- The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE for 4G only will be updated with a Snapdragon 865 processor in some regions.
- Currently, only LTE variants of the phone have the Exynos 990 chip, which is objectively inferior to the Snapdragon 865.
- So far it is unclear which global regions would see this change, but this has been confirmed for the Scandinavian countries for the time being.
At the start there were two versions of the "Fan Edition" of the Galaxy S20: a 4G-only version and a version with 5G functions. The 5G version came with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, while the LTE-only variant came with the Exynos 990 chip developed by Samsung.
Although the phones looked very similar, the Exynos chip is definitely weaker than the Qualcomm chip. This not only led to limited functionality for mobile networks, but also to poor performance between the two models.
Now the company is updating the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE for 4G only by swapping the Exynos chip for the Snapdragon chip. So far we can confirm that Samsung is doing this in Scandinavian countries, as confirmed on its own website (via) WinFuture). The model number for this modified variant is SM-G780G.
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Unfortunately, it is not clear whether other countries would see this change as well. In India, for example, Samsung only recently brought the 5G model into the country. It would be strange if a 4G-only version with the same chipset were introduced just a few weeks later.
Note that the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE has no other changes other than the chipset upgrade.
We assume that Samsung is currently working on a "Fan Edition" model of the Galaxy S21. It's possible we'll see the Galaxy S21 FE land later this summer.
