After a few months of being pushed away from the spotlight, Honor 20 Pro is back with an affordable price for high-end specs. This smartphone has entered a head-on competition with OnePlus 7 in terms of pricing, specs, and performance.

Hardware And Design

Honor 20 Pro is a real looker in its Phantom Black color with a purple splash at the center and flashes of black shades coming toward the edges.

The glass back and the huge size does not make the Honor 20 Pro a heavy smartphone to hold in your hand. However, some users might think that the phone exudes a cheaper feel than the Huawei P30 Pro does.

The back of the phone is curved, meaning it will fit snugly into your palm. The camera bump will prevent the phone from rocking if placed face-up on a surface.

A significant downer is the LCD, which does not have the vibrancy we can find on an AMOLED screen. However, most users will not notice much of a difference here as the panel on the Honor 20 Pro performs quite well.

This phone features a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which can pose difficulty to left-handed users. If you do not feel comfortable using this system of authentication, the PIN lock method is a reliable alternative.

The haptic feedback is the next feature you should disable right away; otherwise, you will have to put up with the buzzy and hollow vibration coming from the Honor 20 Pro.

Users will not be able to connect any wired headphones to this smartphone as there is no port for that purpose.

Software And Performance

Under the hood, Honor 20 Pro runs on Kirin 980 chipset, with RAM of 6GB or 8GB, meaning the phone can handle most of the day-to-day tasks with ease. The most noticeable problem is with the EMUI-infused Magic UI 2.1.

Both Magic UI 2.1 and EMUI 9.1 have the same problem, which is the overdesigned feel. The menus are still stuffed with options and sections.

However, as this is still a flagship device, apps, games, and menus perform as with any other flagship you find on the market.

While we do not have an exceptional display as we do with smartphones that have AMOLED panel, the gameplay is still decent. Asphalt: Legends and the like can run smoothly without any hiccup.

Camera

On DxOMark, the quad-camera setup achieves 111 scores. While grades and scores are not exactly the most accurate indication of performance, they do give us a clearer idea of what to expect. Here is what we get with the rear snapper setup: a 48-megapixel main sensor with optical image stabilization, a 16-megapixel sensor coupled with a wide-angle lens, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 2-megapixel macro snapper.

When it comes to performance, you may not notice much of a difference between that of Honor 20 Pro and Honor 20.

With this phone, users can capture both ultra-wide and zoomed-in photos. In terms of flexibility, Huawei P30 Pro is still the king, but Honor 20 Pro is not too far behind.

You can expect videos with stable colors and exposure with the Honor 20 Pro. Even with smartphones that have a higher price, users cannot make use of all the lenses to record 4K videos as you do with this Honor 20 Pro. The telephoto lens may result in images with more saturated colors.

Not many smartphones on the market can perform well in low light when recording videos and what this phone can do is acceptable. The 4K is only achievable at 30 fps, but we may expect 4K at 60 fps when Honor decides to use Kirin 990 in its smartphones, especially the Honor 30 Pro.

According to a Neowin’s report, the upcoming Kirin 990 might be Huawei’s first chipset to support recording 4K 60 fps videos.

This information was revealed in a media event in Shenzhen, China. For now, the Kirin 980 chipset that powers current flagship phones of Huawei and Honor are capable of only 1080p at 60 fps or 4K at 30 fps.

This new chipset might come to Huawei Mate 30 lineup, making it the first of the company to be able to record videos with high resolution. So if this chipset has the capacity Neowin talked about, users will no longer have to choose between a high resolution and high frame rate.

Battery

With lower-resolution display and 4,000 mAh battery, Honor 20 Pro manages to get through two days with extensive usage. Huawei P30 Pro can reach that kind of time with ease, but even if you find yourself in need of recharge the phone, you can do that quickly with the 22.5W fast charger.

Verdict

Honor 20 Pro is the blend of what makes Huawei smartphones so popular in the last few years while still making a few noticeable compromises. For starter, it is a comfortable phone to hold in your hand, something you will appreciate as some other phones that cost double or triple are unable to do.

The performance of the cameras is a plus here. You will have in your hand one of the best snapper setups on the market at a very budget-friendly price. The lenses provide lots of options for owners to play around with, just like what you have with Huawei P30 Pro.