Home News Phone Reviews Video

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE vs Apple iPhone XS Max

Source： Date：

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE vs Apple iPhone XS Max

71 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
VS
59 out of 100
Apple iPhone XS Max
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
Apple iPhone XS Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (with Exynos 990) that was released on September 23, 2020, against the Apple iPhone XS Max, which is powered by Apple A12 Bionic and came out 25 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 1326 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 3174 mAh
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks
  • Has an ultra-wide angle camera lens
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • The phone is 2-years and 1-month newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone XS Max
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 12% higher pixel density (456 vs 407 PPI)
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Apple iPhone XS Max 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
Phone:
Galaxy S20 FE
vs
iPhone XS Max

Display

Type Super AMOLED OLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.5 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1242 x 2688 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.4:9
PPI 407 ppi 456 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 740 nits 625 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 84.8% 85.41%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display 		- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space - 98.8%
PWM - 240 Hz
Response time - 11.2 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 159.8 mm (6.29 inches) 157.5 mm (6.2 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 77.4 mm (3.05 inches)
Thickness 8.4 mm (0.33 inches) 7.7 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 190 g (6.7 oz) 208 g (7.34 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Blue, Green, Red, Orange, Purple Silver, Gold, Gray
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Apple iPhone XS Max in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Apple A12 Bionic
Max clock 2730 MHz 2490 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5 		- 4 cores at 1.6 GHz: Tempest
- 2 cores at 2.49 GHz: Vortex
L3 cache 2 MB -
Lithography process 7 nanometers 7 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Apple A12 GPU
GPU shading units 704 256
GPU clock 800 MHz 1100 MHz
FLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS ~576 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 229975 167833
GPU 194551 157230
Memory 148172 121395
UX 134081 215799
Total score 711415 665855
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature - 45.2 °C
Stability 60% 66%
Graphics test 22 FPS 34 FPS
Graphics score 3787 5704
PCMark 3.0
Web score 9431 -
Video editing 6938 -
Photo editing 29692 -
Data manipulation 9036 -
Writing score 11612 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6, 8 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256 GB 64, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 12 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 5.0 -
OS size 24 GB 16 GB

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 3174 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes, Qi (10 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 45 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:35 hr 03:29 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 09:13 hr
Watching video - 10:50 hr
Gaming - 04:38 hr
Standby - 80 hr
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 2x
Flash Dual LED Quad LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° -
Lenses 3 (12 MP + 8 MP + 12 MP) 2 (12 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", Samsung S5K2LD (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 28 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.5", Apple iSight X (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- 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
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (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)
-
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support 		- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone XS Max from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 32 megapixels 7 megapixels
Image resolution 6528 x 4896 3088 x 2316
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 32 mm
Pixel size 0.8 microns -
Sensor type CMOS BSI CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.74" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
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 SPP, PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, LE, HSP, HFP, HDP, GAP, GAVDP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG 		- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * No Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat * 19 16
5G support No No

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 September 2018
Release date October 2020 September 2018
SAR (head) 0.341 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.447 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint 		- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Yes, 15 W -
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is definitely a better buy.

Related recommendations
Scroll to Top