Honor View 20 – 10 Part Review – Deep Dives with the Camera & Audio System & Much More

Android, Reviews, Tech News, , , , ,

As a reviewer of smartphones and gadgets, I am privileged to use a significant number of phones across a number of different manufacturers.

The Honor View 20 is a phone that has surpassed all my expectations. Here’s why.

Main Review

Honor originally provided me with a Honor View 20 on loan for the purpose of this review. However, after the loan period, I had enjoyed the phone so much I bought my own View 20 in phantom blue. This is the 8gb ram 256gb storage option. Some of you would have been aware that I had had a Pixel 3 XL. I sold this and replaced it the Honor View 20. That’s how impressed I have been with this phone.

So below are the key aspects of the Honor View 20 that have stood out for me.

Battery – In real daily use the battery life whether on wifi or 4g is astonishing. Today, I am likely to end with around 9 hours screen on time from coming off charge at 6.00am this morning. I have watched a movie on it, streamed from Netflix, streamed Tidal MQA Master quality audio into a USB DAC ( iFi Audio xDSD ) , messaged, browsed, played games and so much more. The fact it comes with a super charger plug which gives 50% recharging in 30 mins is really the icing on the cake. Compared to my Pixel 3 XL, the Honor View 20 totally crushes it. The Pixel 3 XL would only manage 4 hours screen on time.

Signal strength – whether on wifi, cellular, GPS or bluetooth, the phone just has remarkable coverage. This is likely due to the 3 bands for wifi and the double GPS signal system. Bluetooth is the latest version 5, with LDAC Hi-Res Codec support. Wifi calling all works a treat.

Screen. It’s a big 6.4 inch IPS screen that nearly goes edge to edge. That’s is what is feel like when watching YouTube or movies that fill the entire screen with just a hole punch for the front camera. Face unlock works instantly as does the rear fingerprint sensor. It is worth noting that if you wear polarised sunglasses, the screen is visible in portrait but not landscape.

Cameras. These are amazing. The rear cameras consist of a 48mp and 3D Time of Flight Sensor. The front camera is 25mp. My dedicated camera review is below. I have been out several times and taken shots with my Pixel 3 XL and Honor View 20. I then did a blind viewing with several people and 75% of the time, the View 20 was the winner. I subsequently have done more tests and ended up preferring the Honor View 20 shots. Add to the fact the diversity of camera modes makes this one blockbuster of a phone for taking pictures. Even the video is good especially at 1080p with all the Video AI modes.

Audio. The Honor View 20 has a 3.5mm headphone jack and its really good. Here’s why and more on the audio aspects of the phone.

Other features – It is great for making actual phone calls. It has an infra red blaster, great for adjusting the volume on my TV.

Price. It costs £499 for the 128gb version and £579 for the 256gb version. Link at end to Amazon where you can currently order and get a free Honor Watch Magic smartwatch. The Honor Watch Magic is worth around £155. When you think that Apple charge £1,149 for their 256gb iPhone XS Max, that’s a huge difference.

Camera Samples

The above shot was taken using the Aperture mode which allows post photo to adjust the focus point and blur from f/0.95 to f/16.

The above traffic trails light painting mode is so easy to use. For this a tripod is needed or a firm surface. This mode is built in to the default camera app.

The above is a hand held night mode. No tripod needed. Check out the main video review after one month which has over 40 additional camera samples.

Main Video Review

Additional Articles on the Honor View 20

The Barbican Historic Harbour Shot on the Honor View 20

Can your phone deliver this level of battery performance on 4G?

Portishead Quay Marine – Long Exposure Night Shots

Trip to London – Shots of Hyde Park

Honor View 20 – Secret Extra Night Mode discovered

Honor View 20 – Check out these battery stats

Conclusion

This phone sits at the top of my tree for recommendations. The sum of its parts creates a superb user experience.

Available from Amazon UK

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The Barbican, Plymouth – Historic Harbour shot on the Honor View 20

Android, Photography, Tech News,

The Barbican in Plymouth was one of the few parts of the city that survived the second World War blitz. Most of the historic building in the city of Plymouth got destroyed. Two or three streets still retain some of the architecture of an historic fishing port. The Barbican has the largest concentration of cobbled streets in Britain, and contains 100 listed buildings.

The first shot above is actually a long exposure of 7 seconds. This was achieved by using the Silky Water Mode in the camera app of the Honor View 20. It is actually my favourite shot.

