If you're interested in photography, you'll be better off with an older phone like the Google Pixel 7, which takes slightly better photos and also gives you Google's unique photo editing tools. Of course, the Galaxy S23 FE is powerful enough to run Adobe Lightroom if you want to do any editing, so Google isn't the only game in play.
The Pixel 7, like the Motorola Edge and iPhone 13, does not use a telephoto lens. If you want true zoom on your camera, you need the Galaxy S23 FE. I think the zoom is one of its best features, and even zoomed-in photos at night look pretty good.
Of course, being Samsung, the camera modes can be complex, and not all of them are simple. If I'm recording video, should I use Video mode or Director mode? What is this mysterious Single Take mode that allows you to make “boomerang clips” or “collages” and “cut out photos” without explanation?
There's a lot to like about the camera app, but like everything else on the Galaxy S23 FE, it needs to be optimized. Samsung needs to make more decisions for us and remove a lot of unnecessary options.
Oddly enough, Samsung has two photo gallery apps: Native Gallery and Google Photos. You can use photos, but I've been using both for a long time, and Samsung Gallery backs up to OneDrive so you have a cloud backup that follows you to your next device, just like Google.
The camera was a little less responsive than I liked, and it seemed like it took a long time to focus and capture an image, especially in night mode. My photos were still great, but if you're looking for fast animals or wheels for your photos, you might need a better camera phone.
