If you are willing to ignore the controversy surrounding Huawei and Honor in the Android smartphone market, then on paper the Honor 20i seems to be a strong mid-range smartphone. How is its performance in general use? Let’s find out…
Honor 20i Design
Contents
The Honor 20i comes with a polycarbonate rear panel. A gradient design has been used here. Honor claims that 3D photolithography process has been used to get such a finish in the phone. We have reviewed the Phantom Blue variant of the phone. It comes with a royal blue shade at the top and as you go down, a bright purple color impression is visible.
Honor 20i also comes in Phantom Red and Midnight Black variants. The Midnight Black variant does not have a dual tone finish. The rim used to join the rear and front panel is made of plastic and comes with a glossy finish.
The curved edges provide good grip. But the phone is slippery in the hands. The glossy surface of the rear panel is easy to pick up fingerprints. It is also not immune to scratches. We found that the middle portion of the rear panel was flexing.
The power and volume buttons are on the right side. They are easy to reach. The hybrid dual-SIM tray is on the top. Here you will be able to use two nano SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card simultaneously. The 3.5mm headphone jack and micro-USB port are placed at the bottom.
The triple rear camera setup placed in vertical position comes with a bump. But it is not too much. The fingerprint sensor is slightly inward. Our finger reached it easily. We have no complaints with the speed of fingerprint recognition. It is also accurate.
There is no problem in using this phone with one hand. Due to the edges, the phone seems thin, but it is not so. Apart from the problem of flakes on the rear panel, Honor 20i gives a very solid feel. Talking about the design, it will be liked by those users who want gradient design and punchy colors.
Honor 20i specifications and software
The Honor 20i has a 6.21-inch full-HD+ (1080×2340 pixels) display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen to body ratio is 90 percent. The pixel density of the panel is 415 ppi. It has received TUV Rheinland certification for reducing blue light emission.
Huawei’s octa-core Kirin 710 processor has been used in this Honor phone. The clock speed is 2.2 GHz. 4 GB RAM has been provided for juggling. The inbuilt storage of Honor 20i is 128 GB and if needed, it is possible to use a microSD card up to 512 GB.
There are three rear cameras on the back of the Honor 20i – a 24-megapixel primary sensor with f / 1.8 aperture, a 2-megapixel depth sensor with f / 2.4 aperture and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. On the front panel is a 32-megapixel sensor with f / 2.0 aperture.
The phone is powered by a 3,400mAh battery. It comes with a 10W charger. Apart from the phone, the retail box will contain a charger, a micro-USB cable, SIM ejector, TPU cover and some important documents.
Talking about the software, the Honor 20i will run on EMUI 9.0.1 based on Android 9 Pie. Our review unit was running on the May 2019 Android security patch. EMUI 9.0.1 comes with many features and customizations.
Apps like Honor Club, Hicare, Honor Store, App Gallery and Phone Clone will be pre-installed in the phone. Ride Mode, SOS, Recorder, Torch are also part of the phone as apps.
Third party apps like Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Netflix, Camera 360 and Vigo Video are also pre-installed. Some of these apps also send annoying notifications. The good thing is that these can be got rid of. You will also get digital balance. There is also a bedtime feature.
Honor 20i display and performance
The Honor 20i has a 6.21-inch full-HD+ (1080×2340 pixels) screen. It is known for crisp content and vibrant colors. Viewing angles are good. The brightness level is also adequate. Even in sunlight, we did not need to take it above 80 percent.
The Honor 20i’s panel produces oversaturated colours. In comparison, the Honor 20’s display also has better detail levels.
We found that the display temperature of the Honor 20i is a bit warm by default. But you can change it to ‘Vivid’ color mode by going into the display settings. Apart from this, there is also an option to control the display temperature.
The Smart Resolution feature automatically tones down the Full-HD+ resolution to HD+ to reduce battery consumption. The Honor 20i also has a Reading Mode to improve the reading experience. It gives the display a yellow tint.
