This is an in depth review of the unlocked Samsung S20 FE 5G – September 2023

There are hardly any cons to this smartphone other then the end of support date is late next year, around October 2024. It did come charged at 85% on pick-up date though, this means it's at the optimal battery percentage charged for the best lifespan for the battery. There is also an option in the smartphone settings to limit the battery to be charged to 85% to increase the battery lifespan.

However, from the time I charged my smartphone to 100% I got around 6.5 hours of a lot of screen time, but it was off and on, but nothing extremely resource heavy and my battery was at 54% still. The battery seems really great, although, adaptive battery has to learn my battery usage on this smartphone before it adapts to my usage and could give better performance later on. Leaving my phone on standby only drained the battery around 5% in only 6-7 hours. (I have minimal apps installed, this can change with more apps installed and it can be different for others, a lot of variables to consider)

It comes with a USB to type C 15W wall mounted charger and if you want the fastest charging times, you should buy a type C 25W charger separately because a 25W charger will charge from around 40% battery to 100% battery in about 45 minutes or less. A type C 25W charger should be used for best charging times and I would also recommend buying a powerbank that has PD3.0 to charge your smartphone on the go at basically same speeds as a wall mounted charger. A powerbank would give days of charges and not needing to be anywhere near an outlet. (Depending on the size of the powerbank)

There isn't anything wrong with this smartphone, as it's a certified refurbish and it says it's water and dust resistant as it states it in the product details meaning it's a quality refurbished smartphone. I expected a little more from the battery life as it sometimes seems to drain a bit quick at mid-high settings for 5G, better visuals and performance etc. That's expected as settings can be lowered and there is a battery saver feature too that can extend battery usage even further at the expense of performance and visuals.

You can extend the storage with a microSD card up to 1TB, which is maximum it can have, you can also encrypt your data on the microSD card, so no one can access it outside the smartphone. I think after the sizes of 256 GB or more, the microSD cards get a lot more expensive.

Samsung has reasonable prices for their Evo Plus microSD cards, 256 GB is actually cheap. That is lots of photo's and videos it can store, but this phone does have 4K video recording, which is a big plus. If you plan on recording in 4K only, I'd recommend at least 256 GB microSD card or higher. The size of each video recorded in 4K per hour is a high amount of storage VS lower video settings, like 720p or 1080p.

Photo's are crystal clear, but make sure to choose the "Full" option at top for your camera photos and videos quality (while using the camera app). This will be the default good quality for photos and videos option and you can edit quality to lower or raise quality. Even the back facing camera can zoom into your scene, like you're up close to the subject in the frame from what it seems to be 25-50+ feet away at least. As for the front facing camera, it's super high resolution.

You might notice details in your selfies that you may not have noticed before when using the front facing camera. Very impressed, however, the end of support date is the reason why for the four stars. As it's only a little more then a year of security updates left at the time of this review.

This is a very solid all around smartphone, if you're looking for a quality smartphone on a budget, definitely think about putting this one on your buying list. The smartphone has too many features to even give it justice explaining some of them, that being said, I am pleased with my purchase of my smartphone, I would definitely recommend this smartphone, with the marked down price, this is a steal. Can't get much better for the amount of money for this smartphone.

I was a bit worried about the disclaimer that some smartphones may have scratches and or scuffs marks, however, my smartphone seems to not have barely any scratches or scuffs. There are slightly barely visible minor marks on the back, although, it can only be seen while holding it to a light (shining the light to see the surface on the back of the smartphone) The marks are not deep, they are very superficial and not really noticeable at all.

Nonetheless, this is very minor and I can live with that, since I got a good deal on this smartphone, the barely visible surface marks are nothing to worry about, it is a certified refurbished smartphone, so the high quality standards to repair and fix the smartphone to be sold, means it went through an extensive process to be in working condition and should be in working order when it arrives. (It's somewhat like buying new, but it is refurbished)

However, in conclusion, if there is something wrong with your smartphone, there is a 30 day from purchase return policy and it also says buying this smartphone has a 90 day warranty with the third party seller. So returning or using warranty should be easy, by contacting the third party seller. But I doubt you will need to return or use warranty, as this smartphone is in excellent condition.

