The phone is largely seen as an alternative to it's highly priced siblings giving many Samsung lovers a chance to own a flagship device at an affordable price tag.
With many flagship smartphones having a price tag well over Ksh.100,000, the Likes of Xiaomi and OnePlus have been known to provide competitive alternatives at much cheaper price, with a focus in the Ksh.50,000 to 70,000 price range. Most of their devices feature some of the latest and best flagship features including top notch processors, impressive camera performance and High Quality Displays.
Knowing too well what the likes of Tecno and Infinix did to the once market giant Nokia, Samsung have moved in very fast to try and counter this invasive behaviour by introducing watered down versions of their flagship smartphones. Last year, we saw the Galaxy S10e and the S10 lite, both being the affordable version of the S10 series.
This year is no different, and when Samsung introduced the S20 series March this year, they had to figure out a cheaper alternative by smartly downgrading or removing some hardware and software without affecting the overall user experience of the S20 flagship devices.
Just like it's siblings, the Galaxy S20 FE, also known as the 'fan edition' features some the best specs including a Full HD+ display with 120 Hz resresh rate and fast battery charge support among other features expected of a 2020 high end Smartphone.
The Galaxy S20FE pros are:
- Powerful Exynoss 990 Chipset which comfortably handles heavy tasks including multitask and gaming.
- High quality Super AMOLED FHD+ display with 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth viewing.
- Good performance cameras with impressive photos and video recording
- Fast charge support
- Highly sensitive under display fingerprint sensor.
Some of it's downsides are:
- Use of plastic back instead of metallic.
- 1080P resolution as opposed to 1440p of other Galaxy S20 phones.
- Distractive punch hole design.
Despite the slight downgrades, the Fan edition is overally an excellent phone to go for, and at it's price tag it is a good deal.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S21 pre-order in Kenya
Samsung Galaxy S20FE Price in Kenya.
Just like other Galaxy S20 Smartphones, the S20 FE is also available in Kenya already selling in a number of retail stores both offline and online. While the phone launched with a price of Ksh. 80,000, the S20FE is now retailing at between Ksh 62,000 and Ksh. 69,000. It's current Jumia price is Ksh.63, 999 while Saruk is selling the phone at Ksh. 67,999.
The huge price variation suggest that you need to check a number of stores before settling on a given one as this could save you some good amount.
This phone is not the first nor the last to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Chipset, and already has a number of competitors in the market, with the OnePlus 8T seen as it's major challenge.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE competitors are:
- The OnePlus 8T.
- Xiaomi Mi 10Pro.
- KG V60 ThinQ.
- Asus Zenfone 7.
- Poco F2 pro.
- Nokia 8.3
- Motorola Edge Plus.
- Realme X50 pro
- Asus Rog phone 3.
- Oppo Find X2 Pro
Most of these Smartphones are not yet available in the country since most of them are 5G.
Samsung Galaxy S20FE Specifications.
- Price: Ksh. 63,999.
- Released: October 2020.
- Network technology: GSM, CDMA, EVDO, LTE/HSPA.
- Sim Type: Single or Hybrid Dual.
- Build: Glass front,Plastic back, aluminum frame.
- Display type: Super AMOLED.
- Screen Size: 6.5 inch, 101.0 cm2, 84.4% Screen-to-body ratio.
- Resolution: 1080 x 2400 pixels.
- Pixel density: 407 ppi.
- Aspect ratio: 20:9
- Protection:
- OS: Android 10; One UI 2.5
- Chipset: Exynoss 990.
- CPU: Octa-core
- RAM: 8 GB.
- Internal Storage: 128 GB
- SD card: Yes
- Rear Cameras:
- Video: 4K@30fps/60fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS).
- Front Camera: Single 32 MP, f/2.0, 24 mm.
- Video: 4k@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps.
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot.
- Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, EDB, LE, aptx.
- USB: USB type-C 3.2 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go.
- Battery: Non removable Li-po 4,500 mAh with fast charge 25 W.
- NFC. Yes.
- 3.5mm port: Yes.
- Fingerprint Sensor: Under display; Optical
- Other sensors: Proximity, Accelerometer, Gyro, Compass, barometer.
- Colors: Cyan green, charcoal, ice.
- Price: Ksh. 63,180.
Beautiful solid Design.
At 159.8 inch tall, the FE is the tallest of the S20 series and it's 6.5 inch screen is bigger than the 6.2 inch in the S20 though slightly smaller than that of the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra.
The phone is made of a Glass front, metallic frame and a plastic back. Being the only S20 phone with a plastic back, it's a justifiable compromise for it's price reduction, though we have seen the likes of Xiaomi give us a metallic unibody at a much cheaper price. Maybe Samsung did this intentionally as not to hurt those who paid more for the other S20 phones.
