Samsung Galaxy S23 FE: Snapdragon vs. Exynos compared
The Galaxy S23 FE is a refresh of the rather popular Galaxy S21 FE, improving the design, the performance, and the camera quality. It comes in two different variants, depending on the market. The North American model is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, while the global model uses the Exynos 2200.
Having different chipsets, even if equal in performance, will lead to inevitable differences in battery life, camera performance, and system stability. And since we got the two models - SM-S711U1 representing Snapdragon and SM-S711B representing Exynos, this comparison article was just inevitable.
Table of Contents:
You can check out our editor"s assessment in the following video or in the text further down below.
Display comparison
The two Galaxy S23 FE models feature identical display panels – 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screens of 1,080 x 2,340pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, and support for HDR10+ streaming. Samsung is advertising them for up to 1,450 nits of peak brightness.
And, quite expectedly, both screens have nearly identical brightness capabilities - 985nits for the Snapdragon vs. 1,007 for the Exynos variant in Auto mode and 485nits for the Snapdragon vs. 478nits for the Exynos model with manual control.
Both screens offer accurate color calibration.
The refresh rate supports two modes in both models – up to 60Hz and up to 120Hz. If the latter is chosen, the screen will revert back to 60Hz for static content and video playback.
Battery life
Both Galaxy S23 FE Snapdragon and S23 FE Exynos are powered by 4,500 mAh batteries.
And we found the first difference between the two in the battery life department. The Snapdragon model turned out to be the better performer. It gauged a 9:45h active use time vs. 8:28h on the Exynos version.
The two models were neck and neck when it comes to web browsing and social media apps, but the Snapdragon version edged ahead by around 20% in every other scenario.
Charging speed
The Galaxy S23 FE supports up to 25W fast charging in both of its versions. The S23 FE ships without a charger, as usual. You can use any 25W PD+PPS charger, as it will reach the max charging power supported by the phone.
Wireless charging is available on both.
It’s obvious that both phones recharge equally fast. The 25W power adapter recharges 30% of the Galaxy S23 FE battery in 15 minutes, while another 15 minutes will get you to 58%. A full charge requires 84 minutes.
Performance
The major difference between the two Galaxy S23 FE models is the chipset, which may or may not lead to performance and stability differences.
Both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Exynos 2200 are 4nm chips; both were the heart of the Galaxy S22 series. Both chips have octa-core processors with similar configuration - a single powerful Cortex-X2 core, three Cortex-A710 units @2.5GHz balancing performance and efficiency, and four Cortex-A510 @1.8GHz cores for power efficiency. The Prime core has 2.8GHz clock inside the Exynos chip and 3.0GHz frequency inside the Snapdragon solution.
The Exynos 2200 has this Xclipse 920 GPU, which is the result of a collaboration between Samsung and AMD and is based on the excellent RDNA2 architecture, as seen on computer GPU solutions. The Snapdragon model has the Adreno 730 GPU.
The Galaxy S23 FE has 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and is available in two storage versions - 128GB (our models) and 256GB.
The performance is similar on both smartphones with the exception of the GPU – the Snapdragon model has a consistent 5%-6% boost over the Exynos version.
SamsungGalaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
1,129,280
3,947 multi-core
79fps (onscreen)
SamsungGalaxy S23 FE (Exynos)
1,134,250
3,964 multi-core
74fps (onscreen)
The stability turned out to be average across both versions. The Snapdragon one offers 66% CPU and 46% GPU stability. The Exynos model scored 58% CPU stability and 50% for GPU.
Camera comparison
The Snapdragon-based Galaxy S23 FE and the Exynos-based Galaxy S23 FE have identical cameras, though the different ISPs may account for slight differences in the photo and video quality. There are three cameras on the back - a 50MP OIS primary, a 10MP 3x OIS telephoto, and an 8MP ultrawide. The front camera is 10MP.
The photo and video quality slightly differ on these versions, but it’s nothing major.
There is one major difference between the photos coming from all cameras and that is the better noise reduction in favor of the images shot on the Snapdragon version.
The main cameras save detailed photos with lively colors and a wide dynamic range. They are also a bit sharper on the Snapdragon model, which does not necessarily mean more detailed.
The sharpness benefit is even more apparent in the ultrawide photos, where the ones coming from the Snapdragon model appear quite sharper, while the ones from the Exynos version – are more organic, even if softer.
The photos from the telephoto cameras are solid. The ones from the Snapdragon version are great and once again clean of noise, while those coming from the Exynos version have gentler noise reduction and look somewhat better, less washed out and more detailed. The difference is minor, though.
The difference in processing carries over to the selfies as well – the Snapdragon model saves sharper selfies with more prominent facial features, while the Exynos one is slightly more pleasant with more balanced sharpness.
S23 FE Snapdragon: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
S23 FE Exynos: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
S23 FE Snapdragon: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
S23 FE Exynos: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
At night, both phones produce some nice shots. Just like it was with daylight photos, the Snapdragon-based model does better at noise reduction and presents images with a cleaner look.
The photos from the main and ultrawide cameras are almost identical, but the Snapdragon phone edges ahead more noticeably with the photos from the telephoto camera.
S23 FE Snapdragon: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE Exynos: Main • UW • Tele 3x
Lastly, let"s talk about video capturing. Both Galaxy S23 FE models can record video at up to 4K30 with all cameras; 4k60 is present on the primary and selfie cameras, while 8K24 is additionally available for the primary camera. Optional video stabilization (EIS) is available to all cameras.
The videos from the primary, ultrawide, and selfie cameras are better when coming from the Exynos version of the Galaxy S23 FE – they are slightly more detailed and not washed out, probably due to gentler noise reduction or just more balanced processing.
As for the telephoto camera – it is the other way around – the Snapdragon one has more detailed and sharper footage, while the Exynos model saves a noise-free but washed-out clip.
S23 FE Snapdragon 4K screengrab: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
S23 FE Exynos 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • Tele 3x • Selfie
The low-light videos are generally better when captured on the Exynos-powered Galaxy S23 FE. They are clean of noise and with more visible and organic detail.
S23 FE Snapdragon 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • Tele 3x
S23 FE Exynos 4K screengrabs: Main • UW • Tele 3x
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is quite the oddball. First, it’s equipped like an overdue Galaxy S22 FE. Then, in some markets, it is priced as the Galaxy S23. Finally, there is the chipset fragmentation we"ve been discussing in detail in this article. It does sound like a hard pass at first, doesn’t it?
Yet, it’s a solid smartphone, one that will be worthy of a recommendation once the price settles down. And we believe this will happen quite soon.
While there is zero chance that both versions would become available in a single market, it is still good to know what differences there are.
We found the Snapdragon-based Galaxy S23 FE to have longer battery life, better photo quality, and a bit faster GPU.
On the other hand, the Exynos-based Galaxy S23 FE has a more stable GPU with newer Vulkan 1.3 support. Its video quality seems more mature, too. Oh, and it boots Android 14 with One UI 6 right out of the box.
The differences between the two models are minor, though, and no matter which one you get, you won’t be missing anything, and both are well worth your consideration. Though given the choice, we"d lean towards the Snapdragon version for its better battery life.
- Same design and display/speaker performance.
- Longer battery life.
- A bit faster GPU with Vulkan 1.1.
- Cleaner and slightly sharper photos.
The Snapdragon Galaxy S23 FE has:
- Same design and display/speaker performance.
- Better GPU performance stability and Vulkan 1.3 support.
- A bit better video quality.
- Android 14 with One UI 6 out of the box.
