We talked about Honor 9X last week and how great the mid-ranger performed, one of the other mid-ranger which had a made a bigger buzz is the Honor View 20 and the Honor View 20 Pro. These two devices were launched earlier 2019 while the rumors about hole-punch cameras was flying all around in the news.

Initially, it was thought of to be a kind of joke but Huawei proved that wrong. The devices features amazing design and powerful CPU which enhances the performances of the device. Huawei alongside its other Chinese army namely, Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi and the rest have been trying their possible best to disrupt the mobile market and that’s great.

The fact that not everyone has the budget to pay top dollar just for a smartphone makes mid-ranger like the Oppo f11 Pro or thr Honor View 20 amazing. Of course Apple failed when it presented its so-called mid-ranger in the iPhone XR which was really not up to thr standard of the aforementioned company’s flagships which are usually mid-ranger.

Talking about Huawei’s biggest competitor, Samsung, the company had decided to innovate as well making series of mid ranger devices in the Galaxy A Series. This makes the mobile industry even more complex this year because trying to get a smartphone these days takes endless Internet researches and enormous reviews before one is convinced on which smartphone to buy or not and well, that’s part of the reasons we have setup this beautiful website, to help you make best gadget decisions.

Okay enough of the hype, the Honor View 20 has a 6.4 inch full screen display but then has thr hole-punch at the top left side of the screen unlike the Galaxy S which spots its own hole-punch cameras at the right side.
The design of thr smartphone ones again is great and the look and feel makes it worthwhile. I must confess that my grip on the device’s makes enormous sense compared to the preview Honor 10. 
48MP main camera setup is part of what makes this a great deal. And for what it’s worth, the Honor View 20 Pro has a triple camera setup as well as in-display fingerprint sensor. There isn’t much differences between both devices (honor View 20 and View 20 Pro) aside some included features that makes the Pro version quite better than the normal version. And of course this little upgrades usually affects the prices of the device. 

Huawei is notorious for making a device and then a Pro and Lite version. I think it’s because they’re trying to offer the same product trimmed up or down just for different people based on their economic status which is great of courses because nearly all Huawei smartphones comes in two models. The normal version then the pro and sometimes the Lite which is usually the lowest trimmed model. 

While thr Honor View 20 lacks some high end features, the Honor View 20 Pro is like a backup that can be looked on to for a more sophisticated experience. Placing both devices besides the Galaxy A80, in terms of performances, both devices are very awesome. Do not forget that both of these devices uses high variant of their OEM’s system on chip making them really reliable and fast enough. 
The Honor View 20 for example comes with a 256GB for the 8GB Ram model or 128GB for the 6/8GB RAM model. 
4000mAh Li-Po battery as well as Hisilicon Kirin 980 all makes the device amazing and superb. 

Whether to purchase this kind of device or not would depend on what you’d consider a premium flagship. Of course, this is a powerful machine with lots of power added on to it. But you might be the type that still wants something of higher specification such as Super AMOLED display as seen on the P30 Pro as well as other peripheral features. But believe it or not, this device is a really great tool you can get for such pricing. 

Honor View 20: What’s in the box?

Because its a mid ranger, the box is extremely simple without any over design or over packaging. Ripping apart the plastic seal is a hard paper casing that houses everything that comes with the smartphone. Removing this after breaking other seals at the bottom of the casing and taking off the over cover is the beautiful device right at the top. 

Going further, is the power cable and charger, a transparent silicon casing and the device’s earphone and of a mini booklet which contains the owner’s manual. 

The Honor View 20 comes in four colors namely: Saphire Blue, Phantom Blue, Phantom Red, Midnight Black. It has a uni-body design made out of glass and aluminium. It feels quite fine when picked up and not a heavy device despite its 4000mAh Li-Po battery. Turning the device around, you can see this “V” shape design when you move the back towards light reflection. 

That same kind of design can as well be found on the Honor 9x which is somewhat “X”. Overall, this gradient color is amazing and the Sapphire Blue is very bright and beautiful. The device’s back houses its dual camera setup. A big 48MP lens as well as a 2MP for deep sensing. The 48MP has AI mode which makes pictures auto clear and awesome (more in a moment.). Also at the back is the fingerprint sensor unlike the Honor 20 Pro whose fingerprint sensor is right on the screen.

The major difference between the Honor View 20 and the Honor 20 Pro here is the camera setup as well as the absence of fingerprint sensor. The Honor 20 Pro has a triple camera setup in a horizontal design at the Left side of the device (if flipped over). The Honor 20 Pro also has a 48MP main lens as well as a 16MP secondary lens for Ultra wide angle then the 2MP for depth sensing.

