Honor’s Flagship 20 Pro Out Amidst Google-Huawei Fiasco

Just a few days ago, we received news that Huawei is officially out in the cold from the typical Android stock apps from Google. Since Trump’s put the company under a list that basically requires governmental approval to use their technology, including Android, the situation has become unclear for Huawei.

Google decided to revoke their decision, however, and turned to giving Huawei a temporary license for 90 days after which a final decision will be made.

And amidst the fiasco, Honor has decided to unveil their new flagship product, Honor 20 Pro, as planned.

Honor 20 Pro never unveils the price of their product until it’s officially launched and sold, but we can predict that this one might cost $650-ish.

We are not impressed by the design and we know some people won’t especially when Vivo V11 Pro actually did a similar thing last year. It has an ‘in-depth’ blue color design that seems to go from blue to violet and black. It looks nice, but definitely their selling point.

The screen is 6.26″ big with the only obstruction the front camera at the shape of a hole-punch. And like any other hole-punch and droplet-style camera, it can be in the way when you are gaming or watching a video at full-screen mode.

Unfortunately, it has an LCD display. If you are one of those people who have been so used to using phones with AMOLED, you will not like the screen. It doesn’t have that punch look into the pictures you just captured or the HD movies you downloaded.

Kirin 980 is used to power the smartphone, a processor that has been commonly compared to Snapdragon 855 and 845. Benchmark tests show that Snapdragon 855 is potentially better for gaming purposes compared to Kirin 980. But that said, the processor is capable enough to handle high-end games like Fortnite.

Another strong selling point of the Honor 20 Pro would be their triple-camera feature. The main camera is a 48-megapixel f/1.4 lens with optical image stabilization. There is also a 16-megapixel f/2.2 wide lens as well as a telephoto lens at 8-megapixel with f/2.4.

The main camera has incredible in depth colors for its pictures, meanwhile the optical camera has up to 30x magnification power. That said, 30x zoom doesn’t produce a good picture and it’s rather blurry to look at.

The macro lens allows you to get that nice close-up on objects and create a crispy bokeh on the background. That said, it’s a camera that has to be manually switched to, unlike the seamless switch between main and wide angle.

It runs on 4,000 mAh battery and that is considered good enough for a smartphone that runs on Kirin 980 and 2340 x 1080 LCD display. You can get about 6-8 hours screentime with much gaming in between.

A new thing Honor did with their phone would be putting the finger-sensor at the side of the phone. It’s where you’d have your lock/unlock button usually and this is a rather smart/inconvenient solution. It’s smart if you’re right handed, but it’s inconvenient if you’re left-handed. But if anything, there is one thing sure about this sensor: it’s silly fast. Recent advances and tests with optical sensor on the screen has been disappointingly slow.

One thing that is definitely lacking here is the 3.5 mm jack. Another thing they might lack would be Google’s support and it’s basically going to be stuck with whatever Android OS it’s coming with.

Google did mention they are giving Huawei 90-day temporary license. We’ve heard that the new Honor 20 Pro might come with Android 9.0 (Pie) despite the ban, but it won’t be launched until June or July, so stay updated!