The year 2019 has started with quite a bang, literally, with the month seeing the launch of Honor View 20, already one of the best smartphones of the year because of what it brings within that lovely looking design. While we’ve seen quite a few brands already trying it out, the market though is getting to see Honor bringing the View 20 as one of the early devices with the punch-hole camera cutout on the display, which houses a 25-megapixel camera.
The Honor View 20 might excel in quite a few areas, but we would put an emphasis on two very important ones that anyone would want to see their phone do well in – the performance, and the camera quality. Let’s dig (not literally) into each of them to see what they have to offer.
There are quite a few firsts in the Honor View 20, but let’s start with the 48-megapixel camera. The 48MP sensor here is the Sony IMX586 one that offers an effective resolution of 8000 x 6000 pixels, and the pixel size is 0.8 μm. It isn’t a single camera, though. Beside to the 48MP camera is the ToF 3D stereo camera that helps in 3D captures.
It is always a fact that Honor has its own array of features to offer in enhancing the camera experience and performance, but you cannot ignore the fact that there is an essential role played by the chipset and ISP, and that’s where the Honor View 20 jumps even farther ahead, thanks to the Kirin 980 7nm processor. After using the View 20 for about 15 days already, one thing is clear – the View 20 is an excellent performer, not just with the camera but with the actual performance even for the heaviest of the users.
The camera can capture pictures in such detail that you would happily want to preserve them for future use. The larger resolution not only keeps more details but the camera sensor is also good enough to do well with the color preservation and so, the pictures taken look natural even in low light conditions. Here are some sample captures that we took in different conditions and in most of them, you’d notice how good the details are. Of course, for the color reproduction to be matched, you’d have to compare it with the original object but we tried with several of them and in most of the cases, the color reproduction was great.
[Note: For full resolution pictures: Click here]
The camera app presents itself with a plethora of options, including the option to enable or disable the Artificial Intelligence in adjusting the colors and contrast in the captures. Then there are modes including Slow-mo, Aperture, HDR, Time-lapse, 3D Panorama, Artist mode, and more can be downloaded as well. The Pro mode gives a versatile control to the user, where the control of ISO, Shutter speed, Exposure value, Focus, and White Balance can be done and the shutter speed can be set to up to 30 seconds, giving the photographers a good chance to capture bright pictures at night. But, at the same time, there’s a night mode that does the job by itself in just a few seconds, with a well-lit capture when there is not much light around.
The video recording on the Honor View 20 is possible at 4K resolution and one feature we liked is the AI Zoom, which automatically zooms into the frame while the video is being recorded so as to keep the subject in the focus. The aperture mode can be used even while taking videos, and as far as there is a face recognized by the camera, the focus is very well set on that and everything in the background blurs out based on the aperture levels that are set.
The Kirin 980 – Let’s talk about that. To start about the chipset itself, it is the first one in the market to be made from the 7nm process and it has the dual NPU design, also the first to have the LTE Cat. 21 support for the wireless connectivity. The prowess of the Kirin 980 chipset is already seen in the flagship Huawei smartphones including the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, and the Mate 20 X, where it did not just prove itself with the benchmarks but also with the actual performance.
For the gamers, the Mali-G76 GPU does an excellent job, and even the high-end live games like PUBG Mobile where handled so well, adding a lot of good experience with the large display that goes from the top edge to the bottom, with only a small punch-hole camera area.
While it has great battery life and an amazing large display to keep the phone still comfortable to hold, the camera and performance are two areas where it easily is undisputed in the price range at which Honor is bringing the View 20 into the market. The 48MP camera starts a new trend here – a trend of high-resolution captures that are full of excellent details. The Kirin 980 is all ready to take on the best from the competitor chipsets coming this year. Easy to say, the Honor View 20 is already one of the best looking and best-performing phones of 2019.