Next up is a simple auto shot at 12mp with AI left on. Equally as beautiful.

Now there is an option to use the full 48mp on the Honor View 20. So for the last shot, this was using the 48mp AI Clarity mode. This allows for some serious levels of detail and zooming in if required.

Can your phone deliver this level of battery life? A Day with the Honor View 20 on 4G

Android, Tech News,

7am yesterday morning I was standing at Exeter St David’s station in Devon waiting for a train to London Paddington.

My Honor View 20 was at 100% battery and picking up a 4G signal on Three UK. This was going to be a true test of it’s battery life and performance as I was only going to be using cellular signal and data and no WiFi. If you connect the Honor View 20 to WiFi , the battery performance improves by 25% approximately.

The train line to London from Exeter is not the best for obtaining a signal. Other phones I’ve have used on the same line, often struggle for signal. The Honor View 20 seemed to have a signal for the entire train journey of nearly 3 hours. Not only that my dad decided to video call me, and twice. Both times the video call was held perfectly.

Whilst on the train, I used Amazon Prime and watched the latest episode of the Grand Tour using my wireless headphones. I was also getting lots of messages and was replying on and off for the entire journey. After watching the Grand Tour I was listening to Tidal music at master quality using my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones for the rest of the train ride.

So eventually, I arrived at London Paddington, and I needed to take the Circle Line to South Kensington. Unfortunately, this line was closed at London Paddington due to engineering works, so I fired up Google Maps, and used this to give me turn by turn directions to Fulham Road. This ended up using Google Maps for one hour.

Of course, walking across London, there was no way I couldn’t stop and take loads of photos. So I did. See my previous post for photos I took of London Paddington and at Hyde Park, London. As a side point, the View 20 is a blast to use and it takes great photos without any effort.

During my walk across London, I received several phone calls, and another video call. The video call was on loudspeaker and despite the strong cross wind, I could hear my dad and he could hear me too. Phone calls were also really clear.

When I arrived at my destination, I ended up having to message various people on and off for the next 4 hours.

I then had to walk back to London Paddington station, again using Google Maps and taking a few more photos.

More messaging and emails occurred throughout the day.

On the train back to Exeter St David’s , I watched a film on Netflix. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. 2 hours and 30 mins.

Remember all the time, I’m on 4G not WiFi.

Eventually, I got back home. A whole day out in London 6 hours screen on time. And still 15% left.

The Honor View 20 and its 4,000mAh battery is a true battery champ.

Portishead Quay Marina at Night – Stunning Long Exposure Photos taken on the Honor View 20

Android, Photography, Tech News

The Honor View 20 has a great auto mode, but it also has a wealth of other modes built into the camera app. One of which is Night mode. This allows for hand held 5 second exposures without a tripod. However, with a tripod, the phone detects it is securely clamped and allows for an even longer Night mode photo of up to 32 seconds.

The results are stunning.

The above shot is of the boats in the marina. And below is a photo of the restaurants.

Impressive!

Trip to London – Shots of Hyde Park snapped on the Honor View 20

Android, Photography, Tech News,

Yesterday, I did a day trip to London to visit family.

I took a number of photos on the Honor View 20 and the results are excellent. The first shot above is of London Paddington station.

The next few shots are taken at Hyde Park near the Italian Gardens. The swan was moving all the time.

Hyde Park is great to visit and also is a neat shortcut to walk from one side of London to another. Why take the Underground, when you can walk.

Some of the buildings and features are fabulous.

The above shot snapped straight into the sun! Notice the heron?

Above shot using 2 x zoom. Detail is good too.

All these shots were in auto mode which does a great job every time.

Honor View 20 – Long Exposure Night Mode – secret second Night Mode discovered with spectacular results

Android, Photography, Tech News,

The Honor View 20 has many camera modes in the in built app. Scroll back to see my full camera review to learn about them all with samples.

However, there are 2 night modes. There is a 5 sec long exposure night mode that is hand held without a tripod. This in itself is pretty cool.

However, there is another night mode that kicks in automatically when the phone detects the following. First it realises the phone is in a tripod and also the tripod isn’t moving, that is its completely still. Then it will automatically carry out a longer exposure of up to 30 seconds. This is different from using Pro mode for 30 seconds as its undertaking multi framing and only keeping the best parts of each different shot.

