Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, teased a new phone earlier this month for a launch in January. Now it appears the Chinese company wants to add one more smartphone to its lineup in 2018, and that is probably why it officially unveiled the Honor View 20 in China. The handset will be showcased globally on Jan. 22 in Paris.
What makes it special?
The Honor View 20 is a special phone in many ways, but one aspect that makes it completely unique and different from any other smartphone is the use of nanolithography. It is the first smartphone to feature the technology, which creates an invisible nanotexture on the back of the phone.
Nanolithography is a process of imprinting or etching patterns at a microscopic level to create a small structure. The technology in the View 20 results in a gradient rear panel sporting a V that changes color when viewed from different angles. Using such technology gives the phone a beautiful back cover.
Another feature which makes the Honor View 20 special is the use of a hole for the display’s camera design. Honor clearly won the race by announcing the “hole screen” technology before Samsung and Huawei. Such a design helps optimize the viewing area of the display. The company claims it is the first smartphone to feature FullView display 3.0 technology with an excellent 91.8% screen-to-body ratio.
Honor placed the selfie camera in a 4.5-millimeter cutout in the top-left corner. The company is making a big deal over how it was able to fit the camera into such a tiny cutout, compared to the 6-millimeter opening used by rivals. Moreover, the company says it chose the top-left part of the display because important information like time and battery are displayed on the top-right. The company also said it conducted polls to determine where users would prefer the cutout.
Other special features
The Honor View 20 sports a 48-megapixel rear camera and a 25-megapixel selfie camera. The rear camera features a Sony IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor, offering richer details and more vibrant colors in photos. The back camera also has a 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor. Other camera features include time-lapse photography, Super Night View mode, slow-motion, night scene, AI photo, fun AR, electronic image stabilization (EIS), portrait mode, GPU Turbo 2.0 and more.
The handset features the Kirin 980 chipset and a 6.4-inch display with FHD+ (1080 x 2310) resolution. Using the Kirin 980 chipset and a 3D ToF sensor helps with body shaping, making subjects look perfect in full-length pictures. Since the phone has a LCD display, there is no in-display fingerprint scanner, but it does have a rear-mounted fingerprint reader.
In addition to the innovative design, the phone is also cool — literally. It has a liquid cooling tube which helps maintain the temperature of key components like the chipset, camera and power management chip. Citing internal tests, Honor claims the View 20 stays cooler than Xiaomi’s Mi 8 and the OnePlus 6T while streaming online videos and charging.
Other details about the Honor View 20
The Honor View 20 will be available in 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB or 256 GB of internal memory. The phone will be available three colors: Red, Midnight Black and Charm Blue. It must be noted that that the phone does not support storage expansion. The Honor View 20 also features a triple Wi-Fi antenna and dual-frequency GPS positioning. The triple Wi-Fi antenna means the user’s hand is now less likely to block the signal, which is a big plus for online gamers.
The Honor View 20 runs on Android 9.0 Pie out of the box with MagicUI 2.0.1 laid over top. It features a 4,000 mAh battery and supports fast charging. According to the company, the battery can be charged to 55% capacity in just 30 minutes. The handset also supports Huawei’s desktop mode, which allows it to be used as a desktop PC when connected to a mouse, monitor, and keyboard. There is a 3.5 mm headphone jack as well.
In China, the handset will be available for purchase starting on Dec. 28. The 6 GB / 128 GB variant will cost about $435, while the 8 GB / 128 GB variant costs about $510. The special-edition Moschino version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage will sell for about $580 in China and will be available in red and blue only. For other countries, the prices will be a bit higher.
