SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 FE

amazon SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 FE reviews

Samsung has declared a fan version, S20 FE continues the previous strategy Samsung has implemented on the Note 10 Lite and S10 Lite: cutting down on design, camera, and some high-end features while retaining configuration and performance as flagship products.

The design adds many new colors but cuts a lot of on-screen borders and materials.

Continuing to follow the style of the previous Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite and Samsung Note 10 Lite, the Galaxy S20 FE has a flat-screen instead of curved edges like the seniors of the S20 series. Many people don’t like the curved edge screen on flagship models because it’s easy to touch mistakenly, and if that’s one of them, the flat screen of the S20 FE will probably be the right choice for you.

However, the screen border of the S20 FE is significantly thicker than the seniors, no longer thin and close to the edge. If you pay close attention, you can see that the screen border of the S20 FE is even thicker than A-series products like A51 or A71. That is probably a way for Samsung to cut costs to optimize the selling price of the S20 FE.

The next notable cut-off point of the S20 FE is the material. The chassis is still metal, but the back is just 3D Glasstic imitation plastic like the mid-range Galaxy A devices. This back has been matted similar to the Note 20 series, limiting sweat, fingerprints, and many color options such as red, orange, purple, blue, mint and white, suitable for young users who like to express personality.

Another cut is that the S20 FE is only equipped with an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, which is slower and less accurate than the ultrasonic sensor. During my daily experience, I noticed that the opening speed of the S20 FE does not seem to have a significant difference with the Galaxy A51 despite having a much better configuration. Most likely, this is due to the limitation of the sensor technology, and not much depends on the configuration.

Of course, because it is a high-end model, Samsung still ensures solid and sturdy processing materials, the connection details between the frame, back, and the screen is tight and seamless. The machine gives a comfortable grip experience, a compact hand without any point of tension or discomfort. IP68 waterproof and dustproof standards also appear to ensure durability.

The screen retains the strong point of 120Hz even though the viewing angle is not as wide as expected.

Possessing a Super AMOLED panel, 20: 9 ratio with the familiar middle mole on recent Samsung products, the screen of the S20 FE has a size of 6.5 inches, located between the S20 (6.2 inches) and S20 + (6.7 inches). The resolution is lowered to Full-HD + with Gorilla Glass 3 compared to 2K + Gorilla Glass 6 of the three S20 seniors, but it is worth the refresh rate is still at 120Hz, with HDR10+ support.

Although this 120Hz frequency is fixed, not flexibly changing according to the content like Note 20 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 2 to save battery when needed. Thanks to the high 120Hz refresh rate, the screen of the S20 FE provides a smooth experience right away with common tasks such as opening and closing applications, switching multitasking, scrolling pages when browsing the web.

The display quality is true to the characteristics of AMOLED panels with deep blacks, high contrast, bright colors with clear, clear brightness, enough to display well under a hot sun. However, the screen viewing angle is not as wide as the Note 20 Ultra; the screen turns green and purple when tilted slightly at different angles.

S20 FE is equipped with dual speakers with the speakerphone used as the second external speaker to create a clear stereo multi-channel sound effect, useful when playing games and watching movies. The sound is fine-tuned by AKG and supports Dolby sound technology for loud, clear volume, no distortion when turned up to the maximum, and even a little bass.

Camera “round shoulder” enough from super-wide-angle to telephoto

The cluster of 3 rear “induction cookers” cameras on the back of the S20 FE inherits the 12MP main camera from the Galaxy S20 with Dual Pixel focus, optical image stabilization (OIS), f/1.8 aperture, 1.8 µm large pixel size, and 4K video recording, but not 8K video capabilities like the Galaxy S20. The 8MP telephoto camera also has optical image stabilization, 1.0 µm pixels, f/2.4 aperture providing 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom. While a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a 123-degree field of view, f/2.2 aperture, 1.12µm pixels.

All three rear cameras of the S20 FE still retain the characteristics inherent in Samsung flagships so far. Photos are fresh, high contrast, somewhat brilliant, flattering. Good detail, sharpness, wide light range. Although there is no dedicated macro camera, you can zoom 2X, 3X from the main camera and create good quality macro photos.

One note is that the S20 FE’s 3x optical zoom telephoto camera is usually only usable with distant subjects. When taking close-up or macro photos, the device will automatically switch to digital zoom with the main camera even though you have switched to the telephoto camera before.

When shooting in low light, Samsung still suppresses noise very strongly. The image is clear, with little noise, but the sharpness and details are not high. Fortunately, the machine has a night mode, which can be used on all three cameras, greatly improving image quality. However, the wide-angle camera on the S20 FE still only focuses on infinity, so when you need to take a close-up with this camera, it will not be able to focus.

The quality of selfies from the 32MP “mole” camera on the S20 FE gives fresh colors, good light range, but by default, the camera will “grab” the face quite enthusiastically. If you like nature, you should turn off all beautification effects and use normal mode instead of removing fonts. The selfie camera allows you to choose between 2 close-up or wide-angle shots, suitable for solo or group selfies. You can also take advantage of the wide-angle to make a face appear slimmer.

