Samsung has probably created our phone of the year with the Galaxy S20 FE because it's everything you want from a capable smartphone. Good camera, great price, jam-packed with features and flagship-level components. It seems like someone at Samsung's office created the Galaxy S20 FE just to mess with the likes of OnePlus, Xiaomi and other budget flagship players. Having said that, Samsung is messing with these brands with one of the most amazing phones of the year that nobody expected. I won't lie, when I heard rumours about the Galaxy S20 FE, I did ignore it until I got to use it myself. After using it for a few weeks, I can firmly say this is one of the best smartphones launched in 2020. When you consider price to performance value, there's no other smartphone that does it as well as the Galaxy S20 FE. Even though Samsung did cut some corners to keep the price competitive, it doesn't change our opinion on the phone. Here's MensXP's review of the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. 

© MensXP/Akshay Bhalla

If you want a lot of choices when it comes to your smartphone's colours, the S20 FE comes in six options to choose from. You can get the phone in Navy, Lavender, Mint, Red, White and Orange. We've been using the Mint colour variant which looks striking. The colour itself stands apart from everything else you've used this year and it's probably our favourite feature of the body. Being a cheaper offering, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE uses a plastic body (polycarbonate) but has a matte finish at the back. There is a slight curve around its sides which makes the phone easy to hold in the palm of your hand and I prefer it over the Galaxy S20 ultra and other phones by Samsung this year. 

© MensXP/Akshay Bhalla

The S20 FE also has thicker bezels than its flagship counterparts, however it gives the same full-screen experience that you expect from Samsung phones. Even the punch-hole camera size is smaller than the regular S20 FE. In other design aspects, even though it is a more affordable version of the regular S20 smartphones, Samsung didn't cut corners with the S20 FE. The smartphone its IP68 rated which means it has phenomenal water resistance that you cannot find in other phones in the same price range. I'd expected Samsung to cut corners in this category, however this is not the case. 

The fingerprint reader is embedded in the display, but it uses the older optical sensor rather than the newer ultrasonic sensor by Samsung. This results in more inaccurate fingerprint reads and the phone takes longer to unlock the smartphone. You may have to press down a bit more to get your fingerprint scanned by the sensor. 

Let's talk about the display for a bit since Samsung is known for using the best screens for smartphones. The Galaxy S20 FE features a 120Hz OLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1800 pixels. The 120Hz refresh rate works exactly as it does on its flagship phones where the phone will only push to higher frame rates if needed. Scrolling websites seems smoother, playing games that support 120FPS also feels better. 

© MensXP/Akshay Bhalla

Similarly, watching video content on the S20 FE is as good if not better than the regular S20 phones. Watching shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime reflected the colours with great accuracy and fidelity. Colours tend to pop instead of looking saturated or dull. The brightness level of the display is on point as it hit a peak brightness level of 650 nits for us. If you are avid video content consumer, you will not be disappointed with the S20 FE's display, however if you want the best, then we highly recommend the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

The Galaxy S20 FE is probably the only phone in this price category that delivers versatility and quality in one package. The Galaxy S20 FE comes with a triple-camera setup at the back and a 32MP front-facing camera for selfies. At the back, you will find a 12MP Ultra-wide shooter with a 123-degree field of view. The main camera is also a 12MP sensor and the third sensor is an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 30x Space Zoom. 

© MensXP/Akshay Bhalla

The camera app is also the same as the S20 Series which means it comes with unique features such as 'Single Take' where you can capture nine different types of videos and photos. Other modes such as night, food, panorama, live focus (video and still), slow-mo, super slow-mo and other features can also be used in the phone. 

The camera is where the S20 FE has a massive advantage over its competitors such as OnePlus. The overall picture quality and colour accuracy look great where it's tuned just a tad bit. The phone can focus on subjects quite clearly and fast, enabling you to take crystal clear images in daylight. In low-light, you will notice some noise, however it is still better than the OnePlus 8 Pro and other phones of similar calibre. 

The telephoto lens is also a dream to use where you can zoom into objects up to three times optically and 30x using the camera software. While the phone does a great job of zooming into objects, you will start to notice pixelation and noise when you go above 10x. In terms of video, you can capture 4K at 60 frames per second and the quality is at par with other Galaxy devices. It may not be the best phone for capturing videos as the iPhone still leads in this department, but for an Android user it doesn't get better than this. 

The Galaxy S20 FE that sells in India is powered by the Exynos 990 chipset and is parked with 6GB of RAM. While there is some drama surrounding the chipset that is being used, in real-world usage, the S20 FE fairs quite well. Sure it doesn't beat the Snapdragon 865 powered devices in India. However, in our usage, the S20 FE was quite responsive where you could use over 10 apps at the same time and they would switch without any lag. 

© MensXP/Akshay Bhalla

In terms of Benchmark scores, the Galaxy S20 FE had a Geekbench 5 score of 897 (single-core) and 2677 (multi-core). It is lower than the S20 series and the Note 20 Ultra, however in our usage, we did not feel the phone was held back by the processor. Games ran well with little to no frame rate drops and we could play games like Genshin Impact with ease. Having said that, there were slight frame rate drops when we faced multiple enemies on the screen which is also the case for devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865. 

The Galaxy S20FE has a 4,500mAh battery that can be fast-charged using a power delivery PPE charger. Having said that, the phone only comes with a 15W charger even though it supports 25W fast-charging. If you require fast charging, we would recommend getting a 25W or above Power Delivery charger that supports PPE protocol as well. Alternatively, the S20 FE also supports wireless charging which was a huge surprise to use since this is Samsung's “affordable” version of the Galaxy S20. It puts a lot of smartphones in this price category on notice simply because we expect most phones to skip this feature except for the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi 10. 

After having used the Galaxy S20 FE for a few weeks, we can confidently say it is one of our favourite phones that has launched this year. It's got a better camera than the competition and it has everything you need from a flagship smartphone. Sure, the polycarbonate body can be a bit disappointing for some people but the phone also offers a lot of features for Rs 44,999. 

View the full article