Samsung Galaxy S23 FE vs. Nothing Phone 2: Budget flagship face-off

• 

  Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

  The budget flagship

  $550 $600 Save $50

  Samsung’s Galaxy S23 FE is the company’s budget “Fan Edition” flagship, delivering solid everyday performance that can handle the latest games with a fun and colorful design. Sadly, one of the big corners Samsung has cut here is in camera quality; they’re fine for social media shots but not too much more.

  Pros

  • Bright and vibrant display
  • Solid performance
  • Full-day battery life

  Cons

  • Lackluster cameras with sub-par telephoto lens
  • Older Snapdragon chip can heat up a bit under load
  • Slow 25W charging

• 

  Nothing Phone 2

  Fun and unique

  $619 $699 Save $80

  The Nothing Phone 2 sports a futuristic tech-forward design and an array of Glyph lights on the exterior that do more than just put on a show. You also don’t need to compromise to enjoy its appearance, as it packs in a powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and an expansive 120Hz LTPO display.

  Pros

  • Futuristic design
  • Glyph lights are customizable and useful
  • All-day-plus battery life

  Cons

  • Limited Verizon compatibility
  • Cameras are hit-or-miss
  • Not available through carriers

Although serious mobile photographers should still look to premium flagship Android phones, the world of midrange models has been getting increasingly better in every other way over the past couple of years, with powerful chips that deliver enough power not just for everyday tasks but can handle even the latest Android games without breaking too much of a sweat.

This has led to budget flagships from mainstream manufacturers like Samsung’s Galaxy S23 FE plus unique new upstarts like the Nothing Phone 2 that can put their best foot forward in the same price range without feeling a need to compete in the premium market.

While the Nothing Phone 2 is the company’s second try, this one has the bonus of actually being available on U.S. shores for the first time, making it much more accessible to those looking for something unique in a smartphone. However, that may leave you wondering how it stacks up against Samsung’s more mature and proven “Fan Edition” brand. Let’s dive in and take a look.

Price, availability, and specs

As one would expect from a Samsung phone, the Galaxy S23 FE is available from Samsung’s website and nearly anywhere else you can buy a smartphone, including all major retailers and carriers. The base 128GB starts at $600 at places like Amazon and Best Buy. However, for whatever reason, Samsung charges $30 more if you buy an unlocked version from its website, which is the only place you can get the exclusive Tangerine or Indigo colors. It’s available everywhere in Graphite, Purple, Cream, and Mint.

You won’t find the Nothing Phone 2 in carrier stores, so you must pay full price to order it directly from Nothing or an online retailer like Amazon. The base model sells for $599 for 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, with 256GB and 512GB versions with 12GB RAM available in $100 increments. The standard dark gray version is available in all three capacities, although you’ll have to jump to at least the 256GB model if you want a white finish. The Nothing Phone 2 is certified for use on both AT&T and T-Mobile, but not Verizon; it’s possible to use it on Verizon’s network if you stay on 5G networks, but you’ll have a poor experience when dropping to 4G/LTE coverage as it doesn’t support all the necessary frequencies.

• 	Samsung Galaxy S23 FE	Nothing Phone 2
  SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (US), Exynos 2200 (worldwide)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
  Display type	AMOLED, 60-120Hz	OLED, 120Hz variable
  Display dimensions	6.4″	6.7″, 20:9
  Display resolution	2340 x 1080	2412 × 1080
  RAM	8GB	8GB, 12GB
  Storage	128GB or 256GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB
  Battery	4,500mAh	4,700mAh
  Charge speed	25W wired, 15W wireless	45W wired, 15W wireless
  Charge options	USB-C wired, Qi wireless	USB-C wired, wireless, reverse wireless
  Ports	USB-C	USB-C
  SIM support	Dual SIM (Nano SIM and eSIM)	Dual SIM
  Operating System	Android 14 and One UI 6.0	Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5
  Front camera	10MP, f/2.4	32MP, f/2.5
  Rear camera	50MP, f/1.8, OIS main; 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide; 8MP, f/2.4, 3x telephoto	50MP, f/1.9 main; 50MP, f/2.2 ultrawide
  Cellular connectivity	4G LTE, 5G (sub-6 and mmWave)	4G, sub-6 5G
  Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E	Wi-Fi 6
  Connectivity	NFC	NFC
  Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.3	Bluetooth 5.3
  Dimensions	158 x 76.5 x 8.2mm	162.1 x 76.4 x 8.6mm
  Weight	209g	201g
  IP Rating	IP68	IP54
  Colors	Mint, Purple, Cream, Graphite	White, Gray
  Stylus	No	No

Design

Colorful and conventional meets bold and unique

The Galaxy S23 FE’s design doesn’t hold too many surprises, as it follows in the footsteps of the rest of the Galaxy S23 lineup, which was released earlier the same year. Samsung has clearly settled on a design language (for now, at least), and the Galaxy S23 FE follows suit.

