The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is here! This “lite” edition of the Samsung Galaxy S20 targets those who know the value of a dollar. With a solid spec sheet and an appealing price point, is the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE the right phone for you?
Find out in the Android Authority Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review.
About this Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review: We spent five days evaluating the S20 FE. The device shipped with Android 10 and Samsung’s One UI 2.5. It did not receive any updates while we used it. Samsung supplied the Galaxy S20 FE review unit to Android Authority.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition)
The colorful flagship for fans
The newly-launched Galaxy S20 Fan Edition features a Snapdragon 865 SoC, a 6.5-inch AMOLED display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It’s the flagship of choice for those who are prepared to trade some flagship features for a lower price.
-
$599 at Amazon
Save
$100
.00
-
$599 at Best Buy
Save
$100
.00
-
$599 at B&H
Save
$100
.00
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review: Who is it for?
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
Today’s flagship smartphones are overpriced. With retail costs topping $1,400 for some variants, the S20 line from Samsung is absurdly expensive no matter your budget. Some are willing to pay to get the best, however, not everyone can afford to.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is for people who want top performance at a reasonable price point. The S20 FE offers the best in terms of processing power, but comes in at hundreds of dollars less than flagship phones. It delivers most of the flagship experience at a mid-range price. It’s the smartphone for smart people.
More: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE vs Galaxy S20
Design and display
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
- 6.5-inch flat Super AMOLED Infinity-O
- FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080), 407ppi
- 120Hz refresh rate
- HDR 10+
- Gorilla Glass 3 cover
- 74.5 x 159.8 x 8.4mm
- 190g
- Cloud Navy, Cloud Red, Cloud Lavender, Cloud Mint, Cloud White, Cloud Orange
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE carries over the basic design elements of the S20 range but it is obviously and decidedly less premium than its pricier brethren. It offers the same squared-off corners, the same camera bump, and the same buttons and ports arrangement. The big departure as far as the design is concerned is the rear panel, which switches from glass to plastic.
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
There’s no mistaking the “glasstic” (as Samsung calls it) for anything other than what it is: a cheaper substitute for glass. That’s not to say it’s terrible. The plastic rear panel has a frosted coat of paint that gives the FE a premium appearance. From a distance, you’d never know it’s plastic. The one thing that really bugs me is the fit and finish. Upon closer inspection, you’ll note a fine ledge along the metal frame where it meets the plastic. It’s enough that you can feel it. The glass of the pricer S20 line has a finer finish and a more flush joint with the aluminum frame. Samsung had to save money somewhere, however, and the rear panel helped it meet its cost goals. On the plus side, the FE is far more durable than its glass-clad peers. Moreover, it’s offered in six different appealing colors.
See also: We asked, you told us. Glasstic is a no-no on $1,000 phones
The metal chassis comes across as rigid and strong. There are no functional elements built into the left edge of the phone; everything is focused on the right side. That’s where you’ll find the screen lock/power button and volume toggle. The buttons are a bit thin and plasticky in feel but offer good travel and feedback. You’ll find the combined SIM/memory card tray tucked into the top edge, while the USB-C port and speaker are on the bottom. There’s no headphone jack.
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
I found the size to be quite manageable. It’s thin, light, and easy to carry around and use. The phone is smaller than both the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra thanks to its 6.5-inch display.
Speaking of the display, Samsung opted for a flat piece of Gorilla Glass 3. Gone is the curved, high-end glass of the main S20 line. Some people prefer a flat display glass, but I’m not one of them. The Infinity-O panel means the selfie camera is a small punch hole centered near the top. It’s small enough that it’s not overly noticeable. This design allowed Samsung to keep the bezels in check, though they are not the thinnest we’ve seen.
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
The screen is totally fine. I found it to be bright and usable under direct sunlight. Colors are pushed a little, as per the norm for Samsung, but the display is bright, sharp, and clean looking. Additionally, the screen carries over the best feature from its peers: the 120Hz refresh rate. It’s a variable refresh rate, which means it changes depending on the task at hand. Most of the time it simply looks luscious and smooth. I don’t have any complaints about the FE’s screen. It’s a winner.
Performance
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
- Adreno 650
- 6GB LPDDR5
- 128GB UFS 3.0
- microSD support up to 1TB
- 4,500mAh battery
- 15W wired charging (in-box)
- 25W wired charging (optional)
- 15W wireless charging
- Wireless PowerShare
Processor
If there’s one important spec that the FE carries over from the S20 series, it’s the premiere Snapdragon 865 processor. The 865, along with the Adreno 650 GPU and 6GB of RAM, allow the FE to deliver outstanding performance. The phone blasts through tasks with ease. It never slowed down, lagged, or otherwise felt mucky during my time with it. The FE offered stellar gaming, social networking, and media consumption power. Though we believe 6GB is the least amount of RAM modern Android phones should have, you’d never know it’s not the 8GB or 12GB that are available to the S20.
