Honor 20 Professional Evaluation: Compact, Succesful, and Inventive

The place does Honor go after the Honor View 20, which I described as the most effective gadget it has ever made? The reply is the Honor 20 Professional, which takes what made the View 20 nice, after which makes it even higher by including extra digicam lenses, and shrinking the dimensions. The result’s a compact smartphone with fascinating photographic abilities, that pushes previous the controversy surrounding the model on the time of its launch.

It’s not excellent, although. Chief among the many points is an absence of identification. The View 20 is recognizable and particular person, primarily as a result of outrageous styling on the again. Sadly, the Honor N-series (that’s N for numbered and it refers back to the Honor 20 and its predecessors) continues to be moderately misplaced. The again of the telephone recollects the Huawei P30 Professional, with its side-mounted digicam array, and though the purple shade seen right here is engaging, it doesn’t shout out that that is an Honor telephone.

Honor has compounded this identification disaster by including additional confusion with the Professional suffix. It’s the primary time it has slapped a Professional identify on this vary, and it’s merely not wanted. Sure, Huawei does it, however that doesn’t imply Honor has to as effectively. This has additionally meant Honor has diluted the vary with a number of lesser fashions, together with an everyday Honor 20. Why isn’t the Professional simply the Honor 20? Why do we’d like a 20, and even a Lite model?

Honor’s reply is that, “one telephone shouldn’t be sufficient to satisfy the calls for of everybody.” In actuality, the Honor 20 Professional is greater than sufficient smartphone for many.

Compact design

This can be a handsome telephone, it simply doesn’t stand out. The glass rear panel is a fancy merchandise to make, with three layers — glass, shade, and depth — composited collectively to create a holographic design, which is extra sturdy than merely utilizing three separate layers. Solely 20 out of each 100 panels are chosen to be used on an Honor 20 Professional, highlighting not solely Honor’s requirements, but in addition how robust the end is to get proper. It’s a hit. Calling it “deep” isn’t simply advertising. The colour weaves, shifts, and flows seemingly inches beneath the floor, like a stressed spirit is trapped inside.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Developments

There’s no fingerprint sensor on the again, and it’s not beneath the display screen both. It’s set inside an outsized energy button on the facet of the telephone, very like the Samsung Galaxy S10e. It’s recessed into the physique and set immediately beneath a typical quantity rocker. At first I discovered myself urgent the quantity down button moderately than finding the fingerprint sensor, nevertheless it grew to become extra pure after a brief interval of adjustment. That apart, it’s refreshing to not must battle with a substandard safety technique, and it’s quick to unlock the telephone in solely zero.5 seconds.

Flip the telephone over and also you see a 6.26-inch LCD display screen with a hole-punch digicam — no notch right here, and it’s an incredible design — and a 91.6% screen-to-body ratio. It’s colourful and fairly, however I all the time miss the shortage of always-on show when utilizing an LCD telephone over an AMOLED telephone. Moreover, it lacks that visible punch of deeper blacks and higher distinction that makes an AMOLED panel so particular. The opening-punch is a winner although.

In case you’re lusting after a compact flagship-spec telephone, the Honor 20 Professional will impress.

The bezels are noticeable, however primarily as a result of they mix into the curvy, rounded sides of the physique. Regardless of the dimensions of the display screen, the Honor 20 Professional could be very compact. Coming from the OnePlus 7 Professional, the Honor 20 Professional feels very small certainly. I can shut my hand across the whole telephone so my finger and thumb simply contact, although you’ll discover the telephone’s relative thickness. Fortunately, the physique is grippy and received’t slip out of your hand simply.

I’ve loved utilizing a telephone that feels small, however really isn’t small in any respect. Particularly, and this will sound barely foolish, the way in which it slips into my pocket with out being annoying. In case you’re lusting after a compact flagship-spec telephone, the Honor 20 Professional will impress.

Versatile digicam

Seems like a pleasant design, proper? For probably the most half it’s, till your fingers attain the large digicam bump. If the Honor 20 Professional’s holographic end on the again appears deep sufficient to sail the Titanic by way of, then the digicam bump is the iceberg big sufficient to sink it.

Lengthy and standing pleased with the physique by a number of millimeters, it’s marred additional by sharp edges. It’s not simply aesthetics that’s the issue. It comes into direct contact with each floor you place the telephone on, risking scratches on the lens; plus the telephone wobbles about when face-up, and there’s no case included within the field to supply any safety. At the very least the digicam hides some critical expertise, justifying the bump’s dimension.

