Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, US Version, 128GB, Blue - Verizon (Renewed)

I will be sharing with you my profound thoughts from examining this absolutely Fabulous S20 FE Samsung phone for you today....or night depending on when you read this review. I like that it's called FE. It just...... 'Feels Elegant' rolling off the tongue but what does the FE stands for? I am told it means Fan Edition. Yeeeaah, but based on my experience with the phone I think we could try something like Fun Everytime. Or Fully Enhanced. Orrr Foolish Endeavor, if you are hoping it has a 3.5mm jack. Or a Fools Errand, if you go searching for a 3.5mm jack… even in the SIM card slot. This S20 FE had better be good, as I hear that Samsung has lost a lot of market shares to some companies like Xiaomi that had some really powerful phones which had 3.5mm jacks. Xiaomi certainly would not have followed Mango, Orange or Apple who ditch the 3.5mm jack in an effort to boost Bluetooth sales...so I hear. If it's true I do hope Samsung doesn't do that with android users cause that might not go over too well...with EVERYONE...wink wink. Now let me tell you, I have a very calm, purring like a machine, foot loving, under my bed hiding, seemingly 3.5mm jack loving cat. Her internet name? Call her Scratchtastic. She has three jobs and she takes them very seriously. First job? Sleeping!! Second job? Eating!! Third job? Where is her 3.5mm jack at? When the Amazon box with the phone got here, I heard a strange sound. I wondered, is that growling I hear? Scratchtastic!!! What's wrong? Her look was telling me 'you better get that box outta here'. I'm like ...Crazy cat, it's got a 3.5mm jack. Duh. Folks, the phone came in a nice package and the phone lookTed really nice. Yeah and I know the word is looked. Anyhow, I set up the phone and copied my music to it. Wow!!! Let me tell you, I absolutely like the processing power of this Phone. I was sooooo excited, I was like let's get that 3.5mm jack headphone that knows how to push them beautiful sounds. Let's plug it into that 3.5mm.....where's the jack? I heard that strange sound again. Was this cat hissing again? Do you need some catnip or something? Ohh, the 3.5mm jack!! Now I knew why Scratchtastic was about to go Wolverine up in here, There is NO 3.5mm jack!!! Sad and upset at the same time, I thought Samsung, why??? Then I thought, maybe the camera will make things better. I mean, the camera is one of two main reasons why I buy a phone. The other is the 3.5 mm jack. But There is NO 3.5 mm jack!!! I tried using the zoom to see far away, but it didn't work anywhere near as good because ....There is No 3.5mm jack!!! I would have bought the overpriced S20 Ultra for the camera, but how can it take great pictures since... There is no 3.5mm jack!!! My music once sounded great on phones...& this phone sounds great & all but ...falls flat since...There is NO 3.5mm jack!!! Scratchtastic doesn't even look at me anymore....except you kno, when she needs her food. Samsung, how could you?! I couldn't test the wireless charging as Scratchtastic prefers wired charging like using a 3.5mm jack, but as we know...there is no 3.5mm jack. As a music producer, audio purity is crucial in my work. Using the 3.5mm on my phone to listen music files has been essential to great audio production ...but...There is No 3.5mm jack!!! Now the music is gone….now I'm simply called producer. Sigh!! Connecting this (unlocked) phone to the cell carrier was very simple and all worked well except I had a hard time hearing the customer service rep since the phone didn't have a .......you guessed it...a 3.5mm jack. The phone display is nice and is very smooth in motion. Can you imagine how much smoother it would have been with a 3.5mm jack?!!! And the battery?! Yeah, the size is great and last a day. But there is not a single doubt that it 'might' have lasted a whole lot longer, 'maybe' even a week if it had a 3.5mm jack. Hmmm, I hear a strange scratching sound in the kitchen like a chair is getting shredded, I better look. Scratchtastic? You awful cat!!! What you doing to the chair? Oops ...I mean sweet Scratchtastic. I see you looking at me. Yeah I'm walking away because I wanna. Sigh, this 3.5mm jack situation is tearing us apart!!! Folks the phone calls are clear and loud and the 5G is fast.....but I feel a 3.5mm jack would have gotten it over the speed hump to 6G speeds. I didn't play any games on this phone as I'm not a Bluetooth gamer.... I'm a 3.5mm jack gamer. All in all, this is a nice phone. It's fast and has a lot going for it. Scratchtastic seems to now urinate 3.5mm closer to the floor and her urine smell has risen 3.5mm higher. So with that said here is my conclusion about getting this phone: If you have a pet Iguana, it might love you for it. But if you have a cat like Scratchtastic and you want to keep your room door open when you go to bed at night, then the absence of the 3.5mm jack can absolutely cause issues for you. Even your kitchen chairs might turn up with unknown 3.5mm deep scratches. Buy with confidence.

