Honor 20 Series Launch

Honor have just announced three new phones from their new Honor 20 Series: the Honor 20, the Honor 20 Pro and the Honor 20 Lite. We will be discussing the information about the models' features and specs which has been unveiled during the Honor 20 Series launch:

Honor 20 Pro

The Honor 20 Pro is a low cost take on a premium smartphone. It may not be as hyped in the same way that other brands are, but it is a decent mid-range smartphone which stands in good stead for Honor to be able to compete with similar phones on the market.

Design

The handset is quite large with a body size of roughly 154mm x 74mm x 9mm, so some users might find it tricky to reach the top of the screen. The phone also has a 91.6% screen-to-body ratio, with a speaker and a notification light at the top of the phone. George Zhao, the global president of the Honor brand, spent a lot of time explaining to the audience how the Honor 20 Pro is made from glass, colour and depth layers, 'Triple 3D Mesh' and 4 sided 3D curved glass. This is an attractive looking phone, and it fits in nicely amongst its competitors with its glossy design of either green or purple. However, if you truly want to break the mold, you can protect your device with a Moschino phone case. Honor have partnered with Moschino who have co-designed unique cases for this phone (we have to say though, they will not be everyone's cup of tea).

Features

The Honor 20 Pro also has an interesting array of new features, including four cameras, the latest Kirin 980 chipset and a 'punch-hole' front-facing camera. The fact that the Honor 20 Pro has four cameras is somewhat cumbersome as the phone does not lie flat on a surface as a result. However, this is the price you have to pay if you want to enjoy all the tech features that this device has to offer.

The Honor 20 Pro also has a 6.26" All-View Display screen which uses LCD Full HD+ tech. It must be said that the Honor 20 Pro's mid-range competitors, namely the OnePlus 6 and the Google Pixel 3a, have OLED and AMOLED screens. It is unlikely that the Honor 20 Pro will be able to display colour as well in comparison. Furthermore, the device does not have the best specs in terms of screen quality. However, for some consumers it is a trade-off that they would be willing to make for the Honor 20 Pro's low price. In spite of this, the brightness range is decent and performs reasonably well under direct sunlight.

Price

We do not know what the Honor 20 Pro's price is going to be in the UK yet, however we do know that the cost of the 8 RAM and 256GB model is €599 (which is just over £500).

Honor 20

The Honor 20 is very similar to the Honor 20 Pro. They have the same design, display and a lot of the same features. For instance, like the Honor 2o Pro, the Honor 20 has a 6.26" All-View display.

Cameras

The Honor 20's four camera setup is similar to the Honor 20 Pro in that it has the same 48MP main camera and 16MP super-wide-angle lenses, however the macro camera and the telephoto lenses used for taking close-up photos are 2MP, which means lower resolutions than those of the Honor 20 Pro. Nonetheless, the Honor 20's four cameras are a compelling offering for consumers seeking good photography options on an inexpensive device.

Battery

The Honor 20's battery is 3,750 mAh which should last through at least one regular day of use, and there is also the option of 22.5W fast-charging.

Price

The Honor 20 costs €499, which is just over £400, so we imagine that the UK price will be somewhere around this mark. For a premium middle of the range device, this is priced quite competitively.

Honor 20 Lite

The Honor 20 lite has an AI-assisted triple-camera system rather than four cameras, a large display with a 90% screen-to-body ratio, not many side bezels and a relatively small 'teardrop' notch. The Honor 20 Lite also comes with an embedded fingerprint scanner.

Like the Honor 20, the Honor 20 Lite's display fails to match those of its competitors as it has an LCD panel rather than the more modern OLED panels that other phones have. On the other hand, the Honor 20 Lite's screen is large and has a sufficient level of brightness. The Honor 20 Lite also rather disappointingly is made of plastic rather than metal. Like any low-budget smartphone on the market, there are trade-offs which must be made.

Price

The Honor 20 Lite costs £249.99 SIM-free. Although this is still a cheap smartphone, this price is a considerable step up from its predecessor, the Honor 10 Lite, which only costed around £199.

What Will the Huawei Ban Mean for Honor?

Some have remarked that it was discouraging that Honor did not mention how Huawei plan to tackle its restricted access to the Android operating system during the launch of the Honor 20 Series. Honor is a sub-brand under the Huawei group, which means that the ban will affect Honor as well as Huawei. Given that Google have recently suspended Huawei's future access to the Android Play Store and subsequent security updates, and the expected 90 days of version/security updates needs to be addressed before anyone considers a new Honor phone.

We are waiting on the crucial information for potential consumers will need to guide their buying decisions over the next few months. Huawei and Honor have brazenly ignored this during the launch, but until some comment comes out of the Huawei camp, we recommend that you wait to find out any developments in the situation before buying an Honor phone.