Galaxy S26 FE Launches at $699 With Gemini, Perplexity AI Tools

A Fan Edition that sells software more than hardware

Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE is on sale at $699.99 in the US for the 8GB/128GB model. That is $50 more than the Galaxy S25 FE cost at launch, and it ends a run of steady entry pricing that had lasted since the S24 FE.1 The 256GB version costs $799.99, and the US gets no 512GB option.2 Broad availability started September 4, and some US carriers began selling it a day earlier.9

The hardware explains why the phone's AI features carry so much of the pitch. Compared side by side, the S26 FE and S25 FE share the same 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED panel, 8GB of RAM, 50MP/12MP/8MP rear cameras, 4,900mAh battery and 45W wired charging.2 The real hardware upgrade is the chip, which moves from the 4nm Exynos 2400 to the 3nm Exynos 2500. One spec actually goes backward: the USB port drops from USB 3.2 to USB 2.0.2 Trusted Reviews called the phone "basically the same as the S25 FE" and named that as its first complaint.19

What Samsung does give buyers this year is software. The S26 FE is the first S26-family phone to ship with One UI 9 on Android 17 out of the box. The S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra got that software later as an update.1 Samsung promises seven years of OS and security updates.1 In practice, Samsung is asking buyers to pay more for an AI layer, not for better hardware.

The Galaxy AI feature list

Reviews broadly agree on what the AI suite contains. Now Brief is a daily briefing made of cards, and users can now build their own cards by typing a prompt. Now Nudge offers contextual suggestions and now works with some third-party apps. Circle to Search can identify several objects in one image at once. Photo Assist lets users edit photos by describing changes in plain language, and each step can be undone.1 The S26 FE is also the first FE phone with My FanCam, which follows a chosen person in a video and keeps them in frame. Super Steady adds a Horizontal Lock mode for fast-moving footage.19

Some features depend on Google. Gemini Omni turns Gallery content into video clips but requires a Google AI Pro subscription.1 Samsung includes a six-month Google AI Pro trial that also adds 5TB of Google One storage.1 Other listed features include Interpreter and Call Assist for live translation.2 Reviewers also mention Browsing Assist, Writing Assist and Audio Eraser for third-party apps.13

The FE does not get everything. SamMobile's compatibility table shows it supports My FanCam, Now Nudge and custom Now Brief cards, but not Call Brief.17 Call Brief shows context such as a calendar event or the other person's local time on the call screen.17 The gap is small, but it shows where Samsung is separating its cheaper and pricier models.

Three assistants, and the browser in the middle

The bigger story sits above the feature list. With the S26 series and the Z8 foldables, Samsung introduced what it calls "AI OS." Despite the name, German outlet connect explains it is not a new operating system. It is a system-wide AI layer that sends different jobs to different AI services.15

Samsung's split works like this:

• Bixby controls the device through natural-language commands. Samsung's example is someone saying their eyes are tired and Bixby offering to turn on the eye-comfort display setting.1115
• Gemini handles generative work such as summarizing documents and drafting emails.11
• Perplexity acts as a search agent at the system level. It can summarize web content across several browser tabs and cite its sources.11

That browser role is where the AI-browser angle matters most. Perplexity's job inside Samsung's system is to pull information from multiple web pages and return answers with citations, which is the core idea behind AI browsers.15 The Indian release of the S26 FE lets users make Perplexity their default assistant.13 Samsung's own Galaxy S26 marketing promotes Galaxy AI inside Samsung Browser and stresses that it connects mobile and PC.18 Samsung Browser for Windows puts a Galaxy AI sidebar up front. Users can ask about the page they are on, run a web search, or find a page in their history or open tabs.14 Perplexity's own Comet browser uses a similar sidebar chat design.14

The partnership has a longer history. Earlier reporting said Samsung and Perplexity discussed preloading Perplexity's app and assistant, building its search into Samsung's web browser, and adding its technology to Bixby. That reporting also described Samsung as a likely major investor in Perplexity.12 The same coverage said the deal could reduce Samsung's reliance on Google and lead to a multi-vendor approach similar to Apple's.12 The S26 generation looks like the result: Google still has a central role, but it is no longer the only AI provider on a Galaxy phone.

Where the coverage disagrees

Reports differ on how deeply Perplexity is built in. Connect, working from Samsung's own footnotes, says Perplexity must be installed separately from the Google Play Store. To use it as the phone's assistant, users also have to map it to the side button. Connect concludes the integration is shallower than the "AI OS" label suggests.15 IT-Daily reports the same download requirement.11 Trusted Reviews, however, lists Perplexity among apps preinstalled on its review unit, next to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.19 The likeliest explanation is that this varies by region or carrier. Either way, Perplexity sits next to Samsung's system rather than inside it.

Reviewers also disagree on how useful the AI is. Trusted Reviews called the Now Brief widget "very useless" and said it mostly shows weather, calendar entries and streaming suggestions. It named Gemini as the main assistant and described Bixby as fading.19 The same review said Samsung and Google offer overlapping AI tools, such as Photo Assist next to Google Photos editing, and that this makes the phone feel cluttered. It did praise natural-language search in Settings.19 Tom's Guide-style coverage was more positive, counting the number of premium AI features as one of the phone's main strengths.6

Privacy claims also need context. Samsung points to Knox Matrix and encryption to argue that personal data and context analysis stay on the device.11 Connect says that claim should not be taken at face value: Gemini and Perplexity features need an internet connection and may require signing in to outside services, so where data is processed depends on the feature.15 Samsung also says it cannot guarantee the accuracy of results from any of the three assistants. Gemini is limited to users 18 and older.11

Does $699 make sense?

Whether the price works depends on what it is compared with. Some reviewers argue the FE looks better because Samsung raised prices on the rest of the S26 line. One review puts the cheapest Galaxy S26 at $999 with 256GB, which would make the FE $200 to $300 cheaper.6 Gadget Hacks gives a different figure: it says the base S26 launched in the US at $899.99. It also notes Samsung kept the same 209,000-won gap between the FE and base S26 in South Korea as in the previous generation.9 Those figures may describe the S26's price before and after an increase. In both cases, Samsung appears to have protected the FE's place below the flagship.

Prices elsewhere are higher. The FE starts at €799 in Europe, which puts it close to the €949 standard S26 with 256GB.4 In India, only the 256GB model is sold, at ₹79,999.2 One Indian reviewer said that price undercuts the whole idea of an affordable FE phone.13 Spec databases also disagree on prices: GSMArena lists a lower $599.99 figure for the 128GB model.3

Retailers have already cut the price. Amazon sold it for $659.99 within weeks of launch, then for $574.99 during Prime Day.58 PhoneArena reported a $160 discount after the sale ended.7 Trusted Reviews says competing mid-range phones cost less, though the seven-year update promise still outlasts rivals such as the Xiaomi 17T Pro.19

The takeaway

The S26 FE is mainly a way to get Samsung's AI software at a lower price. The hardware barely changes, so the case for buying it rests on One UI 9, the long update window, and early access to Samsung's three-assistant setup.111 For the AI-browser push, this is a cautious first step. Perplexity's cited web research is now an official option on a mass-market Galaxy phone, but on at least some units it still has to be downloaded and set up by the user.15 Samsung appears to be testing whether buyers want a choice of AI agents before it commits to building any of them deeper into the phone. Since street prices are already more than $100 below list, buyers probably shouldn't pay the full $699.99 for that.