Samsung has had quite a few phones this year, and before 2020 is over, there’ll be one more. Strictly for the fans. Kinda. Sorta.
Whether or not you chose to upgrade your phone in 2020, there’s been a good chance that you’ve been exposed to some of the hype around Samsung’s slate for the year. My my, there have been more than a few phones.
Between the models in the S20 family, the recent Note 20 entrants, and some foldables in the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold 2, there has definitely been an abundance of Samsung-made mobiles, and we’re apparently not done.
While Google’s next Pixel will see an announcement next week and Apple’s next iPhone should pop up some time in October, Samsung has one last phone to convince folks to check out, and it joins the S20 trio launched earlier in the year.
You might recall that time, back before 2020 became what it was, when Samsung announced the S20 range as three phones back in February. There was a small-ish 6.2 inch Galaxy S20, the bigger 6.7 inch Galaxy S20+, and then the massive 6.9 inch Galaxy S20 Ultra, with the latter offering the massive “Space Zoom” camera technology, though they all saw a minimum of 12 megapixels.
In fact, while the S20 Ultra received a staggering 108 megapixels, the S20 and S20+ managed an admirable 12 megapixel standard, 12 megapixel ultra-wide, and 64 megapixel telephoto. Starting at $1349 locally, the S20 range wasn’t what you would call “inexpensive”, and thus may not have been handy to bring in more people to upgrade their phones this year.
But Samsung isn’t done, and is bolstering its S20 phones with one more model that could just do that.
The Galaxy S20 Fan Edition is a new take on the range, starting at $999 for a 4G model or $1149 for the 5G Galaxy S20 FE (“FE” means “Fan Edition”), bringing some of the features found in the S20 to a more colourful case with a lower price point.
Shared between the range are aspects of the cameras, with the 12 megapixel wide-angle F1.8 camera used in the S20+, as well as the same 12 megapixel ultra-wide F2.2. The telephoto camera is entirely different, however, sporting an 8 megapixel F2.4.
Despite these differences, Samsung says it is including a variant of Space Zoom, capable of handling 3x optical zoom and 30x super zoom, compared with the 4x optical, 10x hybrid, and 100x super zoom of the S20 Ultra earlier in the year. A 32 megapixel selfie camera sits on the front of all of this, offering more megapixels than the other S20 models saw at the front.
That’s not all the S20 Fan Edition will offer, with a 6.5 inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen sporting the 120Hz fast screen technology every S20 model shipped with, plus a minimum of 6GB RAM and 128GB storage (some models will come with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage), Android 10, wireless charging, water resistance, NFC, magnetic stripe technology (MST), a fingerprint sensor, and a reasonably big 4500mAh battery, too.
And it will come in colours, though it’s clearly not the same phone as the other S20 variants, since the cameras aren’t quite the same, and neither is the screen resolution, down at Full HD+ compared to the Quad HD+ offered by the other S20 choices.
Despite these omissions, it appears the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition isn’t so much focused on fans of either the Galaxy or the S20, but rather people who might want to become fans if the price was right, so to speak.
“We’re committed to delivering exceptional experiences, so we collated the best of what people love and developed the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition. In doing so, we’re giving Australians a premium smartphone experience an accessible price point,” said Garry McGregor, Vice President of the Mobile Division for Samsung in Australis.
Locally, that “accessible price point” will see the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition available in red, orange, purple (lavender), light green (mint), white, and blue (navy) for $999 in the 4G model or $1149 for a 5G take. Australians can expect to find it on sale from October 9, where it will see release both at Samsung stores and at retailers across the country.
