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Some of the biggest Samsung loyalists who already bought the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition are kind of regretting that decision. Namely, a number of early batches are reportedly exhibiting display input issues. But other than claiming the supposed defects are touchscreen-related, the reports diverge quite a bit.
Some users claim touch input has a tendency to just stop working for no reason whatsoever. Others claim they can replicate the issues whenever they’re using Air Getures for longer than a couple of seconds at a time. However, those reports remain entirely unconfirmed. Ghost touches are another thing, entirely, with possibly hundreds of users reporting those from all over the world. With that said, there’s still no indication any Galaxy S20 FE defects currently constitute a global, frequently encountered problem.
The complaints can be found anywhere from Reddit and Twitter to Samsung’s own product forums. So, all of the largest online communities with a critical mass of Samsung customers. They also appear to be affect both the Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S20 FE 5G. I.e. the Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 variants of the Android handset, alike.
As is usually the case with mass-marketed products, it’s pretty difficult to asses how prevalent these issues actually are. Assuming the Galaxy S20 FE started out reasonably well, a couple of hundred users experiencing some technical difficulties rounds out to to 0.0 percent of existing ownership. A small number of units always ends up faulty in large-scale flow production. That’s simply the cost of doing business. In fact, that’s arguably the number one reason why manufacturer’s warranties are even a thing.
Yes, even seemingly widespread Galaxy S20 FE defects may be business as usual
Of course, Samsung would hardly be eager to announce experiencing widespread production issues amid such a mini-crisis, but again, we’re definitely not there yet. Lest we remind you not even the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Tab S7 families were immune to market debut hiccups. And the responsiveness issues Galaxy S20 FE owners have been describing these days may as well be nothing more than screen calibration errors.
That’s precisely what a handful of users already suggested in recent days so if you think you’re affected by a seemingly unresponsive or otherwise faulty display on your Galaxy S20 FE, try opening the Dialer (part of the Phone app), type in “*#2663#” without the commas, confirm the command by tapping the TSP FW prompt, and see whether a fresh touchscreen panel firmware install will do the trick. At the very least, it’s really unlikely to make things worse. But of course, anything you do to your device is at your own risk.
In case you missed the original Galaxy S20 FE announcement from late September, this is pretty much a model that slots in between the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+. Both feature-wise and in terms of pricing. So, starting at $699, it’s a pretty compelling device. Especially in light of Samsung’s recent software policy expansion that saw it pledge three generations of Android OS updates for the vast majority of its existing and all of its upcoming smartphones and tablets.