The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is all you need, and nothing more. Samsung has discounted its flagship S20 series to a more palatable $699.99, and the result is a value-packed flagship to tackle the upcoming iPhone 12 lineup. Often deep discounts at major wireless providers, the S20 FE 5G becomes our default Android phone recommendation for 2020, as well as our Editors' Choice.

So many options, so much time

Samsung has released a ton of phones right now, but the two you should keep in mind are the Galaxy S20 FE 5G and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra ($1,299). Both of these models offer flagship and super flagship performance; the S20 FE will satisfy most people, while the Note 20 Ultra adds an even better screen, an S Pen and the best phone camera we've tested.

They're also a reset to Samsung's strategy from earlier this year. Although we've recommended the $1,199 Galaxy S20+ as an Editor's Choice for several months, the $999-plus S20 lineup is too expensive for our struggling pandemic economy. The FE gives you more value for less money.

The matte finish on the back repels fingerprints.

Refined design

At 6.29 x 2.93 x 0.33 inches (HWD) and 6.67 ounces, the S20 FE is almost exactly the same size as the S20+. So it's not a small phone, but it's on par with most flagships on the market.

The phone is available in six colors including lavender, mint, navy, orange, red or white. Overall, he gives an impression of humility. With its flat front and matte metal surfaces, the S20 FE doesn't try to scream luxury like curved glass phones do. It's also a bit easier to use, and you don't have the problem of accidental touches that are often seen with curved-screen phones. Also, the matte back repels fingerprints and scratches much better than the glass back of the S20.

The S20 FE features a 6.5-inch, 2400 x 1080 pixel, 120Hz display, which should always be kept in 120Hz mode for smooth scrolling. There really isn't a downside; the frame rate makes scrolling much smoother, and I tested the battery life in 120Hz mode and it's excellent. As this is one of Samsung's recent AMOLED displays, the colors are gorgeous and the screen is bright. While the S20 series is capable of upscaling to a higher resolution of 2560 x 1440, it can only do so at 60Hz, and I found the smoothness of scrolling to be worth the difference with the higher resolution.

From left to right: Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

All the performance you need

The S20 FE has the same Snapdragon 865 processor as the S20 line, along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, plus a microSD card slot.

Its PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark score of 12,705 is on par with the S20 series, and its Geekbench scores of 862 for single-core and 3,069 for multi-core are slightly lower than the S20 series, but not enough to have of importance. The GFXBench graphics benchmark results are also on par with other S20 phones, with a speed of 45fps for the on-screen Car Chase benchmark.

Battery life is excellent. The FE has a big 4,500mAh battery, and combined with the 1080p display, I got 13 hours and 31 minutes of video playback at 75% brightness. Battery life will be shorter if you do a lot of scrolling, as it pumps the 120Hz screen, but it will still be strong. The phone has a 22W fast charging system, wireless charging system and reverse wireless charging system. It takes about 90 minutes to reach a full charge.

Find out how we test phones

The software used here is Samsung's version of Android 10, with all the additions from Samsung that come with the S20 series. Most notably, it includes plenty of integration with TVs and Windows PCs: Link to Windows lets you send messages, get your notifications, and mirror your phone screen to a Windows PC, and DeX lets you allows you to project a multi-window mode, similar to that of a desktop, onto a TV for presentations or other work.

Samsung promises the FE will receive Android updates up to Android 13; we expect Android 11 to arrive early next year, if past performance is any guide.

Samsung's Android skin is feature-rich, but people tend to like it a little less than competitors. Google's Pixel phones are the gold standard, but this year they're behind on processor and camera. Motorola's skin tends to be relatively sleek, and I really like the OnePlus interface, which has attractive fonts and feels really fast, although these skins lack Link to Windows, which is a very useful feature.

The Galaxy S20 FE (left) has a more understated design than the Galaxy S20+ (right).

Call quality and networking

Although there is an unlocked version of the Galaxy S20 FE, you should probably buy the phone from your carrier. Unlocked model does not support AT&T Wi-Fi calling or Verizon's 5G system; it really can't take full advantage of T-Mobile's network features.

