Honor 20 Pro review

Competition

The Honor 20 Pro has a lot to offer, that's for sure but there also seems to be a lot of competition in this price range. At around €600 starting price, the Honor 20 Pro meets heavy rivalry. The quad-camera setup, however, makes it stand out and we are still not sure it's enough to go ahead of the pack.

Let's start with the most obvious alternative that seems to be priced shockingly close - the Huawei P30. Huawei's mainstream flagship seems to offer similar user experience as it trades blows with the Honor 20 Pro in a head-to-head battle. The 20 Pro seems to offer longer battery life, a dedicated macro lens, which the P30 doesn't although, this shouldn't be a deal-breaker in any case. On the other hand, the vanilla P30 does offer significantly better viewing experience due to its OLED panel. In terms of camera performance, you won't find any difference between the two with the small exception of the ultra wide-angle lens where the P30 seems to do it better.

Another honorable mention from Honor's camp is the View 20, which price seems to have gone down since our review and now reflects the handset's capabilities much better. It's still pretty hard for us to recommend the View 20 over the Honor 20 Pro, though.

Huawei P30 • Honor View 20

Next down the list is Asus' recently announced Zenfone 6, which seems to offer better value for its price. Launching for €100 less, the Zenfone 6 is hard to beat with its powerful Snapdragon 855 chipset and cool and functional rotating camera mechanism. Especially if you tend to snap selfies more often than not. Battery life is also better and there are no obstructions on the front of the display, which is, by the way, still IPS LCD. The significantly lower price makes it easier to swallow, though. Also, the near stock Android experience can be considered as an advantage by some.

The camera department is where the Honor 20 Pro comes out on top with its fully capable quad-sensor module. It has the mandatory ultra-wide and telephoto lenses along with a dedicated macro lens that could come in handy in some situations. The Zenfone 6, on the other hand, settles for a dual-camera setup with one of them being the ultra-wide.

Another popular and also cheaper alternative is once again for the Android purists of some sort. The OnePlus 7 has a lot to offer with its great OLED panel, good battery life (judging by its close connection with the OnePlus 6T, we imagine it will have the same if not better battery life) and snappy Android experience. The stereo loudspeakers and the under-display fingerprint are appreciated as well. But once again, if you are looking for the superior camera experience, the Honor 20 Pro is the way to go.

And finally, a more compact alternative coming from the Korean tech giant - the Samsung Galaxy S10e. Although smaller, the Galaxy S10e surprises with awkwardly placed side-mounted fingerprint reader but matches the Honor 20 Pro's camera quality and even beats it in the ultra-wide department. Samsung's very own Dynamic AMOLED panel is by far one of the best in the industry so it's something worth considering when choosing between the two. And it might save you a few bucks too. However, the telephoto lens is still lacking and battery life won't be as good.

Asus Zenfone 6 ZS630KL • OnePlus 7 • Samsung Galaxy S10e

Verdict

All in all, the Honor 20 Pro is a great alternative to ever-growing prices of today's flagships even though the handset isn't the cheapest ones around. It enters the premium territory easily. And if you are willing to overlook the IPS LCD panel, the lack of 3.5mm audio jack and the punch-hole camera design, the Honor 20 Pro is an excellent all-rounder.

There isn't much to complain about, really. We've got flagship-grade SoC on board, outstanding battery life, great camera experience across the board (with the small exception of the ultra wide-angle lens) and excellent design and build. That 3D gradient effect on the back really is mesmerizing.

The absence of 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card support could steer away some potential buyers. On the other hand, Honor provides a USB-C-to-3.5mm audio dongle and the handset comes with 256GB of internal storage, which is a lot. There aren't a lot of phones in this price range with 256GB flash storage. Chances are you won't be needing an additional memory card so the slot for that won't be missed.

All our testing and analysis, however, could remain theoretical as there's no solid confirmation from Honor whether the handset will be released following the US trade ban. But we hope it makes it to the global market eventually. Over time, the price will fall and it will become an even better deal than it is.

Pros

• Mesmerizing 3D gradient effect.
• Great ergonomics and fingerprint placement (which is also fast and accurate).
• Excellent camera quality across the board (except for the underwhelming wide-angle unit).
• Battery life is outstanding.
• The standard 8GB/256GB config is really sweet.

Cons

• No 3.5mm audio jack or microSD card slot.
• Subpar audio output quality.
• Doesn't come cheap and an OLED screen would have made the deal sweeter.
• Product future is uncertain due to the US ban on Huawei and Honor.