The Galaxy S20 FE 5G with Snapdragon 865 that launched globally last year, and won a lot of best phone awards, is the best Samsung phone in India in 2021.
Design
The S20 FE 5G looks just like the S20 FE 4G. So, no changes in design here. You get the same matte plastic rear with an aluminium frame in a slew of colourful options. In comparison, the OnePlus 9 (review) has a glass body with a plastic frame. Honestly, both approaches feel fine to me and looks are subjective. If you ask me, I like the design of the S20 FE 5G because it feels a little playful and has a very Nokia Lumia-esque aesthetic with its matte polycarbonate build. Although, OnePlus’ iconic Alert Slider was something I missed on the S20 FE 5G.
The in-hand feel is very, very identical on the two phones actually. Although, the OnePlus 9 does feel a tad bit slimmer and lighter because it is. However, you won’t notice any difference in daily usage.
Overall though, I’d pick the S20 FE 5G as the better designed smartphone of the two. Plus, the S20 FE 5G goes for the kill with the IP68 rating, which the OnePlus 9 lacks. Definitely, a very useful feature in a flagship phone.
Display
The displays on the two phones are very similar too. You get a 6.5-inch display on the OnePlus 9 as opposed to the 6.55-inch one on the OnePlus 9. Both the phones have the same FHD+ AMOLED flat panel, which is called Super AMOLED on the S20 FE 5G and Fluid AMOLED, for some godforsaken marketing reason, on the OnePlus 9. They also offer support for HDR10+ content but the S20 FE 5G didn’t show up HDR videos on Netflix, where the OnePlus 9 did. Odd but maybe a software update will fix that soon.
Now, for the tuning, I found both the displays extremely punchy in their respective vivid colour profiles. But, the Natural and DCI P3 profiles on the OnePlus 9 felt more professionally tuned with more natural colours. Plus, the peak brightness is higher on the OnePlus 9 both in regular and in HDR mode. But, in daily usage because both are equally legible outdoors. Plus, the S20 FE is far more reliable when it comes to Auto Brightness performance, which has always been a sore point for OnePlus phones.