Performance equivalent to Note 20 Ultra

In the typical style of Samsung flagships, the S20 FE is produced with two chipset versions. Specifically, the 5G version receives a Snapdragon 865 processor, while the 4G version (also a genuine version sold in Asia) uses the same Exynos 990 processor as the Galaxy S20 or Note 20 seniors. The other includes 8GB of RAM, comes with 128GB of internal memory, has a microSD card slot that shares two physical SIM trays.

There has been much controversy on this issue when the Exynos version gives significantly inferior performance to the Snapdragon version, especially in heavy tasks such as gaming, photo, or video editing.

Using the Exynos 990, common tasks such as browsing the web and checking mail, I felt a bit lagged compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 running Snapdragon 865+ (version) slight overclock Snapdragon 865; when performing gestures to return to the home screen or switch multitasking.

When playing games, the Exynos 990 can’t turn on the highest graphics setting or unlock the maximum number of frames like Snapdragon 865+ with familiar games like PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty Mobile. In these two games, the device can only run at 40fps if the graphics max settings are turned on. Wanting to play at 60fps, you have to lower the setting, which means that the graphics in the game will be less attractive, lack eye-catching lighting, shading, and anti-aliasing effects.

With a lighter game like Arena of valor Mobile, the new S20 FE can turn on the highest graphics with a maximum frame of 60fps. In all three games mentioned above, Exynos 990 handles well with high stability, smoothness, no lag.

Like the Note 20 Ultra running Exynos 990, the S20 FE can turn on a maximum frame of 120fps with the Dead Trigger 2 game at the highest graphics level (Ultra High). However, with this setting, the frame will fluctuate sharply, be unstable and often drop to about 97fps. Lowering the setting to a lower level (High) will make the game much smoother, stabilizing at close to 110fps.

The S20 FE is only slightly warm when playing games, and the heat is evenly distributed, not focused on a specific point, so it is not uncomfortable.

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The battery is enough to use comfortably for a day with high intensity.

The battery of the S20 FE has a capacity of 4500 mAh, on par with the S20 + and Note 20 Ultra, and supports both wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. With high intensity of use, mainly using 4G, taking photos, recording videos, playing games in 120Hz screen mode, the S20 FE still gives a good duration, can last from 8 am to 11 pm with total light time. Screen for about 7 hours, according to statistics from the AccuBattery Pro app. That is almost the same duration as the Note 20 Ultra and S20 Ultra.

BiaReview’s standard battery tests in 120Hz mode also showed similar results with more than 10 hours of web surfing, more than 16 hours of watching movies, and nearly 6 hours of playing games. If you switch back to a 60Hz refresh rate, you can extend the battery life a bit more. However, this means sacrificing the smoothness of the 120Hz screen.

Unfortunately, the included S20 FE is only a 15W fast charger even though the device supports 25W fast charging. With the included 15W charger, the S20 FE takes up to 1h35 minutes to fully charge the battery from 0 to 100%, of which the first 30 minutes only charge 37%. Switching to the 25W charger that comes with the Note 20 Ultra, now the S20 FE only takes 1 hour and 10 minutes to fully charge and 30 minutes to charge up to 57% of the battery.

Note that you will need to turn off all unused connections such as Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, or AOD screen for the fastest charging device. S20 FE will not fast charge when the screen is on, similar to all other Samsung phones today.

This charging speed of the S20 FE can meet the most common needs. Currently, competitors like Oppo, Realme, OnePlus, Xiaomi have fast charging 65W; even 120W can fully charge 100% of 4200mAh battery (Oppo Find X2) in 40 minutes and 4500 mAh (Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra) only in 25 minutes. If you don’t want to be left behind, Samsung should continue to improve the charging speed on their smartphones.

Software that fully inherits Samsung DeX wireless features

In terms of software, S20 FE is the next device to use Samsung’s latest One UI 2.5 version based on Android 10. The One UI 2.5 version is not too different from the previous One UI generations. You will still have familiar features such as gesture navigation, Dark Mode interface (you can force Dark Mode on Facebook and Messenger in Developer settings). Edge screen to quickly open frequently used apps or turn on Pairs of split-screen apps.

The most prominent feature in the software on the S20 FE is probably Samsung Dex, with the ability to wirelessly connect to TVs, computer monitors, or even laptops without the need for a USB cable, DeX Station, or DeX Pad as before. In theory, all Miracast-enabled TVs, monitors, and laptops should be able to connect wirelessly using Samsung DeX functionality. For Samsung TVs, the wireless DeX feature is recommended for products released in 2019 or later.

DeX connection between S20 FE and TV, the laptop allows users to have an easy multitasking experience and turn this phone into a mobile computer thanks to the DeX interface very close to the PC. This year, Samsung allows using the phone’s screen as a trackpad to simplify operations; you won’t have to buy a separate mouse and keyboard anymore.

Summary

When users are increasingly reticent in spending on phones priced at $900 or more, the appearance of the Galaxy S20 FE is a suitable solution from Samsung to fill the gaps that the Note 20, Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy S20 trio left.

The S20 FE retains the current strengths on Samsung flagships such as 120Hz screen, dust resistance, IP68 water resistance, battery life, or camera quality while accepting sacrifice “luxury things” such as glass back design, thin screen border, 50X zoom camera.