Friends+Design
- IP68 dust and water resistant
- Boxier in-hand feel when comparing against other S20 phones - not very comfortable
- Not-so-premium design - the S20 FE looks more like the Samsung A series phone than the S series - the ‘Glasstic’ back and thick front bezels make it look a bit cheap
Display
- Bright, sharp, and clean looking 6.5-inch display FHD+ AMOLED display - the S20 FE’s screen looks good, with bold colours and high contrast ratios
- Sufficiently bright and usable under direct sunlight
- The display features a variable refresh rate which goes up to 120 Hz, most of the time it simply looks luscious and smooth
Software
- Running the Galaxy Note Ultra is Samsung's OneUI 2.5 on Android 10 - which, as far as Android UIs go, is one of the most refined, well-thought-out experiences - the animations everywhere looks fluid with the high refresh rate display
Performance
- The S20 FE houses the Samsung's own Exynos 990, which is one of the best CPUs available in the market - apps open quickly, scavenging through files is swift and multi-tasking is a breeze, it is a top-tier experience
Camera
- Very good triple camera setup - a 12MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 8MP telephoto camera
- The S20 FE takes solid shots with the main camera - colours look good overall, white balance is accurate, the focus is sharp, producing clean shots with little or no noise in daylight
- The S20 FE’s ultra-wide camera squeezes in twice as much of the scene you’re shooting compared to the main snapper - it captures shots at 0.5x zoom, compared to 0.6x on most other phones, and quality is also good
- The telephoto camera facilitates 3x optical and 30x digital zoom - it is fairly good at closing the distance without losing the details
- The S20 FE inherits the Single Take mode from its more premium siblings - when engaged, Single Take records a 10-second video and snaps multiple images, giving you an entire gallery of options to choose from and share
- The low-light shots turn impressive, even in incredibly dark situations, the clarity is quite impressive, and the colours are perfect with little noise - the night mode further improves the quality with brighter and colourful images
- Live focus mode (Samsung's portrait mode) produces decent results on the S20 FE - the phone delivers good subject separation and natural-looking background blur
- Selfies from the 32MP front camera look pretty good at the default settings, focus, colour, and white balance were mostly good - with Live Focus mode for selfies you get a range of controls for background effects and edits, and accurate and appropriate background blur
- Video quality from the FE's main cam is decent, while 1080p footage is comparable to the S20s', 4K on the FE is notably inferior in terms of sharpness and detail - other than that, the videos have likeable colours and dynamic range is excellent
Audio
- Good set of stereo speaker - the earpiece double-ups as the second speaker, and it sounds clean at max volume with well-defined highs and vocals, decent lows
- No headphone jack
Battery
- Good battery life from the 4500 mAh cell - the S20 FE can last a little over a full day of rigorous use and that too with the 120Hz smooth display
- 15W wireless charging is a nice feature to have at any price point, which matches that of the wired charger
- Average fast charging from the 15W adapter included in the box - the phone supports up to 25W fast charging, but for that, you'll have to buy a compatible adapter separately
Verdict
- The Galaxy S20 FE is a Samsung flagship at the core at a friendlier price, which comes with pros that include solid performance, excellent battery life, and straightforward software, cameras that are on par with the competition
- Though, if you want a more premium-looking phone with all the bells and whistles, OnePlus 8 and the Xiaomi Mi 10 are solid phones for the price
