Samsung Galaxy Watch FE Review: Premium Features at a Budget Price

The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE (Fan Edition) represents an important milestone in the wearable market—a rare budget-friendly Wear OS smartwatch that doesn’t compromise on essential features. Priced at $199.99, this entry-level offering brings Samsung’s renowned health tracking capabilities and smartwatch functionality to a wider audience. While it may lack some of the bells and whistles of its premium siblings, the Galaxy Watch FE delivers remarkable value by incorporating many of the same features found in watches costing significantly more.

Design and Build Quality

The Galaxy Watch FE follows Samsung’s established circular smartwatch design language, available in a single 40mm case size with three color options: Black, Pink Gold, and Silver. Despite its budget positioning, Samsung hasn’t cut corners on durability. The watch features premium Sapphire Crystal glass that provides excellent scratch resistance—a surprising inclusion at this price point. The aluminum case maintains a lightweight profile at just 26.6g without the band, making it comfortable for all-day wear.

The watch boasts impressive durability credentials with its 5ATM water resistance rating (allowing submersion up to 50 meters for 10 minutes), IP68 dust and water resistance, and MIL-STD-810H certification for drop protection. This level of ruggedness is often reserved for more expensive models, making the FE particularly appealing for active users who don’t want to worry about damaging their device during workouts or outdoor activities.

One particularly thoughtful design element is the one-click band mechanism, which allows for easy swapping of watch bands without tools. This feature lets users quickly change their watch’s appearance to match different outfits or activities—a small but significant enhancement to the overall user experience.

Display and Interface

The Galaxy Watch FE features a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a crisp 396×396 resolution that offers vibrant colors and deep blacks. The screen supports full-color Always On Display functionality, allowing you to check the time without raising your wrist. The display is sufficiently bright for outdoor visibility, though it doesn’t quite match the peak brightness of premium models.

A notable drawback is the relatively large bezels surrounding the display, which reduce the effective screen real estate and give the watch a slightly dated appearance compared to newer models with edge-to-edge displays. While this doesn’t affect functionality, it’s a visible reminder of the watch’s budget positioning.

Hardware and Performance

Under the hood, the Galaxy Watch FE is powered by Samsung’s Exynos W920 dual-core processor running at 1.18GHz—the same chip found in the Galaxy Watch 4 from 2021. It’s paired with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which provides adequate space for apps and music.

This hardware configuration delivers acceptable performance for day-to-day use, though it doesn’t match the smoothness and responsiveness of Samsung’s latest flagship watches. Users coming from older smartwatches will find the experience satisfactory, but those who have used newer models might notice occasional lag when navigating menus or opening apps.

Battery Life and Charging

The Galaxy Watch FE houses a 247mAh battery that supports wireless charging via the WPC standard. Samsung doesn’t provide specific battery life claims, but real-world testing suggests that users can expect approximately 24-34 hours of use on a single charge with moderate use and features like Always On Display turned off.

Battery performance becomes a concern during active use, particularly when tracking workouts with GPS enabled. Some users report significant battery drain during exercise sessions, with one user noting that a 50-minute walk depleted approximately 35% of the battery. This performance falls short of competitors like the Fitbit Versa 4, which can last six or more days on a single charge.

The watch takes approximately two hours to charge fully, which is relatively slow compared to some competitors that offer fast charging capabilities. Users who intend to wear the watch for sleep tracking will need to develop a charging routine that accommodates this limitation.

Software and Features

The Galaxy Watch FE runs Wear OS powered by Samsung with One UI 5 Watch overlay. This combination provides access to Google’s expansive app ecosystem through the Play Store while maintaining Samsung’s familiar interface design and exclusive health features.

