A truly innovative and good-value device, this ticks all the boxes
Honor finally has a device that it can seriously claim as a true innovation. I am speaking of course about that hole punch display, which you can clearly see at the top left of the device. What you get here is a smartphone that is almost all display – and the elimination of the opinion-splitting notch seen in all major flagships last year. It is the design of the View 20 that takes most of the plaudits for Honor, but that doesn’t mean the View 20 is a slouch. Featuring black, phantom blue and sapphire blue colours, the body is gorgeously glossy, with subtle chevrons on the back that are visible in good light. It’s definitely a phone you want to pull out and press against your face. Internally, the View 20 steps up to the plate, sporting the monster Kirin 980 processor, the same as used in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Honor Magic 2. Seeing as the Magic 2 has not been confirmed as launching in the UK, the View 20 is one to consider if you can’t afford the £899 price tag on the Mate 20 Pro.
OS: Android 9.1 (Pie)
Processor: Hisilicon Kirin 980
Screen: 6.4 inches
Resolution: 1080 x 2310 pixels
Memory: 6GB / 8GB
Internal storage: 128GB / 256GB
External memory: None
Water resistance: None
Rear camera: 48 megapixels
Front camera: 25 megapixels
Video: 4K
Battery: 4,000mAh
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G, NFC, GPS, USB-C
Cellular Speed: 1.4Gbps download
Dimensions: 156.9 x 75.4 x 8.1 mm
Weight: 175g
Honor View 20 represents the company’s latest entrance into the flagship market, bringing top technical performance and hitting next level design and style. The cutting-edge smartphone is equipped with the world’s first high-definition 48MP rear camera. The Honor View 20 is the first model to be equipped with an advanced 7nm Kirin 980 AI chipset with dual NPU for the overseas market; GPU Turbo 2.0, which greatly improves graphics performance; and a 4,000 mAh battery with SuperCharge. The Kirin 980 chipset represents a 75 per cent improvement of speed in single core performance compared to the previous generation. The Kirin 980 also includes Mali-G76 GPU to improve performance by 46 per cent. Honor View 20’s performance has significantly increased, while reducing its energy consumption by 58pc, providing a revolutionary advancement in user experience. The Honor View 20 has adopted a special technique, enabling light to go through and reach the front-facing camera seamlessly.
The View 20 is a superb device and ticks the boxes in so many departments, but does have its downside. For one thing, the phone is not water-resistant, so if you’re used to emotional showers with Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera, this won’t be for you. Couple that with the single firing speaker, you might want to add sound to the con list. But the phone does have a 3.5mm headphone jack, a rare feature nowadays. The main camera is numerically impressive at 48MP – and it sure does impress. In low light, we found that the camera matches even the chart-topping Mate 20 Pro, being capable of summoning detail in subjects even in poor lighting. That’s the artificial intelligence hard at work, though some results were a bit overexposed – something the AI will presumably learn to not do in future. Should you buy this phone? In short, yes. It’s aesthetically pleasing, with the horsepower to match. Cheaper smartphones can raise doubts about how well certain features will work, such as a quick game before your bus stop, snapping a pic or obtaining an attractive person’s phone number. You won’t have any of those fears with the View 20.
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