My smartphone I bought was from Gadget Source and it came from Ontario and shipped by UPS. (Be aware if you choose ship to store, it will take longer than delivering to your home address)

I hope this in depth review of the unlocked Samsung S20 FE 5G smartphone has been helpful and informative.

Thanks for the read :]

Description says that it is not refurbished, comments even say it is not and that it is new. I called to verify with customer service about this and the warranty and they said it was new never used and sent me link to Samsung warranty page. I received this Samsung Galaxy s20 fe 5g and the tape on the box looked as if it had been previously opened and reused as it had a dirty haze to it and not clear packing tape new from factory. Seemed VERY questionable. I thought maybe it was from sitting in a warehouse until I tried to use the phone and it would not turn on. Tried to charge it and it would not charge, even after being plugged in all night. Would not power on at all. I thought maybe, slim possibility, it was a factory error defect, but then immed thought Target.com sold me a used product that doesn't work. Called and spoke with customer service about the issue and that I wanted a replacement and to verify that it is a new, not refurbished phone. The agent reassured me that they didnt have complaints of this product and many have been sold and it was not refurbished. Had to take it to the store for replacement order as I was told they cant do it via phone. Prob with this is I did that on a Fri, didnt get replacement till Wed. They would not help with expediting delivery for a faulty product they sold me. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED in Target for this. I even tried so submit a Q&A before purchase and NEVER got a response. There is still no response since Apr 5th when I submitted my question about this phone. It is now Apr 18th.

I needed a new phone with good memory; my current one has bad memory, making it impossible to use half the time. I didn't look too hard at this one, just checked that it had a good camera, good GB, and is fully unlocked, keywords, fully unlocked. This phone is not fully unlocked. And while I know that it says in parenthesis "GSM Verizon" I was only really focused on the GB and it being fully unlocked. not paying attention to the "GSM Verizon" wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't labeled as fully unlocked, which I had used filters on the Google Store tab to find. Second off, the packaging was awful. There was no box, no additional padding to protect the phone itself, the phone was simply wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap and chucked into a paper shipping bag. Very disappointed for a multitude of reasons, in not just Walmart for allowing such irresponsible sellers and seller themself, but also in myself for not being cautious because I was in a rush and was impatient. In the paper bag used for shipping, this seller had the audacity to leave a paper note saying not to leave a bad review. If they don't want a bad review, they should do better. I highly suggest buying from a different seller.

This is the second time I've purchase a pre-owned unlocked phone from Best Buy, and both times the phones I've received have been in excellent condition. This phone had very minor cosmetic damage to the paint on the side of the phone, which I didn't even notice until I was putting a case on the phone and the case covers it. Aside from this barely noticeable cosmetic damage, the phone looks brand new and operates as if it was. The phone I received was a previous AT&T phone and came with all the AT&T apps still installed. This initially concerned me because I purposely purchased an unlocked phone to use on the Verizon network. Thankfully it was truly unlocked and I did not have any issues when I inserted the Verizon SIM card and the phone immediately connected to and operated off their network. For those that may have an issue, AT&T makes it really easy to release the phone from their network. You have to go onto their website and put in a request for release. You will need the phone's IMEI number to do so, which can easily be found in the phone's settings. The processing of my request was extremely quick. AT&T also provides instructions on the initial set up of the phone under the new network. While I did go through this process, I don't believe I needed to. I bought this phone for a family member so I didn't have their Verizon SIM card when I first received the phone to test it out (I use AT&T) and requested the release as a precaution.

Overall, the phone looks great, and operates quickly and smoothly! The screen is crisp and with vibrant color. The cameras on the phone appear to be excellent as well and the battery life has been great so far. The speakers on the phone are great too. The family member I purchased this for used to only use speaker phone on their previous phone because they couldn't hear very well from the ear speaker. With this phone they don't have to use speaker phone because the ear speaker is loud and clear. I've also noticed a HUGE improved in clarity of sound from their end of the call. The microphone also does an excellent job filtering out background noise as well. If you're looking to upgrade your phone without crushing your budget, I would definitely consider this phone or other pre-owned options.