Friends+Design
- Absolutely gorgeous aluminum and glass build, with a unique gradient finish - the Honor View 20's mesmerizing design draws you in - Huawei, Oppo and Vivo have created eye-catching colors and gradients in recent times, but still you would have never quite seen a finish like this
- The stand out design feature however, is of course the punch hole front camera - this is the first phone to launch in India with this alternative, notch-less full-screen design - it works well in actual use, and will mostly make better sense than a more disruptive notch (it's certainly less obtrusive compared to standard notches when watching videos and playing games)
- Fast, responsive fingerprint reader on the back
- While the phone does look striking - the bright and shiny chevrons may not be to all tastes
- The punch hole might not be preferred by everyone - especially people who are OCD about symmetry
Display
- Very good 6.4-inch screen that feels truly edge-to-edge with it's razor-thin bezels and a notch-less design - all of which makes it an amazing device for watching widescreen video
- Unlike other flagships though, it's not an AMOLED display, so there are no deep blacks here - this is the only major area where the View 20 is behind the leading flagships
Software
- Magic UI (basically EMUI with changed colors) is a pretty feature-rich skin
- It's of course not as simple and clean as say stock Android, or OnePlus's OxygenOS skin
Performance
- Packed with the killer HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset, the View 20 steamrolls through any task you throw at it, including the most complex games - in benchmarks too, it zooms past the Snapdragon 845 flagships
Camera
- Great all-round camera experience across the board - comparable to the very best in the business including the Galaxy Note 9, the iPhone XS, the Pixel 3, and the Huawei Mate 20 Pro - and significantly better than it's main competitor, the OnePlus 6T
- This isn't your typical dual camera setup - rather than using two RGB camera sensors, the Honor View 20 uses a 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor behind an f/1.8 aperture lens combined with a second ToF or 'Time of Flight' sensor (which can 'see' in 3 dimensions)
- The camera does especially well with details, thanks to it's super high megapixel count
- There are also useful software modes like AI Ultra Clarity mode - a special selection that stitches multiple photos together to create a "best effort" compilation
- The depth-sensing camera does enable one extra trick - you can select the Shaping mode (alongside beauty mode) for a slider that can make your subject appear thinner
- The 25-megapixel front-facing camera is good too - especially with detail capture - portrait selfies are a bit over-processed though
- There is also the AR Lens, similar to Apple's Animoji for iPhone
- The overall video quality is on par with the flagships out there and even delivers more natural colors compared to some other phones - the videos appear to be smooth without any hiccups and there are no traces of noise
Audio
- Has a headphone jack, which is a fast-disappearing thing among flagships
Battery
- Very good battery life with a long-lived 4000mAh battery - you will able to get a day and a half with moderate use
- Super fast charging: the included Huawei Super Charger pours 22.5W into the device and charges the phone up from a dead battery to 59% in 30 minutes, and reaches 94% in one hour
Verdict
- There are no 2 ways about it - the Honor View 20 is a truly flagship-grade device that can challenge the best in the industry, and it's price is just icing on the cake
- When it comes to design, battery life, camera quality, and raw performance, the View 20 is right up there, competing for top honours (no pun intended)
- Compared to the other excellent value-for-money flagship, the OnePlus 6T - while the 6T beats the View 20 for screen quality and software experience, the Honor impresses more in all other areas - OnePlus finally has a top-notch rival
- With a phone like this priced far below the traditional high-end flagships, it's harder than ever to justify spending top dollar on a big-name handset
- The only things missing compared to other top-end flagships are wireless charging and an IP water-resistant rating on the phone, but at this price it's hard to argue with the overall value you are getting
