Massive Wi-Fi throttling on Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G purchased from Amazon India (September 2021 unit)

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G for Rs. 36999 (33999 including HDFC Offer)


TL;DR from this thread

Amazon India sale is delivering units manufactured in India in September 2021 in this sale. This batch seems to have a lot of units that have a very unreliable Wi-Fi. It would connect fine and would stay fine for a while but after a while, it slows down considerably. Turning it off and on again would fix the issue temporarily. Resetting the phone does not fix it. If you have such a unit, you should instantly apply for a replacement or refund. XDA has a thread that has 2-3 other folks who got a unit with the same problem. There is also supposedly a Telegram group but I am not a member. There is also discussions on the official Samsung Community. One such thread.

Important stuff: For replacement, do not apply for it through the order page. It would force you to deal with a tech visit from an outsourced company which delays the process. In my case, the tech guy did not bother visiting me. Called me up on the phone and asked me to reset the phone and go through the entire process again and see if that fixed the issue and ping him later so that he can process a replacement. He ended up closing my complaint without confirming me first. Amazon chat support initiated another tech visit which added another two-day delay. Phone support told me that they cannot help me because of this active request in their system and I should contact them once it is over, and I am not satisfied with the resolution. So, use the phone support option. This seems to be a safe and the fastest way to get a replacement and maybe even a refund if replacement units are also affected by this problem.

One member of the forum has confirmed that the unit he got from an earlier stock does not suffer from this issue. XDA and a few other outlets do confirm that there have been a few isolated cases of this issue affecting the entire S20 series. It is just too hard to tell if this is a hardware based issue or a firmware based one.

I ended up applying for a refund. If you are not sure how to test out wi-fi stability, install an app like WiFiMan which continuously monitor wi-fi connection speed. Or just download a very large file (10GB File) and see if it stays at similar speed levels consistently. On my S10 Lite, it is stable while on Fe, it keeps on changing while placed at the same place at same distance from the wireless router. Upload connection speeds actually drop down to 6mbps regularly. In my opinion, this should not happen when power savings are disabled, screen is on, and the app accessing Wi-Fi modem is in foreground.
 
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On a slightly different note, flipkart seems to have stopped processing return/replacement for defective phones/tablets (probably other things too, can't confirm) and instead redirects to visit brand service center, don't know how easy (difficult) would it be to override it through mails/calls

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No call no visit today so far. Waiting for outsourced shitheads to close the complaint so that I can contact Amazon again.

Visit time was 10am to 2pm.
 
I would suggest you start a chat conversation, if it is in your favour well and good. If not, ask them to someone to call you to discuss this further. It is better to start early :)
 
After reading all this, I realize how important after sales/support is.
We never realize this because 99% of our devices run fault free. But its that 1% that makes your life hell. That too after spending so much on a brand. Just hope that your issue gets resolved.
 
So, finally was able to get a replacement order generated. Though, it's likely that the issue would be there in the next unit as well. October update is still not out in India. Remains to be seen if I am stuck with a crappier than this unit or somehow the new unit would not have this issue. And if I would be able to get a refund if I decide not to stay with the second unit with wi-fi stability issues. I would essentially find out if the issue exists by the time phone restores from the backup.
 
You will get a refund don't worry. Probably will have to go thru the same process all over again.
 
I want to keep this phoneeeeee. I hope the October update comes in the next 3-4 days so that I can at least test the phone on that.
 
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