Samsung Galaxy S20 FE vs A36 5G

Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (with Exynos 990) that was released on September 23, 2020, against the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 and came out 4 years and 6 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Handles wireless charging up to 15W
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
  • Reverse charging feature
  • 23% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1234 and 1004 points
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 13
  • The phone is 4 years and 6 months newer
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 25W)
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Snapdragon 6 Gen 3
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and A36 5G crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 43% Yes
Mostly no. The difference is too small to matter in everyday use.
The overall difference between Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Samsung Galaxy A36 5G is not big enough to justify updating.
Main improvements: battery life, display, and camera.
Be aware: the newer phone is weaker in performance and connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED Super AMOLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 407 ppi 385 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 740 nits 1200 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1900 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Gorilla Glass Victus Plus
Screen-to-body ratio 85.8% 86.5%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.9%
PWM - 120 Hz
Response time - 1 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy A36 5G
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Galaxy S20 FE
6.5″ (20:9 ratio) = 15.8 in2
~8% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 159.8 mm (6.29 inches) 162.9 mm (6.41 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 78.2 mm (3.08 inches)
Thickness 8.4 mm (0.33 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 190 g (6.7 oz) 195 g (6.88 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP67
Advanced cooling - Vapor chamber
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Plastic
Colors White, Blue, Green, Red, Orange, Purple White, Black, Green, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability - Good (3.19/5)
Drop resistance - Good (C) · 90 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
86.5%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3
Max clock 2730 MHz 2400 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 8 (4 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78
L3 cache 2 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung Samsung
Lithography process 7 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Adreno 710
GPU shading units 352 256
GPU clock 832 MHz 1010 MHz
FLOPS ~585.7 GFLOPS ~517.1 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
1234
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
3385
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) - 3506
Single-core score 1234 1004
Multi-core score 3385 2919
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
909679
844447
CPU 359475 311567
GPU 155594 134619
Memory 153878 162720
UX 240732 235541
Total score 909679 844447
Samples [11 tests] [66 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 77% 98%
Graphics test 2 FPS 2 FPS
Graphics score 247 315
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 67% 97%
Graphics test 6 FPS -
Graphics score 1061 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
13090
Web score 9860 14144
Video editing 6780 7296
Photo editing 29317 24677
Data manipulation 8978 10326
Writing score 10600 14497

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-02-25 (Pearlescent)AnTuTu895369
📘 2026-02-16 (Naynay(guaranay))AnTuTu886994
📘 2026-01-31 (Victor)AnTuTu792094
📘 2026-01-19 (souzabrz)AnTuTu1027276
📘 2026-01-16 (souzabrz)AnTuTu1020628
Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-07-17 (loapeasontsa)AnTuTu832796
📘 2026-07-12 (Wan)AnTuTu834318
📘 2026-07-05 (Ням ням)AnTuTu862730
📘 2026-06-30 (Danyeall)AnTuTu873714
📘 2026-06-27 (kaio renan santos eleito 2026)AnTuTu891094

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2750 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 3.1
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 5.0 One UI 8.5
OS size 24 GB 22.6 GB
OS updates 2 years 6 years
Security updates 4 years 6 years

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) No
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 45 min) Yes (60% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:35 hr 1:14 hr
Battery cycles - 2000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 10:13 hr
Watching video - 16:02 hr
Gaming - 04:55 hr
Standby - 115 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 12 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash Dual LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 123°
Lenses 1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 8 MP
3) Macro: 5 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 12 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor Samsung S5K2LD Sony IMX882
Sensor size 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch) 1/1.96" (≈ 0.51 inch)
Pixel size 1.8 micron 0.8 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 8 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Focal length 76 mm -
Sensor Hynix HI-847 -
Sensor size 1/4.5" (≈ 0.22 inch) -
Pixel size 1 micron -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor - GalaxyCore GC08A3
Sensor size 1/3.0" (≈ 0.33 inch) 1/4.0" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution - 5 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Sensor - GalaxyCore GC05A3
Stabilization - Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S20 FE from DxOMark -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 32 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 6528 x 4896 3184 x 2388
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor CMOS GalaxyCore GC12A2
Sensor size 1/2.74" (≈ 0.36 inch) -
Pixel size 0.8 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5.4
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort - No
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat* 19 -
5G support No Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Mid-range
Announced September 2020 March 2025
Release date October 2020 March 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $700 $399
Successor - - Samsung Galaxy A37 5G
SAR (head) 0.341 W/kg 0.53 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.447 W/kg 1.29 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 15 W Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
34 (75.6%)
11 (24.4%)
Total votes: 45

User opinions

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