The Honor 200 Pro excels in many key areas, but can you live with its faults?

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

The 200 Pro is an impressive smartphone which could easily pass for a £1,000+ handset. However, extended usage reveals camera and software frustrations, while the software update commitment could be better.

Chinese tech company Honor is making a name for itself in Europe.

A string of high-profile launches in the continent has established it as a go-to brand for high-end smartphones, with the Magic 6 Pro its best effort yet.

However, what if you don’t want to spend four figures on a device but still want a top-tier experience?

That’s where the Honor 200 Pro comes in. It’s significantly cheaper than the Magic 6 Pro, but doesn’t look to be much of a downgrade on paper. However, after a week of using it as my main phone, some potential dealbreakers have emerged.

Design & Build

Aesthetically, the Honor 200 Pro looks very different to the Magic 6 Pro, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Instead of a huge camera module dominating the back of the phone, the 200 Pro’s oval-shaped housing isn’t quite as imposing.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

It’s still far from subtle, though. Honor wants the design of the 200 Pro to leave you in no doubt that camera performance is a top priority. I just wish it didn’t accumulate fingerprint smudges so easily, something the rest of the back of the phone manages to avoid.

While still glass, the two-tone matt coating shimmers attractively as it catches the light. The colour I’ve tested has been dubbed ‘Ocean Cyan’, which explains why the pattern on most of the phone appears to imitate waves.

Personally, I really like the way it looks, though black and white models are also available if you’d rather have something more muted.

Regardless of the model you choose, there isn’t much grip, so be careful when it’s in your pocket or on a table. A solution to this is the clear silicone case provided in the box, but you lose the premium look and feel.

It’s a shame, as the phone feels relatively tough and durable without a case, despite missing out on the Magic 6 Pro’s tough ‘NanoCrystal Shield’ glass at the front.

The one exception is its water and dust resistance, with the IP65 rating meaning it’s only rated to survive low-pressure jets of water, rather than the submersion (up to 1.5m for up 30 mins) afforded by IP68. It’s a clear step down.

Another thing that’s down is the weight, though this is a welcome change. At 199g, it’s noticeably lighter than the Magic 6 Pro (224g), but also most flagships with a screen as large as the 6.78-inch panel here. It certainly doesn’t weigh down your pocket or bag to the same extent.

The front of the phone looks entirely unremarkable, though the two sensors at the top of the display hint at what they’re capable of.

Physical buttons on the aluminium sides are clicky and responsive, while a decent vibration motor ensures the virtual equivalents feel impressively realistic. A little bit of haptic feedback goes a long way.

And at the bottom, you get the usual USB-C port, as is shown below.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Screen & Speakers

Honor knows how to make a great display, and that’s no different on the 200 Pro.

It’s a 6.7-inch OLED panel, complete with a generous 2700 x 1224 (Full HD+) resolution that makes content look clear and crisp. And as is usually the case with OLED, you can expect rich, vibrant colours and deep blacks.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

You also get a silky-smooth 120Hz refresh rate, albeit without the LTPO tech that would allow it to automatically adjust down to 1Hz (when not required) to save battery life. Instead, you can choose between 60-, 120Hz or a ‘Dynamic’ mode that switches between them. You also have the option to choose which apps get access to the high refresh rate, which is a nice touch.

Importantly, I also had no issue with outdoor visibility, even on a bright sunny day. The Honor 200 Pro reached 544 nits in my testing, which is above average.

While there’s been a recent trend towards flat phone displays, Honor continues to opt for a curved version. It makes the phone more comfortable to hold and use one-handed, so I prefer it, though this won’t be to everyone’s tastes.

However, I would recommend removing the pre-applied screen protector, which affected the smoothness of scrolling and felt cheap.

Like the Magic 6 Pro, the Honor 200 Pro has an in-display fingerprint sensor. Everything I said about it there still applies here: a smaller target area than I’d like, but faster and more reliable than most I’ve tested.

