Honor Launches The View20: A 48MP Camera Review
by Andrei Frumusanu on January 28, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Kirin 980
- Honor View20
GPU Performance
GPU performance of the View20 is actually one of the things that should actually differ from what we’ve seen in the Mate 20’s: the explanation here is related to the fact that the View20 promises a much improved SoC thermal dissipation solution in the form of a heat pipe system, while the Mate 20’s did not employ any such dedicated solution.
For GPU and gaming performance, sustained performance is the key measurement metric as over the last few years we’ve seen devices vary a lot between their peak performance figures and their longer term thermally constrained figures.
Starting off with 3DMark’s physics test, the View20 actually ends up as the top performing device tested so far. Here its thermal dissipation solution as well as thermal throttling settings do allow the phone to post near its peak performance even though the phone had reached its peak thermal temperature and thermal envelope equilibrium after more than 30 minutes of load.
The graphics subtest also fares well for the View20. Although it again shows very good sustained performance figures near its peak, the Mali G76MP10 GPU in this case still lags a bit behind Qualcomm and Apple’s solutions.
In both GFXBench Aztec benchmarks, the View20’s sustained performance is again exemplary, showing no throttling even after long periods, but as before the absolute performance still is a bit behind Qualcomm and Apple’s best.
Finally, in the by now a bit more legacy GFXBench tests, we again see the View20 beat the sustained performance offered by the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro with the same Kirin 980 chipset.
Overall, the View20’s gaming performance looks to be quite good – its peak performance isn’t quite up to par with the latest generation chipsets, however its sustained performance is quite excellent due to the what looks to be Honor’s new heatpipe SoC thermal dissipation solution. The end-performance ends up around between some of the better Snapdragon 845 devices we’ve seen in 2018 – which is actually a good place to end up in given Kirin SoC’s rather disappointing showings in the last few generations.
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philehidiot - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
You'd be amazed when you go back to old phones with older sensors. I found a dick pic from about 4 or 5 years ago and you'd be amazed at how grainy and small it looked with the optical distortion. Only goes to show how much effort they've put into the lenses and how things incrementally improve over time.That's if you see grey hair as an improvement, that is.
phoenix_rizzen - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
Would be nice to have more than 3x optical zoom, too.Will be interesting to see results from the OPPO? phone with motors and extra horizontal lenses too see how their 10x zoom results look.
phoenix_rizzen - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
motors == mirrorsStormyParis - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
Very interesting and insightful, thank you.I'm wondering how all those fancy AI-, Night-, ... modes deal with moving objects since they all seem based on some kind of HDR.
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
They take up to 4 seconds to capture so they're no good with moving objects.eastcoast_pete - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
@Andrei: Thanks for this review. Did I get it correct - the 40 MP are more virtual than actual? I am curious how the Sony "40 MP" sensor compares to the very large 40 MP sensor in the Nokia Pureview 808. That sensor was a beast, and didn't just have 40 actual Megapixels, but also on-chip 4-in-1 binning. Any comments? Whatever happened to that sensor?Lastly, for any manufacturer who might read this: As somebody who really looks for a good camera in my phones, I for one don't mind a notable hump for the camera if (IF) you make it worth it in the photo and video quality.
eastcoast_pete - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
Okay, I think I answered my own question: yes, the Sony chip is a "virtual" 40 MP, but that comes at a cost, mainly in form of really small imaging pixel size. I also took another look at the 41 megapixel Pureview sensor that Nokia's 808 featured: pixel size: 1.4 µm; 7728x5368 actual (not virtual) pixels, and a sensor size of 10.67 × 8.00 mm. When it came out, it monstered pretty much any compact fixed lens camera with better details and overall picture quality. I would love to see something similar in a smartphone with modern tech (Snapdragon 855 or Kirin 980), Android 9+, and BSI instead of FSI. For that, I take the big hump any day. Anybody else who'd be interested in that kind of kit?serendip - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
I still have an 808 that gets used on sunny days. That said, my cheap Xiaomi phones have much better overall photo quality with Google Camera's HDR. The 808 has lovely detail rendering, almost like a Micro 4/3 sensor, but dynamic range is lacking and noise is terrible.Now someone needs to take that big sensor and marry it with a fast GPU and IP. Microsoft tried this with the Lumia 1020 but the SoC in that was too slow. A new Snapdragon 855 should be perfect for this.
tuxRoller - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
Here's a comparison with the lumiawww.androidauthority.com/huawei-mate-20-pro-vs-nokia-1020-924642/
jjj - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
Would be nice if you could also camera review the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, just to see the differences between this and a 150$ phone.