HONOR 20 PRO review - The quad-camera smartphone the masses have been waiting for

[ Aug 10, 2019]First there's the HONOR 20 Lite, then came along the HONOR 20. Now we are going to complete the HONOR 20 series review trilogy with the HONOR 20 PRO. After a much-delayed launch due to the Google service issue, the pro variant is finally launching and like many consumers, this is the one that most of us have been waiting for.

By all means, I'm not saying this is a perfect smartphone. But if you're curious, read on below to find out all the pros and cons of the HONOR 20 PRO.

Design - Simple yet mystical

So previously on the HONOR 20 review, I mentioned that the design looks nice but there's nothing much to go in awe for since it's so common for smartphones to look like that now. Thankfully, I won't be saying the same for the HONOR 20 PRO. The back design is quite simple, sharing the same gradient colour combo but it's more "mystical" due to the darker shade transition on the top and bottom. Although there are many phones using a gradient design, none of them are quite like the HONOR 20 PRO and it's beautiful in its own way.

Here's how the Phantom Black (really, that's the official name) looks like, nothing too different

The Phantom Black mainly displays ultraviolet reflection, depending on which angle you're viewing

No changes to the USB Type-C port and speaker grills at the bottom, likewise for the volume and power/fingerprint sensor on the right side

The dual nano-SIM tray can be found on the left side

I do have a question for HONOR, though. Why do they give such a weird name for the colours? The model in this review is called Phantom Black but the majority of the colour is purple (and some blue from different angles), same goes to the Phantom Blue but using green instead. Perhaps it's referring to the hidden colours and shades, but the phone still looks eye-catching nonetheless.

Tech specs and features - More or less the same with the HONOR 20

Here are the tech specs of the HONOR 20 PRO:

• Kirin 980 chipset (7nm) + Dual NPU
• 8GB of RAM
• 256GB UFS 2.1 storage
• 6.26-inch Full-View Display
• 16MP (Super Wide Angle lens, F/2.2) + 48MP + 8MP (Telephoto lens, F/2.4) + 2MP (Macro sensor, F/2.4)
• 32MP Front Camera
• Features Fingerprint Sensor (side-mounted), Face Unlock, Optical Zoom 3x, Hybrid Zoom 5x, Digital Zoom 30x, GPU Turbo 3.0, Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound, SuperCharge (22.5W)
• Magic UI 2.1 based on Android 9.0 Pie
• 4000mAh battery

As a pro variant, the HONOR 20 PRO has some advantages over the HONOR 20 (obviously). The change is minimal, but if you must know - it now has an 8MP telephoto lens on the quad rear camera module (replacing the 2MP depth sensor), the RAM is bigger too with 8GB, so is the storage with 256GB and a 4000mAh battery pack. Everything else remains the same.

The quad rear camera module has the same layout as the HONOR 20

The camera user interface

While the quad rear camera only changed one lens, but it has another advantage - a 4-Axis Optical Image Stabilizer hanging out in the main and telephoto lens. Not only is this great for mobile photography, but also for recording videos, especially when combined with the EIS or Electronic Image Stabilizer. In short, this is perfect for vloggers who like to record daily for their social media. You can check out our vlog trip in the video above.

Performance - The night king

I mentioned that the HONOR 20 PRO and HONOR 20 are more or less the same, so this pretty much applies to the performance section as well but it is slightly better thanks to the extra 8GB RAM and 4000mAh battery boost. That means it can easily go through the day without charging (provided you're not gaming or not using the GPS heavily), and gaming actually feels a bit smoother as well if compared with the HONOR 20. You can see the video below to be the judge.

The game tends to lag for a moment when spinning but otherwise, it's fine. Battery heating isn't an issue too

The graphics test is a mixed bag, the HONOR 20 PRO scores well at the OpenGL ES 3.1 but not so much for the Vulkan part

30 minutes of Asphalt 9 drained the battery by 9%

On other features performances, there isn't much to nitpick about. The sound, network call and connection are working well, so all that's left now is the camera performance. Daytime shots can be a bit tricky since the HONOR 20 PRO has an F/1.4 aperture on its main sensor and as a basic rule of thumb, the bigger the aperture, the more light goes into the sensor. If you're not careful with your shots, most of your daytime shots can look overexposed with too much light. If you want, you can manually lower the light sensitivity by 0.5 for the closest colour representation.

Once you know how to play around with the camera, the photoshoots are out of this world especially for low-light environments and if you're a photography enthusiast, you're gonna have a lot of fun time! This applies to the Portrait Mode as well which we just loved using during our photography spree. Check out the photo samples we took from Japan and Kuala Lumpur!

Conclusion - The quad-camera smartphone that we all been waiting for

If you like the HONOR 20, then you will LOVE the HONOR 20 PRO more. Coupled with the mystic design, gaming and battery performance, photography and videography potential. I personally think the HONOR 20 PRO is more suited for people who are in the lifestyle business (like vloggers) and the RM2299 is just at the right pricing.design. In the end, it all comes down to your preference of price vs performance.

Source:TechNave