Honor has three main phones in their Honor 20 series. This includes the Honor 20, Honor 20 Lite and Honor 20 Pro. In this XDA TV video, we compared the two entry level options, the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Lite. Each phone has its strengths and weaknesses, so we compared all the best features on these phones, to see which one is the better value.
Note: The review unit for the Honor 20 Lite was provided by Honor for an unbiased review. Honor sponsors XDA-Developers, but they had no inputs or contributions to the contents of this video/article. The opinions stated within this comparison are my own.
|
Specs |
Honor 20 |
Honor 20 Lite |
|---|---|---|
|
Display |
6.26" 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~412 ppi density) |
6.21" 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~415 ppi density) |
|
Chipset |
HiSilicon Kirin 980 |
Hisilicon Kirin 710 |
|
RAM |
6GB |
4GB |
|
Storage |
128GB |
128GB |
|
Main Camera |
48MP + 16MP + 2MP +2MP |
24MP + 8MP + 2MP |
|
Selfie Camera |
32MP |
32MP |
|
Battery |
3750 mAh |
3400 mAh |
|
Price |
£ 399.99 |
£ 249.99 |
Design
Both phones have a similar design that embraces Honor's bold colors created for the 20 series. The Honor 20 Lite has a backplate that is made from plastic. It definitely feels on the cheaper side, and even cheaper than Honor's other selection of budget phones. The Honor 20 Lite has three cameras on the back in a vertical layout that has a slightly raised lip on the back of the phone. The selfie camera comes in the form of a water-drop notch. Unfortunately, Honor decided to go with a micro-USB port on the Honor 20 Lite. This is the biggest drawback in the design of the 20 Lite. It almost makes up for this by including a 3.5mm headphone jack, but the choice to go with a micro-USB port is really bad. The fingerprint sensor is located on the back of the device and the phone has one bottom-firing speaker.
The Honor 20 is very similar to the 20 Lite in terms of design and aesthetics. Once you hold the phone in your hand, it is instantly noticeable that the quality of materials is much higher. The Honor 20 feels more like a premium device. It has the same camera layout as the 20 Lite, a USB C port, one bottom-firing speaker and no headphone jack. The fingerprint sensor has been integrated into the power button, which is a much better design.
Display
The Honor 20 Lite has a 1080x2340p resolution display. This gives it an aspect ratio of 19,5:9 with the display extending very close to the edges of the phone. The minimal bezel is interrupted only by the waterdrop notch which is placed at the top of the display. The display gets bright enough to easily use outdoors, but not quite as bright as the Honor 20. Still, it's a pretty good display for a budget phone.
The display on the Honor 20 is one of the strongest features of the phone. Sharing the same resolution and aspect ratio as the 20 Lite, the Honor 20 goes with a hole-punch notch style. The display looks very good, with better contrast and color accuracy. It's easily the best display that I have seen on an Honor phone to date.
Performance
Gaming
The Kirin 710 powers the Honor 20 Lite, and performs surprisingly well with intense 3D games. You will find yourself waiting a little longer for apps to load, but once the game is running, the 3D performance is very good. It's worth noting that the Honor 20 Lite has a better battery life while gaming, and doesn't get hot like the Honor 20 does.
The Honor 20 has the Kirin 980 chipset which is great for games like PUBG and Fortnite. Unfortunately, the phone suffers from getting very hot while playing games. Even more casual games without the intense 3D graphics leave the phone very hot. On top of this, the battery life on the Honor 20 is really bad. You can barely get through the entire day with casual use.
Between the two phones, the Honor 20 Lite is a perfectly acceptable budget gaming phone, while the Honor 20 really struggles to deliver on the battery life and heat management.
Connectivity
WiFi connectivity is an area where the Honor 10 Lite falls short. The phone is not equipped with AC compatibility, which results in much slower speeds being available. It's also stuck with Bluetooth 4.2, while the Honor 20 has Bluetooth 5.0. You will definitely notice the slower download speeds when installing apps from the Play store, for your 20 Lite. If this is an area that is really important to you, strongly consider going with the Honor 20 over the 20 Lite.
|
2G bands |
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 |
GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 (Dual SIM model only) |
|
|
3G Network |
HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 |
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |
|
|
4G Network |
LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 18(800), 19(800), 20(800), 26(850), 28(700), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500) |
LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800) |
|
|
Speed |
HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A |
HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps |
|
|
WLAN |
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
|
|
Bluetooth |
5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE |
4.2, A2DP, LE |
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Camera
The cameras on both of these phones are very interesting. It's a collection of really great new features and really useless gimmicks. The Honor 20 Lite has three camera sensors on the back. The main camera is 24MP with a 2MP depth sensor. The third sensor is an 8MP ultra-wide camera. The image quality on the photos taken on this device is pretty disappointing. Honor has shown us great budget phones with excellent cameras before, with the Honor 8X. So to see this type of quality from one of their newest phones is not good. The ultra-wide camera is especially bad. See examples in the video review.
The Honor 20 has a fantastic set of cameras. The main camera is capable of 48MP shots with a 2MP depth sensor. Once again, we see a ultra-wide sensor at 16MP which produces significantly better photos than the 20 Lite. The fourth camera is a macro camera that is designed to shoot tiny objects at a distance of about 4cm. The macro camera produces really low-quality shots and I was not able to get a decent photo in any situation. Once again, to see sample photos and video, watch the full video review on XDA TV.
Conclusion
At £399.99, the Honor 20 is a much better value than the Honor 20 Lite which comes in at £ 249.99. The Honor 20 Lite falls short in almost every aspect, except for battery life where it does much better than the Honor 20. The Honor 20 is a great phone with impressive performance, but suffers from really poor battery life and bad heat management.