Not sure why Contacts aren't backed up (they should!). Are you sure they're being saved to your Samsung Account? If it's being saved, say, to your Google Account, then yeah, those won't save in your Samsung Backup (they will, however, on your Google one). Photos also don't get backed up with Samsung directly anymore (it's been a couple of years since that was deprecated) and can now only back up directly with OneDrive. You can also use other services (like Google Photos) and use their app to set up back ups. E-mail settings should also be possible to back up, unless the account has specific security measures (for instance, if it's a corporate e-mail, IT may restrict how it can be activated on a new device and may have to be done manually every time).
Using SmartSwitch, however, should allow for transfer of all this (except the latter if IT policies prevent it) as long as you're doing it directly from phone to phone and not through a cloud back up first.