Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Review: Having Most Of The Galaxy S20's Top Features But At A Cheaper Price

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE isn’t exactly the Galaxy S20 Lite but a budget-friendly version of the Galaxy S20.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Price And Availability

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE made it to the market on September 23 last year and went on sale on October 2.

The phone is retailed for $699 for the 5G model. Samsung Galaxy S20 FE price in India is Rs 40,998.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Design

At first look, the Fan Edition seems to be similar to the Galaxy S20 but there are still differences worth pointing out here.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, with a dimension of 159.8x74.5x8.4mm, has a bigger size than the S20. While the S20 has curved edges, the S20 FE doesn’t, so when it comes to comfort, the former wins. The thicker bezels also contribute to the slightly cheap look of the phone.

The back of the S20 FE is covered by Glasstic, Samsung’s plastic material. However, since it still has the feel and touch of plastic, the South Korean company should really reconsider its design choice.

The camera module is at the phone’s top-left corner. Fortunately, it doesn’t protrude very much so the phone can be laid relatively flat on a surface. The volume rocker and power button are on the right of the phone with positions convenient for users to reach no matter how big or small their hands are.

Samsung has jumped on the bandwagon of omitting the headphone jack so fans of wired headphones might be disappointed with the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. The USB-C port is still there though.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Display

No matter how similar the two phones look, the S20 FE is still a downgraded version of the S20 so it comes as no surprise that the former only has a display with 2400x1080 resolution, instead of 3200x1440 like on the latter.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE features a 120Hz refresh rate making everything look smoother. If you want to save battery life, you might want to switch to 60Hz.

The phone’s display measures 6.5 inches, a tad bigger than the 6.2-inch screen of the S20. Overall, the phone’s display looks nice with a high contrast ratio and vivid colors. While the brightness is good, the phone doesn’t exactly excel under direct sunlight.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Camera

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE features three cameras on the back, a 12MP f/1.8 primary, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide snapper, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto lens. While the camera module is worse than that of the S20 on papers, the photos it yields look great.

The primary camera is able to produce punchy and bright images with the help of Samsung’s AI. Sometimes the artificial intelligence works a bit too much so the results might be too bold.

The ultra-wide camera is able to capture twice as much scene in comparison with the main camera. The telephoto lens enables 30x digital 3x optical zoom which can still retain details even when you close the distance.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE has a cool feature that helps it stands out from the crowd – a preview for zoom. Sometimes users find themselves losing their perspective of where they are in relation to the bigger picture, so the preview is here to show them the whole scene.

Another appealing feature here is the Single Take mode. When it is enabled, all you have to do is to point the camera at the subject and pan around the scene while keeping the phone at that state for up to 15 seconds. Samsung Galaxy S20 FE will then choose the best clips and still frames to yield the best photo possible.

The Night mode works well too. It takes advantage of the large sensor of the primary camera to take in as much light as possible. You don’t have to hold the phone still for too long, which is a plus.

On the other side, there is a 32MP f/2.0 camera but please bear in mind that you only get 32MP for wide-angle shots, otherwise, the phone will automatically crop the photos.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Specs And Performance

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G version is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor while the 4G model Exynos 990. Overall, the phone is snappy and smooth with whatever you do.

Gaming is especially responsive and fast with no glitches or lag, even when the phone has to handle games like Call of Duty: Mobile at maximum settings.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE comes with Android 10 out of the box but you will still get Android 11 when it is launched.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Battery Life

The S20 FE draws power from a 4,500mAh battery, which can sustain the phone for a whole day with moderate use.

With 5G, 120Hz refresh rate, and always-on display enabled, expect around 30% of juice left when you get home in the evening. So if you wish to play games or stream some videos before bed, you will have to charge the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.

The phone can be charged at 25W, not the fastest rate but it can still fully charge the handset after an hour.

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