We all want that flagship smartphone but not everyone is ready to spend their 2 months’ salary on a single smartphone. That’s where this new flagship ‘mini’ segment seems to make sense. Gives you the specs you are looking for. The only thing you might miss out on are a few design elements. Samsung 20 FE is a true contender for this category.
DESIGN
Design is an integral part when you are looking at a mini version of a flagship model. Samsung S20 FE is a lot like its siblings. It gets a shiny metallic frame with a matte polycarbonate back. It actually is larger than the S20 and misses out on the curvy edges which I kind of miss. The 128GB model is available in 5 colours.
The phone is easy to hold and doesn’t slip out of your hand at all. Thanks to the matte finish at the back you don’t get any finger print marks as well. The device feels premium with a nice screen with thin borders.
The power and volume buttons are on the left, and are within easy reach. Samsung has dropped its dedicated Bixby button. There’s a USB Type-C port on the bottom and no 3.5mm audio socket. The tray on the top can accommodate either two Nano-SIMs or one Nano-SIM and a microSD card.
Measuring 8.4mm thick and weighing 190g, the Galaxy S20 FE is fairly easy to handle. It’s rated IP68 for water and dust resistance.
SOFTWARE & PERFORMANCE
The Galaxy S20 FE gets the same Exynos 900 processor as the S20 family. This is an octa-core SoC with two custom Samsung performance cores running at 2.73GHz, two more ARM Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.5GHz, and four more power-efficient 2GHz Cortex-A55 cores.
As expected, there’s no lag whatsoever when swiping through the One UI interface and when multitasking between apps. The Galaxy S20 FE felt snappy, thanks to the high refresh rate panel as well as the capable SoC and large amount of RAM. This is for sure a great device for daily usage. Multitasking was blissful on this device.
The screen is bright and vibrant. A good one to view content and the speakers are decently balanced for you to enjoy the content.
For gamers this device might not be the best pick as it started to heat up soon when tried playing heavy graphic games.
The battery capacity is 4500mAh and wireless charging is supported in both directions. You only get a 15W adapter in the box, though this phone can take advantage of up to 25W chargers. The battery is very impressive.
CAMERA
Galaxy S20 FE camera set up gets a 12-megapixel f/1.8 primary camera with OIS. There’s also a 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and an 8-megapixel f/2.4 3X optical telephoto camera. For selfies, you get a 32-megapixel f/2.2 camera.
Daylight photography is at power with any good flagship mobile phone. The wide-angle camera photos look good till the time you are checking them on your phone screen. The telephoto lens does the job well. You will enjoy the detailing that you get from the telephoto lens. Low-light photography is what I was disappointed with. The pictures didn’t live up to my expectations. Found the pictures very grainy. For your front camera the pictures are clear and a bit unnatural but I guess we are used to that with most Samsung devices.
As for video, the Galaxy S20 FE was able to capture smooth 1080p footage with all three cameras. At 4K, motion was a little less smooth especially with the telephoto camera. Low-light video shot with the primary camera was good enough, but quality suffered with the telephoto and wide-angle cameras.
The camera and video section will leave you pleased but you might miss the flagship device in this department.
VERDICT
Galaxy S20 FE in India, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, was announced at priced at Rs 49,999 and a 256GB variant priced at Rs 53,999. Being a younger sibling of a successful series is always hard. Well in that concern I can say the Galaxy Samsung S20 FE has fared well. The only thing that might hold you back from buying it is the heating problem that the device faces and the battery drains out faster than expected. For a true Samsung S series fan, this device would be a delight. Feels premium has a good camera set up and performance wise would feel no lag.