A 48-megapixel digicam lens, the identical IMX586 sensor seen on the View 20, takes middle stage, and it’s joined by a 16-megapixel wide-angle, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. The 1/2-inch essential sensor has an astonishing f/1.four aperture, optical picture stabilization (OIS), and synthetic intelligence stabilization (AIS), plus the array offers options together with a 3x optical zoom, a macro mode, Tremendous Night time Mode, 4K video, and A.I. scene recognition too.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Developments

The Honor 20 Professional’s digicam is splendidly versatile. The mix of a wide-angle lens, a high-megapixel low-light-sensitive essential lens, and a 3x zoom is great, and also you all the time really feel just like the digicam shall be able to capturing the picture you need, whatever the setting or scenario. Typically, the digicam astounds with beautiful colours, nice night time time photographs crammed with element and ambiance, and simply manipulated bokeh photographs. Different occasions, it overexposes barely, and washes out brilliant environments.

Night time efficiency is great, particularly because it operates in wide-angle mode too, supplying you with extra artistic alternative. I discovered it was simpler to take care of ambiance — moderately than making night time photographs too brilliant — on the Honor 20 Professional than the Huawei P30 Professional, which is maybe too efficient in low gentle. The Honor 20 Professional’s Macro Mode isn’t superb, producing low high quality photos when it does ultimately concentrate on its topic, and even then it’s hit-or-miss whether or not it captures what you need. Focusing was typically an issue outdoors of the macro mode too, with the digicam specializing in the background, moderately than a foreground object.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Developments

The selfie digicam is hidden contained in the hole-punch display screen on the entrance, set proper within the prime left nook, and it has stayed hid by Honor’s enjoyable parrot wallpaper since I began utilizing the telephone. It has 32-megapixels, nevertheless it doesn’t deal with brilliant conditions very effectively and though there’s a lot element, pores and skin tones are a lot lighter than actuality. The Portrait mode didn’t all the time function on our early evaluate model, which is probably going a software program challenge.

Total, regardless of the few software program issues and a few spotty options, the Honor 20 Professional has been an incredible digicam sidekick, taking the photographs I needed to seize shortly and with out fuss, and sometimes actually impressing with the outcomes.

Software program

On display screen is Magic UI 2.zero layered over Android 9 Pie. Regardless of the completely different identify, it’s basically precisely the identical as Huawei’s EMUI consumer interface. I’ve been utilizing a pre-release model of the telephone, and couldn’t set up sure benchmarking apps. All different apps put in and operated usually. Over my time with the Honor 20 Professional, it has proved to be dependable and I’ve not skilled any main software program issues.

Two new pre-installed apps be a part of an ever-growing checklist of pre-installed apps on the Honor 20 Professional.

I discover EMUI and Magic UI to be acceptable for on a regular basis use, offered you do some tweaking proper initially. On the Honor 20 Professional, the house display screen is about to a four x four icon structure, making it seem like the large print model of a e-book. Set it to a 5 x four structure, and it’s significantly higher. It’s quick and clean, with engaging animations. Not all of the apps have a constant icon form although, and complaints over the design of pre-installed apps are justified, as they do look fairly cartoonish.

Notifications are nonetheless problematic, and that is an EMUI downside moderately than an Honor 20 Professional challenge. The shortage of an OLED panel exasperates this, because the display screen isn’t all the time on. Notifications don’t all the time gentle up the display screen, and once they do it’s merely an icon. Many notifications may be interacted with by way of the notification shade, nevertheless it’s not as wide-ranging as on telephones just like the Google Pixel three. I discover myself utilizing the shade as a shortcut to the related app to cope with many notifications.

Two new pre-installed apps be a part of an ever-growing checklist of pre-installed apps on the Honor 20 Professional. Becoming a member of a shortcut to put in Epic Video games’ Fortnite is Amazon Alexa, providing up an alternative choice to Google Assistant. The Alexa app is sweet, and there’s the prospect to set Alexa because the default assistant on the telephone, however there’s no actual cause to make use of it as an alternative of the deeply baked-in Google Assistant. There are a lot of different app options onboard, really — a browser, each Huawei’s and Honor’s retailer apps, an e mail app, and a climate app, plus a group of instruments and companies together with file supervisor, a voice recorder, and a suggestions app. None are actually wanted, and most may be uninstalled.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Developments

On the time of writing Huawei and Honor are within the information as a consequence of considerations over the way forward for its Android software program updates, and relationship with Google. The corporate has issued an announcement saying, “Huawei will proceed to offer safety updates and after-sales companies to all current Huawei and Honor smartphone and pill merchandise,” nevertheless it’s not clear if this does or doesn’t embody the Honor 20 Professional, or the way it will ship these updates.

Battery and efficiency

Honor has chosen the Kirin 980 processor — Huawei’s prime chip from the P30 Professional and the View 20 too — and 8GB of RAM to energy the Honor 20 Professional, with as much as 256GB of space for storing. It’s pushed by a four,000mAh battery with 22.5W quick charging to ship 50% in 30 minutes.