I received the phone on time . It said good but it actually was excellent no scratches or dings. Works like new. Love the phone will order again from them

Edit: This is officially the worst phone I've had in my 20 some years of having phones. If I dare to let the battery drain completely, it's a toss up on if it will charge again at all. Have tried multiple different cords and bricks, no luck. The screen continues to crack and splinter. I'll likely be on the market for a replacement in less than a year. (I never go through phones this fast, the phone I was using before this was a Samsung S8 active. It's honestly in better shape than this one.) Original: The phone is fine, does it's job. I'm not a heavy user. Calls, texts, simple browsing. It still seems to want to be a Verizon phone - I'll have to figure out how to handle that on my own. For now, my voicemail is finicky and the phone is constantly downloading nonsense apps without my input. (So many games!) I'm no stranger to buying refurbished unlocked phones. I've been doing it for years, this is the first time I've gotten a bit burned on it. It could have been prevented, though. If you're looking to buy, be very picky about the condition the phone comes in and immediately request a refund. Before I ever started the phone up, I noticed a small crack in the top of the screen and excess glue around the bezel. I figured it was fine, I'd ignore that and go on. Chalked it up to the cost of getting a refurbished phone. Don't do that. I should have immediately contacted the seller (PDI Mobile) at that point. Since then, the screen has cracked considerably despite having not dropped it. It went into my pocket, uncracked, and came out of my pocket cracked. I had a simple protective cover on it. I have never in my life cracked a phone screen. I assume the cheapest screen available was used to replace the original. It's a good way to cut the costs down. Despite ignoring the first issues, I was well within Amazon's return window at that point and the seller refused. I contacted Amazon customer support, they escalated it to the seller, and the seller again refused. Currently rocking the phone with a piece of scotch tape on the screen so the glass doesn't splinter off into my finger. Classy! So, be picky. And maybe steer clear of phones sold by PDI Mobile.

BOTTOM LINE/LONG STORY SHORT The phone is fairly priced, in good enough condition, works on T-Mobile, and has the features I wanted for my next phone. Buying refurbished products comes with some compromises (older devices, a little wear), but has saved me money, and is less bad for the environment. ********************************************************************************************************************* Review after 1 week of use. Coming from a 5 year old LG G6. PACKAGING/FIRST IMPRESSIONS First off, the phone boots up with an AT&T logo, and has AT&T software on the phone. That said, the device recognized my T-Mobile sim card and works with phone/messaging/mobile data.* The phone arrived very fast, with a generic non-Samsung power brick and cable; I generally avoid using cheap included power accessories. CONDITION The device had some light scuff marks on the sides, and a few surface scratches on the screen, but these don't show up when the screen is turned on, and the scuffs will be covered up by a case. Most importantly the back camera glass is free from scratches. I'd say it's closer to good condition than excellent, but good enough considering it's a previously owned 3 year old device. FEATURES The main reasons for buying a new phone for me were: 1. Better battery life: really good, probably lasting a little over 2 days** (50-ish hours) with fairly heavy use (YouTube several hours/day, +25 tabs open, taking +10 photos a day, using sticky notes for ideas, etc.). I will update this estimate if it is noticeably worse or better after a couple weeks of use. 2. Newer OS: my old phone uses Android 9.0, while this phone gets Android 13 (and maybe 14). The improvements around privacy/restricting background apps, battery life optimization, newer/better security, and ability to use newer apps are all things I can appreciate if not always notice. 3. Better hardware: This phone has a larger sensor main camera and a 3x zoom lens, a larger hard drive (128gb vs 32gb), a brighter/larger/higher contrast OLED screen vs an LCD, a 35% bigger battery, top and bottom speakers for stereo listening, a faster CPU/GPU and more ram, and newer Bluetooth, WiFi, and 5g included. So yeah, quite a few improvements over 5 years! OVERALL IMPRESSIONS The Samsung S20 FE 5G delivers all the features I wanted in my next phone. It does this despite being a 3 year old model, with newer phones not really adding anything I needed. This coupled with choosing the renewed option means this phone at this price is a bargain. For me the few scuffs and having to uninstall bloatware weren't a deal breaker, but my expectations weren't high and these tradeoffs are worth considering before buying. NOTES * My guess is the refurbishing company buys used phones locked to various carriers, then unlocks them as part of the renew/refurbishing process before selling them. Long story short, the phone works, which is all that matters. All of the AT&T software is bloatware/not needed, and some won't even work with T-Mobile. I removed all of it, as well as some Google and Samsung bloatware, with Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which requires a little work and an hour or so of your time. Since I tend to use phones for 5ish years, it's worth it but this may not be for everyone. To be fair, a T-mobile device would likely also include T-mobile, along with the standard Google, and Samsung bloatware, so I don't count this as a negative. **I spent a couple hours really optimizing the phone for maximum battery life. I uninstalled all the bloatware, restricted background data, have background apps go to sleep, disabled automatic app updates, turn off NFC/GPS location/Bluetooth/mobile data when not in use, disabled wireless and fast charging, and have power saving and adaptive battery settings turned on. The Device Care app is pretty good, and the newer versions of Android allow more control over how much apps can run in the background and consumer power. For me the effort it was worth it, but I don't know to what extent these changes improved battery life.

