Samsung’s budget devices don’t often receive much fanfare, but if you ask me, they’re frequently the company’s most compelling offerings. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is an impressive phone, but let’s be honest, outside of Samsung diehards, most people are better off buying the Galaxy S24 or one of the company’s even more affordable A-series handsets. So it’s surprising that it took Samsung until this past June to announce a Fan Edition (read: budget) version of its popular Galaxy Watch smartwatch. Even more surprising is how easy the Galaxy Watch FE is to recommend.

Price, specs, and availability

The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE is available in three colors: Black, Silver, and Pink Gold. At the time of the writing of this review, Samsung is only selling the Bluetooth version of the FE, which you can buy for $200. An LTE variant will arrive later this year and cost $250. As things stand, the Galaxy Watch FE is available in one size: 40mm. I tested the Bluetooth model in Black.

What I liked about the Galaxy Watch FE

It doesn’t feel compromised

After spending two weeks with the Galaxy Watch FE, the thing that stood out to me was how complete it felt. From a feature standpoint, there’s little that is missing here. Take fitness tracking, for instance: Like its more expensive siblings, the FE can process 100 different activities. With built-in GPS and heart rate monitoring, the tracking is as robust as what you’ll find on Samsung’s more expensive wearables.

As a cyclist, I was able to configure the FE for zone two training. As you can see from the pair of screenshots below, the watch made a dramatic difference. On the ride where the watch warned me when I was pushing myself too hard, I managed to regulate my heart rate for nearly 80 percent of the workout.

I was also impressed by how quickly the FE recognized when I was waiting at a stop sign or red light. Within seconds, it would pause the workout to ensure it wasn’t collecting junk data. Equally impressive are all the supplementary health features. Outside of a missing temperature sensor, the FE offers everything I would expect from a modern smartwatch, including sleep tracking and blood oxygen monitoring. It can even take body composition measurements, and across the board, all of these features work well and are helpful.

The FE is not lacking in modern smartwatch features either. It comes with an NFC modem, enabling support for mobile payments through Samsung Pay and Google Wallet. The only annoyance here is that you can’t reassign the shortcut Samsung set to quickly launch Samsung Pay, forcing you to use one of your precious few other shortcuts for Google Wallet if you prefer to use that platform instead. Thankfully, you can freely drop Bixby for Google Assistant.

Other than a smaller 1.2-inch screen, the FE shares the same design as the Galaxy Watch 7. I didn’t mind the chunky display bezel, in part because the FE’s AMOLED panel looks great. It’s vibrant, bright, and easy to read, even in harsh sunlight. With a watch face that features a black background, the bezel is also easy to ignore, thanks to the deep blacks offered by OLED tech. Unlike the Apple Watch SE, the FE’s AMOLED display even comes with an always-on feature.

Another area Samsung didn’t cut costs on was protection. In addition to being IP68-certified against water, Samsung hardened the display against scratches with sapphire crystal glass. I didn’t try bumping the display, but I did take the watch for a swim in a cool Canadian lake, and it came out just fine.

As I mentioned above, Samsung is offering the FE in three different colorways. Worth noting here is that each model comes with a color-matched silicone band. Additionally, the FE uses the same clasp mechanism as its more expensive siblings, so it’s possible to use bands dating as far back as those Samsung originally designed for the Galaxy Watch 4. I found the band that came with my review unit made the FE comfortable to wear all day, including when I went to sleep.

What I didn’t like about the Samsung Galaxy Watch FE

Battery life is a concern

Given that the LTE variant only costs $250, it’s amazing all the features Samsung decided to pack into the Galaxy Watch FE. For the most part, the company’s cutbacks feel reasonable.

Notably, the Galaxy Watch FE features an older Exynos W920 chipset, which Samsung has paired with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The company announced the W920 in 2021. At the time, it was the industry’s first 5nm chipset for wearable devices. But three years is nearly an eternity in the mobile world, and the W920 is starting to show its age in 2024.

From a performance standpoint, the Galaxy Watch FE is, at best, serviceable. Navigating Wear OS doesn’t feel as snappy as it should, with animations that are slow to render. I also noticed more than a few hiccups in the two weeks I had the FE. For instance, when I went to log my daily water intake, the watch would sometimes register my tapping but not add to my total count.

If the Galaxy Watch FE is your first entry into the world of smartwatches, or you’re coming to it from an older device, I think you will find the performance to be fine. Like I said, it’s serviceable. But what you will notice is the FE’s limited battery life. That’s because, in addition to outfitting the watch with an older, less efficient processor, Samsung gave the FE a 247mAh battery.

For context, the 40mm variants of the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 7 feature 300mAh batteries. In absolute terms, a 247mAh battery might not seem much smaller than a 300mAh one, but neither the Galaxy Watch 6 nor Galaxy Watch 7 are known for their battery life.

On standby, the FE can go about 34 hours on a single charge. Of course, even moderate use can dramatically affect uptime. I consider myself an active person. My girlfriend and I walk at least 10,000 steps most days; in the spring, summer, and fall, I ride my bike almost daily; and after a long, pandemic-enforced absence from the gym, I recently got back to weightlifting. If your days look something like mine, be prepared to charge the Galaxy Watch FE daily, especially if you plan to take advantage of its sleep tracking.

On days when I wore the FE to bed and then used it to track my morning bike ride, it had about 35% battery when I arrived home at around 8am. Finding time to charge the watch wasn’t an issue. Although the FE is limited to charging at 5W, the battery would be nearly full by the time I sat down to work at 9, provided I took it off to charge shortly after walking through the door.

That said, I worry about how well the FE’s battery will age and what the watch will be like to use a year or two after someone buys it. Although I used the FE’s activity tracking feature every day, there were other capabilities I turned to less often. For example, I didn’t measure my body composition every day, nor did I use the watch to listen to music on my bike rides. I was also frugal with the display’s always-on feature. If you’re a power user, you’re probably better off considering one of Samsung’s other smartwatches or a competing option from Garmin.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch FE?

As I mentioned above, the most remarkable thing about the Galaxy Watch FE is how complete it feels. Sure, it’s not the fastest smartwatch I’ve tested, but it does come with nearly everything else I think most people could want from a fitness tracker. Battery life could be a concern down the road, but if you’re someone who is just starting out on their fitness journey, this is the Wear OS watch to buy.