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The Honor 200 Pro is the newest premium mid-ranger from the Chinese company and promises a next-level camera experience for less. It also brings a quirky “organic” design that may be divisive and some of the features found on the flagship Magic 6 line. Let’s see how it compares in performance, camera, battery, and more in this review.
Summary
Buy
Good
Good performance and lots of memory
Bright and vibrant OLED display
Excellent main camera
Versatile cameras
Fast wired and wireless charging
Bad
Below average update policy for its price range
Outdated interface
Honor 200 Pro: All deals
Honor 200 Pro in a nutshell
Honor launched its 200 Pro phone in June 2024, after a Chinese-only launch in May. The upper mid-ranger (or accessible flagship?) is priced at 800€/£700 for the 12/512 GB model. The phone will not be available in the US.
The phone comes with a big 6.78-inch curved OLED display, a true triple-camera setup with a telephoto and ultrawide cameras, and is powered by a flagship-level Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor.
Design and display
There is a sense of dejà-vu when first seeing the Honor 200 Pro. It has been a while since I last saw a sub-$1000 phone with a curved display. And the retro vibes continued on the phone’s back, with a curved camera island.
Pros:
Solid build.
Excellent display.
Screen protector from the factory.
Fingerprint-proof back.
Cons
Camera island design is not for everyone.
According to Honor, the camera module was inspired by the curves of Casa Milá from Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. The glass cover has a different shape from the underlying metal base, which curves to meet the glass forming an uneven frame. It definitely looks well-built, but wasn’t exactly for my taste (from a self-admitted Gaudí fanboy…).
The camera island design is definitely different. / © nextpit
The rest of the back is made from glass, our review unit came in with a black matte finish which not only looks good and feels nice to the touch but also was free from fingerprints.
The curved back surface is mirrored in the front, not unlike every single flagship phone from five years ago. While flat displays have won in the West, curved displays are still strong in Asia, apparently.
Curve aside, the OLED screen on the Honor 200 Pro is top-notch. / © nextpit
But I digress, the display is a big and beautiful 6.78-inch AMOLED that not only refreshes at 120 Hz but also is specced to reach 4000 nits. We couldn’t reach that brightness level, but had no issues using the Honor 200 Pro outdoors.
To make use of that big area, the resolution is an equally high 2700 x 1200 pixels, resulting in 437 DPI. And under the display lies the fingerprint sensor, which worked as expected during our review. On top sits a pill-shaped notch which houses the dual selfie setup.
The Honor 200 Pro felt very good on the hand and its big screen didn’t result in a huge phone thanks to the curved display and thin bezels. Button placement was also fine, and in general, the phone felt like a true flagship.
MagicOS still carries the EMUI legacy
The Honor 200 Pro comes with MagicOS 8 on top of Android 14. The company promises three Android upgrades and four years of security updates. It still carries the same overall design as its EMUI predecessor, which feels a little dated in some places.
Pros
Cons
Interface design feels dated.
Underwhelming update policy.
After a fresh install, we counted nine third-party applications, something that we felt did not fit with a premium phone. After updating those apps, the system reported 31.28 GB of used storage.
MagicOS 8 still feels like a straight EMUI successor, with its iOS-based navigation and layout starting to feel out of place with Android, especially after a few years into the Material You design. Long-time Huawei and Honor users, however, will feel at home using MagicOS 8.
Huawei EMUI users will feel at home with Magic OS 8. / © nextpit
For more details on MagicOS 8, you can check Camila’s review of the flagship Magic 6 Pro, and more details on the AI features in this Magic AI hands-on. In general, despite the outdated look, using the system felt snappy, but some inconsistencies around the interface—including the default Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard—were distracting.
One personal nitpick was that the natural holding position made it slightly cumbersome to reach UI elements on the bottom of the display. Even reaching for the space bar while typing forced the hand to grab the phone in an unbalanced way.
Flagship performance from the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
Powered by the recently released Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Honor 200 Pro offers a flagship-level performance that is almost indistinguishable from the 2024 crop of premium phones. The use of modern memory standards for storage and RAM is helped by the generous capacities on offer.
Pros
Good performance in daily tasks and games.
Good thermal management
Cons
Phone throttles down to keep cool.
Honor seems to have opted for a more conservative implementation of the powerful CPU, not sacrificing user comfort for the highest performance as some rivals usually do. Instead, on longer heavier tasks, the phone reduces the speed to avoid getting too hot.
