Test of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5G: when compromises are used to seduce better

Our video Design Technical Sheet Audio Software Software Performances Network Autonomy and Communication Price and availability Conclusion CONDITIONAL THE PRODUCT PABLE TO 499 €

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE wants to be the entry level of the S20 series by making slight compromises to reach a slightly more attractive price.We tested the smartphone to find out if the recipe was convincing.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe // Source: Arnaud Gelineau - Frandroid

"Fe" for Fan Edition.To design the Galaxy S20 Fe 5G (and the 4G version), Samsung went to probe his community to know the additions that users would like to have on a smartphone in the S Korean giant, while trying to offer a slightly devicemore affordable - but always positioned on the top of the range.Here is our full test.

This test was carried out with a model loaned by Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5GNOTRE TEST IN VIDEO

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After an initial publication on October 9, 2020, we updated this article on October 19 by adding our video above.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G Technical sheet

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5gdesign

This Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe is a S20 without really being one.Hmm, well, yes, ok ... This a little empty of meaning affirmation deserves some explanations.This smartphone has a name similar to the three devices of the brand launched around the beginning of 2020, but design differs enough for it to be easily distinguished from the rest of the series.

First thing to observe: the screen is flat.A compromise which is not necessarily one so many people complain about the manipulations carried out by mistake on the curved slabs of certain smartphones.The Galaxy S20 FE ensures to avoid this kind of problem and, in return, it suffers from well visible borders around the display area.Nothing very bad, the device does not become ugly, it simply has a less premium look.

For the rest of the front side, we are on a classic formula with a punch centered at the top of the screen to house the front photo sensor.The other important thing to remember about the design of the Galaxy S20 Fe is his back.The rear surface benefits from a brushed touch with a matt finish, whatever the color chosen.

Overall, it is rather successful, but by passing our finger several times, we quickly realize that it is a plastic material.The feeling under the index or the thumb is not as silky as on the matt bronze of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

The back of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe // Source: Arnaud Gelineau - Frandroid

At the back, we can also observe the rectangular photo module with its three sensors and its LED flash.The one protrudes very slightly in relief, not enough to make the Galaxy S20 Fe wobbly.The fingerprint reader is positioned in the screen, while there is no jack.The unlocking and volume buttons are right, the USB-C port below.

The fingerprint reader of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe // Source: Arnaud Gelineau - Frandroid

Regarding the comfort of handling, the Galaxy S20 FE remains pleasant to use despite a slightly angular appearance.Thanks to its plastic back, the phone succeeds not to go beyond the 200 gram mark.He still weighs 190 grams.Do not believe either that this is a small phone: it is larger than a Galaxy S20, but slightly smaller than a Galaxy S20+.

Also be aware that the phone is waterproof (IP68).

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5g Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE benefits from a 6.5 -inch Amoled screen.A large diagonal that offers a Full HD+ definition, without having the capacity to go up to QHD+ unlike other S20.It is not a big loss: apart from uses in virtual reality, such a great definition on a smartphone is not really relevant.We also remember that the slab enjoys a 120 Hz refresh rate to offer a much more pleasant fluidity than on a traditional 60 Hz screen.Note that this famous 120 Hz mode is not adaptive and will therefore always display 120 images per second even when the content does not necessarily require it.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe in hand // Source: Arnaud Gelineau - Frandroid

Unsurprisingly, the Samsung expertise is always there: the contrast is perfect and the maximum brightness culminating at 724 cd/m² will make sure to offer good readability in all circumstances.By default, the Galaxy S20 FE is set to the lively mode which brings out the colors more.

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Our probe and Calman Portrait Displays software tell us here that with this default configuration, the phone is capable of displaying a very wide variety of shades.This is evidenced by the colorimetric spaces SRGB (fairly standard) and DCI-P3 (larger and more complex to manage) respectively covered up to 208 and 139 %.Suffice to say that this palette will delight your mirettes, it is really a very big strong point.

In return, the Galaxy S20 F is not very faithful to reality.Indeed, we measure an average delta e of 5.2 on the DCI-P3 while we prefer to see this index turn around 3 for displayed colors supposed to be close to reality.This gap is felt mainly on the red.

