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Huawei Honor 20 Pro launches with 4 rear cameras, includes Android despite Google ban

This super affordable phone from Huawei's Honor is shaping up to be a cheaper P30.

Andrew Lanxon Editor At Large, Lead Photographer, Europe
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
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Andrew Lanxon
2 min read
honor-20-pro-1
Angela Lang/CNET

Huawei sub-brand Honor announced its latest phone, the Honor 20 Pro, in the face of escalated hostility from the US against the brand. Despite the ban, and Samsung's ability to gain from Huawei's loss, the company and its Honor sub-brand have amassed a global following for their phones posting 50% growth this month. The Honor 20 Pro and standard Honor 20 will still release in countries outside of the US, and despite Google's compliance to withdraw Android support for new phones, both Honor devices will come with Android 9 Pie on board.

The Honor 20 Pro has some similarities to Huawei's flagship P30 Pro . It's got a jazzy-looking rear design and you'll notice a familiar triple-camera array at the top. This includes a standard 48-megapixel lens, a 16-megapixel wide-angle lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens that offers a 3x lossless zoom.

Watch this: Honor 20 Pro packs multiple cameras without the price tag

What it doesn't have is the P30 Pro's periscope zoom, which lets that phone achieve a huge 10x lossless zoom. I suppose Huawei wanted to keep some of its goodies for itself. In its place is what the company calls a macro lens, designed for getting up close on tiny details. It's only 2 megapixels however and the results aren't anything to write home about.

Both phones have 32-megapixel front-facing cameras, but while Huawei's is tucked into this teardrop-shaped notch, Honor's is found in this little punched-out hole.

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Angela Lang/CNET

The Honor's 6.2-inch display has a 2480x1080-pixel resolution which is almost identical to the P30 Pro, and both phones run Huawei's latest Kirin 980 processor with 8GB of RAM.

There are a few other differences to note -- the screen doesn't curve at the edges like the P30 Pro and there's a finger printer scanner built into the edge of the phone rather than Huawei's nifty in-screen fingerprint scanning.

All of which means that the Hono 20 Pro will come with a more affordable price tag. While Honor hasn't said exactly how much it'll cost yet, the company confirmed it'll be under 650 dollars, which is around £510. That puts it quite a way under the £900 asking price for the P30 Pro.

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Angela Lang/CNET

If that's not cheap enough, Honor does also have a standard 20, which has a slightly smaller battery and loses the telephoto lens. Then there's the Honor 20 Lite, which knocks things down further with a lower-powered processor and only 4GB of RAM. Expect both these phones to come with an even lower price tag.

Honor 20 Pro specs comparison chart


Huawei Honor 20 ProHuawei P30 ProHuawei Honor 20 Lite
Display size, resolution 6.2-inch; 2,340x1,080 pixels6.47-inch OLED; 2,340x1,080-pixels6.2-inch; 2,340x1,080 pixels
Pixel density 415ppi398ppi415ppi
Dimensions (Inches) 6.1x2.9x0.31 in6.22x2.89x0.33 in6.1x2.9x0.31 in
Dimensions (Millimeters) 154x73x8 mm158x73.4x8.41 mm154.8x73.6x8 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams) 5.78 oz; 164g6.77 oz; 192g5.78 oz; 164g
Mobile software Android 9 PieAndroid 9.0 with EMIU 9.1Android 9 Pie
Camera 48-megapixel, 16-megapixel, 8-megapixel, 2-megapixel40-megapixel (standard), 20-megapixel (ultra wide), 8-megapixel 5X optical periscope zoom, TOF (time of flight) sensor24-megapixel, 8-megapixel, 2-megapixel depth
Front-facing camera 32-megapixel32-megapixel32-megapixel
Video capture 4K4K4K
Processor Kirin 980Kirin 980 processorKirin 710 chipset, octa-core
Storage 256GB128GB, 256GB, 512GB128GB
RAM 8GB8GB4GB
Expandable storage NanoSDUp to 256GB with proprietary NM cardNano-SIM or microSD
Battery 4,000mAh4,200mAh3,400mAh
Fingerprint sensor Right side edgeIn-screen (optical)Back
Connector USB-CUSB-CUSB-C
Headphone jack NoNoYes
Special features N/ACamera night mode, 40w Huawei SuperCharge, 15w wireless charging, reverse charging, IP68 water resistanceN/A
Price off-contract (USD) $650 (Estimated)Converts to $1,135Converts to $323
Price (GBP) £510 (Estimated, converted)£899 (128GB)£249
Price (AUD) AU$940 (Esitmated, converted)AU$1,599Converts to AU$465