Samsung - Galaxy S20 FE 5G UW 128GB - (Verizon) $14.58/Month ($350)

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10-29-2020 at 06:20 AM #3

This FE version, vs the other S20's... does this one just have a "lower quality" camera?
seems for 350 a great option to upgrade a cracked S8, or a sluggish S9 like we have now.

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10-29-2020 at 06:25 AM #4

Same price as the late November Costco deal. Nice.

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10-29-2020 at 07:16 AM #5

Is there anyway to buy at this price today but not activate the phone until Christmas? Looking to get it as a gift.

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10-29-2020 at 08:39 AM #6

Another thread already going

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10-29-2020 at 10:24 AM #7

Quote from slip kid :

This FE version, vs the other S20's... does this one just have a "lower quality" camera?
seems for 350 a great option to upgrade a cracked S8, or a sluggish S9 like we have now.

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung...h-cheaper/

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11-01-2020 at 10:56 AM #8

Quote from EcoAZ :

Same price as the late November Costco deal. Nice.

Link please to the Costco deal you are referring too, thanks in advance.

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11-01-2020 at 11:00 AM #9

Can you get a trade in discount?

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11-01-2020 at 11:34 AM #10

Quote from slip kid :

This FE version, vs the other S20's... does this one just have a "lower quality" camera?
seems for 350 a great option to upgrade a cracked S8, or a sluggish S9 like we have now.

There are plenty of more in depth reviews with the differences between these 2 phones but from what I recall:

The FE has a larger battery than the S20, ie longer battery life.
S20 is capable of 25W fast charging and comes with a 25W charger. The FE is also capable of 25W fast charging but come with a regular charger in the box.
FE doesn't come with earphones, S20 includes them.
FE maxes at 6GB of RAM. S20 has a variant that comes with 12GB of RAM.
The FE is made out of plastic which mimics glass, while the S20 is metal plus glass. This is not a deal breaker for me the phone will go straight into a plastic TPU phone case. Kind of prefer the plastic one as it is less likely to crack or break in my opinion.
FE has more colors to choose from compared to the S20. Again not something I care too much about as that is getting covered by the phone case unless you buy a translucent/clear case.
The FE has a better front facing camera (at least on paper, some are complaining about it having a bad quality, white wash)
The FE has a bigger screen, but lower quality. The S20 at 1080 has a better image quality compared to the FE. The FE colors are lacking compared to the S20. This is to be expected and wasn't a deal breaker for me at least.
The S20 is capable of higher resolution while the FE maxes at 1080.
Both have a 120Hz refresh rate display. Worth noting that on official S20 software the 120Hz is locked to the 1080 resolution. There are some software tweaks in the wild that enable it at higher res supposedly but I question those tweaks.
The FE is a flat phones without curves, I prefer this design than the curved one that the S20 has.
In the US the FE has a variant that supports 5G mmWave networks. The S20 I believe doesn't at all.
The back camera of the S20 has better specs than the FE. Not a deal breaker for me.
The S20 is capable of recording video at 8k, while the FE maxes at 4k.
Some are reporting the FE's camera video and image quality to be subpar when compared to even an S9. Mostly due to the colors looking not natural and kind of white washed.
The FE has been report to have ghosting, jittering, among other issues with the Touch screen. This seems very likely to be a hardware problem, Samsung is trying to fix the problem with Software updates. So far 3 firmware updates have been released without a fix and rumors are there is another update coming to try to eliminate the issue. Advice is to buy the unit from a place you can return it without re-stocking fees or shipping fees. Update your phone to the latest firmware once you have it, test it and make sure you don't have the issues. If you do, return for a refund or exchange. Note that if exchanging for another FE, if the phone is coming from the same batch is very likely to have the Touch screen issues too.
Final consideration would be future Trade-in value or used market value. The S20 will for sure have a higher Trade-in value than the FE, not only that, it will be more likely to be included in promotions for longer than the FE. A good example is the recent Trade-in offers that included as part of the promo the S7 as a phone the could be traded in for $430. That phone is super old and still being included in promotions. I doubt that the FE will share the same fate. Similarly, with all the bad press the FE is receiving for the Touch Screen issues and the fact that it is marketed as a budget or cheaper version of the S20 line, it will very likely not get too much demand on the used marked thus it used value might fall rapidly.

