This is the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE in it's 5G version and it's a really great choice if you're looking to buy an Android phone this year but it's not a perfect phone and in this review we're going to break it down. Where I want to start the review though of the phone is with the 4G vs the 5G is because I had both phones and the main questions aren't really about network speeds but more about battery life, performance and camera quality and that's because some of the 4G models have an Exynos chip where as the 5G version has a Snapdragon Processor. Now I only had the 4G model for about 24 hours because I was sold the wrong phone but from my testing of the 4G phone and now using this for several weeks there is no distance when I had the 4G phone I barely charged it because I didn't have it that long but the battery lasted and the performance was really good and the image quality is pretty much the same from my testing and I did a really in-depth video about that.
So I don't think there's a difference between the 4G and the 5G version with the 4G version the battery life on it was really good for the amount of time I had it. For the 5G version that's the one I have been using for several weeks, I can be more definitive right so the battery life on this is actually really good I use this as my daily driver I do not use my iPhone and there's been days where I had not charged the phone the phone has gone a day without charging that's how good the battery life has been I'm not an intense smartphone user I'm not on it eight hours a day I'm just your regular user, social media; images camera and it charges really fast with USBC so when you do plug it in it charges relatively quickly I also like how it tells you how long it'll take to charge the phone that is a really nice feature.
So we are now testing out the 5G speeds, we got the Samsung phone here and I have a new 5G sim card Three Ireland have just launched their 5G network so here I am trying to get 5G coverage I'm in a town that should have 5G I'm outside of the shopping center so I am in the town square and yet no 5G on the phone what's up with that Samsung and/or Three, I don't know what to tell you I got 4G plus and that's very fast 30 megabytes download 20 megabytes upload but no where near the 5G speeds that we are being promised. I just got a text message that says my 5g booster has been applied I bought it in the phone shop and it took about 20 minutes to get the text message still no 5G I have no idea what's going on speeds are looking faster though we're getting about 56 megabytes maybe the 5G is slowly being put onto the phone. So we are in the same town in another area yet we have no 5G coverage it's still 4G plus LTE not 5G so yes we still got fast speeds with 50 megabytes download but this 5G coverage is seeming a little bit elusive.
So I just got in from outside, I actually walked around no 5G coverage it's still 4G plus. So on that note when it comes to making your purchasing decision I kinda recommend most people get the 4G model unless you 100% know you have 5G service in your area because there's no other differences I wouldn't go and spend the extra money on the 5G for the idea of better battery life because it's a Snapdragon processor do not that. Their basically identical from my testing anyway now if you upgrade your phone every two years that rings especially true I wouldn't go and invest now particularly because I believe in 2 years time you wont be paying extra for a 5G phone I think it'll just be standard however if your someone who holds onto their phone for several years for example my mother still has the iPhone 6 from 2014 then yes it is worth investing in the 5G model because in about 2 or 3 years time your area most likely will have 5G service. The performance is basically identical the 120Hz screen works really well on both the 4G and the 5G version do not buy a 5G version if you do not need it. When it comes to construction quality and finish I'm so happy to report that I really like the plastic back, I really like it especially in the white colour the white colour is such a treat. Now I have a glass iPhone and it's super premium but because it's glass I never wear it naked, I put it in an Otterbox but because this is plastic I actually feel confident leaving it naked it doesn't scratch it looks really good and it's really light weight it feels premium it does not feel cheap and that's something to consider I know a lot of people have reservations and if it's plastic it might be cheap it feels like a premium phone to me.
On the flip side though I used this phone for less than a month and I'm just shocked by how many scratches they are on the phone, shocked I mean I haven't been to many places and I've been babying the phone because they are review units, when I'm done with this it goes to a new home I don't keep these so I make sure to protect them and it's just covered in scratches I don't even carry car keys because we're not going anywhere. I genuinely don't know how it got scratched and this is supposed to be Gorilla Glass 3 and clearly Gorilla Glass 3 means nothing because this is covered in scratches, if you buy one of these, you will want to put a tempered glass cover onto it no question about it.
Now for the Cameras on the S20 FE Obviously the wide will be any ones favourite it's the default camera the one Samsung put the most amount of time into it the Wide angle is great, I did a full in depth video about the camera system and I hinted at in the video but I really didn't like the ultra wide because it desaturated the image it didn't look good at night, didn't let in a lot of light I wouldn't use the ultra wide lens if I had this phone full time but as bad as that sounds I'm happy to report that telephoto lens on this is awesome the telephoto lens on this is really good and it matches the wide angle lens extremely well like they look like their from the same lens company where as the ultra wide is just a completely different kettle of fish so if your a photographer and you want your images to match at different focal lengths; the telephoto will match the wide I was really impressed by that if you have any concerns about it being 8 megapixels and not 12 megapixels do not matter I was really impressed with how the telephoto lens performed on this phone.
