OnePlus 7 vs Honor View 20: Which is best?

Design: Same fight

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This battle hasn’t really changed since we put the OnePlus 6T against the Honor View 20 a few months back. That’s because the OnePlus 6T is nearly identical aside from very, very minor tweaks. OnePlus put all of its design oomph into the OnePlus 7 Pro, which means the standard OP7 is really more of the same.

That’s fine: it’s still a good-looking flagship, with a small waterdrop notch atop the large screen and frosted glass on the back. But the Honor View 20 definitely packs more pop, with a hole-punch screen cutout and a cool, reflective, angular backing pattern. Against the 6T, we picked the Honor View 20 for the flash – but not everyone wants that kind of boldness. We’ll leave this one up to preference.

Verdict: Draw

Screen: AMOLED advantage

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Likewise, this is essentially the same comparison from the last time around, as the OnePlus 7 again uses a 6.41in Optic AMOLED screen at 1080p resolution. It looked great before, with strong contrast and inky blacks, and it looks great on the OnePlus 7 too. If there’s any big difference, we don’t see it.

On the other hand, the Honor View 20 opts for an LCD display at 6.4in (really, it’s that close) and 1080p resolution – and a tiny punch-hole cutout in the upper left corner instead of a notch. It’s a strong screen, but doesn’t pack quite as much of a punch in terms of vivid colours and bold contrast.

Verdict: OnePlus 7

Camera: Two of a kind

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The Honor View 20 definitely had a leg up on the OnePlus 6T when we put their cameras head-to-head, but it’s a different story entirely when it comes to the OnePlus 7.

Why? Because the OnePlus 7 now uses the same 48-megapixel Sony sensor from the Honor View 20, plus it has a 5MP sensor alongside to help with depth data; the View 20 has a time-of-flight sensor. In both cases, the auto settings capture a ton of data and pack it into a 12MP result.

Ultimately, the snaps you get on both phones are similarly strong. They’re not the best around, as true high-end flagships like the Huawei P30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10+ deliver finer detail and nuance, but they’re quite fine for the price.

On the other hand, the Google Pixel 3a delivers better shots than either the OnePlus 7 or Honor View 20, and it’s £399. Price isn’t everything anymore. In any case, this one’s a draw in our eyes.

Verdict: Draw

Performance: Speedy indeed

The passage of time has flipped this category in favour of OnePlus. Now the OnePlus 7 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip instead of the Snapdragon 845 in the OnePlus 6T. Another year, another bump in CPU power. It’s not massive, but it’ll help keep the phone running super swiftly.

Meanwhile, the Honor View 20 opts for Huawei’s Kirin 980, the same seen in the brilliant P30 Pro… but when it comes to benchmark testing, the Snapdragon 855 shows slight gains over its rival. Both are fast, but if we’re talking sheer muscle, the Snapdragon has an advantage. Both phones are offered in 6GB and 8GB varieties.

And while both phones run Android, we’re much bigger fans of OnePlus’ OxygenOS skin than Honor’s Magic UI. OxygenOS is just so clean and simple – in a good way.

Verdict: OnePlus 7

Battery and perks: Pretty close

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The Honor View 20 has a beefy 4,000mAh battery pack, while the OnePlus 7 lands just under it at 3,700mAh. You might get a smidge more uptime from the Honor View 20, but it’s hardly noticeable enough to brag about. Neither has wireless charging, naturally.

Both phones are offered in 128GB and 256GB storage varieties, but neither accepts microSD cards or any other expandable storage format. One other difference: the Honor View 20 keeps the 3.5mm headphone port, and the OnePlus 7 still doesn’t have it. All yours, Honor.

Verdict: Honor View 20

Verdict: Back on top

What a difference a few months makes. Where the Honor View 20 made the OnePlus 6T feel a smidge outdated earlier this year, now the OnePlus 7 returns the favour.

That’s not entirely true: the Honor View 20 doesn’t feel outdated at all, and it’s still one of the best phones you can find at this price. But by matching the Honor View 20 on camera quality, beating it on sheer processing speed, and keeping the better screen, we’d say the OnePlus 7 has the slimmest of edges here.

We gave the Honor View 20 a higher review score, but consider the context. The OnePlus 7 admittedly feels a little sheepish considering the repeated design from the OnePlus 6T, as well as comparisons to the stunning OnePlus 7 Pro. But take the phone on its own merits and compare to the Honor View 20, and we see some solid advantages. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with either of these beauties.

Winner: OnePlus 7