Samsung has finally revealed its latest phone, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, where FE stands for Fan Edition. First spotted by Gordon Kelly last month, here on Forbes, the FE is now official.
It has a lot going for it, including many features that current iPhones – and likely the ones about to be announced – won’t match. Here’s all you need to know.
But right here, up front, let me say: this phone is amazing value, with very few compromises from what you’d expect to see in a top-end, flagship smartphone, but for way less than you’d expect to pay. It’s just $699.
Snappy Design, 120Hz Display
The Note 20 Series introduced a classy, semi-matte finish and the S20 FE builds on that with a “glasstic” back in six colors, Cloud Navy, Cloud Mint, Cloud Red, Cloud White, Cloud Lavender and the one that’s the standout for me: Cloud Orange.
The Cloud name is indicative for the slightly matte finish, no clouds were harmed in the making of these phones.
The FE has IP68 water protection, stereo speakers which support Dolby Atmos and fast-charging support if you have the right charging plug (sold separately).
But the real head-turner is the display. At 6.5 inches, it’s 0.3 inches bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S20 – and the FE is notably cheaper than the $999 price the S20 commanded at launch, too. This being Samsung, it’s an AMOLED screen with a small hole near the top for the camera – this phone has an under-screen fingerprint sensor.
And, best of all, it is a 120Hz display, something that not even the iPhone 12 Pro is expected to match (and again, this phone is way cheaper than Apple’s top-end iPhone is almost certainly going to be). It also has a 240Hz touch sampling rate to make gaming go with a bang on compatible titles.
The fingerprint sensor, by the way, is not the top-end ultrasonic one on the flagship Samsungs, but optical. Still, at this price, you may well have expected a side-mounted sensor, so this is preferable.
5G and fast performance
At this price, 5G is far from a given, but it’s here on the Galaxy S20 FE. And it uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip. Side note for European readers: Users in Europe frequently have Samsung Exynos chips in them, but this time, it’s Snapdragon 865 wherever you buy the phone.
The RAM on board is 6GB, so not exceptional but more than enough to keep things ticking over nicely. And storage is 128GB, plus a microSD card slot.
Battery life should be good, if the 4,500mAh cell is anything to go by. Again, these are specs that suit flagships, not mid-range phones.
Three cameras
The main sensor is 12MP. So what, you say? Well, that already matches the best iPhone camera currently in terms of megapixels but this is one with big pixels, 1.8 µm, to capture light fast. The second camera is also 12MP, that’s the ultra-wide and there’s a telephoto camera that’s the equivalent of 3x zoom of the main lens. Samsung’s 30x Space Zoom is also on this phone.
Pin-sharp selfie camera
Why settle for a 12MP front-facing camera when you can get one with 32MP? That’s what’s here, so your selfies can be full of detail.
When can I get it?
It goes on sale on October 2 for $699.
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