Samsung announces a mid-range Galaxy S26 FE for $699

Samsung's mid-range Galaxy phone is back.

The Korean tech giant announced on Thursday that the Galaxy S26 FE will launch on Sept.

3 for a starting price of $699.

That's $50 more than the Galaxy S25 FE was priced at a year ago, but such is the way of things these days.

More importantly, it costs a lot less than the $1,099 base-model Galaxy S26 that launched earlier this year, despite coming with many of the same AI features.

I got to demo the new phone at a recent impressions, and my first impression is this: it's fine! The new phone feels solid in the hands and not like a cheap, budget phone.

The display seems equally solid, but a lower peak brightness could be a problem, especially in sunlight.

Finally, the colors are pretty boring to me.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 review: The perfect phone for cool teens — with generous parents The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: By the numbers Here are the basic specs for the Galaxy S26 FE: Display: 6.7-inch display with 120Hz refresh rate and 1,900 nits peak brightness Processor: Exynos 2500 RAM: 8GB Storage: 128/256GB Battery: 4,900mAh Rear cameras: 50MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 8MP telephoto Front camera: 12MP Three cameras.

Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable Samsung obviously had to make a lot of compromises on the hardware front compared to the regular S26 to get the price down as low as it is.

Peak brightness is one of them, as the S26's is 2,600 nits and the S26 FE's is only 1,900 nits.

The S26 also had 12GB of RAM, compared to 8GB on the FE.

Similarly, Samsung isn't offering a 512GB storage variant for the FE, even though it did on the regular S26.

The telephoto lens on the back has also been downgraded from 10MP to 8MP, though interestingly, the 4,900mAh battery cell in the FE is bigger than the 4,300mAh cell in the S26.