Honor View 20 review - smartphone with a hole in the display!

Foreword: Honor View 20

The View 20 was released in China at the end of December. The powerful Kirin 980 smartphone was previewed at CES 2019 in January. Although everything about the smartphone was already known by then, Honor didn't miss the opportunity to present the View 20 "globally" again on January 22nd in Paris.

Design, workmanship and delivery

The Honor View 20 relies on a particularly unusual design. Especially the back of the 156,9 mm high, 75,4 mm wide and 8,1 mm thick smartphone immediately catches the eye. Available in a total of four different colors, the multi-layered "Aurora Nano-Design" back shimmers depending on the incidence of light.

 The smartphone is set up as follows: 

The front mostly takes up the 6.4 inch display. Honor has kept the display bezel extremely small with only 2,5 mm to the sides and a maximum of 5 mm to the lower edge of the case. This impression is reinforced by the hardened display glass with a 2.5D curved cut.

Instead of accommodating the selfie camera in a classic notch or retractable, Honor has integrated the front camera directly into the display. The circular recess with a diameter of 4,5 mm was placed in the upper left corner of the display. The loudspeaker, the brightness and proximity sensor as well as the notification LED were placed completely inconspicuously between the display and the edge of the housing.

The housing frame is made of metal and the color of the back is matched. The dual nano SIM slot is on the left. Opposite the power button and volume rocker. Honor stays true to the tried and tested 3.5 mm audio jack. In the View 20, this is located at the top, next to an IR transmitter and a noise-canceling microphone. As usual, media speakers, main microphone and USB-C socket are located on the lower side of the frame.

The anodized metal frame merges stylishly into the curved "Aurora Nano-Design" back. This consists of glass and has a multi-layer structure, which creates an interesting V-pattern depending on the angle of view and the incidence of light. The smartphone is available in the standard colors "Sapphire Blue" and "Midnight Black" as well as the special colors "Red" and "Phantom Blue". The color red, in particular, was created in collaboration with the Italian fashion label “Moschino”, which has also given the special edition two adapted wallpapers.

Other features of the back are the horizontally arranged 48 megapixel main camera with LED flash and "AI Vision" lettering, a circular fingerprint scanner and another "honor" lettering.

In terms of workmanship, the Honor View 20 is in the upper league. The case does not creak and does not give in under pressure. All control buttons sit firmly in the housing with a comfortable pressure point. The smartphone feels non-slip in the hand despite the glass back. Last but not least, the scope of delivery. This includes a transparent silicone protective cover, an EU charging adapter, a USB-C data cable, a SIM tool and a quick guide. A screen protector is already applied at the factory.

Display

The display is of the LTPS type and has an almost borderless diagonal of 6.4 inches with a resolution of 2130 x 1080 pixels. Honor gives the screen-to-body ratio a respectable 91.8%.

display measurement

Measured with the colorimeter, the panel achieved a maximum luminance of 470 cd / m². The brightness deviates by up to 70 cd / m² towards the edges of the display, especially towards the upper edge of the display! The measured black value is 0.47 cd / m², which results in a rather average contrast ratio of 1: 1000.

The Delta E deviation from the sRGB color space measured in normal color mode is an average of 2.88 and a maximum of 6.62. The shades of gray are slightly turquoise. The View 3 adheres to the DCI-P20 color space in vivid color mode with an average Delta E of 7.05 and a maximum of 11.32.

Display in everyday life

The Honor View 20's display is easy to read in everyday use, but not outstanding. In the standard "Lively" color mode, the smartphone is comparatively cool with the accompanying strong color rendering. In the "Normal" color mode, the color rendering is significantly warmer, but it still tends to be slightly turquoise.

The readability in sunshine is average. Reflections are unavoidable when there is strong incidence of light. The viewing angle stability is good, so that the display remains legible even at an inclined viewing angle. The color reproduction is only minimally distorted. The display can be dimmed to a comfortable 1.5 cd / m² in the dark.

Display settings and functions

The display settings allow manual and automatic brightness adjustment, the color mode can be set using the "Lively" and "Normal" profiles and the color temperature can be set using a color wheel. An eye-friendly night or reading mode can be activated according to a schedule. Settings for the screen resolution allow a smart reduction of the display resolution to save power (FHD + to HD +).

Touchscreen

The touchscreen responds precisely and detects up to 10 simultaneous inputs. Ghost Touches did not occur in the test. A screen protector is already in the factory on the display. Unfortunately, this is not dirt-repellent, not very slippery and fingerprints are immediately visible.