The phone has not received Widevine L1 DRM certification. This means users will not be able to watch content in HD resolution on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
In terms of performance, the Kirin 710 used in the Honor 20i is a reliable processor. The phone never slowed down during normal use, even if there were 10-15 apps running in the background. Switching between apps was extremely smooth. Swipe-based navigation worked without any lag.
Talking about gaming, PUBG Mobile runs on medium graphics settings on Honor 20i. Asphalt 9: Legends also ran without any frame rate drop. However, we faced occasional input lag in games with powerful graphics.
The vibration feedback of the phone is very aggressive. There is no way to reduce it.
Honor 20i camera and battery life
The Honor 20i is one of the few smartphones under Rs 15,000 that come with three rear cameras. The phone can take great macro shots. The phone took many beautiful close-up shots. There was no lack of detail in these and the colors were also captured vibrantly. However, we have seen better depth control and edge detection in the cameras of Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro.
Tap to see full-sized Honor 20i camera samples
In daylight, the phone takes slightly oversaturated photos. These photos look good on the phone. But on a bigger screen, the lack of detail and sharpness is clearly visible. Enabling AI mode helps the dynamic range and also boosts colors.
The phone’s dynamic range lags in bright light. It often captured soft and washed-out colours. When the ambient light was good, the camera captured photos with decent sharpness and depth of field.
The portrait mode in the camera app did a good job of highlighting the object in focus. Edge detection was also good. But the background blur was often uneven. Thankfully, we did not face any focus lock issues.
The 32-megapixel front camera captures bright selfies. There is no lack of detail in them. However, when used indoors, the Honor 20i does whitening and this makes the background elements a bit dull. Edge detection was not good in portrait selfies.
You will get features like portrait lightning effects, AR lenses, live filters and background filters. The wide-angle sensor works well to capture wide frames.
The phone has a night mode for low-light photography. But it doesn’t deliver very impressive results. The Honor 20i’s night mode brings out the colours in low-light conditions and enhances the edges of objects. But the photos captured have a lot of noise and grainy textures. Night mode doesn’t work with the selfie camera.
Normal mode (top) and wide-angle mode (bottom) Tap to see full-size images
In aperture mode, users can change the point of focus with the help of the depth sensor. Apart from this, the blur effect can be adjusted.
With the Honor 20i, you will be able to record full-HD videos at 60 frames per second. As far as quality is concerned, the camera struggles to lock focus. But due to the lack of stabilization, videos are captured with jerks.
Talking about battery life, the 3,400 mAh battery of Honor 20i somehow lasted the whole day. During this time, we used the phone for social media, web browsing, listening to music on wireless headphones for about two hours, occasional phone calls and 45 minutes of gaming. At times, the phone’s battery did not last the whole day even after playing a lot of games.
In our video loop test, the Honor 20i lasted for 15 hours and 11 minutes. The charger provided in the retail box takes about 2 hours to fully charge the battery. The power saving and ultra saving modes are very effective in reducing battery consumption.
Our verdict
The Honor 20i seems to be a capable handset, but at times, it doesn’t seem as capable as its cheaper counterparts. When it comes to performance, the phone has no issues in daily use. Gaming also doesn’t disappoint. The EMUI is packed with features.
In the camera department, the Honor 20i gave mixed results. There are many features for users to use. But in terms of performance, it is slightly weaker than its competitors, especially in night mode and portrait mode.
At a lower price, the Redmi Note 7 Pro (Review) and Realme 3 Pro (Review) are more profitable. They come with better build quality, good cameras and strong performance. The recently launched Vivo Z1 Pro is also a good option. Its price is Rs 14,990.
You can also consider the Oppo K1 (Review) which comes with capable hardware and reliable performance. And this phone also has an in-display fingerprint sensor. At Rs 14,999, the Honor 20i is not the best option today.
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