Honor View 20 launched with 25MP punch-hole selfie and 48MP rear camera: India price, specifications and more

Honor View 20, the world’s first smartphone with 25MP punch-hole selfie and 48MP (Sony IMX586 sensor) rear camera, has been officially launched in India. The Honor View 20 is the global variant of the Honor V20 which was recently launched in China and is successor to Honor’s popular mid-range View 10 value flagship from last year. In India, the Honor View 20 will be available for buying from Amazon India and Honor's online store at a starting price of Rs 37,999 from Wednesday, January 30.

The online retail website has, in fact, already been taking pre-orders for the smartphone. Those who pre-ordered the Honor View 20 – by paying Rs 1,000 – will be eligible to get a pair of Honor Bluetooth earphones worth Rs 2,999 for free.

In addition, Honor has also announced the Honor Watch Magic and the Honor Band 4 running edition for the Indian market. The Honor Watch Magic is slimmer than the Apple Watch Series 4, according to Honor, and comes with features like continuous heart-rate monitoring and 7-day battery life. The Honor Watch Magic will start at Rs 13,999. The Honor Band 4 running edition will meanwhile cost Rs 1,599. Both the devices will be available from Amazon India.

Honor View 20 design and hardware  

The main USP of the Honor View 20, according to Honor, is its 6.4-inch FHD+ all-view display which is made possible through a punch-hole selfie camera setup. The goal here is to offer maximum screen real-estate by punching a hole in the display and incorporating an in-screen selfie camera (placed directly below the IPS LCD panel) that otherwise would take up a lot of space. This selfie camera has a resolution of 25MP.  

The Honor View 20 also features an “industry-first 48MP rear camera with Sony IMX586 sensor” which when coupled with “the AI computing power and graphic processing power enabled by the dual-ISP and dual-NPU of Kirin 980 chipset, will automatically perform multi-frame image processing to create high-definition images.” Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7 Pro is expected to launch with the same sensor sometime in February. The Honor View 20, in addition, also has a secondary TOF (Time of Flight) camera for 3D depth mapping and interesting use case scenarios like 3D motion-controlled gaming. 

The Kirin 980 is notably Huawei’s top-tier 7nm-based chipset that is also found inside the company’s flagship triple rear camera phone, aka the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. The Kirin 980 uses an octa-core tri-cluster configuration consisting of two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores, two high-efficiency Cortex-A76 cores and two extreme efficiency Cortex-A55 cores. The Kirin 980 also brings a fourth-generation ISP and lots of new AI smarts courtesy its dual NPU -- the Honor View 20 can apparently identify 60 plus categories and over 1,500 scenarios and then accordingly it can tweak the settings to achieve better photos. The Honor View 20 also supports AI mode in video.  

Moving on, the dual-SIM Honor View 20 runs Android Pie-based Magic UI, and is backed by a massive 4,000mAh battery with support for fast charging (the Honor View 20 can charge from 0-55 per cent in 30 minutes, claims Honor). It comes with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage which is non-expandable. The phone also supports advanced GPS for more accurate GPS tracking as well as liquid cooling for extended gaming sessions, in addition to Honor’s GPU Turbo 2.0.  

In terms of design, the Honor View 20 continues Huawei and Honor’s signature gradient glass finish (and metal) design and will be available in a choice of colors including blue and black. The Honor View 20 tries to distinguish itself from other Honor and Huawei all-glass phones through distinct V-shaped patterns on the back.  

Honor View 20 India price and availability

Honor has launched the Honor View 20 in India at a starting price of Rs 37,999. This is for the base variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The Honor View 20 will also be available in 8GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration for Rs 45,999. The Honor View 20 will be offered in a choice of three colours: Phantom Blue, Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue. The phone will initially be sold online via Amazon India and Honor's online store, and will be coming to offline channels via Reliance Digital from February.