The result. Below is a night mode shot, on auto settings, with the phone on a tripod. The phone picked a 25 second exposure. Where I was standing was pitch black. The photo below is spectacular.

I also experimented with raw images but none of the raw images could compete with the above quality using this longer exposure night mode.

Honor View 20 – Check out these battery stats – Unbelievable!

Android, Tech News

The Honor View 20 has a 4,000mAh battery, double that of an iPhone. It is also paired with the Kirin 980 processor which is a 7nm design which provides epic power and helps with battery life too.

The screen on time is impressive when you consider the battery still has 56% remaining.

Now for the second stat. The time since the last charge.

That’s right. I’m into my second day now. This phone is looking like a solid 2 day device.

Amazing!

Available from Amazon, currently with an offer for a free Honor Watch Magic worth £179. More info HERE.

Snow Bomb hits Dartmoor National Park – 2 Days of Extreme Weather filmed on a GoPro Hero 7 Black

Tech News,

Around 3pm on Thursday 31st January 2019, the snow arrived on Dartmoor National Park.

Armed with 3 cameras, I went out in the snow blizzard and captured the snow hammering down at 3pm on Thursday 31st January 2019.

Then at 8am the next day, I went out in near whiteout conditions to capture even more photos and video. At times I was battling snow that was waist deep.

Below is a highlight video covering the 2 days with video and photos. Enjoy.

Even Samsung Phones suffer from boot loops – My Personal Experience

Android, Tech News

I have a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) phone that is my work phone. It is locked down from a security point of view, with 8 digit password that needs entering every time you need to do anything on the phone. Then each of the apps has its own 8 digit password which changes constantly.

The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) receives regular security updates too. As this is a work phone, it is only used for emails, calls and the odd text. Over the course of ownership, the battery longevity has taken a hit.

So in reality this phone is not stressed heavily. Calls, emails, texts. And charging every other day. Except yesterday I charged the phone to 100% as usual overnight. Went to power on and was left with the Samsung boot logo flashing happily at me. Yes, I know my phone is made by Samsung, but surely Samsung didn’t need to remind me this way!

So what has happened is my Samsung Galaxy A5 is stuck in the boot loop. A quick Google search, and it became apparent this is a very well know problem. Only solution is to wipe the phone whilst connected to a PC using special commands. My actual remedy as recommended by Vodafone, its a known problem, you need a newer phone/replacement.

And that is what is happening. Who knew even Samsung phones suffered from boot loops!

Huawei uses AI to finish Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony

Tech News

This is really cool!.

Huawei, the global technology leader, has – for the first time ever – combined the power of AI and human expertise to compose the final two movements of Schubert’s famous Symphony No. 8. Commonly known as the ‘Unfinished Symphony.’ The ‘Unfinished Symphony’ has remained incomplete for 197 years and despite numerous attempts it remains one of the most intriguing pieces of unfinished symphonic music of all time. Below is a video teaser.

Huawei’s completed version of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 was created by running an Artificial Intelligence model benefitting directly from the processing power of the dual NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro smartphone – designed specifically with AI-based tasks in mind. Analysing the timbre, pitch and meter of the existing first and second movements of the symphony, the AI model then generated the melody for the final, missing third and fourth movements. Huawei then worked with Emmy award-winning composer, Lucas Cantor to arrange an orchestral score from the melody that stayed true to the style of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8.

“At Huawei, we are always searching for ways in which technology can make the world a better place. So we taught our Mate 20 Pro smartphone to analyse an unfinished, nearly 200 year old piece of music and to finish it in the style of the original composer,” commented Walter Ji, President CBG, Huawei Western Europe. “We used the power of AI, to extend the boundaries of what is humanly possible and see the positive role technology might have on modern culture. If our smartphone is intelligent enough to do this, what else could be possible?”

Lucas Cantor, Composer said: “My role was to draw out the AI’s good ideas and fill in the gaps to ensure the final output was ready to be played by a symphony orchestra. The result of this collaboration with AI proves that technology offers incredible possibilities and the significant and positive impact it can have on modern culture.”

The final, Huawei-completed piece will be brought to life with a live performance at the iconic Cadogan Hall in London on Monday 4th February.

Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor is considered to be the archetypal ‘Unfinished Symphony’. Musicologists are still in disagreement as to why Schubert failed to complete the piece, some cite his ill health, others claim that he was distracted by his follow up piece of work, but what is agreed upon is that he was charting new musical terrain with the piece.

