Honor, a Huawei subsidiary, is teasing upcoming Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro handsets, after launching the Honor 20 Lite earlier this month. Although they share the “Honor 20” name, they likely address different market segments and have very different performance characteristics.
At least, that’s what every other Pro and Lite version of Honor/Huawei phones have done in the past, so it seems likely that the same logic will apply again here.
The official teaser mainly focuses on the industrial design, particularly the Triple 3D Mesh back-cover which gives a new depth to the glass back cover. Honor mentions how difficult it is to produce the piece, with manufacturing yields of around 20%, meaning that only one in five back covers adheres to Honor’s required level of quality.
Honor calls the resulting visual effect a Dynamic Holographic design, and the Honor 20 series will be the first to feature it. The triple 3D mesh is bonded to become a single piece of glass before being assembled on the phone as the back cover. You’ll have to wait a little more to see how it actually looks like: for now, the above sketches are the only available (official) images.
This is quite different from the laser-engraving used to make the Honor View 20 back-cover (photo below) with the distinctive “V-shape” iridescent reflection. Instead, the Honor 20 Series’ design goal is to have the back cover reflect light in a way that mimics how one would see it underwater.
At the same time, Honor has also confirmed the May 21 launch date for the two new handsets, at a global event in London. We’ll cover the launch event as it happens.
It remains to be seen what the features are going to be, but the Honor 10 was a camera-centric phone that introduced AI photography concepts that were ahead of even the P and Mate line of products.
The official Honor teaser also has an emphasis on “Capture Wonder” in many languages, which hints that the camera will once again play a central part in these new phones. Finally, the introduction of a “Pro” model might signal more powerful hardware, similar to the P and Mate “Pro” series.
In the meantime, check our Camera review of the Huawei P30 Pro and Huawei P30 Camera Review which may be the technological foundation for these new handsets. We also list the best mobile cameras available on our always-updating page.
The official concept designs show a dual-lens vertical bump in the back and a couple of elements at the top that could be a microphone and an Infra-Red emitter. At the bottom, no 3.5mm audio connector is visible.
However, keep in mind that these seem to be very generic sketches that seem to emphasize the general shape of the handset, so don’t take them too literally.
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