Performance

Kirin 980

The Kirin 980 SoC, which is also installed in Huawei's Mate 20 Series, works under the hood. The SoC, manufactured using the 7 nm process, has 10x more transistors than a conventional 1.6 nm SoC. The three-level architecture divides the SoC into two ultra-fast and two highly efficient Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. The Cortex-A76 cores are up to 75 percent more powerful and 58 percent more efficient than their predecessors. The Mali-G46 GPU ensures a graphical performance increase of up to 76 percent with higher efficiency at the same time. The SoC's dual NPU is responsible for the smartphone's AI tasks.

In order to cope with demanding multitasking, the Honor View 20 is equipped with 6GB or 8GB LPDDR4X memory. Apps, films and games can be accommodated on the 128GB or optionally 256GB data storage device. There is no way to expand the data memory using a memory card.

Benchmark

As expected, the View 20 is powerful in the benchmark. Using the example of the AnTuTu benchmark, which particularly takes graphics performance into account, 277.215 points are achieved. This value is comparable to Qualcomm's high-end processor Snapdragon 845, which is installed in the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, among other things.

The Kirin 980 excels in the Geekbench benchmark test. The processor is particularly powerful in the single-core test and leaves the competition from Qualcomm behind with approx. 3274 points. A particularly high score of 9724 points is also achieved in the multi-core test.

However, the Mali-G3 GPU of the Kirin 76 is slightly behind the competition (Adreno 980 GPU) in the 630DMark graphics test. However, benchmark values ​​are not everything! Let's take a look at how the Honor View 20's hardware performs in everyday life.

Performance in everyday life

Regarding his everyday performance, the View 20 leaves nothing to be desired. The user interface is fluid to use and animations are displayed without jerks. RAM and internal data storage work fast, which means apps start up in a timely manner. Several apps that are open at the same time do not sweat the smartphone so fast. With up to 8GB memory, previously opened apps can be retrieved from memory for a very long time. Only when rendering websites, the Kirin 980 smartphone has beaten the Qualcomm competition. Zar also renders web pages quickly and scrolls smoothly, but a smartphone with Snapdragon 845 is a tick faster!

Gaming

With the presentation of the Honor View 20, Fortnite Mobile was also the focus of the event. Buyers of the smartphone receive, among other things, an exclusive skin for the game. It is worth mentioning that the View 20 is one of the first smartphones to make Fortnite Mobile playable with up to 60 FPS.

The smartphone was also allowed to face other mobile games in the gaming test. Games like PUBG Mobile or Asphalt 8 can be played smoothly at the highest level of detail. Mobile games that will appear in the future should not be a problem for the Kirin 980 SoC with Mali-G76 GPU. An unusually high heat development was not noticeable in the test. Nevertheless, there is a slight thermal throttling, even if this is not noticeable in everyday use.

user interface

The smartphone uses Honor's newly introduced Magic UI 2.0, which is based on Android 9 Pie. In contrast to Stock Android, the Magic UI user interface is heavily modified. Numerous Huawei and Honor apps, but also social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram, are already preinstalled on the smartphone. If you do not need this "bloatware", you can uninstall most of the apps using the app manager.

One of the main focuses of Magic UI is on smart AI functions. The camera app recognizes sights and even calculates calories when scanning foods. Magic UI is controlled by virtual buttons or swipe gestures.

Camera

A highlight of the Honor View 20 is the 48 megapixel main camera. The very young (September 2018) Sony IMX 586 image sensor with an f / 1.8 aperture was installed. Pixels are effectively combined in order to achieve good-looking images despite 48 megapixels and a sensor size of 8 mm. An additional second sensor enables recordings with a bokeh effect. The front camera has a proud 25 megapixels.

Practical test of the main camera

Photo mode

The Sony IMX 586 sensor is provided with a so-called "Quad Bayer matrix". 4 pixels share a common color filter, so that the noise behavior is reduced even at a higher ISO. The pixel area quadruples, at the same time the resolution is reduced to 12 megapixels.

The photo recording quality of the Honor View 20 is convincing. Particularly in good lighting conditions, details are extracted cleanly in 48 megapixel mode. However, the reproduction of details decreases towards the edges of the image. Objects that are further away also appear clearly blurred. As soon as higher ISO values ​​are required, it is advisable to switch to 12 megapixel mode with pixel binning. This significantly improves the noise behavior of the ½ inch sensor.

To compensate for the lower color resolution in 48 megapixel mode, the IMX 586 uses a "Real Time Array Conversion". The color coordination is significantly brighter at 48 megapixels. More saturated colors are achieved with 12 megapixels.

 All full-resolution test shots can be found under this one Link 

Nachtaufnahmen

Unfortunately, the main camera of the View 20 does not look particularly good at night. In 12 megapixel mode, recordings are still acceptable, but already show muddy textures and a certain amount of image blurring. In 48 megapixel mode, the picture deteriorates increasingly. Recordings are muddy, noisy and mostly out of focus.