However, unlike that handset, the 200 Pro misses out on the 3D Time-of-Flight sensor for Face ID-style unlocking and authentication. Instead, you’ll have to make do with the same basic version we see on almost all Android phones, which I wouldn’t recommend.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

In terms of audio, you get stereo speakers, with the usual combination of one main speaker and earpiece. The sound produced is impressively punchy, with a ‘200% high volume mode’ avoiding audible distortions despite getting very loud.

Specs & Performance

The Honor 200 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. It’s a slight step down from the regular 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm’s most capable mobile chipset at the time of writing, but I didn’t notice a difference and you probably won’t either.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Alongside a generous 12GB of RAM, performance is excellent in all scenarios. I used the phone in the same way I would any other: web browsing with dozens of open tabs, quickly switching between WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Gmail to keep in contact with everyone, watching YouTube videos, and taking plenty of photos.

Even with all these apps open at the same time, the Honor 200 Pro remained smooth, responsive and lag-free. A quick scroll of TikTok suggests it’ll be no different if you regularly use social media.

However, you might argue that almost all mid-range and flagship phones can handle that, and you’d probably be right. What sets the performance leaders apart from the rest is doing those demanding tasks which require a lot of power.

Gaming is a prime example, so I fired up three of the most advanced games you can find on the Google Play Store. Across PUBG: Mobile, Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9, gameplay was impressively slick and responsive.

In fact, the only indication that the phone was working hard was that it became slightly warm to the touch. Of course, this will be more of a factor if you’re planning long gaming sessions, but the vapour chamber cooling seems to be very effective.

Honor 200 Pro benchmarks

The only configuration available in the UK offers 512GB of non-expandable storage, but that’ll be plenty for most people. And 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC mean the 200 Pro is well-equipped when it comes to connectivity.

Cameras

The Honor 200 Pro’s cameras are a step down from the Magic 6 Pro, but there’s still some impressive hardware on show.

It’s led by a 50Mp, f/1.9 main rear lens that you’ll probably use most of the time. And combined with Honor’s image processing, the results are impressive.

If the lighting is good, you can expect great detail and dynamic range in practically every situation. It also handles exposure very well, accurately capturing both bright skies and dark shadows.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Colours tend to be slightly more saturated than in real life, but this means photos really pop and often don’t require any editing later.

The Magic 6 Pro remains the best low-light phone camera I’ve ever used, but the 200 Pro isn’t far behind. Even without night mode enabled, it does an excellent job of brightening dark environments without introducing noise.

You’ll also be using the main lens for portrait photography, something Honor is pushing heavily on the 200 Pro. It’s collaborated with Studio Harcourt, the classic French photography studio, to include three portrait modes directly within the app: Harcourt Vibrant (bright colours), Harcourt Colour (more muted colours) and Harcourt Classic (monochrome).

However, regardless of the one you choose, you can look forward to some excellent portraits. The 200 Pro is very good at edge detection, helping to create a realistic background blur which can be adjusted to your liking before you take the shot (but not after).

Alongside the main camera is a 50Mp, f/2.4 telephoto which offers optical zoom at 2.5x. It works very well for zoom shots without any visible drop in quality, while photos up to around 10x are still usable. Beyond that (the phone can go up to 50x digital zoom), things get very grainy and there’s lots of noise.

The third and final rear lens is primarily a 12Mp ultrawide, but Honor is also marketing it as a macro camera. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly impressive for either.

Wide shots lack a lot of the detail and colour accuracy of the main lens and it struggles with exposure. Close-up macro images are better than on many cheap phones but still lack the detail required to make them useful for most people.

On the front, a 50Mp lens combines with 2Mp depth sensor for excellent selfies in almost every environment – whether you want background blur or not.

The cameras on the 200 Pro are strong in most areas, but the lack of a capable ultrawide is a glaring shortcoming that’s hard for me to overlook. There’s strong competition in this area from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24, Google Pixel 8 and Xiaomi 14 to name just three.

