Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei, one of China’s biggest technology companies. Honor has served as a way for Huawei to launch more best-value smartphones that are quite affordable. The Honor 20 has been launched and it is going to be the successor to the Honor 10 that was released around this same time last year.

The phone was launched alongside the Honor 20 Pro, and, this is the first time the Chinese company has launched 2 main flagship killers at the same time.
When compared to its predecessor, the Honor 20 comes with a better display, a more powerful processor, a bigger battery, and an overall better camera experience.

Being the non-pro version, the Honor 20 comes in at a more affordable price when compared to the Honor 20 Pro. Despite this price difference, they both come with almost the same specs in key places. The Honor 20 Pro only comes with better specs in the camera, battery, memory, and storage departments.

Looking at the Honor 20 specs and price, you’d see that is one of the best higher mid-range to flagship killers smartphones that is available in the smartphone market.

In this article, I’ll be sharing with you everything you need to know about the newly launched Honor 20, its full specifications, price, and review. Without taking much of our time, let’s get right into today’s article.

Honor 20 Key Specs

• 6.26 inches FHD+ IPS LCD display
• HiSilicon Kirin 980 (7nm) chipset
• 6GB or 8GB of RAM
• 128GB or 256GB of internal storage
• 48MP + 16MP + 2MP + 2MP quad-rear camera
• 32MP front-facing camera
• 3,750 mAh battery
• 22.5W SuperCharge fast charging
• Android 9 Pie with Magic UI 2.1
• Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• 4G LTE network support

Display

The display of the Honor 20 is one of its main selling points as it sports a 6.26 inches All-View IPS LCD display that has an FHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and 412 PPI density. It has a maximum brightness of about 450 nits which is quite impressive as you should not have any viewing issues outside so far you’re not under direct sunlight.

The display has a tiny punch-hole cutout at the top corner, which is similar to that of the Galaxy S10 series that was launched earlier this year. The punch-hole cutout helps to give you an All-View experience as apart from it, there are no other interruptions on the front of the phone.

The screen has an LCD panel which is one of the ways Honor decided to cut costs as opposed to using a more expensive OLED panel. The color accuracy is quite impressive also as when in Normal Display mode, it has an average of dE2000 of 1.8.

Design and Body

Despite being made to be affordable, Honor did not compromise on the build quality of the Honor 20 as it has a premium design and can stand up to more expensive flagships.

The Honor 20 comes in a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass on the front and rear with an aluminum frame holding them together. The phone has a nice look as it is available in four colors: Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue, Icelandic white, and Phantom Blue. The rear panel has a gradient design so you can see a different mix of colors. The frame also has the same color as the phone and it has a glossy finish.

On the sides, you’d find the IR blaster at the top, the USB Type C port and speaker grille at the bottom, the volume rockers and power button at the rough, and the SIM card slot at the left. The power button also doubles as the fingerprint sensor for seamless biometric authentication.
At the rear, you’d see the flat back glass which houses the quad-camera setup as well as Honor’s branding.

Processor and Memory

Coming to the processor which is also one of the top-selling points of this smartphone, the Honor 20 is powered by the octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC.

The Kirin 980 chipset is built on a more efficient 7nm fabrication process and it has 2 Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.6 GHz, 2 Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 1.92 GHz and 4 smaller Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. The chipset is coupled with the Mali-G76 MP10 GPU which is a nice graphics unit for gaming and other graphics-intensive tasks.

The processor is coupled with 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of fast UFS 2.1 storage. Depending on your region, you can find models with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, there’s no micro SD card on this phone so you can expand the storage once it runs out.

Camera

The camera on the Honor 20 is an impressive camera system with a quad camera on the rear and a single front-facing camera. The camera is not up to par with the Pro version but it also doesn’t fall far behind in some scenarios.

The quad-camera setup on the rear features a 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor with f/1.8 aperture & PDAF, a 16MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture, a 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, and a 2MP depth camera.

The selfie camera features a 32MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture.
Unlike the rear camera which has a technology binning four pixels into one to get a 12MP resolution image, the 32MP selfie camera takes photos in full 32MP resolution.

As for video recording, the rear camera can record at 4K up to 30fps and at 1080p up to 30 or 60 fps while the selfie camera is capped at 1080p at 30 fps

The camera takes nice photos that have great details and sharpness with true-to-life color and impressive dynamic range. The skin tone is also great.