The Galaxy S20 FE has the same networking hardware as the smaller Galaxy S20, with technically the same capabilities: seven-carrier aggregation for 4G; 5G sub-6GHz on all models and mmWave on Verizon model; and Wi-Fi 6. That said, my device made some weird network choices when I tested it against a Galaxy S20+, like choosing slower frequency bands when it could have chosen faster bands, to recover later or on another test. This seems to me to be firmware behavior, not bad hardware, which I believe will be fixed by a software update.

Wi-Fi performance was very good in testing. Checked on a 5GHz network against a 500Mbps connection, I maxed the link on an S20 FE and an S20+ near the router; at the edge of the connection area, I got 110Mbps on the FE while I got 55.1Mbps on the S20+, a very nice difference.

Back in February, I noted that the phones didn't include millimeter-wave 5G. I reconsidered, as AT&T and T-Mobile pulled out of mmWave. None of AT&T's 5G technology works well at the moment, so it's a good thing that the S20 FE can take full advantage of AT&T's 4G network while technically tethered to 5G. (The Snapdragon 765 used in the Google Pixel 5 has issues here.) I have high hopes for a new waveband called C-Band that AT&T and Verizon may use next year, but we probably won't see phones that can use it until next March.

Call quality hasn't been an issue on Samsung S-series phones for some time. They use all of the highest possible voice codecs in any situation, and the quality of the FE's earpiece and speaker is about the same as the S20+. If you're switching from a phone that's several years old, you might see an improvement in voice quality thanks to the EVS codec, but most high-end phones from recent years are in the same situation.

As with most recent phones, there's no headphone jack; you must use USB-C or Bluetooth headphones. The FE supports the Bluetooth 5.0 standard.

Zoom Zoom

The S20 FE has three cameras on the back: a 12-megapixel, f/1.8 main camera, a 12-megapixel, f/2.2 wide-angle camera, and an 8-megapixel, f/2.4 3x telephoto camera. . There is a 32 megapixel camera on the front.

This means the FE effectively has the same image quality as the S20 series in its main and wide-angle modes, and up to 3x zoom. The FE lacks the Space Zoom feature which combines a high resolution main camera and optical zoom to create sharp images at 5x or 10x zoom, and you can see the S20+ is much sharper at 10x zoom. This is a bit of a gimmicky and little-used zoom level, though, and 3x will be just fine most of the time.

In 1x mode, the Galaxy S20 FE (right) can be said to take more attractive photos than the Galaxy S20+ (left).

At 3x, it's hard to tell the Galaxy S20 FE (right) and Galaxy S20+ (left) apart.

At 10x, the Galaxy S20+'s Space Zoom (left) significantly outperforms the Galaxy S20 FE (right).

Side by side, I actually prefer shots from the FE to those from the S20+ in good light, whether zoomed or not up to 3x. Like many people (and unlike photography snobs), I like my images to look a bit hyper-real, with rich colors, and the SE has richer colors and more shadow detail. in good light than the S20+. (As the main cameras are the same, this must be the result of software, or just luck). The S20+ also made a few lighting choices that washed out my test shots a bit, while the FE did them well.

The FE doesn't quite have the low-light zoom performance of the S20+ and Note 20 Ultra, although you might only notice that if you have the two side by side. With an f/2.4 lens instead of an f/2 zoom, the S20 FE has to bump up the ISO and "film grain" a bit more, making low-light images a little noisier.

Video modes, on both the front and rear cameras, jump to 4K at 60fps, with HDR10+ recording. It's not the 8K of the S20 or Note 20 series, but 8K is definitely a niche need right now; you really only want this if you intend to crop in post-production. That said, if you want the ultimate in mobile video recording, you could check out the LG Wing with its crazy virtual gimbal mode.

Less is more

The Galaxy S20 FE 5g refines rather than innovates, and that works in everyone's favor. Three S20 models and two Note 20 models let Samsung decide what's worth investing in (a Snapdragon 865 chipset and a solid 3x lens) and what's not (a glass back and cameras very high megapixel cameras). And as of this writing, the S20 FE is a bargain for operators. AT&T, for example, is giving away S20 FE units for free if you sign up for a 30-month payment plan, unlimited service plan, and trade in a phone like an iPhone 7, Galaxy S8, or Google Pixel 2. Even without those promotions, the S20 FE is the best Android phone you can buy for $699, and the right phone for 2020, making it our Editors' Choice.

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In summary

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G offers all the phone performance most people need at a price most people can afford. This may interest you: Best cheap gaming laptops: Top 10 and comparison 2021.

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