Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) vs Apple iPhone 16e
65
out of 100
VS
74
out of 100
Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) that was released on October 4, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 16e, which is powered by Apple A18 and came out 1 year and 5 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- Delivers 17% higher peak brightness (977 against 836 nits)
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- Reverse charging feature
- CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 16e
- Shows 32% longer battery life (26:44 vs 20:15 hours)
- 12% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1612K versus 1436K)
- 13% higher pixel density (457 vs 403 PPI)
- The phone is 1 year and 5 months newer
- 91% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3281 and 1720 points
- Weighs 42 grams less
- Better grip in hands – the body is 5 mm narrower
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.4 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 403 ppi | 457 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (60-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1450 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | - | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Ceramic Shield |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 83.2% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | - | 99.9% |
| PWM | - | 60 Hz |
| Response time | - | 10 ms |
| Contrast | - | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
6.4″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
iPhone 16e
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 158 mm (6.22 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 76.5 mm (3.01 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) | 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) |
| Weight | 209 g (7.37 oz) | 167 g (5.89 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Green, Purple | White, Black |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
| Repairability | - | Average (2.79/5) |
| Drop resistance | - | Good (C) · 90 drops |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | Apple A18 |
| Max clock | 3000 MHz | 4040 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 3 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X2 |
- 4 cores at 2.42 GHz: Sawtooth - 2 cores at 4.05 GHz: Everest |
| L3 cache | 6 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 730 | 4 core Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 1024 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 818 MHz | 1490 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~1675.3 GFLOPS | ~1907 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | - | 24041 |
| Single-core score | 1720 | 3281 |
| Multi-core score | 4204 | 8035 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 516037 | 485100 |
| GPU | 391403 | 445832 |
| Memory | 186259 | 185536 |
| UX | 343264 | 496320 |
| Total score | 1436963 | 1612788 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [5 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 68% | 82% |
| Graphics test | 6 FPS | 9 FPS |
| Graphics score | 793 | 1226 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | - | 21 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 26 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 21 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 15 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 5507 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 11636 | - |
| Video editing | 7420 | - |
| Photo editing | 30352 | - |
| Data manipulation | 12061 | - |
| Writing score | 16397 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2024-09-14 (Luis Maldonado) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1720 / 4204 |
| 📘 2024-09-07 (Eduardo) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1652 / 4021 |
Apple iPhone 16e
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-03-11 (Matviy) | AnTuTu 11 | 1600106 |
| 📘 2026-02-27 (iPhone user) | AnTuTu 11 | 1591246 |
| 📘 2026-02-10 (Virtuose) | AnTuTu 11 | 1721718 |
| 📘 2026-01-14 (Glib) | AnTuTu 11 | 1656396 |
| 📘 2026-01-13 (киря) | AnTuTu 11 | 1612788 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR5X |
| Memory clock | 3200 MHz | - |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) | iOS 18.3 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27) |
| ROM | One UI 8.0 | - |
| OS size | - | 24 GB |
| OS updates | 4 years | 7 years |
| Security updates | 5 years | 7 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 4500 mAh | 4005 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 25 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Bypass charging | - | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (58% in 30 min) | Yes (57% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:10 hr | 1:50 hr |
| Battery cycles | - | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 07:09 hr | 11:59 hr |
| Watching video | 10:02 hr | 15:01 hr |
| Gaming | 04:27 hr | 05:04 hr |
| Standby | 118 hr | 127 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#112th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 48 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8160 x 6120 | 8064 x 6048 |
| Zoom | Optical, 3x | Digital |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 123° | - |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 8 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 48 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
- Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KGN3 | Sony IMX972 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | - |
| Focal length | 76 mm | - |
| Sensor | Hynix Hi847 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/4.4" (≈ 0.23 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | - |
| Focal length | 13 mm | - |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3L6 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/3" (≈ 0.33 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | - |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 50 | - |
| Preview | 67 | - |
| Zoom | 123 | - |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) from DxOMark | - |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 10 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3648 x 2736 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/1.9 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3J1 | Sony IMX714 |
| Sensor size | 1/3" (≈ 0.33 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | No | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | Yes | No |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 20 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Mid-range |
| Announced | October 2023 | February 2025 |
| Release date | October 2023 | February 2025 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $599 | $599 |
| SAR (head) | 0.76 W/kg | - |
| SAR (body) | 1.04 W/kg | - |
| Sensors | - Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Not included | Not included |
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon):
- The Galaxy S23 FE is available in the USA with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, whereas other countries receive a version with the Exynos 2200.
- The base (128 GB) storage utilizes a UFS 3.1 memory type, whereas the higher-tier 256 GB variant is equipped with UFS 4.0.
- Models are available with a single SIM card, dual SIMs, or dual SIMs plus eSIM (depending on the market).
Notes on iPhone 16e:
- The smartphone doesn’t have a cinematic mode like the higher-end models in the series.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 16e is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 7