5 Android phones you should buy instead of the Galaxy S25 FE

Between its flagship Galaxy S25 lineup and its latest Fold and Flip entries, Samsung has had a pretty busy 2025. But there’s another Samsung phone that may have flown under your radar: the Galaxy S25 FE.

Samsung announced the S25 FE earlier this month, and as we expect from the FE series, it’s a lower-cost entry into the Galaxy S25 family. The Galaxy S25 FE has a big 6.7-inch display, an Exynos 2400 chipset, 45W wired charging, and an IP68 rating — all for $649.

That’s not a horrible price considering everything the S25 FE brings to the table, but there are far better and more interesting Android phones available for about the same price. Before you drop your money on the Galaxy S25 FE, consider these other Android phones first.

The Google Pixel 10 is one of the best Android phones released this year, and if it were my money, it’s the phone I would personally buy over the Galaxy S25 FE.

For me, a big part of this comes down to the software experience. While One UI has its fans, Google’s Pixel software is my favorite way to use Android. The UI is clean, the latest Material 3 Expressive skin looks incredible, and the excellence of the Pixel-exclusive features can’t be overstated. Once you use features like Now Playing and the numerous Call Assist tools, it’s difficult to live without them.

I also think the Pixel 10 wins the hardware battle pretty handily. The smaller 6.3-inch display is easier to use one-handed, the overall design is more visually interesting, and the color lineup — specifically the Indigo and Lemongrass colors — is incredible. The Pixel 10 also has the advantage of a better telephoto camera (a 10.8MP sensor with 5x optical zoom vs. Samsung’s 8MP 3x optical zoom camera), a much brighter display, and built-in magnets in its rear panel for use with magnetic chargers and other accessories.

The Pixel 10 is more expensive than the Galaxy S25 FE ($150 more, to be exact), but I think it’s well worth the extra money. Unless you need a larger screen size or slightly faster charging, I’d choose the Pixel 10 over the Galaxy S25 FE any day of the week.

If you’re thinking about buying the Galaxy S25 FE, there’s a chance you know you want a Samsung phone and not a Pixel. And that’s fine! But if that’s your preference, I’d recommend instead buying the Galaxy S25 Plus.

As you might expect, the Galaxy S25 Plus is a better phone than the Galaxy S25 FE in almost every regard. It has a more durable aluminum frame, a brighter (and sharper) display, a much more capable Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and more RAM and storage. The cameras are mostly the same, as is the battery size and charge speeds, but pretty much everything else is better on the S25 Plus compared to the S25 FE.

Naturally, that means the phone is more expensive. The Galaxy S25 Plus’s retail price of $999 is significantly higher than the $649 Galaxy S25 FE. But because it’s been on the market since January, you can often find the S25 Plus on sale for considerably less.

Amazon once had the S25 Plus for as low as $799, and if you keep an eye on Samsung’s website and other retailers/carriers, you can almost always find some sort of deal for the phone. Find it on sale, and the S25 Plus can be well worth a little extra money rather than settling for the S25 FE.

The Galaxy S25 Plus is a great “buy it on sale” type of phone, but what if you don’t want to wait around for a sale? What if you want a phone that’s a great deal, no matter if you buy it discounted or at its full MSRP? In that case, look no further than the OnePlus 13R.

Put side-by-side with the Galaxy S25 FE, the OnePlus 13R comes out on top in basically every department. The display? The 13R has a slightly larger 6.78-inch panel with higher brightness and more pixels. What about performance? You get a slightly faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip in the OnePlus 13R, plus more RAM (12GB) and storage (256GB) than you get on the Galaxy S25 FE, which has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of base storage. OnePlus also has a dramatic battery advantage, featuring a 6,000mAh battery and 80W wired charging compared to Samsung’s 4,900mAh battery and 45W charging.

To be fair, it isn’t a complete blow-out for Samsung. The camera situation is pretty similar between the two phones. The Galaxy S25 FE has a more durable design (IP68 vs. IP65 on the 13R), and Samsung’s update policy is far and away better. Where the OnePlus 13R is only promised four major Android updates (one of which will take the phone from Android 15 to Android 16), the Galaxy S25 FE ships with Android 16 and is promised seven years of major Android updates.

Those are valid criticisms against the OnePlus 13R, but with a price tag of just $599, they’re extremely easy to overlook. Unless you absolutely need an IP68 rating or seven years of updates, do yourself a favor and buy the OnePlus 13R instead of the Galaxy S25 FE.

If all you want with your next Android phone is a by-the-numbers, straightforward handset, the Galaxy S25 FE is a perfectly serviceable option. However, if you want something a little more exciting, it’s worth looking at the Motorola Razr (2025).

Being a foldable phone, the Razr has an advantage the S25 FE will never be able to match: it can fold in half. When open, the Razr has a 6.9-inch display that resembles a “normal” Android phone. But close the Razr shut, and you’re met with a compact 3.6-inch screen you can use for just about anything — all in the form factor of a tiny, easy-to-hold square.

You could argue that this isn’t practical, but there’s an undeniable fun factor that comes with a flip phone like the Razr (2025). Having two distinct ways to use your phone is just cool. Having a phone you can close shut and slip into a tiny pocket rules. Effectively having a built-in kickstand for selfies or group photos is something you’ll never want to live without once you try it.

The Razr (2025) doesn’t have the best IP rating, display quality, or camera system compared to the Galaxy S25 FE, but for a phone that can fold in half, I think it’s a perfectly fair price to pay. Plus, with a retail price of just $699 — and often on sale for much less — going the foldable route won’t set you back that much more compared to Samsung’s non-folding phone.

Samsung’s FE-branded devices have long been a good way to get a higher-end Samsung product at a lower price. It’s existed for slab phones for years, and for the first time in 2025, Samsung expanded the FE series to its foldables with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE.

Put next to the Motorola Razr (2025), the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE isn’t as good of an overall deal. The Flip’s cover screen is smaller, has a worse refresh rate and resolution, and has much more limited software compared to the Razr. Samsung’s phone also has less storage (128GB instead of 256GB), a smaller battery, and slower charging. Not to mention, its design is a lot more boring, coming in just black and white colors compared to the Razr’s navy, pink, green, and silver colors — all of which come in different patterns, too.

If that’s all true, why recommend the Z Flip 7 FE? Because it’s a Samsung phone, and that means it comes with all of the usual Samsung phone things — whether that’s Galaxy AI, One UI, better compatibility with Galaxy Watches, or seven years of Android updates (the Razr is promised just three OS upgrades).

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE isn’t a great purchase at its retail price of $899, but if you can find it on sale (which happens often), it’s worth keeping in mind. At the time of writing, Amazon has the phone discounted to just $759, which is significantly better. If you can grab the Flip 7 FE at or around that price, it’s a good pickup.