The more features a phone has, the more expensive it is. There is no denying that phones are getting very pricey and out of reach of a lot of buyers.

While smartphone makers don’t really want to lower the price of their flagships, they come up with a workaround – offering premium midrange with more value for money. This’s exactly the category Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition falls into.

The Fan Edition part in the name might confuse you because a more proper name would be Galaxy S20 Lite. And of course, you will miss out on some of the Galaxy S20’s cool stuff but all of the most important functions are still there.

Display

Compared to the Galaxy S20, the Galaxy S20 FE is actually a bit larger with a 6.5-inch display. However, Samsung wants to reserve the highest resolution for the pricier device so the FE only tops at 1080p.

However, the screen still looks great as it’s a Super AMOLED display after all. The refresh rate is also on top of the market, standing at 120Hz. Everything combines to create a very smooth scrolling experience.

The Galaxy S20 FE’s most obvious competitor on the market is the OnePlus 8 but display-wise, the latter also has 1080p resolution but only a 90Hz refresh rate. Please bear in mind that users will find it easier to spot the differences between 60Hz and 90Hz. However, when the screen jumps to 120Hz, the improvement will be harder to recognize.

Another difference is the flat screen on the S20 FE, which might make for a less premium and modern look. But on the bright side, accidental palm presses can now be avoided.

Processor

Samsung has compromised the display and the design but it doesn’t do the same with the processor. Under the hood, the FE still runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, or Exynos 990 with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

This combination means the phone can handle anything you throw at it, from multitasking, apps, to gaming.

In tests, the phone can handle four or five apps at the same time with ease. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile runs smoothly with no noticeable problem. Benchmarks results prove the same thing for day-to-day use.

Compared with OnePlus 8, the S20 FE is still beaten by a considerable margin but in real life, most users will be more than happy with the FE’s performance. If you really care about getting the best, upgrading to 8GB of RAM is the way to go.

RAM

Users have the choice to acquire the phone in either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Go for the latter if you want the best possible.

Battery

The phone draws power from a big 4,500mAh battery, more than enough for the phone to last for a full day.

In tests, after heavy use, the phone comes out with 20% of juice left, which isn’t too much but is definitely fine. If you usually charge your phone overnight, you won’t have any problems with battery life.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE fixes one of the most pressing issues of the OnePlus 8 – the lack of wireless charging, which is becoming increasingly important nowadays.

Wired charging is fast with the 25W charger. If you have wireless charging mats around the house, the FE will be a better choice than the OnePlus 8.

Camera

Competent cameras are now the must-have on any midrange phones and above. While the FE isn’t Samsung’s flagship, it still gets premium photography experience.

Google has adopted this strategy to make its handsets appealing. Pixel 4a’s price isn’t too high but users of the phone will swear on the quality of pictures it takes.

While you won’t get the zoom level of the Galaxy Note 20 and the high resolution of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the S10 FE still delivers a premium camera experience.

The phone has a triple camera setup on the rear, including a 12MP sensor, an 8MP snapper with a telephoto lens, and a 12MP camera paired with an ultra-wide lens. This setup means you have versatile cameras for all kinds of situations.

On papers, the specs seem to be lower than those of the premium S20 but in real life, the quality of photos is quite similar.

Photos taken by the FE are crisp, dynamic, and punchy, without looking unnatural.

Photo quality depends on both hardware and post-processing so as long as the software is good, inferior specs aren’t exactly a problem.

While the FE is more of a mid-range phone, it avoids one issue that plagues this category – low light performance.

Samsung has made sure that when there isn’t enough light around, users still have decent photos. However, taking pictures in a too dark environment still results in noisy photos.

The same performance can be found in zoomed-in pictures. The telephoto lens offers a 3x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. They combine to give you up to 30x hybrid zoom.

Don’t expect crisp photos when you zoom that much though as the Galaxy S20 FE has its limit but Samsung’s effort to clean up shots taken with zoom mode is still evident, especially with the 3x and 10x. Most people won’t care much about the 30x after all.

On the other side, the selfie camera is decent too with 32MP snapper. The dual-phase detection autofocus of the Galaxy S20 is missing here but the results are still colorful and pack lots of details.

Samsung adds a higher resolution here for a reason. When the wide-angle lens isn’t in use, the phone will crop the image, meaning the photos are of lower resolution. Considering the price of the phone, this performance is more than enough to please its users.

Another feature found on the S20 but not on the S20 FE is the ability to record 8K videos. The reason here is the phone needs a camera with a higher resolution to offer this quality.

So the best you have here is 4K video at 60FPS, which is enough for most users, as not many people have an 8K display lying around to for 8K content anyway.

Plus, the lack of 8K recording will save you from using up your phone’s storage.