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Last edited by wbs3333 November 1, 2020 at 11:40 AM.

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11-01-2020 at 11:50 AM #11

Quote from wbs3333 :

There are plenty of more in depth reviews with the differences between these 2 phones but from what I recall:

The FE has a larger battery than the S20, ie longer battery life.
S20 is capable of 25W fast charging and comes with a 25W charger. The FE is also capable of 25W fast charging but come with a regular charger in the box.
FE doesn't come with earphones, S20 includes them.
FE maxes at 6GB of RAM. S20 has a variant that comes with 12GB of RAM.
The FE is made out of plastic which mimics glass, while the S20 is metal plus glass. This is not a deal breaker for me the phone will go straight into a plastic TPU phone case. Kind of prefer the plastic one as it is less likely to crack or break in my opinion.
FE has more colors to choose from compared to the S20. Again not something I care too much about as that is getting covered by the phone case unless you buy a translucent/clear case.
The FE has a better front facing camera (at least on paper, some are complaining about it having a bad quality, white wash)
The FE has a bigger screen, but lower quality. The S20 at 1080 has a better image quality compared to the FE. The FE colors are lacking compared to the S20. This is to be expected and wasn't a deal breaker for me at least.
The S20 is capable of higher resolution while the FE maxes at 1080.
Both have a 120Hz refresh rate display. Worth noting that on official S20 software the 120Hz is locked to the 1080 resolution. There are some software tweaks in the wild that enable it at higher res supposedly but I question those tweaks.
The FE is a flat phones without curves, I prefer this design than the curved one that the S20 has.
In the US the FE has a variant that supports 5G mmWave networks. The S20 I believe doesn't at all.
The back camera of the S20 has better specs than the FE. Not a deal breaker for me.
The S20 is capable of recording video at 8k, while the FE maxes at 4k.
Some are reporting the FE's camera video and image quality to be subpar when compared to even an S9. Mostly due to the colors looking not natural and kind of white washed.
The FE has been report to have ghosting, jittering, among other issues with the Touch screen. This seems very likely to be a hardware problem, Samsung is trying to fix the problem with Software updates. So far 3 firmware updates have been released without a fix and rumors are there is another update coming to try to eliminate the issue. Advice is to buy the unit from a place you can return it without re-stocking fees or shipping fees. Update your phone to the latest firmware once you have it, test it and make sure you don't have the issues. If you do, return for a refund or exchange. Note that if exchanging for another FE, if the phone is coming from the same batch is very likely to have the Touch screen issues too.
Final consideration would be future Trade-in value or used market value. The S20 will for sure have a higher Trade-in value than the FE, not only that, it will be more likely to be included in promotions for longer than the FE. A good example is the recent Trade-in offers that included as part of the promo the S7 as a phone the could be traded in for $430. That phone is super old and still being included in promotions. I doubt that the FE will share the same fate. Similarly, with all the bad press the FE is receiving for the Touch Screen issues and the fact that it is marketed as a budget or cheaper version of the S20 line, it will very likely not get too much demand on the used marked thus it used value might fall rapidly.

Samsung pushed out an update 3 days that fixes most issues you mentioned on here..

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11-01-2020 at 12:41 PM #12

Quote from lokikat33 :

Samsung pushed out an update 3 days that fixes most issues you mentioned on here..

Touch Screen is still not fixed (which is the only one I noticed on mine). Supposedly Samsung acknowledged that the last firmware did not fixed the touch issues and they are working on even another one to be release in November or December.

I have my device on the last firmware they released and can confirm the issues are still there. My unit mainly has the ghost touch issues noticeable when using the keyboard and pinch to zoom issues very noticeable in google maps and zooming pictures. To zoom in I have to use 2 finger and make sure they are far apart from each other. If the fingers are too close to each other (pinch?