Earlier this month, Samsung announced a massive slate of new products to end 2023. Along with a few new tablets and a pair of earbuds, one of those new products was the Galaxy S23 FE. It looks a lot like the other S23 phones released earlier this year, but has a few fewer features and a cheaper price. When Samsung announced the S23 FE on October 3, it said the phone would be available for $600.
However, it seems something has changed between then and now. The Galaxy S23 FE officially went on sale today, October 26, but it doesn’t cost $600 as Samsung claimed. Instead, you’ll have to pay $630 for the base model with 128GB of storage — a random increase of $30. Samsung didn’t previously confirm how much the 256GB variant will cost, but it’s currently listed on Samsung’s site for $690.
What is the reason for this sudden price increase? We’re not really sure. Plans for smartphone launches change all the time, from revised specifications to different release dates. However, I can’t think of any other time when a phone was announced at one price and then launched at a different price, and no explanation was given as to why this happened. Interestingly, the S23 FE is available on Amazon for an expected $600, making the situation even more confusing.
While the $30 increase isn’t the end of the world, it does put the Galaxy S23 FE in a slightly awkward position. There’s now only a $70 difference between it and the Google Pixel 8, one of the best smartphones we’ve reviewed all year. This also takes it a little closer to the $800 retail price of the regular Galaxy S23. While $630 isn’t a terrible price for everything the Galaxy S23 FE offers — like the 120Hz AMOLED display, triple-camera system, and 4,500mAh battery — the value proposition is a little worse than we anticipated.
We’ve contacted Samsung for comment on the new price of the Galaxy S23 FE, and will update this article once we hear back from the company.
