Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

EDITORIAL: When S20 FE arrived in 2020, it created a lot of interest as a cheaper (fan edition) version of it's Galaxy S20+ flagship phone. It made compromises to achieve lower price and they were reasonable: 1mm wider, plastic back, good but lower quality screen, downfraded 8MP tele (instead of a 64MP) lens, sans-AF selfie and no DeX. That phone sold well and Samsung had a S FE phone every year (skipped only 2022) since. Over time, the compromises became bigger and now we got an FE that omits latest processor, comes with lower endurance and a slow USB-C 2.0 port. It still brings other sacrifices typical for a Samsung FE phone: cheaper Victus glass, lower quality screen, 8MP telefoto and a sans-AF selfie but wireless DeX is now included (as it is on all Samsung's flagship phones). It is hard to understand why is Samsung degrading a phone model that build good reputation and following over the years but it is what it is.

EDITORIAL: Samsung brought it's top 200MP main camera (from S25 Ultra) to their best foldable. It also added AF to the ultrawide but unfortunately kept the telephoto at just 10MP. The phone is now significantly thinner compared to Z Fold 6 (from 5.6mm to 4.2mm when unfolded) but noticably wider compared to past models (72.8mm vs 68.1mm on Z Fold 6 and 67.1mm on Z Fold 5). Battery tech, endurance and charging remain the same, a disappointing performance from the world's biggest phone maker.