OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Pushing back against the $1,000 smartphone

On paper, the OnePlus 6T and HONOR View 20 couldn’t be any more different. On the View 20, you have a 48-megapixel camera, IPS display, and headphone jack. On the OnePlus 6T, you have two rear cameras, an AMOLED display, and no headphone jack.

That’s just scratching the surface of contrasts between these phones.

Then again, there’s one thing that binds the HONOR View 20 and OnePlus 6T together — they both outperform their modest price tags. They both cost less than $600, but you wouldn’t know it from how much they offer. They are the perfect options for those disillusioned by the era of the $1,000 smartphone.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the OnePlus 6T and HONOR View 20 to see what keeps the two $600 heavyweights apart and close at the same time.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Design

The HONOR View 20 opts for glamor over the OnePlus 6T’s simple sophistication. Between the etched “V” pattern and the shimmering gradient colorway, the HONOR View 20 is sure to catch your eye. The OnePlus 6T, on the other hand, is a bit more subdued. The phone is available in a gloss and matte black as well as an elegant looking “Thunder Purple.”

Both the phones have a glass back and it would be unfair to say that one feels better than the other. Despite being just five grams heavier than the HONOR View 20, the OnePlus 6T feels a bit more dense and consequently heftier. That said, the overall ergonomics are great on both devices and you can’t really go wrong with either.

The front of the phones is a different story altogether. The HONOR View 20 has almost full-screen coverage thanks to the punch-hole display. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 6T sports a waterdrop notch, a design that seems to have aged quite quickly next to the less-intrusive hole in the screen.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Display

HONOR has done an outstanding job with the LTPS IPS panel on the View 20. Watching multimedia content is a pleasure on the 6.4-inch screen. The display looks vibrant and offers a fantastic contrast ratio. We had no issues with outdoor visibility either.

That’s not to say that the OnePlus 6T has a bad screen, far from it. The similarly sized AMOLED screen on the 6T opts for accuracy instead of boosted saturation, although it’s possible to change this in the settings. Blacks go sufficiently deep on both the screens, though the AMOLED panel on the OnePlus 6T appears to be just a bit darker.

Then there’s the notch. The waterdrop notch on the OnePlus 6T isn’t particularly offensive. In fact, it doesn’t take too long to get used to it but it certainly does get in the middle of the notification bar. The punch hole cutout on the View 20 too, obviously, takes a chunk out of the screen, but the off-center location ensures it doesn’t get in the middle of critical information. With a darker wallpaper, it almost vanishes into the background. Almost.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Performance

The OnePlus 6T and the HONOR View 20 both have high-end components, but which one comes out on top? We put both the phones through their paces in our reviews and the fact of the matter is that either will suffice for day-to-day performance, but also high-end smartphone gaming.

The OnePlus 6T sports a Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The HONOR View 20, on the other hand, has a homegrown Kirin 980 chipset that is just as powerful. RAM options go up to 8GB just like on the OnePlus 6T. If there’s one area where the View 20 has a slight leg up over the OnePlus is in its use of GPU Turbo 2.0 that gave us an ever so slightly smoother framerate in supported games.

The HONOR View 20 has a liquid cooling strip connecting the all the major components to help with heat dissipation. However, we didn’t notice a big difference between View 20 and OnePlus 6T when playing high end games. That’s to say, neither phone gets exceedingly hot during operation.

If you want to do a benchmark comparison, we’ve got you covered.

AnTuTu

3DMark

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Camera

The OnePlus 6T takes a pretty straightforward approach towards imaging. A 16MP primary camera paired with a 20MP depth sensing unit for portrait shots can be found at the rear of the phone. Meanwhile, the HONOR View 20 sports a whopping 48MP camera at the back. This is paired with a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor.

Before you get carried away, do note that the View 20 performs best when the 48-megapixel shots are pixel-binned down to 12 megapixels. With pixel binning, the camera combines four adjoining pixels into one “superpixel” with a higher level of sensitivity. This might not make much of a difference in daylight shots, but you do notice significantly lower noise levels in low light shots.