Both devices has a glossy back which definitely attracts fingerprint. But thanks to the silicon casing that comes with both devices. Under both devices is the USB Type-C port for quick charging as well as file transfer. Other visible hardware at the bottom includes the speaker and the microphone. The Honor View 20 has its headphone jack right at the bottom of the device.

Coming to the front of the device is where the fun is. There is the big IPS LCD 6.4 inch display which extends throughout the whole front of the device. It has a very minimal chin making the full-view very prominent. Also as said earlier on, no notch. Just a hole-punch at the top left corner of the device which houses its 25MP selfie camera. Other sensors are hidden right at the thin top bezel of the device include the earpiece. At the top also is the secondary microphone while at the side is the SIM/SD card Tray.

Hardware Features and Performances

Talking about the hardware of the Honor View 20 and the Honor 20 Pro, both devices has a really great and durable build quality. I tried some little scratch test by placing both smartphones right in my bag where I have my keys and other stuffs. Moving around and so on, they still both maintain the fresh look.

One thing I have with The Honor View 20 is that it attracts a lot of fingerprint. I had to clean it multiple times especially when it’s dried up, touching it again seems like a war. So the usage of a screen guide and a cover is advised.

The Honor View 20 comes in two variants. The difference being just how much memory they have. For example, there is a version with 6GB of RAM giving you a storage of as much as 128GB while the other variant has 8GB of RAM with a storage of about 256GB while both devices can still be extended using a micro SD card.

Display close to OLED but not OLED

The IPS LCD might not really be what you want as the OLED is somewhat a bit superior to this technology and of course that’s why it’s a mid ranger but sincerely, the 6.4 inch display has no glitch whatsoever when in use. It’s crystal clear and bright enough to see you through in the broad day light.

Also, the screen dimension of 6.4 inches, 101.4 cm2 (~85.7% screen-to-body ratio) has a resolution of 1080 x 2310 pixels (~398 ppi density) which makes sense compared to the iPhone XR which sells at a premium price range. The Honor View 20 is a real wonder.

In the terms of screen capacity, it comes with the Magic UI 2.0 out of the box which is built on top of the Android Pie 9.0. One thing I find a little annoying about the screen is the presence of something like a shadow at the bottom side of the screen. It feels as though the screen is being pushed down at the bottom side.

Whatever it is, that’s possibly the influence of the IPS Panel that comes with the device. Compared to the OLED display on the P30 Pro for example which feels very sharp and great.
Another thing I find amazing is the inclusion of the Eye Care software which simply helps you while viewing the device’s screen in a darker environment by running the color and reducing its blue lighting.

Blue lighting are said to be dangerous to the eyes and can cause permanent damages to the eyeballs on the long run. This is why major smartphone makers have been including such technology in their devices.

Performances is blazing fast

Both the Honor View 20 and the Honor 20 Pro are built with the HiSilicon Kirin 980 which is the flagship chipset for the Huawei brand. The performance of the devices is really amazing when tested out.
Our geek bench examination showed the device can handle whatever difficult task thrown at it.

I’m very notorious for making use of smartphone units sent over to our HQ for testing. I literally did the same with both devices and they performed very well. None of the Honor flagship devices broke in this process making them really reliable.

I wrote this article on the Honor View 20 while I took couple of videos and photoshots on both devices. Aside those simple tasks, other difficult things I did was playing games, surfing the Web and watching videos. I set the screen graphics to its highest resolution and ensured that I run multiple tasks at the same time.

Moving from one application to the other was very fluid and has no glitch whatsoever. And one fun part is the inclusion of the Turbo Mode 2.0 which enhances the GPU of the device making it perform more efficiently when doing difficult things like playing games with high resolution animations and so forth.

It comes with Bluetooth 5.0 which quite fast as well as 4G LTE of course. Only the Huawei Mate 20X 5G is the official 5G smartphone of the Hauwei brand so far and there seems to be none as of now from the Honor brand. 

But other connectivities includes Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE. It has GPS, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS. It also feature NFC connectivity as well as Infrared port but has no Radio. It features USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go

Battery life is great

With a 4000mAh Kí-Pò battery, You have a lot of juice to burn through the day. Sincerely, this smartphone would serve you throughout the whole day no matter how heavy a user you might call yourself. Trying it out from morning till evening, still got me about 36% which I could still burn through the night till the next mornings before finally connecting it to the power socket.

The battery life is great and the USB Type-C connection which enhances its fast charging is even doper. But the absence of wireless charging on both devices might be a little bit of a drawback from my own point of view. I mean things are advancing right now and no one wants to be connecting USB every time.