Benchmark apps showed the phone at its best. We saw top numbers from 3DMark and GeekBench, though in AnTuTu, the phone bested only 82% of competing phones. The bottom line is that the Galaxy S20 FE performs like a flagship should and has the numbers to back it up.
Battery
Samsung aimed for the middle of the pack as far as the battery is concerned. Where the S20 has a 4,000mAh battery, the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra have 4,500mAh and 5,000mAh power cells, respectively. Therefore, the S20 FE’s 4,500mAh capacity splits the difference and covers its bases.
In our testing, we found the phone to last a full day and then some. Even after watching YouTube for hours, social networking, shooting pictures, and checking email, the phone still often had 25% of a charge left in the tank at the end of the day. It easily goes from 8AM one day to 8AM the next day with enough of a charge to get you to the office or to school. Screen-on time hovered around seven hours.
Wireless charging is a nice feature to have at any price point.
It’s nice that the phone supports 25W wired charging, but it would be nicer if a 25W brick shipped with the phone. Instead, you’re stuck with a 15W charger. It doesn’t power up the phone very quickly. The Galaxy S20 FE reached just 30% after 30 minutes, 55% after 60 minutes, and 88% after 90 minutes. It took just over two hours to charge fully.
More reading: Phones with the best battery life
Wireless charging is a nice feature to have at any price point, and we’re pleased with the 15W speed here, which matches that of the wired charger. Toss in Wireless Power Share to top up your accessories and you have a well-rounded phone when it comes to battery features.
Software
- Android 10
- Samsung One UI 2.5
Samsung’s One UI 2.5 forms the basic user experience for the Galaxy S20 FE. It’s the same software that’s available on the Note 10, Note 20, and S20 series phones. In other words, there’s nothing new to really discuss.
You’ve got several home screens active out of the box, with the left-most home screen reserved for the Samsung Daily feed. It still irks me that Samsung doesn’t allow people to swap out Samsung Daily for the Google Discover Feed, which is much more useful to me. That said, Samsung Daily is better than ever and more customizable than in the past.
Samsung allows for plenty of customization. Not only can you alter how many apps appear on the main screens and app drawer, but you can also change themes, fonts, and other aspects of the design to make it your own.
One UI 2.5 is a solid effort, though we wished the phone shipped with Android 11. Samsung hasn’t said when the S20 FE will receive One UI 3.0, which is based on Android 11, but it is beta testing the software at this very moment.
Camera
- Rear:
- Main: 12MP Dual-Pixel, OIS, ƒ1.8, 1/1.76in
- Ultra-wide: 12MP, ƒ2.2, 1/3.06in
- Telephoto: 8MP, OIS, 3x optical zoom, 30x Space Zoom, ƒ2.4, 1/4.4in
- Front:
- 32MP (binned to 8MP), ƒ2.2, 1/2.8in
- Video:
- 4K at 60fps
A triple-camera system is expected on today’s top phones, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was sure to include one. With standard, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses on offer, users have plenty of flexibility to grab the shot they want.
Let’s start with the camera app. The app is a direct carryover from the S20/Note20 series. That means it has Samsung’s signature feature, Single Take. This mode allows you to capture up to nine different types of photos/videos with a single press of the button. Beyond Single Take, you’ve got pro mode, panorama, food, night, live focus, live focus video, pro video, super slow-mo, slow-mo, and hyperlapse. That covers the basics and then some. A zoom picker makes it simple to jump between the three lenses and tools that float along the left edge of the viewfinder. You can quickly adjust resolution, the flash, aspect ratio, and more. It’s a fine app.
The S20 FE takes solid shots with the main camera. I thought color, which is pushed just a hair, looked good overall. White balance was accurate and the phone didn’t have the yellowing issue we saw with the S20 earlier this year. The focus was sharp, producing clean shots with little or no noise in daylight. Shots taken in low light had more noise and sharpening but were still good enough for sharing.
The phone supports plenty of zoom options. You’ve got 0.5x with the wide-angle lens, 1x with the main lens, 3x optical zoom with the telephoto lens, and blended hybrid zoom up to 30x. The results up to 3x were excellent, while hybrid zoom past 10x began to suffer from noise and pixelization. The wide-angle lens does produce some optical distortion too.
The selfie camera can take regular and wide-angle shots, as well as normal selfies and portraits. The selfies I captured looked decent but didn’t bowl me over. Focus, color, and white balance were mostly good, but I saw little pop in the pictures. The portrait mode managed to offer up clean edge detection.