Listed below are the benchmark outcomes (I used to be not capable of set up Geekbench four and AnTuTu):

3DMark Sling Shot Excessive: four,181 (Vulkan)

In some conditions, the highest of the again panel does get heat, bordering on scorching, however by no means sufficient that you simply’re vulnerable to burns or shouldn’t maintain it towards your face. This occurs when taking pictures video, however did additionally present up when operating benchmark exams and when operating the YouTube battery check too. I performed quite a lot of Asphalt eight, and Race Off, each of which carried out with no downside, as you’d count on.

Gaming is the place the hole-punch display screen comes into its personal. Hidden away within the backside left nook, you get a beautiful full-screen recreation expertise, with out Honor needing to resort to a pop-up digicam to generate it. The selfie digicam is totally unnoticeable, and together with Honor’s GPU Turbo three.zero recreation enhancement, it’s an enormous profit for avid gamers.

You’ll simply get a full day of laborious use, and have some left over for the second day.

The four,000mAh battery could be very welcome, and has lasted two full days with cautious use and Airplane mode in a single day, and that features utilizing GPS, taking photographs, and searching social media every day. You’ll simply get a full day of laborious use, and have some left over for the second day with the Honor 20 Professional. It additionally has a 22.5W quick cost system to take the battery to 50% in simply 30 minutes. Sadly, there’s no wi-fi charging.

Oddly, regardless of being sturdy in regular use, the Honor 20 Professional’s battery delivered a really poor end in our YouTube video check. It performed a full-screen, 1080p video over Wi-Fi at full brightness for simply eight hours and 23 minutes. Not good in any respect, and never what I anticipated it to return. Software program optimization could also be guilty right here.

Value, guarantee, and availability

The 8GB/256GB Honor 20 Professional will value 600 euros, or 550 British kilos, which converts over to about $695. Honor knowledgeable Digital Developments on the launch the telephone shall be launched in July, and is presently listed solely as out of inventory on Honor’s on-line retailer. The Honor 20 Professional has not been introduced for launch within the U.S..

Within the U.Ok., Honor places a two-year guarantee on its smartphones, with six months on the battery and the charger. It doesn’t cowl unintentional harm, water harm, or misuse.

Our Take

The Honor 20 Professional is effectively proportioned with a powerful processor, an enormous battery, and a digicam that I belief to take good photographs, making it an completed, succesful, and mature smartphone that fortunately slips in your pocket. It’s a disgrace it’s at risk of being overshadowed by considerations concerning the agency’s future relationship with Google and Android, as a result of Honor telephones proceed to be smart, really useful purchases.

Is there a greater different?

The Honor 20 Professional’s value could be very aggressive, and is lower than the brand new $669 OnePlus 7 Professional, which presents a really related photographic expertise. Nonetheless, spend extra to get the OnePlus telephone, and you’ll benefit from the stunning 90Hz display screen, simply on the expense of battery life. Picture followers could wish to have a look at the Nokia 9 too, which prices $700, and likewise has the advantage of Android One for fast, common software program updates.

Google’s new Pixel 3a doesn’t share the Honor 20 Professional’s design or display screen, however the digicam and software program efficiency is great, though the mid-range specs can’t compete with the Honor telephone. Asus’s new Zenfone 6 is equally priced with a unusual digicam, good software program, and an honest battery. The Xiaomi Mi 9 represents wonderful worth with its high-spec and succesful digicam too.

That’s earlier than I get to the 2 huge names — the Apple iPhone XR and the Samsung Galaxy S10e. Neither have the identical efficiency on paper because the Honor 20 Professional, and each value a little bit extra — however the capabilities, high quality and slick presentation is price the additional. Lastly, don’t dismiss the Honor View 20 both, which is bigger than the Honor 20 Professional with the same spec, and a extra attention-grabbing design.

How lengthy will it final?

The Honor 20 Professional doesn’t have any water resistance, and the physique shouldn’t be rugged. There’s a hazard of ruining the telephone in case you are not cautious with it. On the software program replace facet, there are much more questions than common. Honor mentioned the 20 Professional is Google licensed and can obtain updates, however Google’s assertion could possibly be interpreted another way. Whereas the telephone is up-to-date now, there are query marks over how lengthy this can stay the case.

Below regular circumstances, the Honor 20 Professional would simply final for at the very least two years, or the period of an everyday contract and extra.

Must you purchase it?

Attributable to Huawei’s, and due to this fact Honor’s, precarious and ever-changing place on the time of the Honor 20 Professional’s launch, I like to recommend ready to see how the scenario performs out over the approaching weeks earlier than deciding on the Honor 20 Professional. It might have an effect on the gadget’s long-term attraction. The discharge date continues to be unknown, and isn’t probably till July in response to Honor, so you’ve got time.

Ought to all the things be resolved shortly with out impacting shoppers, and the message from Honor is evident on the time, then sure, you can purchase the Honor 20 Professional.