digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: The Galaxy S20 Fan Edition at $699 is a good buy for many people, offering a flat 120 Hz 1080p OLED display, a Snapdragon 865 chip, a 4500 mAh battery, and three generations of promised software updates. Marques Brownlee argues that Samsung's wide spread of phone prices reflects a flourishing mid-range tier, where most smartphone sales actually happen, rather than the flagship market that gets most attention.
Key Points
- The Fan Edition is confusing at first since it's unclear who it's actually for, but ultimately it's another compelling phone Samsung offers at a competitive price, since Samsung sells phones at nearly every price point.
- Flagship prices have climbed from about $550 roughly eight years ago to $1,000 for the iPhone X in 2017 and $1,500 to $2,000 for bleeding-edge folding phones in 2020.
- Samsung reported that the Galaxy S20 Ultra was the most popular S20 model in its first month, but over time the cheaper S20 and S20 Plus far outsold it.
- The same mid-range sales pattern holds across brands: cheaper iPhones outsell $1,000 models, and OnePlus Nord, Xiaomi, and Huawei depend more on lower and mid-tier phones.
- The S20 Fan Edition's trade-offs include a plastic back, a 1080p panel, and a cut-back camera system compared with the rest of the S20 series.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The video gives no step-by-step setup or usage instructions. The actionable advice is to buy the 5G version if you want a Snapdragon 865 chip, since Samsung ships Snapdragon in the 5G version in every region with no Exynos; and to consider putting a case on it to protect the plastic back and fingerprint-prone finish.
- Specs cited: 6.5-inch flat 120 Hz 1080p display, 4500 mAh battery with wireless and reverse wireless charging, triple rear cameras at 12, 12, and 8 megapixels, a 32-megapixel selfie camera in a small hole-punch cutout, IP68 water resistance, and six color options.
- Camera limits: the triple camera lacks space zoom beyond 30x, and it avoids the autofocus issues of the Ultra's large sensor, and he says it hasn't suffered as much in low light as some expected.
- Price context: the $699 price matches the iPhone 11 launch price, and the Pixel 5's rumored launch price is also $699, with a launch expected in October.
- Software: Samsung promised three generations of software updates.
Bottom Line
The S20 Fan Edition is a strong mid-range option, and the bigger lesson is that the phones that sell the most are often the cheaper ones, not the flagships that dominate headlines.
