Honor 20 Pro: The Ultra-phone Set to Challenge and Dethrone the Mighty OnePlus 7?

By Travelrasoi @travelrasoi

Since the launch of OnePlus 7 Pro, there are so many discussions of it being challenged with the likes of Asus Zenfone 6, Galaxy S10 and Google’s mid-range Pixel phone. But none of them are yet to come even close to OnePlus 7. With Honor 20 Pro, people are at it again.

When Honor first revealed 20 Pro, its flagship handset. It looked a lot like OnePlus 7 Pro, many calling them identical or even a ripoff. This was further fueled by the fact that both features a notch-less display, scored 111 in DxOmark Camera rating and 7nm SoC.  With both the phone so similar on paper, let’s see if Honor 20 Pro can challenge OnePlus 7 for the throne!

Performance

Let’s look at the specs of each phone. Honor 20 Pro is packed with Huawei’s flagship Kirin 980 SoC, while OnePlus has the Snapdragon 855 chipset. Although both chips have 7nm architecture, Snapdragon 855 outperforms kirin 980 in terms of performance. This was proved in the GeekBench test where Honor 20 Pro came second to OnePlus 7 Pro. Plus, OnePlus 7 Pro uses UFS 3.0 storage, which helps improve storage quality and even boosts the overall speed of the device.

Hence OnePlus 7 Pro has the advantage.

Camera

As we already mentioned both smartphone rear camera score equally scores in DxOMark. Both have a triple Camera setup with both has a primary 48-megapixel camera. The Honor Sony Sensor f/1.4 aperture is better than the OnePlus’ f/1.6. Then the 16-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide lens is available in both phones. The setup is completed with an 8-megapixel f/2.5 telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom. However, Honor 20 Pro just edge it with its fourth 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera lens.

Even the 32-megapixel front Camera Honor camera is just ahead of OnePlus 7 Pro’s 16-megapixel shooter. So, Honor 20 Pro levels the field.

Display

Both Honor 20 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro has near-bezel-less and notch-free screens. With Honor 20 Pro implementing punch-hole display while the OnePlus 7 Pro decides to go with the pop-up selfie camera. However, OnePlus 7 Pro OLED 90Hz screen peeps ahead of Honor’s LCD panel. Hence, OnePlus 7 Pro has the lead again.

Battery

It is standard to pack your smartphone with 4,000 mAh battery, both Honor and OnePlus comply with this. Honor has 22.5W fast-charging while OnePlus has 30W fast-charging. But OnePlus use up more battery due to its 90Hz OLED Display. Hence OnePlus advantage doesn’t last long, and Honor 20 Pro keeps up with the pace.

Operating System and other features:

Both phones have the latest Android 9.0 Pie with Honor running on Magic UI skin while OnePlus has Oxygen OS. Clearly, OnePlus 7 Pro gives its user a much better Android experience as compare to Honor’s Magic UI. Coming to the features, Honor 20 Pro has almost all the feature that OnePlus 7 Pro has and edges in terms of having a few more. So, Overall, this looks to be a tie in this section.

Verdict:

As we clearly see, it is very hard to differentiate between phones. Even their price is rumored to be very close. Hence, this would have been a tight race if not for Trump. After Trump’s administration ban Huawei’s product in the US. So, Honor 20 Pro has a very small market, and many US companies have already cut ties.

This might have been a very close race for the throne, but it now looks that the future is uncertain as Honor 20 Pro might not receive updates to keep level with OnePlus 7 Pro.

-Travelrasoi