We’ve known for a while that Samsung has a Galaxy S20 Fan Edition planned, and while recent reports have suggested a Lite version might be joining it, that raises an interesting question: what’s the difference between them?
While we don’t know the answer to that for sure, German tech site WinFuture.de has one part of the puzzle. The site has full specs of the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition as well as a gallery of official looking pictures showing off no fewer than six different colors.
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While you might think that “Fan Edition” would point to improvements across the board to give S20 fans a reason to upgrade, there are actually small but significant downgrades across the board, making it closer to the S10 Lite than you might expect.
There’s nothing that will prevent the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition from being a very powerful handset, though, and if it means lower prices then we’re all for it. With the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor from the S20 backed by 8GB RAM (down from 12GB in the S20), it’s certainly going to be no slouch, and the battery gets a 500mAh boost to 4,500mAh.
It’s worth noting, however, that the above spec is for a 5G version. WinFuture reports that Samsung also has a 4G model in the works. But given it comes with the inferior Exynos 990 chip, you might decide you want the 5G model, even if you won’t be seeing the kind of data speeds that warrant it any time soon. Of course, this might be a Europe-only thing, given Samsung doesn’t tend to use its own Exynos chips Stateside.
There are other cost cutting measures in place, and most of these are aimed at the screen. For starters, the phone is flat, losing the curved edges seen on the S20 family. Secondly, the resolution is lower, with the S20 Fan Edition limited to 2,400 x 1,080 rather than reaching 2K. Given the panel will be a 6.5-inch number (up 0.3 inches from the original S20), that translates to around 407 pixels per inch — a significantly lower figure to the S20’s roughly 563ppi. Finally, Samsung is reportedly shifting to Gorilla Glass 3, which will mean it’s a bit less scratch resistant.
It’s not all bad news though: the screen is still AMOLED, and it will retain the S20’s most coveted feature: the 120Hz refresh rate. More good news: we’re still looking at a triple-camera array — a 12-megapixel, f/1.8 main camera, supported by a 12 —megapixel ultrawide snapper and an 8-megapixel 3x zoom lens.
While the back sees a downgrade from glass to “glasstic”, it is significantly more colorful than the original S20 which came in just three shades: gray, blue or pink. The WinFuture leak shows the handset will come in at least six vibrant colors that you can see dotted throughout this piece: white, red, a kind of peachy orange, violet, mint green and navy blue.
It’s possible some of these are reserved exclusively for the 4G or 5G versions, of course, but it still feels less serious and more playful than the phone on which it’s based.
Overall, the S20 Fan Edition is cut down, but not significantly so — and with the S20 still commanding a high price, it may still prove appealing to those who want 90% of the experience without paying top dollar. Pricing is the one part of the S20 Fan Edition not addressed by the leak, but if Samsung gets it right, this could be a very appealing buy when it arrives either later this month or in early October. Watch this space.
