Launched on the Brazilian market in September 2025 with the promise of surpassing its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE has shown unexpected results in performance evaluations. Independent Testes and user reports indicate that the new smartphone suffers from overheating problems, a factor that compromises its performance and puts it at a disadvantage when compared directly to the Galaxy S24 FE, the previous year’s model.
Equipped with the Exynos 2400 processor, the device faces notable instability when executing tasks that require greater processing power. The main complaint is that the device reaches high temperatures quickly, forcing the system to reduce its capacity to prevent damage to internal components, a process known as thermal throttling.
This performance limitation has generated frustration among consumers who invested in the new model, whose launch price in online retail, like the Mercado Livre, started at R$5,197. The expectation of a performance upgrade was replaced by the realization that, in intense use scenarios, the older model offers a more stable and consistent experience.
The situation raises questions about Samsung’s engineering choices for the Fan Edition line, which has historically sought to offer a balance between premium features and cost-benefit. Software optimization, especially of the One UI, emerges as one of the critical points that may be contributing to inefficient hardware thermal management.
Hardware analysis and origin of heating
The main cause of overheating in the Galaxy S25 FE appears to be directly linked to the configuration of its Exynos 2400 processor. Essa small difference, instead of translating into practical gains, seems to be the trigger for the excessive increase in temperature.
Curiously, the graphics processing unit (GPU) is the same in both models: the
Results in stress and throttling tests
Synthetic benchmarks reveal a two-sided story. In short-term tests like the Geekbench, the Galaxy S25 FE boasts a multi-core score of 6,703, beating the S24 FE’s 5,979 points. However, the single-core score of 1,967 is practically identical to that of its predecessor, signaling that the power gain is not uniform.
The problem becomes evident in prolonged stress tests, which simulate continuous use in games or heavy applications. In Nesses scenarios, the S25 FE can maintain its maximum performance for only 59% to 66% of the time, a significant drop compared to the 72% stability presented by the Galaxy S24 FE.
This instability is a direct result of aggressive throttling. The system detects the rapid increase in temperature and drastically reduces the processor frequency to cool it. In practice, this means that, after just a few minutes of gameplay, the S25 FE’s performance may drop to a level lower than that of the model it was intended to replace.
Differences in cooling architecture
To deal with the heat of the Exynos 2400, Samsung implemented a 10% larger vapor chamber in the Galaxy S25 FE compared to that of the S24 FE. In theory, this modification should improve heat dissipation, allowing the processor to work at high frequencies for longer.
However, practical tests demonstrate that this hardware solution was not sufficient to compensate for the extra heat generated by the higher speed of the Cortex-X4 core. The improved dissipation cannot keep up with the speed at which the temperature rises during actual use, making the measure partially ineffective.
The chip’s architecture, based on 4-nanometer lithography, is efficient in light tasks, such as browsing social networks or exchanging messages, contributing to good power consumption in standby mode. The challenge arises when the device is subjected to heavy workloads.
Other hardware components, such as the 8 GB or 12 GB RAM memory options, are identical to those of the previous model, reinforcing the idea that the performance bottleneck is concentrated in the interaction between the processor and the thermal management system, and not in other specifications of the device.
Impacts on battery life and charging
The Galaxy S25 FE comes with a 4,900 mAh battery, a modest 200 mAh increase over the S24 FE’s 4,700 mAh. The device also supports 45 W fast charging. Apesar of these advances, autonomy in practice did not show significant improvements. The high energy consumption by the processor to reach performance peaks, combined with the heat generated, ends up draining the battery more quickly than expected, especially during gaming sessions or high-resolution video recording. In video streaming tests, for example, the new model achieved around 13 hours of playtime, a result slightly below expectations for its capacity.
The charging process, although it supports 45 W, takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to go from 0 to 100%, a similar time to its predecessor. The device reaches 65% charge in approximately 30 minutes, which is useful for quick top-ups. A welcome new feature is support for 25W wireless charging, faster than the previous standard. The optimization of the One UI 8, based on the Android 16, still seems to require fine adjustments to extract the maximum potential from the battery, as the current software cannot ideally balance energy consumption and heat dissipation.
Prospects for correction via software
Samsung has already internally recognized the issue of aggressive throttling and is working on a solution via software update. Versões One UI firmware beta, already in testing, indicates that engineers are adjusting the algorithms that control the processor frequency and the response of thermal sensors. Early lab results are promising, showing a marginal increase in performance stability to around 68% in some stress scenarios. The expectation is that a future update will be able to find a better balance between maximum performance and temperature control, allowing the S25 FE to use its hardware potential more consistently and without sudden drops in performance. Relatos on user forums suggest that temporarily disabling some AI-intensive features, such as Galaxy AI, can reduce heat by up to 15%, which indicates the path software optimizations should take. The company plans a global rollout of the fix, with Brasil being one of the priority markets.
Comparison of technical specifications
In addition to performance, the two models share many specifications. The Galaxy S25 FE maintains the S24 FE’s triple camera set, with a 50 MP main sensor, an 8 MP telephoto lens and a 12 MP ultrawide. The main photographic improvement is in the front camera, which now has 12 MP, compared to 10 MP in the previous model.
