Honor 20 Pro gets a pearl-hued Frost color

(Image credit: Future)

The Honor 20 Pro, a surprisingly powerful midrange phone, is getting a new color: Frost, a pearlescent hue that shimmers across a bright pastel gradient.

Sure, it’s just a new color option, but given how phonemakers labor to put out just the right dynamic look for their flagship handsets, this puts the lower-cost Honor 20 Pro into bigger aesthetic leagues.

Not that the green, purple, and blue hues available at launch were inferior - just that Frost looks closer to the vivid, multicolored rear designs preferred by Samsung and, yes, Huawei. Just look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Huawei P30 Pro galleries - you’ll see what we mean.

(Image credit: Future)

Honor reaching for bigger leagues - with color

The Honor series has typically drawn the best elements of the latest Huawei phones and repackaged them into more affordable handsets, but the Honor 20 Pro is a bolder step toward the sub-brand's devices standing on their own merits. 

While it retained cost-saving features like an LCD screen, its quad rear camera, punch-hole in the display for the selfie lens and Kirin 980 chip raised the phone's quality above its predecessors. A new color might not affect the hardware, but it does improve presentation for a phone company delivering more value and flagship style at a lower price than the competition.

David Lumb

David is now a mobile reporter at Cnet. Formerly Mobile Editor, US for TechRadar, he covered phones, tablets, and wearables. He still thinks the iPhone 4 is the best-looking smartphone ever made. He's most interested in technology, gaming and culture – and where they overlap and change our lives. His current beat explores how our on-the-go existence is affected by new gadgets, carrier coverage expansions, and corporate strategy shifts.

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