Honor 20i first impressions: That triple-camera setup offers great hope

Amid the Huawei ban, in May this year, the company’s sub-brand Honor released its flagship Honor 20 Series  at an event held in London. Today, weeks later, these smartphones have been **unveiled in the Indian market** . The series is priced starting Rs 14,999 and ranges up to Rs 39,999. From the series, I got to spend some time with the Honor 20i, which is an interesting device, considering it stands in a very competitive price segment.

Honor 20i gets full marks for its design

The Honor 20i looks striking! The device comes in a Midnight Black, Phantom Blue and Phantom Red colour variant. I got to play around with the Phantom Blue variant, the Phantom Red colour option is yet to be launched in India, but I did get to see the device, and it’s red and pink gradient is something I have not seen before. The Phantom Blue variant is a mix of turquoise and purple. [caption id=“attachment_6796491” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  Honor 20i features a 6.21-inch LCD display. Image: tech2/Nandini Yadav[/caption] The Honor 20i sports a plastic back, but the glossy finish lends it a nice finish. But yes, where there is gloss, there are smudges. So it would be ideal to get a silicon cover for the phone, which by the way, isn’t bundled in the box. The size of the Honor 20i is also somewhat compact. It fits easily even in tiny hands like mine. Despite having a 6.21-inch display the device features a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio with a notch at the top. From the time I spent with it, I found the phone’s display nice and bright, with good contrast and sharp text. [caption id=“attachment_6796471” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Honor 20i comes in a Phantom Blue and a Phantom Red colour variant. Image: tech2/Nandini Yadav[/caption]

In the sub-Rs 15,000 category, the triple camera sensor is a highlight

The smartphone sports a 24 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP camera setup at the back and a 32 MP sensor for selfies. A triple-camera system in the budget segment is a big deal since most smartphones feature a dual-camera setup. I tried out both rear and front camera of the phone for a few hours, and the results were quite decent. You can check out some of the image samples in the Flickr album below.

Seems to have all the power it needs

The Honor 20i is powered by Kirin 710 SoC paired with 4 GB RAM. While I wait to see what the processor translates to in the long run, I found the phone to be responsive. App switching was smooth and there was no lag when launching any apps (native or third-party). But then again, I can’t say much until I have used the device for a few days. So, stay tuned for the review. The Honor 20i runs Android Pie based Magic UI. Personally, Honor’s UI is not the most appealing user experience, but there is no flaw per se that I can point out. And then there’s this situation with **Trump and Google that Honor and Huawei are going through** . Huawei had promised last month, that the Honor 20 Series is unaffected by the Huawei ban by the US so fingers crossed! Further, fuelling the Honor 20i is a 3,400 mAh battery, which comes with decent 10 W fast charging system. [caption id=“attachment_6796461” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Honor 20i is the only smartphone in the sub-Rs 15,000 category to sport a triple camera setup. Image: tech2/Nandini Yadav[/caption]

Great specs but it’s got so much competition

Honor 20i on paper sounds like a very efficient device, and of course, it has its triple rear camera setup as its highlight, which is a big deal for the budget smartphone segment. The smartphone’s also very competitively priced at Rs 14,999. However, what remains to be seen is if it’s able to overtake **Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro** in this segment, which is currently one of the best devices in the category. Also Read:  Honor 20 Pro First Impressions: A camera-focussed all-rounder that could upset the OnePlus 7