x people photos: Photo mode • Portrait mode

3x telephoto camera

The telephoto camera has an 8MP sensor, but the system upscales the shots to 12MP for the sake of consistency across all cameras.

Still, we find these photos quite likable - with nice contrast and punchy colors - well matched to the main cam. Even the dynamic range is okay.

Of course, once you go indoors, the small sensor starts to produce noisier and softer photos.

3x telephoto camera daylight photos

The people photos turned out soft, flat and maybe a bit noisy, especially the ones taken indoors. Still, once again, the processing of the Portrait mode photos makes them quite likable.

3x people photos: Photo mode • Portrait mode

Ultrawide camera

Overall quality is what you'd typically expect from a phone in this class, maybe even a tad below. The dynamic range is limited, and the level of detail is only okay, specifically in darker areas.

We do give the S25 FE credit for offering an ultrawide camera with a particularly wide field-of-view and without any significant color fringing and with a competent lens distortion correction algorithm.

Ultrawide camera daylight photos

Selfies

The new selfie camera, which is the same one used in the Galaxy S25 series (except for the autofocus), produces nicer selfies than before. They are detailed, offer a wide dynamic range and resolve accurate and natural colors. The subject's face is always well exposed, even in more challenging lighting conditions.

Selfies

Low-light photos

Main camera

The S25 FE behaves like any other Samsung. It prefers to take most of the shots without the Night mode, but the automatic Night mode kicks in when the scene is considerably darker. However, we strongly recommend using the Night mode exclusively as it delivers cleaner stills with more detail and better dynamic range.

Main camera low-light photos

Otherwise, the standard Photo mode would produce noisy and soft pictures.

But when the Night mode takes over, the photos look more than decent, except that the additional sharpening makes some objects look artificially rendered.

Main camera Night mode photos

2x crop zoom

The system struggles to deliver sharp and clean photos in 2x crop zoom mode, even with the Night mode on. Sure, Night mode handles noise and restores detail in both shadows and highlights, but the scene still appears fuzzy overall.

2x crop zoom low-light: Photo mode • Night mode

3x telephoto camera

The 3x photos from the telephoto camera are okay for the most part if you shoot with the forced Night mode. The stills are somewhat less noisy and offer some additional detail and sharpness, but dynamic range leaves more to be desired. Don't even try shooting without the Night mode.

3x telephoto camera low-light: Photo mode • Night mode

Ultrawide camera

With the Night mode active, the ultrawide camera delivers photos that are par for the course. By that, we mean they are a bit fuzzy and the dynamic range is not as good as the main cam's, but they deliver the level of quality that you'd generally expect from ultrawide cameras in this price bracket.

Ultrawide camera low-light: Photo mode • Night mode

Video recording

The device can record videos at up to 8K resolution at 30fps using the primary camera, while the rest of the cameras cap at 4K@30fps. EIS seems to be present on all cameras at 4K.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The daylight footage taken with the main camera is very nice and clean with a good level of detail, solid sharpness and great colors. Dynamic range is okay for the most part. The same goes for the night video, which shows crispy and clean scenes with good contrast.

The 2x crop zoom video is surprisingly good as it shares most traits with the 1x video, but comes out a tad softer and fuzzier, which is to be expected. The same goes for the low-light video at 2x too.

The telephoto camera's video quality is about the same as the 2x from the main one, which may not sound like much, but we like how the two produce quite a uniform look. Also, they are both quite well stabilized.

The ultrawide camera shows strong performance, which is not something you'd expect from an ultrawide unit, even in this class. The footage is relatively sharp and detailed, with colors matching the main camera's processing very well, and the dynamic range is more than okay for an ultrawide unit. But at night, the camera struggles to deliver usable footage. It's extremely soft, noisy and with limited dynamic range.

The EIS does an excellent job at compensating for the shaky hand when shooting still, but it also does a relatively good job when recording while walking too.