By default, on the DCI-P3 space, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE does not display colors very faithful to reality, especially on red and green // Source: Frandroid

The average temperature amounts to around 7000 k - when the ideal is around 6,500 k to avoid an overly marked presence of blue.Know that you can opt for a standard display mode which will favor color fidelity, but which will cover less well the colorimetric spaces.In our opinion, the best possible balance on a Samsung phone is to keep the lively mode while setting the temperature a notch to the red.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5Glogiel

One UI, Samsung's software experience, is always very pleasant to use.The careful design, the nice choice of customizations and some options always welcome (dark mode, two gesture navigation systems, screen recorder) contribute to the charm of this interface.Add to that menus where it is easy to navigate in the vast majority of cases.

The smartphone benefits from Android 10.It is also quite ready to read the contents of your SVOD platforms like Netflix or Disney+ in HD quality, because it benefits from DRM Widevine in terms of safety L1 (the highest).

To find out more about one UI, you can consult the part dedicated to it in the test of the Galaxy S20 Ultra or the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.It will be emphasized that the interface natively embeds the Samsung application store, the Galaxy Store.Usually, we do not necessarily take the trouble to mention it, but the news pushes us to remember that the Fortnite installer offered by Epic Games is always available for download on this platform while it is no longer presentOn the Google Play Store.You will not have to go through the publisher's official website to take advantage of it.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5gaudio

We have already seen more powerful speakers than those of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe, but the latter are not outdone.Although the phone will not be able to cover the ambient noise during a lively evening, the phone can serve as a makeshift enclosure during a festive rally in small committee.The audio quality is there with well-returned, complete songs, despite bass a little behind.

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Enjoy the right stereo here: even with a slightly less powerful high speaker, the Galaxy S20 FE offers a pleasant spatialization of the sound listened to.For headphones and helmets, activation of the Dolby Atmos option is always a good idea to enjoy more encompassing music.An equalizer is available in the settings, as is the adapt sound function allowing to adjust the listening quality according to the age group of the user.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G Camera

Forget the X100 zoom, the shots 108 or 64 megapixels and the 8K videos.The Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe does not imitate the innovations of other S20s in the matter and is more sober on its rear photo configuration.The triple module thus consists of a main 12 megapixel sensor (f/1.8), an ultra-angle of 12 megapixels (f/2.2) and a X3 telephoto of 8 megapixels (F/2.4).

The rear photo module of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe // Source: Arnaud Gelineau - Frandroid

The overall quality is very satisfactory.In broad daylight, we take advantage of shots with a good level of detail, a supported contrast and a well -managed dynamic.The Galaxy S20 Fe, like a lot of Samsung smartphones, has a small tendency to embellish reality with colors that stand out well.If you are not a fan of this little saturation, you can mitigate it by deactivating the scene optimizer, but it is not the panacea.However, a large majority of users seem to appreciate this treatment.

On the night scenes, the Galaxy S20 Fe is not particularly breathtaking, but it remains pretty good.He succeeds in preserving a substantial amount of information in the center of the photos, but they regularly suffer from a vagueness that is difficult to hide on the edges.By looking closely at the image, you can see a little noise within the photo, but never in profusion.In addition, in the vast majority of cases, the pictures are well lit.

I write that the photos are well lit at night, but this is true when the stage optimizer is activated (this is the case by default).This acts more or less as a night mode.

You can however activate the night mode yourself to make sure your scene will be well illuminated.This option rather effectively catches up with the blocked areas of the image without compromising the better exposed areas.For example, here is a comparison below with, on the left, the classic photo without activated stage optimizer and, on the right, the same shot, but with the night mode started.

Ultra Grand Angle fulfills its task by capturing more elements in the scene.The distortion of the image is rather weak, but we also feel that the images are a little less thin in terms of details.Nothing shocking.At night, the greatest enemies of this shooting mode will be the strong sources of light which regularly cause the light unusual flare effects.More generally, the ultra large angle is not really indicated in low light.

Zoom X3 is effective and, depending on the case, can be practical.The overall quality observed on the main sensor is preserved in broad outline.There are no particular criticisms to be issued on this point.