See also: Phones with the best cameras
Video is limited to 4K at 60fps, but the results look really good. The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is more than adequate for your everyday video needs.
Full-resolution samples of the photos are available here.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE: Specs
| Display | 6.5-inch flat Super AMOLED Infinity-O cutout, centered FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080) resolution 407ppi 120Hz refresh rate HDR 10+ Gorilla Glass 3 cover |
6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 3,200 x 1,440 20:9 ratio 120Hz refresh rate at 1080p 60Hz refresh rate at 1440p HDR10+ certified |
| CPU | 5G models: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 4G models: |
5G models: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 4G models: |
| GPU | 5G models: Adreno 650 4G models: |
5G models: Adreno 650 4G models: |
| RAM | 6GB LPDDR5 | 12GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 128GB internal UFS 3.0 microSD support up to 1TB |
128GB internal UFS 3.0 microSD support up to 1TB |
| Power | 4,500mAh battery 15W wired charging (in-box adapter) 25W wired charging (add’l adapter needed) 15W wireless charging Wireless PowerShare |
4,000mAh Fast wired and wireless charging |
| Cameras | Rear:
12MP wide-angle 12MP ultra-wide 8MP telephoto Front: 32MP (binned to 8MP) |
Rear: – Wide-angle: 12MP, 1/1.76″, ƒ/1.8, 1.8µm – Telephoto: 64MP, ƒ/2.0, .8µm – Ultra-wide: 12MP, ƒ/2.2, 1.4µm 3x hybrid optical/digital zoom, Super Resolution Zoom up to 30x Front: |
| Durability | IP68 rated 1.5m water depth for 30 min. |
IP68 rated 1.5m water depth for 30 min. |
| Security | Optical in-display fingerprint | Optical in-display fingerprint |
| Connectivity | 5G support (both sub-6GHz and mmWave) 802.11ax/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5.0 USB-C with USB 3.2 speeds NFC and MST Samsung Dex support |
4G LTE support 5G (sub-6GHz, DSS, TDD/FDD, SA and NSA, no mmWave) |
| Audio | Stereo speakers Dolby Atmos support No headphone jack |
Stereo speakers Dolby Atmos support No headphone jack |
| OS | Android 10 | One UI 2.0 Android 10 |
| Dimensions and weight | 74.5 x 159.8 x 8.4mm 190g |
69.1×151.7×7.9mm 163g |
| Colors | Cloud Navy, Cloud Red, Cloud Lavender, Cloud Mint, Cloud White, Cloud Orange | Cosmic Grey, Cloud Blue, Cloud Pink |
Value and competition
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
- Samsung Galaxy S20 FE: 6GB RAM, 128GB storage — $699.99
At $700, the price of the S20 FE feels right. The phone may have a plastic rear panel, but you’re getting a 120Hz display and the Snapdragon 865 for excellent performance. Samsung chose the FE’s features with care. It covers just the right selection of must-haves. The screen looks great, and there’s no questioning how fast the phone is. Toss in the decent cameras, solid software, and extras such as wireless charging and 5G, and you have a compelling value in hand.
However, there is so much competition in the $700 space. First and foremost, Samsung is competing with itself. The original S20 range was first released more than six months ago and as such the prices have come way down. The S20, for example, is already in the sub-$700 space itself. If seven Benjamins is a bit too rich for your blood, perhaps consider the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G, which is a really solid offering and available from US carriers to boot.
Another $700 5G phone worth considering is the Nokia 8.3, which goes on sale soon. We haven’t evaluated the Nokia yet, but we plan to soon. Even so, based on the feature list, it goes toe-to-toe with the S20 FE.
Other options include the OnePlus 8 for $599, or the just-announced Google Pixel 5 for $699.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review: Should you buy it?
Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is a fine phone, though it stops just short of being excellent. The design and materials are a bit less refined than I was hoping, but the glasstic rear is more durable than even Gorilla Glass would be. The flat display glass may turn off some, but the 120Hz refresh rate turned me on. I really liked the overall size and usability of the phone, and the six different colors mean you’ll likely find a version to suit your personal style. Other pros include solid performance, excellent battery life, and straightforward software. Some cons might include the relatively average cameras and the lack of headphone jack.
Pricing doesn’t make the decision easy. With so many phones competing at the same or similar price point, it’s hard to say the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is the best of the bunch. However, for the Samsung fan, the Fan Edition complements the S20 lineup in a way that makes it worth saving a few hundred dollars.
$599
.00
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition)
Save
$100
.00
Buy it Now
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition)
Buy it Now
Save
$100
.00
$599
.00