Honor 200 Pro(Snapdragon 8s Gen 3)
Poco F6 Pro(Snapdragon 8 Gen 2)
Poco F6(Snapdragon 8s Gen 3)
Google Pixel 8a(Tensor G3)
OnePlus 12R(Snapdragon 8 Gen 2)
Galaxy S23 FE(Exynos 2200)
Xiaomi 14 Ultra(Snapdragon 8 Gen 3)
AnTuTu
1,247,367
1,563,987
1,455,312
1,153,512
1,307,367
n/a
1,939,484
3DMark Wild LifeExtreme Stress Test
Best loop: 3035Worst loop: 1639Stability: 54%
n/a
Best loop: 3140Worst loop: 2584Stability: 82.3%
Best loop: 2437Worst loop: 1667Stability: 68.5%
Best loop: 3660Worst loop: 2462Stability: 67.3%
Best loop: 2370Worst loop: 1809Stability: 76.3%
Best loop: 4708Worst loop: 3606Stability: 76.6%
Geekbench 6
Single: 1489Multi: 4480
Single: 1442Multi: 5318
Single: 1953Multi: 4930
Single: 1688Multi: 4362
Single: 1561Multi: 5142
Single: 1614Multi: 4073
Single: 1828Multi: 6317
The effect is noticeable on the 3D Mark Stress Test, in which the Honor phone dropped its performance to almost half by the end of the test.
On a gaming-oriented phone that would be a bad sign, but for a device geared to the general public, prioritizing thermals was probably the better choice. We just wish Honor used a beefier heat dissipation system.
The Honor 200 Pro results in the synthetic benchmarks were below similarly-priced phones. / © nextpit
In testing, performance in games such as Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact was good. The latter was able to run at the highest graphical settings at the 60 fps option, although the phone did get warm, especially around the metal frame.
For simpler daily tasks, the Honor 200 Pro performed on the same level as any flagship phone, with app transitions, animations, and effects being applied almost instantaneously. Synthetic benchmarks show that the phone falls slightly below 2024’s top phones, but not on a level that we could notice while using the device.
Camera gimmicks
The camera setup on the Honor 200 Pro consists of a main 50 MP sensor, an ultra-wide lens with a 12 MP sensor that also serves as a macro camera, and a telephoto lens with a 2.5x optical zoom.
Pros
Versatile camera setup.
Excellent daylight and night shots on the main camera.
Cool portrait filters to play with.
Cons
Secondary cameras are a step down from the main camera.
Finicky settings on the camera app.
Inconsistent results from the different cameras.
The big 1/1.3’’ main sensor captures plenty of light both day and night, with digital zoom shots at 2x proving very usable. Color reproduction was good, with punchy, saturated colors.
In fact, in some cases, the 2x digital zoom from the main camera seemed superior to the 2.5x optical zoom from the smaller sensor under the telephoto lens, which often offered more muted colors.
Honor 200 Pro: Ultra-wide-angle camera (0.6x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (10x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (50x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Ultra-wide-angle camera (0.6x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (10x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (50x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Ultra-wide-angle camera (0.6x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (10x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (50x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Ultra-wide-angle camera (0.6x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (10x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (50x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Ultra-wide-angle camera (0.6x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (10x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (50x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera – Night mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) – Night mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) – Night mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Telephoto camera (2.5x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera – Portrait mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Main camera (2x digital zoom) – Portrait mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Macro mode © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Macro mode © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Selfie © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Selfie ultrawide (0.8x) © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Selfie – Portrait mode on © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Selfie © nextpit
Honor 200 Pro: Selfie ultrawide (0.8x) © nextpit
Speaking zoom shots, while the Honor 200 Pro offers up to 50x magnification, results are blurry as expected from other ultra-zoomers. 10x shots, on the other hand, while not print-quality, may be good enough for sharing on social media or messaging apps.
The ultra-wide camera performed fine in daylight, without the level of detail from the main camera, but still good for its 12-megapixel resolution. At night, however, the limitations of the smaller sensor (in both resolution and area) become clear, with loss of details and artificial processing.
The telephoto camera is a regular stacked one (not periscopic). / © nextpit
Honor promotes its portrait mode heavily on the marketing material, with a partnership with the portrait specialists at the French Studio Harcourt. The result is three color filters for the portrait mode on top of the digital processing applied by the phone. The effects are not available on the selfie camera, even when using the front camera portrait mode.