The portrait mode is generally satisfactory.It is however much more relevant and precise in its Bokeh effect on outdoor shots.Indoor, the delimitation between the person photographed and the blurred background is very random: certain parts of the decor are thus fairly clear when they should not.

On the selfie side, the 32 megapixel front sensor is very good to preserve the details of your face, but it seems at times to artificially strengthen micro-contracts on the face to press the effect of sharpness, without doing zeal either.

In video, the rear module allows you to film in 4K at 60 frames per second.

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Ditto with the front sensor, but which has more difficulty not succumbing to the overexposure of the sky.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G Performances

If you opt for a 4G version of the Galaxy S20 Fe, there will be no surprise, you will be dealing with the same exynos 990 of the other high -end of the brand in 2020.However, the declensions 5G - like the one we test here - take advantage of a Qualcomm snapdragon 865 and it is immediately more attractive, because the chip has already proven its superiority in terms of raw power against the Samsung SoC.

As proof, the benchmarks below where we can see that the Galaxy S20 FE records results higher than those of the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

On Fortnite, we take advantage of a game of 30 fps in a very stable way with graphics set on the "epic" level (that's the maximum).No one will be surprised to discover that we hear the same bell sound on Call of Duty Mobile where the parts take place very fluidly without any clashes even by pushing all the parameters at the bottom.When the games extend, the phone lined up a little close to the photo module without ever becoming very hot.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G Autonomy

Admittedly, the Snapdragon 865 is more powerful than its alter ego exynos, but its real advantage lies in its energy efficiency.Therefore, there was not much suspense around the endurance of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe.This smartphone does not disappoint and is indeed more autonomous than its s20 brothers.

With its 4,500 mAh battery, the phone manages to hold a serene all day even with a very active use of the device and with the refreshing screen at 120 Hz.The Galaxy S20 FE is not among the best in autonomy, but it easily fits into the High Shape of the General average.So, you will not really have to worry about finding a charger at the end of the afternoon before going to join friends for an evening.Aiming the 48 hours without connecting the terminal would however be very ambitious and almost impossible with normal use.

The USB-C port of Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe // Source: Arnaud Gelineau-Frandroid

For example, the Galaxy S20 FE held 10 hours and 50 minutes before cracking under the tortures of our Personalized Tiven Test Protocol which chains the opening of applications, calls, switching from Wi-Fi to the4 g, sending messages, playing video or some games on a video game.It is a very honorable and much more reassuring result than the scores of the Galaxy S20 Ultra or S20+ respectively from 9:10 am and 9:40 am.

Concretely, a part of Fortnite with the adjustments at the bottom and the screen at 120 Hz will consume 5 to 6 % battery on a part of 20 minutes.It’s completely satisfactory.To be even quieter at the end of your day, you can always switch to the 60 Hz display mode much less energy -consuming.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe is compatible with the chargers with a power of 30 W.However, it is a block of 15 which will be delivered to you in the box.The one allows to go from 5 to 40 % battery in 30 minutes.An additional half hour then allows you to reach 77 %.In total, you have to wait 1:30 to go from 5 to 100 %.Wireless recharge and inverted wireless recharge are part.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5gréseau and Communication

Here we test the Galaxy S20 Fe 5G.This model, obviously, is compatible with the 5G network, but it costs more than the classic version out at the same time.Beyond that, the phone is compatible with all French 4G frequency bands.

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For calls, the Galaxy S20 FE will be very good to erase the city's noises around you while your voice remains very intelligible for your interlocutor who will not perceive real compression.It's really clean.On the geolocation side, I did not have a major concern.On Google Maps, I just noticed that the blue point representing me could need a few seconds before indicating my position with precision.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe 5gprix and availability

No less than six colors are available on the Galaxy S20 FE: Navy blue (our test model), white, lavender, red, orange and mint green.For the 5G version, you have two prices to remember: 759 euros for the 6/128 GB model and 829 euros for that of 8/256 GB.

For a little cheaper, you will also find the Galaxy S20 Fe without 5G which sells for 659 euros (6/128 GB) and 729 euros (8/256 GB).Also remember that the orange, lavender and mint green colors do not exist on the variations with 256 GB of storage.