The result is a design that fits in remarkably well with the rest of the family. The same lens trio extends from an almost mirror-like glass finish on the back, available in six colors and surrounded by a matte brushed aluminum frame. The front features a 6.4-inch flat screen with rounded corners and prominent bezels.

In contrast with the Galaxy S23 FE’s somewhat ordinary design, the Nothing Phone 2 is bold and even a bit ostentatious. It’s like nothing you’ll see on any other phone (no pun intended), with a transparent back and Glyph lights that are fun and useful. They’re far more configurable than they were in the original Nothing Phone, now showing notifications with fully customizable patterns for different apps and incoming calls and messages from your important contacts.

While it’s an opinionated design that won’t appeal to everyone, Nothing carefully crafted its phone to stand out from the pack. The build quality is excellent and full of nice and thoughtful touches, such as textured components under the back panel designed to uniquely play off the Glyph lights in a fun way.

The Nothing Phone 2 is slightly larger than the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE but surprisingly weighs 8 grams less, weighing 201 grams. It sports a 6.7-inch screen — an increase mostly accounted for by smaller bezels, as both phones are essentially the same width, and the Nothing Phone 2 is only 4 millimeters taller.

These two phones’ designs are so distinct that many people are probably already leaning heavily toward one or the other. However, it’s worth noting that while the phones offer Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back, Samsung gets a slight edge here for durability thanks to its full IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The Nothing Phone 2 only comes in at IP54. That means it’s splash-proof, but you’ll want to be careful when using it around water as it’s unlikely to survive a dip in the pool or lake.

Display

Size matters

The Galaxy S23 FE has a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen that’s surrounded by noticeably bigger bezels than its pricier S23 counterparts. Nevertheless, it’s a vibrant 2340 x 1080 resolution panel with the quality we’ve come to expect from Samsung’s displays, with only one exception.

Since the panel is LTPS rather than LTPO, its variable refresh rate only covers the 60 to 120Hz range. That’s sufficient for offering a fluid experience for gaming and other fast-paced activities, but means that it can’t scale down to a battery-sipping lower refresh rate when playing videos or using the always-on display. By comparison, the 6.7-inch panel on the Nothing Phone 2 supports the full 1 to 120Hz range for its dynamic refresh rate.

Both phones have similar 1080p resolutions, with the Nothing Phone 2 gaining only 72 pixels in vertical height at 2412 x 1080. This puts it at a slightly lower pixel density of 394 pixels per inch (ppi) compared to 404 ppi on the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, but that’s a theoretical difference that nobody will notice with the naked eye. We found both displays were vibrant and sharp with good viewing angles, but the Nothing Phone 2 gets a big nod here for having a larger screen with less distracting bezels and a more power-efficient refresh rate.

Software

OneUI or Nothing

The Galaxy S23 FE arrived at an awkward time last fall. Even though Google had begun pushing out Android 14 to its Pixel phones, that update wasn’t ready in time to adorn the Galaxy S23 FE, so it shipped with Android 13 and OneUI 5 out of the box.

That was quickly rectified when Samsung pushed out Android 14 and OneUI 6 to the Galaxy S23 FE in November, followed more recently by One UI 6.1. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance Samsung will count that as the first of the four years of Android updates it promises for that phone, at least outside of Europe, where the Galaxy S23 FE didn’t launch until this year, with Android 14 installed out of the box.

Even so, that puts it one version ahead of the Nothing Phone 2, which also launched with Android 13 and the company’s own Nothing OS 2.0 last summer and only promises three years of software updates. It also received its first of those in December with Nothing OS 2.5 and Android 14.

Anyone who has ever used a Samsung phone will be familiar with OneUI, and the latest version doesn’t change the paradigm much from a user interface perspective. Instead, OneUI 6.1 adds the new Galaxy AI features that debuted with this year’s Galaxy S24 lineup to let you translate conversations and summarize your notes, for example. However, most of the more exciting features, like filling in backgrounds in photos, aren’t available here due to the Galaxy S23 FE’s older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip.

Nothing OS 2.5 offers a more unique monochromatic look for Android that complements the distinctiveness of the Nothing Phone 2. It fits the phone’s design like a glove, but it’s also bland compared to Android 14’s more standard and colorful look. Thankfully, it’s easy to switch back if you’re not a fan, and other than the shades of gray, Nothing OS is almost true to its name in how well it stays out of the way of the stock Android experience.

