Honor 20i review

Brand: Honor
Product name: Honor 20i
Key specifications: 32-megapixel selfie camera, triple rear cameras, Kirin 710 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, 3,400mAh battery.
Price: ₹14,999
Rating: 3/5

Honor 20i is the most affordable smartphone in the company's latest Honor 20 series. The smartphone borrows the premium design of the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro but comes with subtle changes. Honor 20i's key features include a triple-camera setup, a 32-megapixel selfie camera, big storage and GPU Turbo 2.0 for a better gaming performance.

Looking at the specifications sheet, Honor 20i matches the competition including Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro. It's also aggressively priced at ₹14,999. Honor 20i may look promising but it still needs a lot improvement and is far from being the best mid-range phone.

Design, display

Honor was among the first ones to bring premium design to the budget and mid-range segments. With Xiaomi, Realme and several others following suit, Honor 20i doesn't really stand out in the crowd. It does have a premium look and feel thanks to the trendy gradient finish colours. Up front, there's a 6.21-inch Full HD+ display with a U-shaped notch on top. The display quality is just okay on the Honor 20i, and changing the colour tones doesn't make much of a difference either.

Camera

One of the biggest highlights of Honor 20i is its front-facing camera. At 32-megapixel resolution, it's among the highest in this category. Honor, however, needs to work on its portrait mode for selfies. Otherwise, selfies come out good with nice colour balance and details. The triple rear cameras seem promising but the results weren't as expected. Most of the photos I took in daylight didn't come out detailed. As you zoom into the photos, you see the amount of detail lost. Honor 20i also offers 120-degree lens which is good for landscape photos. If camera is priority then phones like Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro offer a more comprehensive experience.

Performance

Powered by in-house Kirin 710 processor, Honor 20i felt little slow during my usage. You'd expect phones in this category to be fast enough to handle minor tasks such as flipping through applications. But that's not the case with Honor 20i. The battery life is pretty good with the Honor 20i running long for around 12 hours. It comes in only one variant with 4GB RAM and 128GB built-in storage.

Verdict

With phones such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro setting the bar really high, Honor 20i just doesn't make the cut. The selfie camera is good but if that's only your requirement, Xiaomi's Redmi Y3 is even better and more affordable.

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