Health and Fitness Tracking

Health monitoring is where the Galaxy Watch FE truly shines, offering capabilities typically found in much more expensive devices. The watch incorporates Samsung’s BioActive Sensor, which combines an optical heart rate sensor, electrical heart signal sensor, and bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor. This powerful combination enables:

• Continuous heart rate monitoring with irregular heart rhythm notifications

• Blood oxygen (SpO2) monitoring to track oxygen saturation levels

• ECG measurements to check for signs of atrial fibrillation

• Body composition analysis that measures metrics like body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and BMI

Fitness enthusiasts will appreciate the watch’s comprehensive workout tracking capabilities, with support for over 100 different exercise types. It can automatically detect common activities like walking, running, and cycling and provides detailed metrics for runners including pace analysis, running form assessment, and personalized heart rate zones. The inclusion of GPS allows for accurate route tracking during outdoor workouts without needing to carry a phone.

Sleep Tracking and Wellness Features

Sleep monitoring on the Galaxy Watch FE is impressively robust, tracking sleep stages, blood oxygen levels during sleep, and even snoring patterns (when paired with a Samsung phone). The watch provides a sleep score and detailed insights into sleep quality along with coaching to help improve sleep habits.

While the FE lacks Galaxy AI-powered health insights found in more expensive models like the Galaxy Watch 7 series, it still provides meaningful wellness guidance based on collected data. The Samsung Health app centralizes all this information and helps users track their progress toward fitness and wellness goals.

User Experience and Connectivity

The Galaxy Watch FE offers a full suite of smartwatch capabilities that enhance its utility beyond health tracking. These include:

• Notification management with the ability to respond to messages

• Music playback control

• NFC for contactless payments via Samsung Wallet or Google Wallet

• GPS navigation

• Voice assistant support

• Customizable watch faces and widgets

Connectivity options are comprehensive, including Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, NFC, and GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo for accurate location tracking. The LTE model (priced at $249.99) adds cellular connectivity, allowing the watch to make calls and send messages independently from a paired phone.

It’s worth noting that the Galaxy Watch FE is exclusively compatible with Android devices running Android 11 or newer with at least 1.5GB of RAM. Unlike some competitors that work with iOS devices as well as Android phones, Samsung has restricted its smartwatches to Android-only compatibility. Additionally, some features like snore detection are only available when paired with Samsung smartphones.

Comparative Analysis

Galaxy Watch FE vs. Galaxy Watch 7

The Galaxy Watch FE costs $100 less than the Galaxy Watch 7 ($199.99 vs. $299.99) while retaining most of its core functionality. The main differences include:

• The Watch 7 offers Galaxy AI-powered health insights not found on the FE.

• The Watch 7 has a newer processor for better performance.

• The Watch 7 is available in two sizes (40mm and 44mm) versus the FE’s single 40mm option.

• The Watch 7 has a larger display with smaller bezels.

For users primarily interested in health tracking who can live without advanced AI insights or cutting-edge performance specs, the FE represents excellent value.

Galaxy Watch FE vs Apple Watch SE (2022)

The primary deciding factor between these watches is ecosystem integration: Android users will benefit from choosing the Galaxy Watch FE while iPhone users will find better compatibility with Apple’s offerings.

Galaxy Watch FE vs Fitbit Versa 4

The Fitbit Versa 4 offers vastly superior battery life (six or more days versus approximately one day) while working seamlessly across both Android and iOS devices—an advantage over Samsung’s Android-only compatibility approach—but lacks advanced sensors like ECG monitoring or body composition analysis found in the Galaxy Watch FE.

Critical Assessment

Strengths

• Excellent value at $199.99.

• Comprehensive health tracking capabilities.

• Durable construction featuring Sapphire Crystal glass.

• Full Wear OS experience.

• NFC support for contactless payments.

Weaknesses

• Limited battery life during active use.

• Performance lags behind newer models.

• Single size option (40mm).

• Large bezels around display.

Recommendations

To maximize your experience:

1. Turn off Always On Display for extended battery life.

2. Explore customizable bands using its one-click mechanism.

3. Pair it with Samsung Health App for deeper insights into fitness data.

Conclusion

Samsung’s Fan Edition delivers premium-like functionality without breaking budgets making it ideal especially among entry-level buyers!