HONOR 20: Great design and camera steal the show

HONOR 20: Great design and camera steal the show

Huawei HONOR 20.

Huawei HONOR 20.

By Krishna SinhaChaudhury

New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) Chinese smartphone giant Huawei and its sub-brand HONOR have been putting up a brave fight against the ban imposed by the US. The handset player confirmed rolling out the next upgrade to Android OS "Android Q" for several of its devices last week that includes the newly-launched HONOR 20 series and Huawei's flagship P30 Pro.

Huawei captured a double-digit share in the highly-concentrated premium market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 on the back of impeccable camera quality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and superior-build quality of its flagship mate and P series that drove the growth, according to Counterpoint Research.

Its sub-brand's HONOR 20 was launched alongside the premium HONOR 20 Pro and HONOR 20i which has relatively toned down specs than the other two devices in the series.

The HONOR 20 features top-line specs, including the proprietary Kirin 980 chipset (which fuels the flagship P30 Pro) alongside 6GB RAM and 128GB storage space for Rs 32,999. After using the smartphone for a few days, here is what we think of it.

The glass rear looked beautiful when it caught light; however, there wasn't much difference between the Pro and the HONOR 20, albeit for the fact that the latter houses a smaller 3,750mAh battery than HONOR 20 Pro.

There's a 6.2-inch screen with a punch hole selfie camera instead of a conventional notch. The front and rear are both glossy with an aluminium frame. The device feels comfortable, enough for single-handed use.

A refreshing change is the fingerprint scanner that's placed on the side of the phone.

Camera performance was one of the high points of the device that makes use of 48MP primary sensor with a 16MP ultra wide lens, a dedicated depth-sensing lens and 2MP macro unit.

The camera picks up enough details on the subject with good dynamic range. It beat the beats out the OnePlus 7 Pro's camera in terms of colour and saturation.

While shooting in low light, the camera used "Night mode" which is works like Google's Night Sight that is use of software to brighten up the picture taken at night.

The 32MP selfie camera produced detailed and vivid portraits.

For those accustomed to the company's proprietary EMUI OS (based on Android) it won't be a problem but fans of vanilla Android (Google Pixel) or OxygenOS (found in OnePlus phones) may find the software somewhat overwhelming.

The rear camera bump made the device wobbly when placed on a flat surface. The absence of water resistance was another disappointment.

Conclusion: The HONOR 20 fits the bill when it comes to living up to the standards of a flagship features on a budget. A capable camera, good battery backup and overall performance makes it a great buy.

(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at [e-mail])

--IANS

ksc/na

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