Samsung Galaxy A20e: a smartphone that goes to the basics

Presentation

And here is a new addition to the Essential range from Samsung. After the Galaxy S10e which opened the way, it is the turn of the Galaxy A20e to offer the essentials of what can be found in the Galaxy A20, in a more compact format and at a reduced price.

Offered from 189 €, it is part of the entry-level, more than competitive segment with players like the Redmi Note 7 or the most recent Realme 3 Pro - both sold for 10 € more. Will he meet the challenge? This is what we will see in this test ...

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Ergonomics and design

The newcomer to the range adopts a "small format" with a 5.8 inch screen which occupies 80% of the front face. It is the same size as an iPhone X, with the difference that the Samsung mobile has a large chin on the bottom, giving it dimensions of 147.4 x 69.7 x 8.4 mm. As with the other models in the A range, a teardrop-shaped notch finds its place on the top of the slab.

On the back, the plastic shell is not as shiny as that of the Galaxy A40. However, it can act as a mirror, as long as your fingers have not left too many ugly traces. This back has a fingerprint sensor as well as two photo sensors, which we will come back to below.

Finally, to complete the owner's tour, we find on the right edge the volume and ignition buttons; opposite, the slot for inserting 2 SIM cards and 1 micro SD card. On the bottom edge, there is a 3.5mm mini jack, a speaker and a USB-C jack.

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Screen

The Galaxy A20e offers a 5.8-inch LCD panel with 1,560 x 720 px resolution. It therefore has the smallest screen in the 2019 A range, and the latter is not really a wonder; just the opposite of what we found on the other models of the family.

Delta E reaches a score of 4, with the vast majority of colors drifting above a Delta E of 3 (threshold of perception of the human eye). Certain tones like the primary colors exceed a Delta E of 5 or even 7 for red. As for the color temperature, the A20e panel reaches 9,661 Kelvins, a value far too far from the video standard (6,500 K) and which unfortunately is not possible to adjust by changing the display settings d 'screen. The screen is therefore cold, and it shows when you pay attention.

The contrast (1245: 1) is hardly better than the rest, as is the afterglow of 19 ms and the tactile delay of 142 ms. The user experience is therefore not very fluid when you slide your finger to scroll through the pages.

The screen is "saved" by its maximum brightness of 458 cd / m² and its low reflectance (45%); enough to be quiet in front of the sun. At night, it's the same song, with a minimum brightness reaching 4.2 cd / m², perfect for reading in the dark.

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Audio

The 3.5 mm mini-jack socket delivers the correct power to satisfy most headsets. The distortion is excellent, and ... it stops there. The dynamic range is too weak and the stereo reproduction bad.

The single speaker is far too weak to be able to enjoy quality listening. It will mainly be used for watching videos on YouTube, listening to music is not really recommended - especially at high volume.

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Performances

The Samsung A20e has a Samsung Exynos 7884 processor coupled with 3 GB of RAM. It is the same configuration as that of Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A10. We feel the limits of the chip since we have suffered many slowdowns in actions yet simple, such as navigating between pages or changing applications with multitasking.

The result is not famous either. Headlines turn with a little pain. Don't expect to see the most detailed graphics. Fluidity is not really there. In short, it is difficult to have a good gaming experience with this phone.

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Photo

The entry-level Samsung offers two sensors, a main 13 Mpx (f / 1.9) and a secondary 5 Mpx with a wide-angle lens at 123 °.

By day, the software processing applied to the photos is not flattering. The rendering is dull and less detailed than what we can see on the Realme 3 Pro. The details are smoothed and, in places, we find this kind of blurry veil that we have already seen in the photos taken by the Galaxy A50. Even if here it seems attenuated.

At night, software processing does not work miracles. Besides, it suffers from the same problem as the Galaxy A40. To want to accentuate the details too much, the treatment adds white borders around the different pieces that make up our scene. In addition, color management is poor and gives a gray tint to the whole. Finally, a quantity of grain spoils the quality of the image.

The A20e being the only one in its price range to offer a very wide-angle module, we wanted to compare it with another smartphone in the Galaxy range, the Galaxy A40, which it comes closest to.

By day, the A20e can do better than the A40 by offering a more detailed scene, even if the smoothing applied by software processing is still as strong. The colors stand out a bit better and it manages the brightness a little better, as we can see on the map to the right of the book.

At night, the differences are less obvious, but again, the A20e is doing better. In both cases, the details are completely nonexistent, but the A20e rises higher in ISO (1600), providing more brightness to the scene. Unfortunately, this increase in sensitivity adds a lot of grain to the image and we find the defect that we saw at night with the main sensor: the white borders, sign of an accentuation of the details really too marked.

Like any good self-respecting smartphone, the A20e has a portrait mode. Like the "classic" photo, the latter is not the most efficient. He finds it a bit difficult to properly cut out the subjects, especially in terms of hair. As on other smartphones of the brand, it is possible to adjust the depth of field on a scale from 1 to 10.

For selfies, this is hardly more satisfactory: a strong smoothing is applied to the faces and, above all, the sensor really has trouble managing the brightness. As soon as the latter is a little too strong, he has trouble making the point correctly and overexposes the shot.

The video mode allows you to shoot in Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 px) or in HD (1,280 x 720 px). No stabilization in the program and the quality is the same as in photo.

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Autonomy

Delivered with a 3000 mAh battery, the Samsung A20e held the charge for 16 h 30 min on our SmartViser test. In real conditions, it is a day of use, even two if you are more moderate on the uses.

With its charging block and USB-C cable, the smartphone took 1 h 30 min to fully charge. It has fast charging at 15 W, the same as on the Samsung Galaxy S10.

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Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A20e could have been a good cell phone, but it faces far too stiff competition. Displayed almost at the same price as the Redmi Note 7 and the Realme 3 Pro, it has no argument to stand out.

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