In this review, we are going to take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Fan Edition) smartphone, which is powered by the Samsung Exynos 2200 mobile SoC!
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Flagship Class Performance!
The Galaxy S23 FE runs on Samsung’s best in-house mobile chip – the Exynos 2200, which is fabricated on the 4 nm process technology.
Launched in January 2022, this is a flagship-class mobile SoC (System-on-a-Chip) designed to compete with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It has eight processor cores with a tri-cluster architecture:
- a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 2.8 GHz,
- three Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
- four Cortex-A510 cores running at up to 1.8 GHz.
This mobile SoC also comes with the Samsung Xclipse 920 GPU, a dual-core NPU, and DSPs to support 8K video decoding at up to 60 fps, and camera resolutions up to 200 MP.
The Samsung Exynos 2200 also has a built-in 5G modem that supports Sub-6Ghz and mmWave connectivity, as well as LTE Cat.24 download and LTE Cat.22 upload speeds.
Recommended : Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Battery Review!
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy S23 FE using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0 | S23 Ultra | Z Flip 5 | Z Flip 4 | S23 FE | S22 Ultra |
Mobile Platform | SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8+ Gen 1 |
Exynos 2200 |
SD 8 Gen 1 |
Performance Score | 16408 | 14655 | 14429 | 13971 | 12860 |
Web Browsing | 15680 | 11404 | 12097 | 11664 | 10442 |
Video Editing | 7879 | 7943 | 7387 | 7369 | 7444 |
Writing | 22257 | 19525 | 17593 | 18138 | 15471 |
Photo Editing | 35533 | 324420 | 31762 | 27060 | 30177 |
Data Manipulation | 12171 | 11788 | 12523 | 12616 | 9691 |
Not bad! The Exynos 2200 is certainly no match for the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it actually beat the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 by 9%, and came within 3.3% of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1!
I should point out that these are peak performance results. The truth is – you won’t be able to actually tell the difference between the three mobile processors in normal usage.
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Storage Performance
PCMark also has an Android Storage 2.0 benchmark that measures the smartphone’s storage I/O performance.
Storage 2.0 | Z Flip 5 | S23 Ultra | S23 FE | S22 Ultra | Z Flip 4 |
Mobile Platform | SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8 Gen 2 |
Exynos 2200 |
SD 8 Gen 1 |
SD 8+ Gen 1 |
Storage Score | 48435 | 41647 | 31839 | 27808 | 27271 |
Sequential Read (MB/s) | 2676.53 | 2592.42 | 1584.66 | 1457.68 | 1350.51 |
Random Read (MB/s) | 49.95 | 38.25 | 31.25 | 37.73 | 33.94 |
Sequential Write (MB/s) | 2631.38 | 603.29 | 510.16 | 856.21 | 256.81 |
Random Write (MB/s) | 76.66 | 81.44 | 81.13 | 47.20 | 50.29 |
Samsung appeared to have used slower flash storage to reduce the cost of the Galaxy S23 FE. Its storage performance is much closer to last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, than the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Interestingly, its random write performance was exceptional, matching the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and almost double that of the Galaxy S22 Ultra,
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S23 FE using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark | Z Flip 5 | S23 Ultra | Z Flip 4 | S22 Ultra | S23 FE |
Mobile Platform | SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8+ Gen 1 |
SD 8 Gen 1 |
Exynos 2200 |
Solar Bay Unlimited | 5481 | NA | NA | NA | 4570 |
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited |
3705 | 3814 | 2636 | 2220 | 2233 |
Wild Life Unlimited | 14823 | 14554 | 11144 | 9106 | 8671 |
Sling Shot Unlimited | 16661 | 16344 | 10690 | 11094 | 11348 |
The Samsung Exynos 2200 powering the Galaxy S23 FE is almost identical in performance to the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the difference between their performance is less than 0.7%!
Like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 FE will have no problem handling most games. Only when it comes to more strenuous games (as tested by the Wild Life benchmark) does it lag significantly behind the Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.
But the good news is that the new Solar Bay ray-tracing benchmark shows that the Exynos 2200 is able to hold its own – it is just 17% slower than the Galaxy Z Flip5, which is powered by the Snapdragon Gen 2 for Galaxy processor.
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy S23 FE using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu | S23 Ultra | Z Flip 5 | S23 FE | S22 Ultra | Z Flip 4 |
Device | SD 8 Gen 2 |
SD 8 Gen 2 |
Exynos 2200 |
SD 8 Gen 1 |
SD 8+ Gen 1 |
AnTuTu Score | 1212174 | 1187296 | 1166868 | 889167 | 856357 |
CPU | 261886 | 393404 | 329078 | 203090 | 205939 |
GPU | 538823 | 282780 | 425455 | 402617 | 362669 |
Memory | 236163 | 291048 | 193981 | 146002 | 135707 |
UX | 175302 | 220064 | 218354 | 137458 | 152042 |
The AnTuTu benchmark tells a slightly different story. According to its tests, the Galaxy S23 FE is about 31% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and 36% faster than the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Not bad!
The Galaxy S23 actually came within 2% of the Galaxy Z Flip 5‘s performance, at least in the AnTuTu Benchmark. In fact, it was only 3.7% slower than the Galaxy S23 Ultra!
But note that its temperature jumped by almost 12°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S23 FE can get quite toasty!
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE : Performance Summary
The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is a rather chunky smartphone, so one would expect better cooling performance, compared to something thinner and foldable like the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
It shows in the benchmarks – the Galaxy S23 FE comes admirably close to the performance of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, even though it’s using a mobile processor that is one generation older.
The Samsung Exynos 2200 might not do quite so well at high-resolution games, compared to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but that’s a different price point altogether.
Ultimately, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE punches above its weight in everything except gaming performance. Unless you are an avid gamer, this is flagship-class performance at a more affordable price point.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Fan Edition Price + Availability
The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE comes with colour options of Mint, Lavender, Gray and Silver, with two exclusive colours on their website – Tangerine and Indigo. They are all offered with two RAM and storage options:
- 6 GB + 128 GB
- 8 GB + 256 GB
These are the available models and launch prices for the Galaxy S23 FE :
- 8 GB + 128 GB : RM2,999 (approx. US$633 / £519 / A$998)
- 8 GB + 256 GB : RM3,299 (approx. US$699 / £571 / A$1,098)
Here are some online purchase options for the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE:
- United States : Amazon | Amazon
- United Kingdom : Amazon
- Australia : Amazon | Amazon |Amazon
- Malaysia : Shopee | Shopee
Recommended : How To Setup Galaxy S23 FE For The First Time!
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Recommended Reading
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- Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Battery Review!
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- How To Setup Galaxy S23 FE For The First Time!
- Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Unboxing + First Impressions!
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