As cell video games get extra complicated, demanding, and specialist there’s an onus on cell phone makers to accommodate them. The competitors for the mantle of best gaming phone is getting more and more heated, and the View 20 is Honor’s courageous vanguard into this battle. It’s an Android-powered machine with a beautiful 6.4” display, some impressively skinny bezels across the edge, and a innovative processor inside. Crucially, it’s one in every of 4 units that may fortunately play Fortnite on cell at 60fps (together with the Huawei Mate 20X, and Samsung Galaxy S9 and S10), making for one of many smoothest experiences on the market. However does that make it good for gaming as a complete?

Honor View 20 - Design

When it comes to appears and measurement, it’s similar to different high-end Android telephones. Wrapped across the 6.4” display, which is able to displaying FHD 1080p, is a really skinny bezel that nearly creates the phantasm of an edgeless display. Virtually. There’s a 25MP digicam tucked away behind the display, which is a beautiful contact, and there’s an unimaginable 48MP most important digicam on the rear. The end is shiny and really, very black, which is an absolute magnet for finger-prints, so that you’ll discover it robust to maintain this cellphone wanting good - without a case - particularly with heavy gaming classes.

There’s a 3.5mm audio socket on the top of the machine, which is a smart place for it, given how most individuals use trendy telephones. It doesn’t intervene along with your palms whereas utilizing the underside of the display, and solely turns into a slight nuisance in the event you’re in panorama mode. The sim card slots into the correct facet of the machine, and there’s a easy quantity toggle and standby button set flush into a niche within the bezel. Design-wise, this is a superb telephone, solely faraway from perfection by display edges and a propensity to select up smudges. 

Honor View 20 – Features

That is an Android cellphone, which is at the moment working on model 9 (Pie), so it’s absolutely customizable with no matter widgets you want on each the house and secondary pages. It’s a sideways swipe to entry your important apps web page, whereas a downwards swipe brings up prompt / most used apps. Nice in case you’re upgrading from iPhone, however maybe a bit of alien for different ‘Droid customers. Contained in the cellphone is the place probably the most spectacular motion lies, with 6GB of RAM (within the model I examined), and 128GB of inside storage (once more, on this mannequin). That’s lots for gaming, as even the most important titles solely require a 3-4GB set up. You’ll match lots on right here earlier than having to selectively delete apps, which is nice as a result of there’s no possibility to increase storage with a micro SD card. Disgrace. 

The display itself is able to displaying 16.7 million colours, which is on a par with equally priced opponents just like the S9. The digicam produces some completely gorgeous pictures, and the front-facing selfie-snapper has a few splendidly helpful extra options, together with a magnificence slider to make you, er, extra photogenic, and an computerized mirror perform for these wanting a extra pure angle to their self-portraits. If digicam is necessary to you, past gaming, the Honor View 20 completely nails it.

Elsewhere there’s a strong 4000mAh battery, and that's the place the View 20 completely smashes rivals. A single cost was just below two hours, throughout our checks, from absolute zero to 100%. However it lasts for days, even beneath heavy gaming circumstances. Enjoying Fortnite cellular for about an hour solely eroded about 7% of the battery, which is unimaginable. Flicking to a free-to-play sport with quite a few adverts serving into it (Bubble Pop!) and the battery nonetheless held its cost extraordinarily properly, regardless of the pressure from fixed switching and grainy advert footage. Total, this cellphone has a powerful set of options, with the digital camera and the battery actual highlights.

Honor View 20 - Performance

And that is the place it actually issues for gaming. The View 20 dealt with all of the video games we threw at it, with ease. First up Fortnite cell, which we performed on the really useful 60fps. Discovering a sport was simple, and efficiency was glorious, with the shooter solidly locked into the goal body charge, even throughout busy firefights contained in the storm eye. The Honor View 20’s display screen is massive sufficient to deal with all of the cell controls and nonetheless supply an honest diploma of management over the motion. Choosing up objects and biking by your stock is simple, and the display screen was continually responsive, even close to the perimeters. There was zero lag whereas enjoying over Wi-Fi, most likely because of some sensible tech designed to cut back on-line points just like the Triple Antenna (designed to keep away from lack of sign in the event you cowl it along with your finger).

Subsequent I attempted a single participant expertise: Life is Strange. Whereas missing just a little of the colour vibrancy of the house console / PC launch, the sport appears to be like nice on the View 20’s display screen, by no means stuttering as you stroll Max by means of her time-bending journey. The soundtrack comes by means of good and clear, and it’s straightforward sufficient to hit the sport’s fiddly little management prompts for rewinding time. Whereas solo play in all probability isn’t what this cellphone was optimized for, it handles single participant story gaming extraordinarily nicely.

Lastly, I performed a couple of periods of Marvel Champions, the formally licensed brawler. Initially, the tutorial struggle appeared stuttery and management appeared to lag barely behind the motion, which is the death-knell of any fighter. Nonetheless, after this preliminary blip the telephone once more carried out flawlessly, responding effectively to all my inputs as I used Spidey and Wolverine to smash a gap by means of the forged of the Marvel universe (and acquire a great deal of random junk alongside the way in which). There have been a couple of barely sticky faucets when navigating the principle map, but it surely’s extra seemingly a flaw with the sport than the telephone.

Downloads had been even tremendous quick, because of the Hyperlink Turbo tech contained in the handset, which permits superior obtain speeds and ping. So, when it comes to what you really want for gaming, the Honor View 20 is an outstanding all-rounder.

Overall - should we buy it in 2021?

The quick reply is: sure. The Honor View 20 is a wonderful cellphone for nearly every part you may throw at it, however is particularly competent at gaming. The dependable and long-lived battery life, massive display screen, lovely cameras, and wi-fi tech are actual stand-out options, with solely the end of the handset and the dearth of an edgeless display screen the minor flaws in an in any other case wonderful package deal. It handles Fortnite with ease, on the recreation’s high settings, and enjoying something right here received’t burn by means of the battery at any tempo. The shortage of SD card slot is a disappointment, however removed from a deal breaker, and the highly effective innards will imply that this cellphone retains up with the easiest for at the least 2-3 years. And it’s all for a mid-range worth of round £500 for the decrease spec, and £580 for the upper spec. A outstanding cellphone, and one of the best one we’ve examined in terms of gaming.