The Samsung Galaxy A55 is a great mid-range phone, but the Galaxy S23 FE is almost a flagship. Why are they priced the same? As we noted in our review, it’s hard to recommend the A55 at its current price.
The 8/128GB unit costs £440, but if you want double the storage you’ll need to spend an extra £50. Now, the phone has just been launched and we believe its price will drop soon. As we write these articles, we see the Galaxy A54 selling out week after week, and we have no doubt that the A55 will eventually follow the same path.
But if you need a phone now, the 8/128GB model of the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is just £10 more than the 8/128GB model, while the 256GB model costs exactly the same. You get the more powerful Exynos 2200 chipset, but note that the A55 has expandable storage, while the FE does not. In addition, S23 FE supports DeX. Both phones will get the same software support (4 OS updates, 5 years of patches), but since the S23 FE is older, it starts with an older Android version.
The A55 now has larger displays at 6.6 inches and 6.4 inches (both 120Hz FHD+ OLED). In this regard, the 50MP main camera and 12MP ultra-wide camera are very similar, but the S23 FE’s 8MP 3x telephoto camera has the advantage. Both phones have aluminum frames and glass front and rear panels, but the S-phone has better water resistance – IP68 vs IP67. Unfortunately, its smaller battery (4,500mAh vs. 5,000mAh) and older chipset result in poor battery life. The A55 is pretty good in this regard, and while the S23 FE has wireless charging, it doesn’t quite make up for having to charge more frequently.
Another new Samsung device is the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024). Yes, second re-release. We appreciate the chipset change, but would prefer a better chipset than the Exynos 1280 (the 1380 will do just fine). The £350 price tag for a 4/64GB tablet is hard to justify.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ has a better display – 11-inch 90Hz LCD compared to 10.4-inch 60Hz LCD. While the Snapdragon 695 is certainly not our first choice of chipset, you can get the 4/64GB tablet for just £240. If you pay an extra £50, not only do you get double the storage, you also get 8GB of RAM. Since 2020, the S6 Lite has been equipped with 4GB RAM.
If you want something smaller or cheaper (or both), consider the regular Galaxy Tab A9. It features an 8.7-inch LCD (60Hz, 1,340 x 800 pixels) and Helio G99, along with a tiny 5,100mAh battery with 15W charging power. Nothing to write home about, but the 4/64GB model is only £140.
Back to the Tab S6 Lite (2024), the 4/128GB version costs £390. For an additional £10 you can buy the 6/128GB Galaxy Tab S9 FE. It’s easy to see that the FE is the better tablet – for starters, it does have the Exynos 1380 (which has more RAM). The 10.9-inch 90Hz IPS LCD has a higher resolution (2,304 x 1,440 pixels vs 2,000 x 1,200 pixels).
You also get a larger 8,000mAh battery and 45W charging (versus 7,040mAh and 15W). The FE even has an IP68 rating, while the S6 Lite has no official dust or water resistance. We think this is the same case with the A55, the Tab S6 Lite (2024) is a good device, but the price needs to drop significantly to make sense.
Of course, there’s the larger Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, with a 12.4-inch IPS LCD (90Hz, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels) and a larger 1,090mAh battery. At £600 for the 8/128GB model, it’s expensive, but not exactly stunning. We certainly can’t recommend the £700 8/256GB version.
That’s because the price of last year’s flagship tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, has dropped to £750 – and that’s for the 12/512GB model. There’s no competition between the two, with the Ultra having a massive 14.6-inch 120Hz OLED display (2,960 x 1,848 pixels) and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset paired with an 11,200mAh battery and 45W charging. It also has a microSD slot in case the 512GB internal storage isn’t enough.
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