Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G vs Note 20

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G vs Note 20

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G) that was released on September 23, 2020, against the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, which is powered by Exynos 990 and came out 2 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Delivers 33% higher peak brightness (829 against 622 nits)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 20
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G and Note 20 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk ( * ) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED Super AMOLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1080 x 2400 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 407 ppi 393 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 400 nits 600 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 84.8% 89.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 95.7% 99.9%
PWM 227 Hz 250 Hz
Response time 2.8 ms 6.4 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 159.8 mm (6.29 inches) 161.6 mm (6.36 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 75.2 mm (2.96 inches)
Thickness 8.4 mm (0.33 inches) 8.3 mm (0.33 inches)
Weight 190 g (6.7 oz) 192 g (6.77 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling - Vapor chamber
Rear material Plastic Plastic
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Blue, Green, Red, Orange, Purple Black, Green, Brown
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Samsung Exynos 990
Max clock 2840 MHz 2730 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 8 (2 + 2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 3 cores at 2.42 GHz: Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77)
- 1 core at 2.84 GHz: Kryo 585 Prime (Cortex-A77)
- 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
L3 cache 4 MB 2 MB
Lithography process 7 nanometers 7 nanometers
Graphics Adreno 650 Mali-G77 MP11
GPU shading units 1024 704
GPU clock 587 MHz 550 MHz
FLOPS ~1202.1 GFLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 233087 214069
GPU 196634 202411
Memory 141288 134994
UX 175074 164236
Total score 748579 718109
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 37.9 °C 38.6 °C
Stability 91% 88%
Graphics test 23 FPS 25 FPS
Graphics score 3875 4317
PCMark 3.0
Web score 9910 7804
Video editing 7169 5716
Photo editing 30029 29885
Data manipulation 9733 7954
Writing score 13125 11968

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6, 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz 2400 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 3.1
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
ROM One UI 5.0 One UI 5.0
OS size 25.6 GB 35 GB

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 4300 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 25 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Fast charging Yes (37% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:35 hr 1:05 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:02 hr -
Watching video 15:39 hr -
Gaming 04:33 hr -
Standby 110 hr -
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4000 x 3000
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 3 (12 MP + 8 MP + 12 MP) 3 (12 MP + 64 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Sony IMX555 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Sony IMX555 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 8 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 76 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/4.5" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 64 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 27 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.72", Samsung Bright S5KGW2 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.0" (CMOS)
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung S5K2LA (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 32 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 6528 x 4896 3872 x 2592
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Pixel size 0.8 microns 1.22 microns
Sensor type CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.74" 1/3.2"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, NAVIC
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support * No Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat * 20 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced September 2020 August 2020
Release date October 2020 August 2020
SAR (head) 0.5 W/kg 0.359 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.35 W/kg 1.366 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 15 W -
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display and camera are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G . But if the battery life is more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 .

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