Review Honor View 20: now it's serious!

A few weeks ago Honor presented to Paris the new Honor View 20, or a smartphone that changes the cards at the table of the company, as it definitely wants to compete with the top of the range thanks to the captivating technical specifications and at a price higher than what the Chinese house had accustomed us. Moreover, Honor has the merit of being the first to have replaced the notch in favor of forum for the camera in the upper left corner!

In short, there is really a lot of meat to the fire, proceed with order and find out how this smartphone behaved within our full review.

Review Honor View 20

Unboxing

Compared to its former top of the range, Honor seems to have also changed the sales package, which is always made of white hardcover but that shows a representation of the smartphone on the upper profile. Choice decidedly apt because it makes the packaging much more interesting. Inside the following equipment is present:

• Honor View 20;
• USB data transfer cable - USB Type-C;
• wall power supply with European socket and Huawei SuperCharge charging;
• pin for the SIM slot;
• TPU cover;
• instruction manual.

Design and construction

The design of this Honor View 20 it is truly remarkable, as we later find one back cover in glass and with a "V" weave, so based on the light and how you tilt it, the smartphone will have a crazy performance. As for the front, however, the thing that immediately jumps to the eye is that we have a large full view display without notch, with a small lower frame and with the camera placed at the top left, which looks like a small hole.

One-handed use is not easy, but the dimensions they are rather optimized if we calculate that the diagonal of the display reaches i 6.4 inches. THE'Honor View 20 in fact it measures 156.9 x 75.4 x 8.1 millimeters for a weight of 180 grams.

The main camera is accompanied by the TOF 3D sensor, the LED flash, the fingerprint reader and the new company logo, while frontally we find the camera for the selfies, the capsule and the sensor of brightness and proximity.

With regard to the headset capsule this is located at the intersection of the two profiles of the smartphone and sometimes I have to put my ear just at the edge of the edge to be able to better hear an audio or a call.

On the right side you can see the volume rocker and the power button, unlike the left one where there is only the dual Nano SIM slot. Therefore we do not find the space for a microSD.

The upper profile, however, is the one that gives us more joys, as not only we find the mini-jack input, but also the infrared sensor, as well as the secondary microphone. Personally I continue to appreciate so much the choice by the company to enter the infrared because I use it a lot and because I find it very convenient.

Finally, there is the USB Type-C input, the system speaker and the main microphone.

Display

As previously introduced, theHonor View 20 has a display IPS da 6.4 inches diagonal with resolution Full HD + (2310 x 1080 pixels) and density of PPI 398.

We immediately talk about the most important aspect of the sector, namely the forum. Personally the latter he never bothered me during the days of use, as the top left is moved and our attention is unlikely to be concentrated on that portion of the display. Moreover, Honor has managed to optimize it well even at the software level, implementing some small gems that we will see later and making sure that it does not interfere with the icons of notifications.

La quality of the panel, however, is very good, i colors I'm a little bit less loads compared to one AMOLED, but the color rendering is in any case of level as well as the maximum brightness. In short, using this smartphone is really a pleasure, especially if you do it for watching multimedia content or for gaming.

Obviously if you are not satisfied with the color calibration, you can manage it at your convenience in the dedicated menu within the settings. Present, moreover, the reading mode and the mode that allows us to manually or automatically adjust the screen resolution to maximize autonomy.

Hardware and Performance

Honor View 20 offers the best the Chinese house can provide us, as we find the top chipset produced in-house by HuaweiOr l 'Kirin HiSilicon 980, which is inclusive of a processor octa-core with a maximum clock frequency of 2.6 GHz, an ARM GPU Mali-G76 MP10 (with support for GPU Turbo), 8 GB di RAM LPDDR4X and ben 256 GB di internal memory UFS 2.1 not expandable via microSD.

In Italy Honor View 20 will come only with this cut of memories, not bad choice, but of course the price it inevitably rose to the company's standards.

Le performance are really excellent and we did not find any kind of problem during daily use. The system is fluid and free from lag or various blows and the app opening is lightning fast. There GPU behaves the same way, because we can reproduce without problems even the heaviest games like PUBG o Fortnite, which are executed with details at most.

Camera

Another aspect that characterizes and differentiates Honor View 20 from its competitors concerns the photographic sector, which is characterized by a unique Sony IMX586 sensor da 48 mega-pixels with opening f / 1.8 e digital stabilizer. We speak of only one effective module because the second module is a sensor TOF 3D useful to define the depth of field.