Further information and the finished symphony can be found via:

https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/campaign/unfinishedsymphony/

Honor 10 Lite Review

Android, Reviews, Tech News

The Honor 10 Lite is a budget smartphone that retails at £199.

Key Features

– Display – 6.21 inch IPS screen
– Chipset – Kirin 710, GPU Mali-G51 MP4
– Android 9.0 (Pie)
– Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, compass
– 3 GB RAM,
– Non-removable Li-Po 3400 mAh battery
– 64gb storage, micro SD card support
– Dual 4g sim
– 24mp Selfie Camera
– 13mp AI rear camera + 2mp depth camera

Main Review

Conclusion

The Honor 10 Lite is a fabulous looking smartphone, complete with a decent camera and a headphone jack. Recommended.

Useful Links

More info & latest pricing on the Honor 10 Lite on Amazon

Honor View 20 – 10 Part Review after 1 Month + Camera Showcase + Camera Deep Dive + Audio Review

Android, Reviews, Tech News

As a reviewer of smartphones and gadgets, I am privileged to use a significant number of phones across a number of different manufacturers.

The Honor View 20 is a phone that has surpassed all my expectations. Here’s why.

Main Review

First up, full disclosure. Honor provided me with a loan device for the purpose of this review. After the loan period, I enjoyed the phone so much I bought my own View 20 in phantom blue. Some of you will know that I have a Pixel 3 XL. I have now sold this and will be replacing it with my own Honor View 20. That’s how impressed I am with this phone!

So below are the key aspects of the Honor View 20 that have stood out for me.

Battery – In real daily use the battery life whether on wifi or 4g is astonishing. Today, I am likely to end with around 9 hours screen on time from coming off charge at 6.00am this morning. I have watched a movie on it, streamed from Netflix, streamed Tidal MQA Master quality audio into a USB DAC ( iFi Audio xDSD ) , messaged, browsed, played games and so much more. The fact it comes with a super charger plug which gives 50% recharging in 30 mins is really the icing on the cake. Compared to my Pixel 3 XL, the Honor View 20 totally crushes it. The Pixel 3 XL would only manage 4 hours screen on time.

Signal strength – whether on wifi, cellular, GPS or bluetooth, the phone just has remarkable coverage. This is likely due to the 3 bands for wifi and the double GPS signal system. Bluetooth is the latest version 5, with LDAC Hi-Res Codec support. Wifi calling all works a treat.

Screen. It’s a big 6.4 inch IPS screen that nearly goes edge to edge. That’s is what is feel like when watching YouTube or movies that fill the entire screen with just a hole punch for the front camera. Face unlock works instantly as does the rear fingerprint sensor.

Cameras. These are amazing. The rear cameras consist of a 48mp and 3D Time of Flight Sensor. The front camera is 25mp. My dedicated camera review is below. I have been out several times and taken shots with my Pixel 3 XL and Honor View 20. I then did a blind viewing with several people and 75% of the time, the View 20 was the winner. I subsequently have done more tests and ended up preferring the Honor View 20 shots. Add to the fact the diversity of camera modes makes this one blockbuster of a phone for taking pictures. Even the video is good especially at 1080p with all the Video AI modes.

Audio. The Honor View 20 has a 3.5mm headphone jack and its really good. Here’s why and more on the audio aspects of the phone.

Other features – It is great for making actual phone calls. It has an infra red blaster, great for adjusting the volume on my TV.

Price. It costs £499 for the 128gb version and £579 for the 256gb version. Link at end to Amazon where you can currently order and get a free Honor Watch Magic smartwatch. The Honor Watch Magic is worth around £155. When you think that Apple charge £1,149 for their 256gb iPhone XS Max, that’s a huge difference.

Camera Samples

The above shot was taken using the Aperture mode which allows post photo to adjust the focus point and blur from f/0.95 to f/16.

The above traffic trails light painting mode is so easy to use. For this a tripod is needed or a firm surface. This mode is built in to the default camera app.

The above is a hand held night mode. No tripod needed.

Main Video Review

Additional Articles on the Honor View 20

The Barbican Historic Harbour Shot on the Honor View 20

Can your phone deliver this level of battery performance on 4G?

Portishead Quay Marine – Long Exposure Night Shots

Trip to London – Shots of Hyde Park

Honor View 20 – Secret Extra Night Mode discovered

Honor View 20 – Check out these battery stats

Conclusion

This phone sits at the top of my tree for recommendations. The sum of its parts creates a superb user experience.