Performance

Evenly matched

Even though the Galaxy S23 FE shipped six months ago, Samsung saddled its North American models with the early 2022 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip of the Galaxy S22 era, an appropriate spot for its role as the little sibling of the flagship Galaxy S23 lineup. International versions use the Exynos 2200.

Nothing didn’t adopt bleeding-edge silicon for the Nothing Phone 2, either, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. However, that chip puts the Nothing Phone 2 a larger step ahead than you might expect, since that midterm Qualcomm SoC has proven cooler and more power-efficient than its predecessor, even if it isn’t noticeably faster.

Nevertheless, the Nothing Phone 2 is no slouch. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was the same chip found in the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which was a multitasking powerhouse, so it’s no surprise that we found everything from opening apps to playing the latest games to be smooth and reliable.

The Galaxy S23 FE was equally snappy in our testing. It exhibited some of the heating issues the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has become known for when playing more demanding games but fared better than the Galaxy S22 lineup in that regard, suggesting Samsung has made some improvements here. Heat aside, we encountered no lagging, stuttering, or performance problems. It’s fair to say that the Nothing Phone 2 and Samsung Galaxy S23 FE are pretty evenly matched when it comes to raw horsepower. However, you’ll likely have a better experience with multitasking if you opt for one of the higher-end Nothing models with 12GB RAM, an option not available on the Galaxy S23 FE.

Battery life

Power for a full day and beyond

The Galaxy S23 FE packs in a 4,500mAh cell that should get you through most days without any trouble, but you’ll likely want to hit a charger every night. We found it wasn’t a challenge to get 6 to 8 hours of screen time on most days, while that dropped to about 4.5 hours on more active days when we took a lot of photos; but we never felt pressured to run for a charger, and on most days, there was 20% left in the tank at bedtime.

The Nothing Phone 2 edges that out with its 4,700mAh cell, but it also has a larger screen to drive. However, that’s offset by other power efficiency improvements from the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. We found it wasn’t hard to get a day and a half of use on a single charge, even with heavier tasks like gaming and navigation, and it could probably make it to 48 hours between charges with lighter use.

When it comes to charging, the Galaxy S23 FE offers the lackluster 25W speeds of other smaller Samsung phones, which means you’re looking at 90 to 120 minutes for a full recharge. The Nothing Phone 2 sports faster 45W charging that will get you from zero to 100% in under an hour. Both phones support the typical 15W Qi wireless charging.

Camera

A pair of Instagram-worthy shooters

Even though the Galaxy S23 FE uses the same 50MP f/1.8 main sensor as the mainstream Galaxy S23, we found the FE model leans too heavily into the worst of Samsung’s overly enthusiastic image processing, over-brightening, over-saturating, and over-sharpening nearly every photo to the point where it all feels like “too much.”

The Nothing Phone 2 packs in a similar 50MP main camera but accompanies that with a 50MP ultrawide sensor, a nice improvement on the Galaxy S23 FE’s 12MP shooter. It lacks the 3x telephoto lens of the Galaxy S23 FE, but that’s an omission that should hardly matter as Samsung’s zoom sensor is only 8MP, and we found it nearly useless at producing anything that was actually in focus.

More significantly, the Nothing Phone 2 produces photos that are much more natural and balanced, with just enough sharp detail and a refreshing amount of contrast. We were quite pleased to see shadows that were naturally dark, easily falling to near-black when appropriate, rather than brightened by overzealous image processing algorithms.

Sadly, both phones struggle under more challenging lighting conditions. The Galaxy S23 FE is particularly hit-and-miss when it comes to night shots, while the Nothing Phone 2 falls back to longer exposure times, which can make it challenging to get a clear photo of even an entirely still subject, as there’s only so much that optical image stabilization can do.

Put simply, while you won’t want to buy either of these phones primarily for their camera hardware, the Nothing Phone 2 does come out slightly ahead of the Galaxy S23 FE, at least for anyone who isn’t a fan of Samsung’s bolder image processing.

Which is right for you?

The Nothing Phone 2’s design is definitely polarizing, but that alone will likely have most folks already leaning in one direction. The good news is that you won’t be compromising on features if you’re a fan of its futuristic cyberpunk-like style. The larger LTPO screen, the more balanced camera system, and the cooler performance under pressure all add up to a much better package for the price.

Plus, while the Glyph lights on the back of the Nothing Phone 2 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, they’re definitely more than merely a gimmick, as they offer a useful way to see what’s going on from across the room, even when your phone is lying face down.

However, the Samsung S23 FE remains a solid pick for anyone looking for something more conventional. It’s more fun in its own way, with a glossy back that won’t limit you to monochromatic colors, a vibrant screen, and enough power under the hood to handle the latest games and other everyday tasks. Plus, it works more reliably on Verizon, and you’re much more likely to find it on a contract deal at your local carrier store.