In terms of video, you can capture footage up to 4K at 30fps, though the default 1080p at 30fps still looks decent. And OIS (optical image stabilisation) on the main and telephoto rear lenses means video remains relatively smooth.

Battery Life & Charging

The Honor 200 Pro has a 5200mAh battery. That’s a lower capacity than the 5600mAh cell on the Magic 6 Pro, but more than the vast majority of Android phones.

However, that doesn’t always translate to great battery life. I’d describe the battery life on the 200 Pro as solid but unspectacular. It’ll get you through a full day without issue, even if that includes lots of high brightness, mobile data, location services and photography.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Just don’t expect it to last long into the next day unless you’re staying at home and not using it much. Equally, an hour or two of gaming may mean you struggle to last a full day.

In the PCMark battery test, its score of 10 hours and 15 minutes was slightly above average, but a long way short of the best battery life phones.

Charging is impressive, though. The 200 Pro can charge at up to 100W, with the necessary charger included in the box.

I saw the phone go from 0-45% in 15 minutes, with a full battery taking between 45 and 50 minutes. Not the absolute quickest out there, but not far off and much quicker than the likes of Samsung, Google and Apple.

As a bonus, you also get Qi wireless charging at up to 66W, though you will need to buy a compatible charger.

Software & Apps

The 200 Pro runs Honor’s MagicOS 8.0 software, which is based on Android 14 but looks and performs quite differently.

In fact, there are a few features that you’ll only find on Honor phones. The first is ‘Magic Capsule’, a blatant copy of the iPhone’s ‘Dynamic Island’ that uses software to expand the pill-shaped front camera module to display useful information.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Honor could be accused of a lack of originality here, but I found the Magic Capsule very useful nonetheless. For audio controls and keeping an eye on timers, it beats having to swipe down the quick settings menu every time.

The latter is known here as the ‘Control Center’, another sign that the 200 Pro has been heavily inspired by Apple. The splitting of this and notifications (accessible by a swipe down from the other side) is exactly the same as on the iPhone, though I don’t mind it at all.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Another defining feature of MagicOS 8.0 is ‘Magic Portal’, which lets you drag and drop text and images between supported apps. The process of moving an address from Gmail to Google Maps was totally seamless, eliminating the copy and pasting you’d usually have to do.

Magic Ring is what you might think of as Honor’s ecosystem features, allowing you to move information between Honor devices or use your phone as a webcam for your tablet or laptop.

Unfortunately, the main problem with the Magic 200 Pro remains bloatware. Dozens of extra apps are pre-installed when you set up the phone and not all can be removed. It takes ages to get the phone looking and performing the way you like it, even if you’ve transferred your data from another Android phone.

In my Magic 6 Pro, I praised Honor’s improved commitment to four major OS updates and five years of security updates, but the 200 Pro isn’t quite as good. On the version available in the UK and Europe, it’s offering three major Android updates and four years of security updates.

As a reminder, you get 7 years of each with top Samsung and Google phones.

Price & Availability

At launch, the Honor 200 Pro costs £699.99. Pre-orders will be live via the Honor website in the UK on 21 June, ahead of the phone being released on 28 June.

It will also be available on contract at Three from 28 June, plus “other key UK operators in due course”.

However, as with all Honor phones, it’s not available in the US unless you want to risk trying to import one.

For everything you’re getting here, it’s not unfairly priced. But the Google Pixel 8 (from £699) and OnePlus 12R (from £649) both offer a better all-round experience for most people.

Should you buy the Honor 200 Pro?

Potentially, but only if you have a very specific set of requirements.

If you want premium hardware but don’t want to pay the price of a fully-fledged flagship, it’s a good choice. While not the best around, the performance, display, battery life and charging are all very impressive – in some cases outpacing big name rivals.

Camera performance is generally good, though it’s let down in some key areas. And the combination of cluttered software and average support is disappointing.

The Honor 200 Pro is still a very good phone, but it’s not a great one. And that’s what’s required to get my recommendation at this price.

Specs