My name is Wade with Tech Daily, and in this video, we're gonna be comparing two of Samsung's mid-range devices, the S23 FE and the new A55.

Now, let me just set the stage here.

The new A55 is actually the top tier device in Samsung's A-series lineup this year.

They're sort of budget smartphones, while the S23 FE is sort of a half step down from being a true flagship S-series phone.

You can imagine there's a lot of overlap here, spec-wise and feature-wise.

Samsung would actually prefer if everyone just got the S23 FE.

They said so themselves, which is why here in the US, we aren't even getting the new A55 this year, at least not officially.

But whether Samsung likes it or not, the A-series has been the most popular set of phones year after year.

The FE, on the other hand, has suffered from a disastrous release cycle that's been very detrimental to this former best seller.

Now, politics aside, comparing just phone to phone, there are no doubt some advantages with each.

The new A55 is, for one, a bit cheaper, but without a lot of sacrifices.

The S23 FE, however, still has some flagship-esque features that I think performance-focused people will find worthwhile.

And actually, if you don't buy the S23 FE brand new,

I think the choice becomes a lot clearer.

But I'm getting way ahead of myself here.

Let's go point by point.

I'll explain which phone is better in each area.

And hopefully by the end of this video, you'll be able to decide which one, if either, is the better device for you.

To kick things off, let's actually talk about price, since that's probably gonna be your first consideration anyway.

Now, the full retail price for the S23 FE was originally $599 if you bought it through a carrier.

Unlocked, it's actually $629.

Kind of annoying and not very enticing when you consider the A55 is about $450.

I say about only because there isn't an official U.S. price for this phone, since it's not technically sold in the U.S., at least not directly from Samsung or any of the carriers.

But internationally, it's about a $450 phone.

And on Amazon right now, you can snag it for between $400 and $450, depending on the configuration.

Speaking of Amazon and the third-party retailers, since the S23 FE has actually been out for a while now, you can snag that phone at a discount.

An Amazon-renewed S23 FE is a little over $400 right now.

And to be honest, that is pretty much all that needs to be said.

For $400, you get a cheaper device that's better, spec-wise.

And you can even get an S23 FE in good or acceptable condition for like 350 bucks.

The reason for these cheap prices, I believe, is twofold.

First, Samsung has completely botched the release cycle of the FE.

It's supposed to be a hot mid-cycle summer re-release of the S series, packaged in a similar form factor with a few less flagship specs at a more reasonable price to attract the people who don't wanna spend 800 or 900 bucks on a flagship.

Instead, the S23 FE went on sale in late October of last year, when the flagship phones were already discounted and new phones were just a couple of months away.

So no one was in the market for this phone, or even knew about it, really.

And second, anyone who maybe was interested in a cheaper Samsung smartphone likely already had the A54, which wound up being one of the most popular devices even in the US, much to Samsung's dismay.

So now, Samsung basically has said, at least to us here in the US, you don't have a choice.

The S23 FE is the flagship alternative now, and it's gonna remain that way through most of the year.

But fortunately, since you found this video, you know you don't have to be stuck with the FE, and you don't have to pay full price for it either.

So take that, Samsung.

If price is less of a concern and you're more about specs and features, well, interestingly enough, the A55 is actually the bigger device with the bigger screen.

At 6.6 inches corner to corner, it's both taller and wider than the 6.4 inch FE.

And the A55 also has the better screen-to-body ratio.

The black borders framing both phones displays

I think are quite obvious, but they stand out more on the smaller S23 FE.

Samsung has made great strides in upping the build quality on some of their A series phones, and this A55 is a prime example of that.

Around back, both phones are covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, though the FE has the tougher Gorilla Glass 5 specifically.

And actually, both phones also have an all aluminum frame.

There's a slightly different fit and finish.

The A55 is more industrial looking with bare metal, but there's really nothing cheap about either.

The A55 maybe also has a more funky rainbow tint to its purplish color, which not everyone likes.

But in the hand, these phones both feel as sturdy and as premium as any thousand dollar flagship.

One other interesting distinction though, the front glass on the new A55 is actually the new Gorilla Glass Victus Plus.

The S23 FE has the same Gorilla Glass 5 that's covering the back.

