This is our own footage: we spent a week shooting with the Galaxy S26 FE, Samsung's cheapest phone in the S26 lineup, to find out whether its RM2,899 (US$699.99) price tag drags the camera down with it. The video above is the full test.
The S26 FE carries over the same 50MP main sensor and 8MP telephoto from last year's S25 FE, which is the disappointing part on paper. What changed is Samsung's image processing. We put similar questions to Apple's side of the market in our iPhone 18 Pro Camera Review, and against Samsung's own flagship in our iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Galaxy S26 Ultra camera test. Here is what the FE's three lenses actually produced.
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2x main versus 3x telephoto: the biggest split we found
At 3:26 in our video, we shot the same street scene at 2x zoom on the main camera and 3x zoom on the telephoto. The telephoto crop carries a visible purple tint across the whole image that the main camera does not have, and that tint also shows up on skin tones shot on the telephoto lens. Push past 3x and the processing goes further: text on signs turns blotchy and faces start to distort, so we would not go past 3x on this camera.
Main camera versus ultra wide: the detail gap
The 50MP main camera is where the S26 FE earns its keep. Dynamic range holds up well, clouds and highlights stay unblown and shadow detail does not crush, and at 1x and 2x it gave us exactly what we wanted for street photography. The 12MP, f/2.2 ultra wide camera at a wide 123-degree field of view looks good at a glance, with the same solid contrast, but zoom into the same spot shot on both lenses and the ultra wide's detail falls apart fast while the main camera stays readable.
Low light: one camera holds up, two do not
The main camera's low light mode surprised us. Even pointed straight into the night sky, it avoided the color banding we expected, and street subjects stayed well lit without a blotchy sky behind them. The ultra wide and telephoto cameras did not fare as well after dark: both showed the same aggressive processing we saw in daylight, now amplified into color banding and distorted faces once the light dropped.
Video: where the S26 FE actually improved
Video is the clearest upgrade over the S25 FE. The main camera shoots up to 4K60 and 8K30 with good stabilization and exposure in daylight, and low light telephoto footage gets noisy fast at 10x. The two new features worth knowing: horizon lock, which keeps footage level no matter how much you twist the phone, and My FanCam, a subject-tracking mode carried over from the Z Fold series that follows a chosen subject for the whole clip. If you want to get more deliberate with phone video than auto mode allows, our phone filmmaking course Pocket Cinematic covers exposure, framing and color control step by step.
Our verdict
Is this a great camera system? No. But at RM2,899 (US$699.99), is it good enough for the price? We think so. The main camera does most of the work and does it well, the ultra wide and telephoto both fall apart once you zoom in or the light drops, and video is the one place Samsung genuinely improved over the S25 FE. Watch the full verdict at 5:41 in our video, then tell us in the comments whether you would still pick this over the S25 FE.
