Okay, now here’s the thing. The S23 FE is on sale. FE and sales. It launched for 54999, but right now, in the Flipkart sale, it is selling for 33999. And another big news is the S24 series, which was popular for its AI features. Well, recently, S23 and S23 FE have both gotten most of the AI update, and this was the update I was waiting for. Because now, S23 is also at a discount of 44999. And I’ve been using the S24 as my primary device since its launch. and we have been using the S23 and S23 FE for quite some time now.
So the question that has to be asked is: What are the differences in AI features? Should you buy the S23 FE at a discount, or should you spend more and get the S23 rather? Well, we’ll answer all of those questions. This is a fun article. Let’s go. Now, before we get to the camera performance and AI, we have already covered the S23 FE in a previous video, but in case you missed it, this year, the S23 FE gets a glass back, but mostly your hands touch the frame, which is also metal with a matte finish. Also, like the other Samsung phones, it has the signature Galaxy design. Now, it weighs around 209 grams, and usually the FE series is more compact. Like the S21 FE and S23 FE side by side, the S23 FE is more of a bigger device. However, it does feel light in the hand when using it. On the front, you get a 120Hz AMOLED display that has kind of thick bezels that you notice initially, but after a few days, it doesn’t bother you much. Also, you get Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front. All in all, if you put this display beside any 40–50,000 phone, it stands on par. Now coming to the most interesting part, Galaxy AI. The S23 FE is running on the latest Android 14 based on One UI 6.1, and this latest One UI version brings a flagship feature to the S23 series, Galaxy AI. So I have this call assist option where I can translate calls in real time. So now we’ll call Sayan Super Sayan and see how live translation works in real time. Live translation, real time. Live translation is real-time. So, Sayan, do you want to have tea? Yes, I want to have some tea. So do you drink tea or eat tea? Do you drink tea or eat tea? No, I drink tea; I eat tea; everything that happens, I eat too; everything that happens And whenever I am watching a reel, I see this amazing gadget. I just do this circle to search, and then Tada, I can open the Amazon page of the gadget. Also, if you come across text in English or another language, I can just tap on the bottom pill, tap on the translate icon, and boom, done. Also, there is AI on the keyboard as well. And suppose I want to write an email about taking sick leave, as I am unwell. So I just typed here and wrote an email for sick leave due to a fever. I select all of them, and then I tap on this AI icon. I just select my writing style. And it automatically creates an entire draft with different tones, like professional, casual, social, and casual. And another thing that I’m using a lot is the summarize feature. So see, I’m reading an article on the Google feed. So instead of reading the entire article, I just tap on this AI icon. and it gives me a summary, so instead of 5, I am able to read 10 articles in the same amount of time. This is a very handy and practical feature.
Now you also get the AI in the gallery, and let’s make a small challenge here. So I took the same image on the S23 FE, S23, and S24. I’ll select the object here, tap on erase, and then tap on generate. This is amazing. All three give the same output, and at the same time, wow! Let’s take another difficult image and do the same again. So just like the S24, the Galaxy AI works as well on the S23 and S23 FE because all of these AI features are coming from the cloud. And now, from a user’s perspective, I’ll think about my privacy, right? Well, there is an option called process data only on the device, and this ensures that all the data is processed on the phone itself. This is a nice option, but do note that Magic Editor and Keyboard Tone Suggestion won’t work after you turn this on. Now, we have this table over here. S23 and S23 FE get most of the AI features except instant slow-mo and a couple of things. You can pause and read it here. But one thing you have to note is that the S23 FE has four years of Android updates and five years of security updates. The S23 FE was launched with Android 13, and now it’s running Android 14, so you are only left with 3 Android updates here as of now, which is again still 5. A lot of companies give that on the phone. Now the biggest question with the S23 FE is: what about the performance? So in terms of performance, you get these specs: usually the FE series is known to have last year’s flagship processor. We ran an AnTuTu benchmark app that gives an overall score to the phone, and it scores around 11.6 lakh, which is equivalent to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1.
Now, these are all benchmarks. The point is, does it heat up in real life? That’s the question. Now, we wanted to test things to the extreme. So, we put all three phones—S23 FE, S23, and S24—to shoot 4K at 30 fps for about 10 minutes. And after 10 minutes, we just took it to the side to show the temperature. And if you can see, it is 4950 degrees on the S24. It is 4847 between the S23 and S23 FE. The temperature difference between both of them is negligible. And if, in this heat, you can record 4K, it is pretty practical. This is the most practical thing that you can do. And then we took some popular games to check the game settings. In games like DJMI, you can go 60 FPS at smooth graphics or ultra FPS at HDR graphics. In COD, you can play with high graphics at 60 FPS. You also played for about 15–20 minutes to see the heat, and it was fine. There weren’t any issues at all, and the gameplay was also smooth. Now, this is a typical Samsung camera setup. You get a main camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 3x telephoto camera. And overall, it is typical Samsung photos; the HDR in photos is pretty good; that’s Samsung camera processing. And you can even take portrait mode photos at 1x, 2x, and 3x, and look at the edge detection in this photo of Shorbik. God damn, it has detected single hair strands. In terms of videos, you can shoot maximum at 8K 30fps, but mostly we shoot at 4K 30fps, precisely in portrait video, and look at the edge detection in video. On the front, you get a 10 MP selfie camera, and selfies from it are mostly good. Also, you can do 4K at 60 fps on the front camera. So in terms of camera overall, if it is not the best, it is one of the best cameras under Rs. 40,000. So what’s the conclusion here? How does the people’s favorite S23 FE stand up? So on the Flipkart sale, there’s a discount of Rs. 20,000. No card offers anything. So when the price falls by so much, the S23 FE automatically becomes a good deal. If you can even exchange a smartphone and get the price down under Rs. 30,000 for the camera, software, and AI features, the S23 FE is a great deal. And I would also recommend that if your budget is around $45,000 to $50,000, then the S23 at that price point is the most underrated smartphone deal currently.