So perhaps there's an unexpected point awarded to the A55 for having newer, stronger, less glare prone front display glass, even if the back glass isn't as tough.

Taking a look around, there's nothing really on the left side of either phone, just a cellular antenna on the S23 FE.

On the right side, identical power and volume buttons.

At the top, physical SIM card trays for both, but we have an important difference here.

The A55 has dual SIM and SD card support.

So you can pop in two SIM cards or a micro SD card instead and double or triple the storage on this phone for cheap.

It also has eSIM support, something I misspoke about in my unboxing, thanks to those of you who pointed that out.

The S23 FE, on the other hand, does not have expandable storage support, just physical and eSIM support.

So whatever storage option you choose for this phone is what you're stuck with.

And 256 gigabytes is the highest option.

So definitely something to consider there.

I still think micro SD card support is quite valuable.

On the bottom, there's USB-C ports on both, slightly different but similar sounding bottom speakers and blank spaces where headphone jacks totally could be.

Secondary speakers and selfie cameras up top, of course, and around back, surprisingly similar, triple lens camera setups that I'll compare in just a minute.

So one thing that used to be reserved for the flagship phones, but isn't really anymore, is a great display.

I'd argue that both these phones have a viewing experience that's on par with a full-fledged S series.

And arguably between these and an S24, it's really tough to tell a difference, but I'll try and explain what separates them.

The 855's bigger 6.6 inch screen is a super AMOLED panel.

The S23FE offers a dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Both phones are the same resolution, 2340 by 1080, just with slightly different pixel densities since the display sizes are different.

But you won't notice a discrepancy in sharpness either way.

They're both 120 Hertz panels too.

So your taps, touches, swipes, and scrolls feel very responsive and visually they look very smooth.

Spec for spec, the screens aren't very different at all.

And at a glance,

I don't think most anyone could really tell them apart, but technically the S23FE does have the better AMOLED panel.

So not only will it likely look more colorful and more vibrant, but it's also brighter with up to 1450 nits of peak brightness versus just a thousand nits on the 855.

These phones are both far dimmer than a flagship S24 though.

And there may be some slight differences in the reflection and glare.

I mean, the 855's Gorilla Glass is supposed to be newer and better.

But again, I think that's a little tough to see, especially since that phone is technically dimmer.

For some reason, people seem to really get offended when I say that these two phones have basically the same viewing experience as the flagship phones.

But honestly, it's true.

99% of people wouldn't be able to tell a difference.

And between these two phones specifically, visually, there's really no difference at all either.

More than anything,

I think this does sort of favor the 855 in a way.

I mean, this phone has as good of a display as phones that are hundreds of dollars more expensive technically.

But I suppose if you wanna be absolutely certain you're getting the best display dollar for dollar, the S23FE will appease that small subset of people.

By the way, both these phones do have in-display fingerprint sensors of the same variety.

Not the ultrasonic sensors, but the older optical type.

I don't really think there's any difference in unlocking speeds or accuracy.

They each take turns, either failing from time to time or unlocking super fast.

Same with the face unlock.

It's present, it's an option.

And I don't think either phone has any clear advantage.

For your out loud listening pleasure, both phones have dual speaker setups.

There's the one at the bottom, of course, and a secondary one stuffed inside the earpiece above the selfie camera.

I don't know of any hardware difference or any specific distinction either way with the speakers.

They sound perfectly fine for what they are.

And here's a sample from each so you can hear that too.

♪ If you would, miss me when, miss me when I'm gone ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm falling, I, I wondered if you would ♪ ♪ If you would, I am, I'm falling, I, I wonder if you would ♪ ♪ Miss me when, miss me when I'm gone ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm falling, I, I wonder if you would ♪

Now, when it comes to performance and speed and the Android experience, if you want a firm reason to opt for the S23 FE, this is pretty much it right here.

The FE is powered by the decisively better

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which is itself a flagship component and it's paired to eight gigabytes of RAM.

The international version of this phone gets the Exynos 2200 and that also is far better than what's inside the A55.

It has the mid-range Exynos 1480 from Samsung and eight gigabytes of RAM as well.

And when we take a look at the Geekbench performance scores, there's where you can see all the difference in the FE.