There are other fun camera modes for you to use like Night Mode, Panorama mode, Macro mode for close-up shots, and Portrait mode to get a nice blur background.

Battery and Charging

On the inside, the Honor 20 is backed by a 3,750 mAh non-removable battery. The battery is not one of the largest in the market but it is up to the task and offers you a nice experience.

The battery life is quite great but when it eventually runs low, there’s support for Honor’s 22.5W SuperCharge which can take the phone from 0% to 50% in about 30 minutes and up to 100% in about 90 minutes. The fast charger and cable are included in the box so you don’t need to purchase any other thing.

Network and Connectivity

There’s support for 4G LTE network and the Honor 20 supports the following LTE bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 38, 40, & 41.

The phone comes with dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC, and USB 2.0 On-The-Go.

Software

On the software front, the Honor 20 runs on Android 9 Pie with Magic UI 2.1 skin on top and it is upgradable to Android 10 with Magic UI 4.0.

Honor 20 Price and Availability

At launch, the Honor 20 is priced at €500 which is equivalent to £420. It is available in Honor official stores as well as other partner stores.

Honor 20 Review

The Honor 20 is a nice all-rounder smartphone with a mesmerizing design, great build quality, a powerful processor, a beautiful display, and a good camera.
It is not a perfect smartphone but it offers great value for money which is a good thing.

Honor 20 Full Specifications

Honor 20

• Processor: Kirin 980 (7 nm)
• RAM:128GB 6GB RAM 128GB 8GB RAM 256GB 8GB RAM
  UFS 2.1
• Storage: 128GB 6GB RAM 128GB 8GB RAM 256GB 8GB RAM
  UFS 2.1
• Display: IPS LCD
• Camera: LED flash HDR panorama
• Battery: Li-Po 3750 mAh non-removable

Honor 20 SPECIFICATIONS

network

• technology technology
  GSM / HSPA / LTE

• 2g bands 2g bands
  GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
  - SIM 1 & SIM 2

• 3g bands 3g bands
  HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100

• 4g bands 4g bands
  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 38, 40, 41

• speed speed
  HSPA, LTE-A

launch

• announced announced
  2019, May

• status status
  Available. Released 2019, June

body

• dimensions dimensions
  154.3 x 74 x 7.9 mm (6.07 x 2.91 x 0.31 in)

• weight weight
  174 g (6.14 oz)

• build build
  Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame

• sim sim
  Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

display

• type type
  IPS LCD

• size size
  6.26 inches, 96.2 cm2 (~84.2% screen-to-body ratio)

• resolution resolution
  1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~412 ppi density)

platform

• os os
  Android 9.0 (Pie), upgradable to Android 10, Magic UI 4.0

• chipset chipset
  Kirin 980 (7 nm)

• cpu cpu
  Octa-core (2x2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2x1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A55)

• gpu gpu
  Mali-G76 MP10

memory

• card slot card slot
  No

• internal internal
  128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM
  UFS 2.1

main camera

• quad quad
  48 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF 16 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3.1" 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)

• features features
  LED flash, HDR, panorama

• video video
  4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps; gyro-EIS

selfie camera

• single single
  32 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.8µm

• features features
  HDR

• video video
  1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS

sound

• loudspeaker loudspeaker
  Yes

• 35mm jack 35mm jack
  No
  32-bit/192kHz audio

comms

• wlan wlan
  Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct

• bluetooth bluetooth
  5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE

• positioning positioning
  GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS

• nfc nfc
  Yes

• radio radio
  No

• usb usb
  USB Type-C 2.0, OTG

features

• sensors sensors
  Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

battery

• type type
  Li-Po 3750 mAh, non-removable

• charging charging
  22.5W wired, 50% in 24 min (advertised)

misc

• colors colors
  Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue, Icelandic white, Phantom Blue

• models models
  YAL-L21, YAL-AL00, YAL-TL00

• price price
  About 400 EUR

tests

• performance performance
  Basemark X: 44871

• display display
  Contrast ratio: 1170:1 (nominal)

• camera camera
  Photo / Video

• loudspeaker loudspeaker
  Voice 68dB / Noise 72dB / Ring 87dB

• audio quality audio quality
  Noise -96.3dB / Crosstalk -52.1dB

• battery life battery life
  Endurance rating 89h