But still, the fact that the devices has powerful batteries which would last long enough means you don’t need to always go along with your powerbank wherever you might be going unless you’re planning to camp in the woods for days.

Cameras made it possible

Okay back to the camera. Things aren’t complex but smooth here. The differences between both devices is the presence of a multiple camera setup on the Honor View 20 Pro unlike the Honor View 20 which has just dual camera lenses.

Both devices spots a 48 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/2″, 0.8µm which can record a video resolution of about 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, 720p@960fps, (gyro-EIS)

The front facing selfie camera is 25 MP, f/2.0, 27mm which can record a video with its highest resolution being 1080P@30FPS. 

The Frame Per Seconds (FPS) on both devices aren’t amazing and the fact that both devices can’t film in 4k is in fact cowardly. Honor Play that was launched last year had OIS and could record a 4K video at 30FPS which is great for a mid ranger. The Honor View 20 is a total disappointment here especially if you’re planning to use the device for mobile filmmaking. 

Thats not to say the cameras aren’t great. They are very great and works well. But the inability to record in 60FPS is quite disappointing for a device of its calibre. 

But overall, pictures taken with both devices are great. You can see the details even when zoomed in. The Honor 20 Pro has a more Indepth picture because of its triple camera setup making it amazing. 

Bokeh effects are really great either from the front facing camera or at the back. The larger camera sensor on these devices makes their photographs amazing and great. Aside the camerasv capacity, the software feature that comes with it is also great.

For example, the Night Mode is magical by turning an entirely darkened picture into a really nice picture making objects visible is very great. This is big plus for all Huawei smartphones since 2017. Also the AI mode which auto detects pictures and adds the necessary filters to make it more great is what I’d call aesthetics.
Comparing their pictures to others in the league such as the Galaxy A80 or the Oppo F11 Pro, or OnePlus 7, Pictures taken from both the Honor View 20 and the Honor 20 Pro stands out and looks smooth and crispy. This is a unique selling point of the device.

Another major turn off would be the absence of OIS (optical image stabilization) technology which means mobile filmmaking without an external Stabilizer or a Gimbal would be a terrible thing if the device isn’t in a still condition.
Because your hand can’t be still for so long means the view you’re shooting will as well be horrible especially if you’re running and shooting at same time.
Gimbal are important if you want to take things to the next level with the device’s mobile filmmaking.

Pricing is very great

Both devices starts at about $410 USD and could reach as high as $600 USD depending on vendor and carrier. While Huawei sort of lost the US market due to trade war and embargo from the President Trump’s administration, the device pricing of the Huawei P30 Pro dwindled in just a few weeks from $1015 USD to just $150 USD which is a massive decline. Although it’s worth had now climbed back up, the point here is that had a little negative effect on almost all the Huawei smartphone and its sub brands such as the Honor devices.

I’ve stumbled upon the Honor View 20 on Ali Express for a price worth $256 USD while other vendors sold it for $350 USD. The second-hand value of the device isn’t great unlike devices like Samsung or Apple majorly because Huawei floods the mobile market with different devices every year while making different models of the same smartphone. Its a great marketing technique for them but its a horrible experience for users who wants to trade-in their smartphones for another.

The last time I checked the trade-in value of the Honor 8x, it was as horrible as $15 all the way from $300 under 9 months. That’s how bad Huawei can get with second-hand value.

Which one should you buy?

Sincerely, both devices are great smartphones packed with features. But the Honor 20 Pro adds quite a notch up for the device making it a bit more exciting unlike the Honor View 20. While both devices are great, the 8GB RAM variant which also spots a 256GB of storage is really great for multi tasking.

But going out of the Honor View 20 arena, you could opt for the Honor 9x Pro which is also amazing and feature-packed. Or you can try out the OnePlus 7 which is quite more expensive. Other devices to try includes the LG G8 ThinQ, Oppo F11 Pro or the Redmi K20.

But also, if you can still go back in time, you might want to consider the Notched Honor Play which is a wonder when laub he’d last year. Its a powerful Gaming smartphone with more features such as 4K camera recording as well as OIS. It also has USB Type-c connection making it really awesome.

All in All

The Honor View 20 and the Honor 20 Pro are both great smartphones and would make you feel good if you own one. Their designs are great and they are both feature rich. Awesome battery longevity as well as powerful cameras makes both devices amazing.

The price tag isn’t unnecessarily bogus as it stands in the mid range. Of course mid range smartphones are quite exceeding their borders these days basically be Aude we now have more smartphones that are reaching and crossing the $1000 USD price range.