Now, you can watch me do a bit of a side-by-side speed test here with the two phones while I touch on a couple of other things.

First off, is the FE going to launch and load things so much faster than the A55 that it'll significantly improve your day?

No, definitely not, but it's noticeable enough in this case.

Both phones are on the same version of Android and one UI and they'll each get a few years of major software support, five years for the FE, although the first update was already sort of wasted and four years for the A55, which is great, especially for the A55 in particular.

You aren't sacrificing security or Android updates and opting for an A-series device any longer.

The A55 doesn't get the new Galaxy AI features though, for example, that were initially reserved for the new flagships this year, but ultimately came to this S23 FE a few weeks ago via a software update.

So I suppose that is the difference in the Samsung feature set.

And I think if gaming is your thing or you just generally push your phone quite hard with everyday tasks, the flagship Snapdragon processor in the FE is gonna prove to be more of an advantage.

The graphics intense stuff like games, for example, and the Exynos haters too will likely not even consider the A55 this year at all because well, Exynos chipsets have generally not been the most well optimized to the best at heat management or all that good at offering smooth gameplay at the highest FPS or graphic settings.

So yeah, like I said, the FE has a stout advantage in more ways than one here.

And I think this is where the higher price point is sort of justified, at least in Samsung's mind.

But here's the thing I always say, for most people whose smartphone usage consists of YouTube videos, TikTok scrolling, texting and some schoolwork or professional work, the A55 is gonna be more than capable.

The people in that camp won't notice any performance difference at all, really could opt for an even lesser phone instead, to be honest.

But for the performance picky people and those who care to have the flagship specs and some of the flagship features like Galaxy AI, the S23 FE is gonna have those advantages and then some.

I also think the FE has some advantages in the battery and charging departments too.

The larger A55 does actually have a slightly larger sized battery, 5,000 milliamps compared to the 4,500 milliamp battery in the smaller sized S23 FE.

But the FE has a smaller screen and newer AMOLED tech that likely draws a little less power.

And with the higher end Snapdragon processor,

I've also felt that the FE has better power management throughout the day, eliminating any potential advantage the A55 might have just on its bigger sized battery alone.

On top of that, while the wired charging speeds are actually the same with these phones, oddly enough, the FE also has wireless charging support of 15 Watts and reverse charging via PowerShare, both of which the A55 still lacks.

So tack on a couple of more points for the FE.

Finally, when it comes to the cameras,

I wanna just mention the specs first because it's kind of funny.

The main lens on the S23 FE is a 50 megapixel shooter.

The main lens on the A55 is also 50 megapixels.

The ultra wide lens on the FE, a 123 degree 12 megapixel lens.

The A55 also a 123 degree 12 megapixel ultra wide camera.

The third lens on the FE is a very useful, arguably eight megapixel telephoto lens for zoom and portraits.

The third lens on the A55 is a less useful five megapixel macro, but it's kind of odd to think about the fact that on paper, the overarching top level camera specs appear to be pretty similar across both phones.

And oh yeah, the selfie cameras, the S23 FE has a 10 megapixel lens, while the A55 has a 32 megapixel lens.

I know megapixels aren't everything, but to the average person, that doesn't seem great.

Now inside the camera app, if you're really big on pictures and videos, you already know the FE has a lot of flagship caliper features that are far beyond what's offered on an A series phone.

There's 8K video recording, for example, and 4K 60 FPS.

The A55 can shoot 4K too, and it even has pro photo and video controls and dual lens recording and all sorts of stuff that the FE has.

The FE though, arguably has a lot better zoom capabilities.

Thanks of course, to that telephoto lens.

The difference in capabilities and features is noticeable for sure, but it may not be all that applicable for most people.

The real difference is in the real world results.

And if I could sum it up,

I'd say that the S23 FE is the better picture and video taker for sure, when it comes to things like overall detail, color balance, accuracy, everything just looks professional on the S23 FE, more polished, while the A55's images feel over-processed at times.

And the phone still struggles with super bright and very dark areas of pictures, but it's an A series phone with a less powerful processor and technically less high-end hardware too.

The most important thing here though, is once again, for most people, the A55 is gonna be fine.

And over the last couple of years,

A series phones have very quickly become half decent picture and video takers in their own right.