This allows Honor to achieve an almost absolute screen-to-body ratio.

Crucially, Honor has managed to accomplish this before its bigger rivals.

Samsung, most notably, is reportedly working on a phone with an in-screen camera.

Hands on with the gorgeous Honor View20

It’s free, every week, in your inbox.

Its absolutely stunning from all angles.

That seems deliberate, especially considering the emphasis placed by Honor on the mobile gaming market this year.

Article image

I should point out that the Honor View20 unit provided to TNW was a little barebones.

It didnt have, for example, any games installed, nor any videos loaded.

As such, we wont be able to delve into the nitty-gritty of how the screen actually performed.

Article image

For that, youll have to wait until January for our full review.

We also dont know, for example, how well the View20 stands up in terms of battery performance.

This is important because pushing pixels to such a large screen will inevitably be power-thirsty.

Article image

Honor has confirmed that the View20 comes with a massive 4,000mAh battery, which is a welcome relief.

The Selfie Camera

The most eye-catching feature of the Honor View20 is its in-screen selfie camera.

This is a pretty specular feat of engineering.

Article image

The hurried photographs I took of the gear dont quite do it justice.

Its absolutely tiny, measuring just 4.5mm.

Once you get comfortable with the rig, you easily forget that its there.

Article image

In this piece, Ill give you the Cliff Notes.

Essentially, Honor uses a partially-penetrating design for its front-facing camera.

Put simply, this means that the company didnt merely drill a hole through every layer of the display.

Article image

The advantages to this are three-fold.

Firstly, it permits the hole to be smaller.

According to Honor, earlier experiments with an all-penetrating design had a diameter of 6.7mm.

Article image

Secondly, it improves the ruggedness of the display, and makes it less liable to splinter when dropped.

Finally, a smaller hole drastically reduces light leakage, which can ruin a potentially-solid selfie.

Its worth pointing out that theres a significant downside to this design when compared with the now-standard notch.

Article image

Even its low-end devices are stunning.

Youll be delighted to know that the Honor View20 is no exception.

Id be lying if I said I didnt spend a fair chunk of time engrossed with this.

The View20 also comes with an all-important physical fingerprint reader, which I was relieved to find.

Under-screen fingerprint readers just arent as good, particularly when it comes to speed and accuracy.

The Honor View20 bucks that trend and comes with Magic UI, running on the latest-and-greatest version of Android.

So, I hear you ask, whats different about Magic UI?

Truthfully, I havent got a clue.

They both looked identical.

This seems inevitable given the design challenges posed by hole-punch camera designs.

For example, within Android, notifications typically appear on the top-left of the display.

The entry-level 6GB RAM/ 128GB ROM model will set you back 2999 yuan (about $450 USD).

The 8GB RAM/ 128GB ROM model costs 3499 yuan (about $500).

This retails for close 3999 yuan, or roughly $580.

TNW will be there, so keep an eye out for our coverage.

But Id be lying if I said I wasnt excited.

It looks set to be the standout phone of 2019 and the year hasnt even started yet.

The Honor View20 simply ticks so many of my boxes.

Also tagged with