Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Review: A Triumph of Value
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE happens when you make a phone out of the things people want for a reasonable price and cut the rest. Samsung offers you a 120Hz, 5G screen and triple cameras with 30x Spatial Zoom for just $ 699, which is $ 100 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S21.
You can see that Samsung is targeting the Galaxy S20 FE towards younger buyers. For one thing, the 32MP selfie camera is sharper than the front camera on the Galaxy S20. And you can get the S20 FE in six colours. But it’s really for anyone who wants a great phone at an affordable price.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung had to cut costs in a few places to keep the price low, from the screen resolution and RAM to the charger and the plastic back. And the new $ 799 Samsung Galaxy S21 offers faster performance, a dynamic 120Hz display, and more advanced cameras. But according to my testing for this Galaxy S20 FE review, it is one of the best phones for the price.
PROS
Large 120Hz display
Available in six colours
The powerful triple camera system
Solid performance
Price payable
Powerful processor
Vibrant colour optionsCONS
The quick charger costs more.
Optical fingerprints can be delicate.
Battery life is a bit shorter than expected.Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is priced at $ 699 and was released on October 2, 2020. It comes in a single configuration, with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, though owners can expand the storage up to 1TB with a micro SD. Card.
The Galaxy S20 FE is available through AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The Verizon variant, dubbed the Galaxy S20 FE 5G UW, supports the carrier’s 5G millimetre wave network for much faster speeds in urban areas.
Some retailers already have the Galaxy S20 FE on sale for $ 599 or $ 100 off. And we’ve seen the S20 FE for just $ 529.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review: design and colours
Design and colours
The Galaxy S20 FE will stand out from the crowd with its six colour options. You can choose from navy blue, lavender, mint, red, white, and orange. We checked the Navy option, which has a sophisticated sheen. Just keep in mind that the colour selection will vary by carrier.
Samsung makes a couple of design concessions in the name of affordability, but this phone doesn’t look or feel cheap. The back uses polycarbonate (plastic) instead of glass, but Samsung did an excellent job curving it around the sides to make the phone feel unified and solid.
When you put the Galaxy S20 FE next to the regular Galaxy S20, it’s easy to tell that the former has thicker bezels. However, once you start using the S20 FE, it is pretty close to a whole screen experience. It also helps that the front camera cutout on the S20 FE is smaller than on the regular S20.
The Galaxy S20 FE takes no shortcuts when it comes to water resistance. The phone is IP68 rated, which means it can handle a mate with ease.
Measuring 6.29 x 2.93 x 0.33 inches and weighing 6.7 ounces, the Galaxy S20 FE is slightly thicker and heavier than the regular Galaxy S20 (5.9 x 3 x 0.31 inches, 5.7 ounces), but that’s not a surprise given that the FE has a larger size than the S20 (6.5 versus 6.2 inches).
I have a complaint about the design of the Galaxy S20 FE, and it is the choice of the fingerprint reader. Unlike the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 series, the S20 FE uses an optical sensor built into the display instead of a more accurate ultrasonic sensor. As a result, I found more false negatives trying to unlock the phone than I would like. I discovered that I had to be more deliberate when pressing with this phone.
Screen
I’m glad the Galaxy S20 FE has a 120Hz display, which I think is a better feature of the regular Galaxy S20 than its sharper Quad HD resolution. The S20 FE manages with a Full HD + display with 2400 x 1800 pixels.
The 120Hz setting offers smoother scrolling and better playability in a growing variety of titles that support 120Hz panels. Sailing was very soft, and I enjoyed smooth animation when playing Marvel Contest of Champions while using Iron Man to shoot a laser at The Punisher.
Samsung’s OLED panel shone when watching an episode of Cobra Kai. When Sam LaRusso crashed into a dessert table, the explosion of colour came, with pops of green, blue, brown, and orange.
The screen on the Galaxy S20 FE performed well in our lab tests. Bukit peaked at 679 nits of brightness with adaptive brightness turned on. Anything above 600 nits is good, but the regular Galaxy S20 maxed out at 857 nits.
This display is also quite colourful, with the S20 FE registering 133.3% of the DCI-P3 colour space, which is below 162.5% of the regular S20. In terms of colour accuracy, the Galaxy S20 FE fared slightly better than the Galaxy S20, with a score of 0.3; zero is perfect. The standard S20 reached 0.37, and the iPhone 11 better was 0.22. However, from time to time, the colours looked a bit too bold, as if the optimization of the scene had gotten too enthusiastic, making the images appear pretty artificial. However, you can easily disable this processing function.
The S20 FE’s ultra-wide camera squeezes twice the scene you’re shooting compared to the primary snapper, that’s more than comparable snapper on other devices. Capture shots at 0.5x zoom, compared to 0.6x in most, so you’ll see even more of your view or group of friends in the frame.
Finally, the telephoto camera facilitates 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom, and our tests proved to be quite good at closing the distance without losing detail. The only problem we found was that the zoom shots had duller colours than those taken with the other snappers; this could be due to the lower resolution sensor, or maybe scene optimization is not as effective for zoom shots. However, you may only notice this if you compare the snapshots side by side.
One cool feature here, which you won’t find on many rivals, is that a small preview will show you the entire scene that it was zoomed in on when at high zoom level. This means that if you are so zoomed in that you lose track of where you are to the broader scene, you can quickly reframe. The screenshot above should illustrate how effective it is.
A big selling point for the Samsung Galaxy S20 was the single-shot photography mode, and it’s here: You point your phone’s camera at a subject, enable the method, and then shoot a short video of 5 to 15 seconds, scrolling through the scene while you do it. The phone then selects the best video clips and frames from the various sensors and edits them for you. It’s a fun way to use and can result in great snapshots that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