Bokeh and AI

The Honor View 20 is equipped with a portrait and aperture mode for bokeh recordings. As the name suggests, the portrait mode is suitable for taking portraits. People are highlighted and the background is slightly blurred. The blur can be regulated in aperture mode. This mode is ideal for highlighting objects. People and objects are extracted as cleanly as possible in both modes. However, minor errors on difficult edges are inevitable!

The camera AI offers numerous effects, filters and advanced recording modes. Among other things, there is an AI scene recognition, various background effects and an ultra clarity mode, which increases the contrast and thus brings out details even better.

video mode

In video mode, the smartphone records with maximum 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. In addition to H.264, the newer H.265 codec is also supported. Image stabilization is activated automatically and is carried out electronically. The slow motion mode enables recordings at up to 960 frames per second at 720p. With a resolution of 1080p, an impressive 120 images per second are still possible. The recording quality in video mode is adequate, even if the microphone sounds slightly tinny.

Practical test of the front camera

Friends of selfies will enjoy using the View 20 front camera. The camera captures images with pleasant detail and pleasant color reproduction. With increasingly poor lighting conditions, image noise becomes visible and colors fade.

The many effects are also worth mentioning here. In addition to AI scene recognition, there are artificial lighting effects, a selection of Animojis that can be placed over the face, numerous beauty filters and bokeh effects. The front camera records videos with a maximum of 1080p + resolution.

connectivity

Telephony

The Honor View 20 is a dual-SIM smartphone (nano-SIM) with 4G LTE support on both SIM slots. The global version of the smartphone supports the mobile radio frequencies and bands commonly used in this country. Here is an overview:

•  GSM: B2, B3, B5, B8
•  WCDMA: B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B8, B19
•  TDD-LTE: B38, B40, B41
•  FDD-LTE: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B19, B20, B28

The voice quality is good. Conversations can be conducted cleanly thanks to the noise-reducing microphone. The reception quality to the mobile network is decent. Functions such as VoLTE and VoWiFi are available.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

For wireless connections, the View 20 is equipped with Dual-AC WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0. The transfer speeds in the WLAN are mediocre. Other smartphones in the same price range are connected much faster in terms of data transfer. However, this fact is hardly noticeable when connecting to the Internet. The signal strength and range are not objectionable either in WLAN or with Bluetooth.

Audio

Unfortunately, the View 20 does not have a stereo speaker. Thanks to the raised heights, the built-in mono speaker is very suitable for making phone calls in hands-free mode, but less so for watching videos or listening to music. The maximum playback volume is comfortably high without scratching. There are weaknesses in the bass, which, as expected, are hardly present.

If you want to listen to music or watch films with the View 20, you have several options. Despite the USB-C connection, the smartphone is also equipped with a 3.5 mm audio jack. In the test, 32 ohm headphones were connected. The playback volume via the 3.5 mm socket is not too loud, but is still within an acceptable range. The sound quality convinces with good dynamics and clarity. For wireless connections, the Bluetooth 5.0 standard offers largely lossless aptX support.

GPS and sensors

The position is determined with the help of dual-frequency GPS. In contrast to single-frequency GPS, two signals are received at different frequencies in order to ensure a position determination that is accurate to within a few centimeters (in theory).

The GPS test shows the View 20 as a reliable navigation assistant. Outside, within seconds, a precise GPS fix with high satellite density takes place. When navigating through city and country, the GPS fix remained constant and without deviation. Even indoors, the smartphone finds within a few seconds to a few meters accurate GPS fix.

The further sensor system includes a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, a digital compass, a gravity sensor and a gyroscope. A well and quickly working fingerprint scanner for securely unlocking the smartphone is located on the back. In addition, the front camera is able to unlock the smartphone via face recognition. The face recognition of the View 20 cannot be tricked with a photo. NFC is also available. Secure payment with Google Pay is supported and works flawlessly.

Battery

The battery has a capacity of 4.000 mAh. In everyday life it is difficult to bring him to his knees. With normal use with a little surfing, phone calls, a bit of YouTube and WhatsApp, a runtime of 2 days was achieved in the test. The very low consumption in standby is particularly interesting. Only 1-3% of the battery was lost overnight.

Huawei's Super Charge function is also used in the Honor View 20. The quick charge function charges the smartphone with up to 22.5 watts. It only takes 50 minutes to charge the smartphone by 25%. A complete charging process takes approx. 80 minutes. Unfortunately, Honor has dispensed with a way to charge the smartphone wirelessly.