I first purchased this phone back in 2022, from a seller called Edge Cellular for about $280. I used it up until May 2025 when it died to water damage (my fault). It was perfect. You get almost all the features of the flagship androids for less than a quarter of the price. Great storage capacity, cameras, processing speed, everything just worked out. After my first one was dead and I needed a new phone fast, I came back to the listing. $151? Almost half the original price? Awesome! I bought it with my next paycheck. What a massive blunder. It was shipped by a different company called XIBER WIRELESS. Came with a cheap USB-C charger cable that takes 3 hours to charge fully as opposed to mine that takes half that, the the charger block they sent overheats insanely fast. Now for the phone itself, compared to the last one it had: Reduced wifi/cellular data/bluetooth range, reduced touch screen accuracy, ghost inputs (registered taps where I was not pressing), ignored inputs (not registering my actual taps), a weird bug when turning the screen on that made it flash green for a half second, reduced camera quality, lower speaker quality, a worse microphone, and I'm sure more that I haven't noticed or discovered. It feels like they gutted an S20 FE and replaced all the internals with cheap chinese parts, then sold the original parts for profit. Or maybe XIBER WIRELESS fished this thing out of the Pacific. It was listed as (Renewed - Exceptional) but it is MUCH WORSE in EVERY WAY than the same product from a different seller. I will be returning this piece of garbage to XIBER WIRELESS and i will be buying the same phone again from specifically EDGE CELLULAR whom I trust whole-heartedly as they can deliver a quality product at a fair price. I rate Edge Cellular a 5/5. I rate XIBER WIRELESS a 2/5.

Apparently there has been some issues depending On what seller you get. The phone I got was immaculate on the outside with no visible defects. The phone itself seems fast and efficient. The screen had no defects and seems like it’s brand new. I haven’t had it long so I can’t say much on the battery life. But I will update the review if it’s just trash but with an older phone and it being refurbished I don’t expect it to be the absolute best. The camera works and is what you would expect. Not as good as my iPhone but definitely an upgrade from the old android my son use to have. I also haven’t set it up to the network yet. So I’ll update on that once it’s done. All around it’s a good deal for the money.

Bought this phone almost a year ago (Jan. 16th, 2025). Came in great condition and worked great. Then last week all of a sudden the screen will randomly not work, or you touch one side of the keyboard and letter/numbers/symbols from the opposite side keep appearing, then it will scroll or randomly click in and out of things. Today the touch screen stopped working all together and since I have a lock on the phone after restarting I am unable to swipe up to get into phone. I have never had a phone stop working after 11mos. Unable to fix and points to a hardware issue.

I took photos of the phone the day of arrival but now cant find them.. but the phone came in EXCELLENT condition although the packaging was just a box with little to ensure a safe delivery. The phone was unlocked but a **NETWORK UNLOCK CODE** kept popping up when sim card was insterted. (Thats the photo in this review.) So I swore the phone wasnt unlocked. Reached out to the seller and my carrier which was walmart family mobile. I was told by my carrier i needed a new sim card. So i ordered it and when it finally arrived, boom same error. My carrier reset the sim many times and still no luck. When i had messaged the seller they gave me a code that wasnt right and when i reached out again, still another wrong code. What the phone fails to warn you is that only after a few attempts it will lock you out completely. It will then say **MASTER KEY CODE** needed. I googled what that was and it seemed like a hopeless code to obtain. The startup on the phone says AT & T. So i took it to their store and they had said that yes the phone was unlocked!! But the network was locked to walmart family mobile which was my carrier . So come to find out the code i needed, the first code, the network unlock code, I needed from my carrier! They absolutely missed it and after days of this mess and ongoing phone calls, finally the walmart family mobile agent on that day in the At&T store had told me the codes i needed from day one. Idk how they just skipped the option and blamed my sim card. The codes arent a secret and im still unsure why they didnt recommend theirs to fix it. I guess they just assumed it wasnt their codes needed. But it was!!! Unbelievable right!! So then were now stuck on master key code and no one, my carrier, nor AT&T, nor samsung can help with that. Due to the sellers wrong codes, me googling the wrong codes, and most of all my carriers support line not mentioning their codes, I was locked out and was gonna return the phone. However AT&T did show me other sim cards put into the phone by other carriers were working. It was still unlocked but just couldnt now be used on family mobile and possibly all tracphone carriers due to the master key code lock. So with that said I swapped to AT&T prepaid and got their sim card and it all worked great! It was recommended to get the sim card from the AT&T store directly because sometimes those sim kits at walmart dont always work correctly and are nonrefundable. So if this issue happens to you just be sure to ask your carrier for those network codes!! The seller now knows what to suggest if this happens to another and I'm telling you that the carrier has the codes and all will be fine. Also the seller offered me a replacement phone and partial refund for this issue. I declined a replacement only because I couldnt send this phone back and await a new one. I was already without a phone long enough dealing with this for days. So the seller at least still gave me a partial refund and that was okay with me. So the customer service is well and fair from them!!! Also even AT&T said the phone itself was in such great shape! So far so good on the phone itself, everything is working as it should.