That sound I do think the mantra at Samsung should be quality over quantity because if they got rid of the ultra wide they probably could have put better cameras into the phone and they might have had something really special there but I want to make it very clear that the wide and telephoto lens are deserving of flag ship quality these are really good cameras. Now something I really want to talk about on this phone is the 120Hz screen and the built in finger print sensor those were two key features I was really excited about when I first got the phone now after weeks of testing I can report that only one of those things work really well and that is the 120Hz screen it is phenomenal that's the only way to describe it is so smooth makes the phone feel so much faster even if the processor is comparable to it's peers that have a 60hz screen the motion of 120hz makes your phone feel so fluid opening up all these apps just seems so quick and there's just no way getting around it I will not be getting a new iPhone this year specifically because there's not a 120 hz screen seeing this I cannot go back to 60hz or buy something with 60hz on a phone, 120hz is something everybody needs it's just fantastic and that brings us to the question because I got a comment about this should I get the Samsung galaxy s10 or the s20 FE.
Between the two definitely get the s20 fe because you're going to get so much more out of the 120 hz screen than you would out of megapixels superficial megapixels your not selling your photos to national geographic it's a phone camera anyways and it's not going to look like a DSLR you're going to get so much more enjoyment out of a 120hz screen than you will out of a few extra megapixels but unfortunately the same thing cannot be said about the finger print sensor so that actually worked for me there but in actual practice it works about half the time and that's being really generous I was really excited about the finger print sensor because now obviously we're all wearing face masks and it's really annoying to enter your pin code 100 times when you're walking out and about so I was super excited however this barely works for me especially if there's elements if there's a bit of rain it screws the whole thing up there's no other way to describe it it's not reliable and there's such a latency it's just much quicker to enter your pin code sometimes it takes a good few seconds for the finger to recognise itself on the phone I scanned my fingers over and over to train it I don't know if it's representative of all screen finger print sensors built into the screens on phones this is the only one I've ever used that was built into the screen but it also makes me understand why Apple did not put one into the iPhone 12 because maybe Apple wasn't able to crack the technology either it just isn't a good experience if you don't get it perfect on the sensor it will not turn on.
Good news is overall performance of the phone is great; 4G and 5G it has no issues doing day to day tasks and again and powering that amazing 120hz screen I'm really happy with how android is evolving I think now it's getting better and better and with the 120hz screen and all the other bells and whistles and Apps and Samsung has put into this phone; it does start to feel like it's in league finally after all these years with the iPhones they truly do seem more and more like peers where as I personally believed years ago it was a tier below but now with the 120hz, even the Samsung galaxy UI interface that they put on top of the Google one; it's getting better it looks really nice I've had no problems using the Samsung services even transferring my information from the iPhone to the Samsung phone was really seamless although it did take a long time.
Now it's time for the million dollar question should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE well on this channel I'll never tell you what to buy because only you know yourself more than yourself I don't know anything about you but I will say this if you're in the market for a really great Android phone; this is a really great Android phone it's superb it's really great it's a flagship phone that's not too expensive so if that's something you think you might be interested in I'd really recommend this now I have to say the market is very competitive you have other manufacturers like OnePlus who are also making really good phones but if you saw the feature list of this and you really like what it has to offer I think you'd be really happy with this phone but my only personal recommendations to summarise I'd get the 4G version not the 5G because I did not see any performance difference and I had 5G coverage issues and also if you get one please for the love of god buy a tempered glass cover for it because this thing scratches so easily but again if you're looking for a really good quality Android phone; I'm so happy to report that the S20 FE is a really great one. It has great performance and again the 120Hz screen is killer because it makes using the phone really enjoyable and enjoyable isn't an adjective to describe the Smartphone in so many years not even the iPhones just scrolling through Instagram and basic things is so enjoyable with the 120Hz screen this is a really great phone. So that's my review of the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE it's a great phone not perfect but really great; if that's helped you make a purchasing decision do leave a comment below and let me know if you plan on getting one or if you have any last questions for me but other than that subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell to stay tuned for future technology videos and I hope you guys stay safe and well. See you all in my next video. Bye.