Galaxy S20 FE deal alert: Samsung's brand-new phone is $100 off at Best Buy and Amazon - CNET

The Galaxy S20 Fan Edition has arrived, offering Samsung, er, fans the chance to buy an S20 phone for hundreds less than the price of the flagship model. Good news: Best Buy is offering it for even less than that.

For a limited time, Best Buy has the unlocked Galaxy S20 FE 5G 128GB for $599.99 when you choose the Activate Later option. It's available in four different colors at that price, which is $100 below retail. (Update: Amazon has matched the $599.99 price.)

Worth noting: If you choose the Activate Now option, you can get the phone for as low as $499.99 with a new line or account at Sprint or $549.99 with Verizon. But then you might be on the hook for a pricier service plan than you want, for a longer period of time than you want. My advice: Look to no-contract, pay-as-you-go services like Cricket, Mint Mobile and Visible.

Read more: The rock-bottom cheapest phone plans you can get today

So what's the deal with the S20 FE? In his story, Galaxy S20 FE is the affordable $700 phone we need right now, CNET's Andrew Hoyle provided this overview: "The price might be more affordable, but the key specs don't seem to have suffered all that much. There's a 6.5-inch, 2,400x1,080-pixel Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and a lightning-fast Snapdragon 865 processor."

I'm not sure I agree with calling a $700 phone "affordable," though obviously it's more so than a $1,000 S20. And at $600 it's definitely priced more like a midtier model.

Either way, a $100 savings right out of the gate, with no contract or activation requirement? That I can get behind.

Your thoughts?

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