In good light conditions the shots are really good thanks to a quality very high also favored by the sensor from 48 mega-pixels. The color representation is faithful and even the management of the lights is far beyond sufficiency. Surely the level compared to its predecessors has gone up a lot, but you have the feeling that you have not yet reached the level of the series Mate di Huawei. Obviously there is a substantial difference in price between the two, but it is a detail that we felt anyway to make present.

NB: the images in this gallery have been compressed, as every picture taken at 48 mega-pixel weighs more than 10 MB.

Le macro they are very good, which are characterized by a excellent bokeh effect cleverly managed by the sensor TOF 3D. Even at night we can have great satisfaction even if sometimes you need to keep your hand very firm.

Precisely regarding this aspect, the photos are satisfactory, but in some situations the night mode it can not be so incisive compared to the automatic mode and compared to what it offers Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Do not get me wrong, the results are satisfactory, but the internal comparison is almost automatic. In general, however, the management of the lights is good even if sometimes the colors are a bit 'too loaded.

Frontally we find a camera from 25 mega-pixels with opening f / 2.0, which returns some great shots in the daytime in both automatic and portrait mode, which is very precise in blurring the background. Also in this case I found a good management of lights and colors, but at night or in low light we will have one very firm hand because it's easy for the photos to come micromosse. In this case the quality drops and you can see the slight background noise, but all in all the sensor quietly surpasses the sufficiency.

I video they can be registered up to a maximum resolution of 4K a 30 FPS. The autofocus is very fast and we found a very good stabilization although on board we find a digital stabilizer.

Audio

The audio output from the lower speaker is quite powerful and has a good balance of frequencies, which have an even better performance in the headphones. As for the audio captured by the microphone, however, this turns out to be average.

Connectivity

L'Honor View 20 presents connectivity dual nano SIM with support toLTE Cat. 21. As per tradition Honor, the reception is well beyond the sufficiency and I have not encountered any kind of problems even with navigation abroad.

For the rest we find a good one Wi-Fi Dual Band, Bluetooth 5.0, the sensor infrared, L 'NFC and precise satellite navigation thanks to GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS / Beidu / Galileo.

Il fingerprint sensor place on the back cover is Quick e reactive, even by slightly touching the finger the input is perceived regularly and performed successfully. In fact, we can say that the unlocking happens without problems 10 times on 10.

As if this were not enough, it is also present facial unblock which, not having a dedicated sensor, will only use the camera. In daytime we can unlock the device very quickly, while in low light conditions the process is slightly slowed down, but is still reliable.

We leave the last mention at the entrance USB Type-C 3.1 that, how Huawei Mate 20 Pro, will allow the audio-video output on an external monitor, by actually starting the desktop mode.

Software

Honor View 20 is based on Android 9 Pie with personalized interface Magic UI 2.0.1 that we have already seen on Honor Magic 2 and security patches updated to January 1 2019. In reality there is practically no difference between EMUI e Magic UI and we find all the customizations that we have already seen on board the other devices of the Chinese house.

Present therefore i themes, system gestures, one hand mode and management digital, which will help us to use the smartphone with more awareness allowing us to set maximum hours of use.

Il software however it is definitely fluid and we have never encountered any kind of lag or miscellaneous quilting. Furthermore, the hole has been optimized and integrated properly. For example, engaging graphics were introduced with calls.

Autonomy

Under the body of theHonor View 20 we find a battery from 4000 mAh, which will allow us to obtain a very good autonomy. Indeed, with intense use and mixed between Wi-Fi e data network I managed to reach even the 7 hours and minutes 15 di screen active. Very often manages to bring me to the day and a half of total use.

Instead, connecting only with the data network and keeping the GPS for most of the day I arrived at 4.30 / 5 hours of active screen.

La full recharge . poco more than 1 15 hours and minutes with the supplied power supply, which supports the Huawei SuperCharge.

Conclusions

After having analyzed in detail this new top of the range it is time to come to conclusions. Indeed, Honor View 20 it's a great device that from the point of view hardware offers the best you can have, but which presents some small shortcomings to be the definitive top of the range such as the IP68 certification, wireless charging or maybe one optical stabilization.

Obviously the price difference between the competitors that present these specifications and who is not remarkable and not to be underestimated, but in general it is to be appreciated the breakthrough and Honor she finally managed to do. The other side of the coin is that the next step also led to a price increase of the device, generating many discussions among users, according to which Honor he would not have respected the target he had set for himself, the young people.

To this Honor View 20 there is certainly no shortage of qualities, but perhaps it is better to wait for the price to drop slightly in order to define it as a real bargain. In fact, the smartphone is officially sold to 699 €, but already in these last days we have seen it on The Amazon under the 640 €!