Available from Amazon UK

Apple and Microsoft Office now working together!!

Apple, Tech News

At Apple’s June 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced that Microsoft will be bringing their suit off apps to the Mac App Store and finally in January 2019 they are now available to download today from the Mac App Store and on your iOS device.
In the UK and other countries around the world people started to see this pop up in the iOS app store.

From Office 365 App screen,

“We are proud to announce that Microsoft Office 365 is now on the Mac App Store. Your subscription to Office 365 gives you access to all functions on all platforms. To subscribe, sign up for any Office Suite app and update your subscription. Discover all the apps in the suite, and start creating and collaborating!”

Currently Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint are available to download to start your creativity and productivity on all your Apple devices.

Like Office 365 on other devices this will require further subscriptions to unlock the full ranges of features but will receive basic modes on all applications.

When looking on the UK Mac App Store their subscription prices are as follows,

Office 365 Personal – £59.99
Office 365 Home – £79.99
Office 365 Solo – £112.99

Post by Ricky West

Huawei Launches 5G Multi – Mode Chipset

Android, Tech News

Huawei has officially launched it’s 5G multi – mode chipset Balong 5000 today, alongside the first commercial 5G device which is powered by this chip.

Together these two releases from Huawei provides the world’s fastest wireless connections for your smartphone, home, office, and on the go.

Huawei new chipset Balong 5000 officially brings in the 5G era, this chip supports a broad range of 5G products in addition to smartphones it can be capable of home broadband devices, vehicle mounted devices and 5G modules it will provide consumers with a brand new 5G experience across multiple scenarios.

(Huawei launches the world’s first single-chip multi-mode modem)

Quotes by Huawei CEO

“The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers,”

“It will enable everything to sense, and will provide the high-speed connections needed for pervasive intelligence. Powered by the Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro enables consumers to access networks more freely and enjoy an incredibly fast connected experience. Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks. Building on these strengths, as the leader of the 5G era, we will bring an inspired, intelligent experience to global consumers in every aspect of their lives.”

The Balong 5000 has a small form factor and high degree of integration which will support 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip, it will reduce latency and power consumption when exchanging data between different modes and will significantly enhance user experience in the early stages of commercial 5G roll out.

Balong 5000 is the first chipset to perform to industry benchmarks for peak 5G download speeds. At Sub-6 GHz (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps.

On mmWave spectrum (high-frequency bands used as extended spectrum for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 6.5 Gbps – 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds on the market today.

Balong 5000 is also the world’s first chipset that supports both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures for 5G.

With non-standalone, 5G network architecture is built on top of legacy 4G LTE networks, whereas standalone 5G, as the name implies, will have its own independent architecture. Balong 5000 can flexibly meet different user and carrier requirements for connecting devices throughout different stages of 5G development.

Balong 5000 is the world’s first multi-mode chipset that supports Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications, providing low-latency and highly reliable solutions for connected vehicles.

Huawei’s 5G smartphones powered by Balong 5000 will be released at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

(The Huawei 5G CPE Pro achieves a high speed of 3.2 Gbps in live network tests)

Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections.
On a 5G network, a 1-GB HD video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and 8K video can be streamed smoothly without lag. This sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for super-fast broadband access.

Adopting new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps. It is the first 5G CPE that supports HUAWEI HiLink protocols, bringing smart homes into the 5G era.

As a 5G pioneer, Huawei began research and development in 5G as early as 2009, and is currently the industry’s only vendor that can provide end-to-end 5G systems. Huawei has more than 5,700 engineers dedicated to 5G R&D, including over 500 5G experts. In total, Huawei has established 11 joint innovation centers for 5G solutions worldwide.

Post by Ricky West.

Honor View 20 – Audio Review – Bluetooth, Loudspeaker and 3.5mm Headphones all tested

Android, Audio, Headphone, Reviews, Tech News

Welcome to my audio review of the Honor View 20.

My audio review will focus on the following aspects –

– Bluetooth quality and codecs

– Loudspeaker quality

– System Audio options

– 3.5mm headphone jack and recommended headphones to use

Don’t forget to check out my dedicated camera review and future posts on the Honor View 20.

Audio Review

Useful Links

Honor View 20 is currently on offer at Amazon, the 6gb and 8gb version, with a Honor Magic Watch included free of charge Amazon UK.