Like it's siblings, the phone has a whole display front with bezels which are a little thicker than the others. It's punch hole is placed at the top center, but unlike the other S20 phones it has a shinny silvery ring around the selfie camera which is somewhat distractive.
Like many other Samsung Smartphones we have seen before, the S20 FE is a hybrid dual SIM phone, giving you an option of choosing between the second SIM and the SD card.
The overall design of the phone is quite satisfactory, and it's IP68 certification provides dust and water resistance upto 1.5 m for 30 minutes.
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Display.
The S20 FE has a 6.5 inch Super AMOLED display with HDR10+ and 120 HZ refresh rate. Though it's siblings use Dynamic AMOLED, the Super AMOLED is still a good option and at such a price we can't complain about it. While other S20 variants choose between the 120 Hz and 60 HZ refresh rates, the S20FE is purely a 120 HZ display, giving you that smooth scrolling and game play that such a high end phone can deliver. Other phones with 120 Hz displays include the Oppo Find X2, OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 pro among other flagship devices.
The S20FE has a Full HD+ display resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels with an aspect ratio of 20:9 and a pixel density of 407 ppi.
This is quite an excellent display quality and you will definitely enjoy the viewing experience that this phone will give you. Once you get used to it, I don't think you will ever think of the likes of Infinix Note 7 or Those cheap phones that have a 720 p resolution and a pixel density of as low as 250 ppi.
Impressive Software Performance.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 series smartphones are all powered by the 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, but the S20FE 4G has the Exynoss 990. While it would have been good if Samsung had retained the Snapdragon, this phone's processor is still powerful enough to handle all your gaming and multitasking needs. that
The Phone is available in only one memory variant of 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. You can expand the storage all the way upto 1 TB via an SD card but as mentioned earlier you will have to do away with the second SIM.
Being a 2020 phone it ships with Android 10 atop The One UI 2.5 skin. The One UI slightly affects the user experience with some ad pop ups, but we can't compare it with the likes of Infinix XOS or Tecno's HIOS with disgusting bloatware and ads.
Apart from that, the UI 2.5 receives timely software updates and comes loaded with a number of interesting features you can try out and see which suits your personality or situation. They including a number of battery saving modes, dual account support, themes among Others.
Cameras.
Apart from the plastic back and slightly lower display resolution, another noticeable watered-down features is the cameras. Apart from the 108 MP primary lens in the S20 Ultra, we get a 12 MP primary camera and a 12 MP ultra wide lens. There is also an 8 MP telephoto lens.
The camera specs might look so simple, considering even the much cheaper Infinix Note 7 has squad camera setup with a primary 48MP lens. But wait till you take some snaps with this phone, and you will be surprised by its performance, a clear indication that smartphone photography is not fully determined by the megapixel sizes of the individual cameras, but by the technology behind the lenses.
The S20FE holds it's ground and comfortably rivals any high end Smartphone including Xiaomi, Oppo and even iPhone flagship devices.
It's primary 12 MP camera produces almost studio quality pictures full of detail and color as well as enough brightness. The contrast is also good and crisp.
The 8MP telephoto lens also does a good job in zooming distant objects, and while you might notice slight color variation with the real life pictures, it is more decent that from many devices including the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro.
We also don't have the luxury of the 8K video shooting capabilities of the other S20 series, but the 4K video resolution is still pretty good.
In front is a single 32 MP wide lens selfie camera which like the back cameras also has impressive performance with a wider view than many single selfie cameras in the market. It can also shoot videos of 4K resolution.
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Battery performance.
The Samsung Galaxy S20FE comes with a 4500 mAh battery which is the same capacity as that of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, buth slightly bigger than the 4,000 mAh in the Galaxy S20.
With the high screen refresh rate of 120Hz we would expect the battery to be drained at a slightly higher rate than with 60Hz, but the phone still gives you well over a day of heavy use.
The 15W fast charge it comes with however is quite low and won't compare well with 33W or higher in terms of charging speed, so you will have to be slightly patient when charging this phone.
Conclusion.
Samsung is a brand that has proofed itself over and over that it delivers exactly what it promises to, and despite the S20FE being a slightly watered-down than other Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones it still gives you an impressive performance that only a smartphone brand like Samsung can deliver.
While at it's price we would go for a Xiaomi phone, the unavailability of most 5G devices in the country leaves us with no option but to choose this phone over it's close rivals.
If you can afford to get this phone, then the Ksh. 63,000 asking price is a good enough.
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