Huawei’s sub-brand Honor today unveiled the Honor 20 series. These phones are essentially stripped-down versions of the Huawei P30 series and carry a slightly lower price tag. The compromises they make are minimal and overall, these phones offer great value for money.
The Honor 20 Pro and Honor 20 feature a 7nm Kirin 980 chipset. This chip is as powerful as the Snapdragon 855 found inside the likes of the OnePlus 7 Pro and the Galaxy S10. They also feature a beautiful glass design with a Dynamic Holographic Design at the rear, punch-hole displays, and quad-cameras.
The Honor 20 and the Pro version feature a 6.26-inch All-View IPS LCD display with a 4.5mm hole-punch housing a 32MP camera located on the top-left corner. The main difference between the two phones comes from their camera setup and even then it is not a massive one. They both feature a primary 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor along with a 16MP ultra-wide angle shooter, an 8MP 3x optical zoom sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor.
On the Honor 20 Pro, the primary 48MP camera features OIS and is paired with an f/1.4 aperture lens while the Honor 20 gives up on OIS and switches to an f/1.8 lens. The Honor 20 Pro also offers 30x digital zoom and “moon shot” which lets one take pictures of the moon. The final photo is optimized using AI, i.e. artificial details are added to the moon to make it look like a real picture.
The Honor 20 Pro is the first smartphone in the world to feature such a wide f/1.4 aperture. There are plenty of camera modes on the handsets, including a 48MP AI Ultra Clarity mode, Super Night mode, and more.
Other specs of the handsets include up to 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, VoLTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C, mono speaker, IR blaster, no headphone jack, and more. The Honor 20 Pro comes with a 4000mAh battery while the regular model features a 3750mAh battery. They also support 22.5W SuperCharging but lack wireless charging. There’s no in-display fingerprint scanner on the handsets. Instead, it is integrated into the power button located on the right side.
On the software front, these handsets are running Android 9.0 Pie with Magic UI 2.1 on top of it. There are plenty of features and customizations options available, including GPU Turbo 3.0 and 9.1 Virtual Sound.
Huawei’s Android license was revoked, though it has been suspended by 90 days for now. It is yet to be seen how Huawei and Google aim to work around this problem to ensure that all Huawei/Honor devices get regular updates.
The Honor 20 has a price tag of 499 Euros for the base variant with 6GB RAM/128GB storage. The Honor 20 Pro starts from 599 Euros with the base variant coming with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Both phones will be available in Sapphire Blue, Midnight Black, and Icelandic White colors.
With Huawei/Honor’s feature uncertain, will you be willing to buy the Honor 20 for its impressive specs? Or are you going to look elsewhere?
