Honor View20 launched with 48MP camera, hole-punch camera, and more

Huawei sub-brand Honor has launched the global version of the View20 at a special event in Paris, France and with it, we get to see the company’s first flagship of the 2019 calendar year. This handset is the global variant of the Honor View20 that was launched in China last month and it is one of the first smartphones in the world to feature a punch-hole camera for the selfie-cam which is termed as ‘hole-punch.’ While the View20 has a unique front design on the display, the handset also boasts a 48MP IMX586 camera that’s built by Sony and a secondary ToF (Time of Flight) sensor at the back. Apart from this, the other highlighted features include a huge 4000mAh battery, a GPU Turbo 2.0 and a HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor.

The Honor View20 starts at EUR 569 which is about Rs 46,900 for the 6GB/128GB version and rises up to EUR 649 that translates up to Rs 52,500. for the 8GB.246GB Moschino variant. The 6GB/128GB variant will be available in Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue once launched while the Moschin0 8GB/256GB option will be sold in Phantom Blue and Phantom Red options. Pre-booking of the Honor View20 has already started in India on HiHonor.com and Amazon India with sales expected to start after the India unveiling. The price in India is expected to be around the Rs 40,000 mark. However, as of yet, it isn’t known which variant of the handset will be launched here.

The Honor View20 main highlight is the is the punch-hole display which the company has branded as Hole-Punch. This allows the handset to get rid of the notch and the selfie camera placed inside this display hole that’s situated on the top left corner. The earpiece is located at the top of the screen along the edge while the handset features a completely bezel-less design. The rear features a dual-camera set up that’s horizontally stacked, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a gradient glossy back and tapered sides for better gripping of the View20.

The Honor View20 runs on Magic UI 2.0 that’s built on top of Android 9.0 Pie. As per reports, this new UI is an extension of Honor’s EMUI and features a different design scheme and AI software enhancements. Honor says that with Magic UI, we get a simplified version of EMUI and a lot less bloatware. There is no app drawer found here but apps can be accessed by swiping right.

The Honor View20 comes with a 5.4-inch Full HD+ TFT LCD All-View display with a 19:5:9 aspect ratio. It boasts a 91.82 per cent screen-to-body ratio and a pixel density of 398ppi. The handset features an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC that’s built on a 7nm process. The chipset is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and has either 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage. Apart from this, there is also a liquid cooling system on the View20. The handset comes with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture that’s capable of 960 fps slow-motion video recording, autofocus, AI HDR, and assisted by an LED flash. The main sensor is aided by a secondary camera that features ToF for depth sensing. The front-facing selfie camera is rated at 25MP with an F/2.0 aperture. To keep the handset juiced up, Honor has added a 4000mAh battery in the View20.