Confusingly, while using the back cameras in Portrait mode, the Bokeh button allows adjusting the level of background blur digitally applied. When using the selfie camera on Portrait, however, the button merely turns off the blurring, outputting the same images as the main Photo mode. As the choice is saved, many shots were lost during this test.
The pill-shaped selfie notch houses a wide and ultra-wide cameras. / © nextpit
Interface complaints aside, the selfie camera was very reliable in daylight, with natural-looking photos in both the normal and ultra-wide (0.8x) modes. Portrait mode worked ok, with the usual artifacts on the edges when looking up close. At night, however, selfies looked slightly blurry.
One extra thing: The Macro mode on the camera app uses the ultra-wide camera, and the results were surprisingly good. It allows focusing really close objects, around 2 cm in some non-scientific measurements.
Honor 200 Pro battery
Honor touts its silicon-carbon battery with 5200 mAh capacity, and includes support for 100W wired charging and 66W wireless charging. Confusingly, some markets will have the 100W charger included in the box, and some won’t.
Pros
Fast wired and wireless charging.
When optional, the charger is usually offered as a bonus.
Cons
Charger is optional in some markets.
Honor didn’t supply us with the maximum-rated adapter with the 200 Pro, so the tests below were done with third-party USB-PD chargers. Results were as average as expected, with a full charge taking 1h14min on an Anker 65W adapter and almost double on a similarly rated Ugreen charger.
Charging
Honor 200 Pro5200 mAh | Anker 65W
Poco F6 Pro5000 mAh | 120 W
OnePlus 12R5500 mAh | 100 W
Google Pixel 8a4492 mAh | 18 W
Galaxy S23 FE4500 mAh | 25 W
5 minutes
10 minutes
20 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
Full charge
PC Mark Battery test
11h2417091 performance points
We also couldn’t verify the ambitious 66W wireless charging claims, but the Honor 200 Pro can also be used with a standard Qi charger at a lower power.
Despite the novel battery chemistry, the rated 5200 mAh capacity fared as well as expected, with a little bit over a day of regular usage using the default always-on display mode.
Some regions get a charger on the box, others won’t. / © nextpit
In the synthetic PCMark battery test which calculates the runtime under a simulated workload going from 80% charge to 20%, the Honor 200 Pro got only a 11h24 score. However, its performance score was 17091, indicating that the phone was not holding back during the test, something that might have influenced the rival OnePlus 12R result, for example.
Honor 200 Pro technical specifications
Honor 200 Pro
Display
6.78-inch OLED2700 × 1224 pixels120 Hz refresh rate
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
Memory
12 GB LPDDR5x RAM512 GB UFS storageNo storage expansion
OS
MagicOS 8.0 + Android 14Three Android upgradesFour years of security updates
Camera
Main: 50 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.3” sensor, OIS
Ultra-wide + Macro: 12 MP, f2.2
2.5x telephoto: 50 MP, f/2.4
Selfie Camera
Battery
5200 mAh100W wired charging (proprietary)66 W wireless charging (proprietary)
Connectivity
5G | eSIM | Wi-Fi 6 | Bluetooth 5.3 | NFC
IP Certification
Dimensions and weight
163.3 × 75.2 × 8.2 mm, 199 g
Other points that may interest the nextpit community:
The Honor 200 Pro includes NFC support and is compatible with Google Pay for contactless payments.
The review unit packaging included a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and a SIM tray tool.
The software version during the test was Android 14 with the May 2024 security patch.
After resetting the updated handset, the operating system indicated 31.28 GB of used space.
Final verdict
The Honor 200 Pro is unique in many senses, but that is a positive feature maybe only when talking about the camera and its many creative modes on offer. Despite the positioning as a “premium mid-range” phone, its €800 MSRP (approx. $870) places it in flagship territory, especially with its mid-year release and discounted rivals from the first semester.
Honor seems really proud of the design of the 200 Pro, but despite liking the build quality and materials on the review unit, the camera island has a divisive look that can look too retro.
Affiliate offer
Besides that, the Honor 200 Pro offers a really competitive package in its screen and performance. The big display, curved edge aside, is perfect for media consumption, and even the stereo speakers sounded nice (but are side-firing, which affected the spatial immersion).
Honor’s legacy and its “think different” attitude are welcome, but sometimes it feels some elements are being neglected, such as the software side. While the strong EMUI roots will make Huawei orphans feel at home, the interface feels inconsistent and dated. And the Honor 3+4 update promise falls behind not only its Samsung and Google rivals but even the OnePlus models in the same price range.
Honor 200 Pro
To device database
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