As mentioned earlier, there’s little to note in a brightly lit setting. Both phones do well here and are more or less on par. It is interesting to see that both the phones burnt out the highlights.

In the close-up shot, the OnePlus 6T wins out for us. The AI mode on the HONOR View 20 boosts up saturation a bit too much. This comes down to personal preference but we’d much rather have a more natural looking image.

In an indoor shot, the OnePlus 6T has a crisper image but pixel peeping reveals that the View 20 has lower noise levels. This is even more evident once the light drops down further.

On paper, the 16MP front-facing camera on the OnePlus 6T might appear to lose out to the 25MP shooter on the View 20 but HONOR’s overaggressive beauty filters pull it down for us. Even with beauty modes set to zero, it appears as if the HONOR View 20 continues to do a bit of skin smoothening. Both the phones struggle with selfies in low light conditions and display significantly high noise levels.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Software

While both the phones run Android Pie, there is a big difference in the way that they approach software. Where Oxygen OS on the OnePlus 6T treads lightly and goes for a near stock UI, Magic UI 2.0 on the HONOR View 20 is a highly customized take on Android. There are a whole host of options here to tweak the interface to your liking.

The clean interface with just the right smattering of enhancements makes Oxygen OS fly. If you like Pixel phones, the OnePlus 6T comes pretty close to the experience at a much more reasonable price.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Extras

Yes, the HONOR View 20 has a headphone jack. It even has video output over USB-C, letting you convert your phone into a mini-PC of sorts complete with a desktop UI. And that’s just scratching the surface.

As we talked about in our HONOR View 20 review, the phone supports dual frequency GPS. This allows for highly accurate positioning by using a combination of L1 and L5 frequencies. You can also expect great WiFi connectivity on the phone thanks to a third antenna placed under the glass at the rear of the phone.

Yet another feature where the View 20 has a leg up over the OnePlus 6T is the IR blaster. The blaster lets you control your old-school airconditioner, television or cable TV box using your phone. A bit niche, but it is definitely convenient to have one onboard.

Powering all of that is a 4,000mAh battery that is a small, but definite upgrade over the 3,700mAh battery on the OnePlus 6T. Both phones are capable of lasting a full day of use and then some. We observed between 7 to 8 hours of screen on time on both the phones in our reviews.

Both phones have their own take on fast charging. Dash Charging on the OnePlus 6T and Super Charge on HONOR View 20 will both take your phone from 0 to 50 percent charge in about 30 minutes.

If you like hardware extras, the View 20 definitely wins out over the OnePlus 6T and gives you more bang-for-the-buck.

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Specifications

OnePlus 6T vs HONOR View 20: Price and availability

The OnePlus 6T starts at $549 (549 euros, 499 pounds or 37,999 rupees) for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and goes as high as $629 (629 euros, 579 pounds or 45,999 rupees) for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage version. The HONOR View 20 starting at a price point of ~$540 (569 euros, 499 pounds, or 37,999) rupees and the top end version is priced at 45,999 rupees (it’s only available in India currently).

Relatively evenly priced, the phones are very similar, yet different enough. The HONOR View 20 undoubtedly edges ahead in the design department, but the lighter software experience on the OnePlus 6T wins for us.

The two phones are more or less equal in the performance department but the HONOR View 20 wins out in the sheer number of features you get. On the camera front, the OnePlus 6T pulls ahead for its greater color accuracy, but the View 20 has better low-light performance.

The HONOR View 20 is a flashy up-start that is bringing a lot of goodies to the table, while the OnePlus 6T goes for simple sophistication and delivers the essentials in a clean and familiar manner. What would you go for between HONOR View 20 vs OnePlus 6T? A snazzier design or a cleaner, lighter experience? Let us know in the comments section.