The mid-range smartphone market is highly competitive, with all the top brands trying their luck at this lucrative sector. Some companies far better than others, of course. Google Pixel 8a is the current standard bearer in the middle of the market, but Honor are aiming for that value crown. And to affect this coup, Honor 200 offers a strong camera set-up, a flagship-level display, and some of the swiftest charging on the market at any price.
Premium Feel
The very first thing that stands out with Honor 200 is the build quality. The device is magnificently engineered. At just 7.7mm thick, Honor 200 doesn’t feel like a big phone. The buttons and interface between screen, chassis rear are all so tightly machined that the device feels premium.
Honor 200 is also easy manipulate despite its slender frame. The rear is nicely textured, and the sides have a little curve to help the device nestle into the hand. The Quad-Curve display features a narrow bezel around all sides so that palms don’t interfere when navigating that 6.7″ screen.
Premium Visage
Our Black review model wears the modern minimalist look well. There is a nice contrast between the metal frame that runs around its rounded edges, the glossy obsidian of the display while off, and the lightly frosted rear.
Honor 200 presents its triple-lens camera island as its visual centrepiece. The near ovoid shape of deep black bound with with a metallic gloss is a beautiful symmetric detail. And this is furthered by the symmetry of the lenses and dual-LED flash that take another moment to notice.
Honor 200 is muted and elegant but wears its most striking feature well. It’s worth noting that the device is available in three other colours in other regions. These feature chatoyant or pearlescent designs in Moonlight White, Emerald Green and Coral Pink. We have only seen these in press images, but they offer a more adventurous and decorative counter to the shier Black model.
Display of Quality
Honor 200 features a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that competes with premium devices. There have been some flagship-bothered screens on mid-range smartphones in the last year or so, but the SuperDynamicVivid engine and the hardware of Honor 200 is probably the best in this price range.
The 1200 x 2664 pixel display can reach 4,000 nits at peak, so sunlight is never an issue. And when combined with 10-bit (1billion) colour, HDR content is nothing short of gorgeous. Another beautiful visual detail is that the display is almost ‘painted’ on the inside of the panel’s glass. And with that Quad-Curve glass design, the image almost seems to hover above the display.
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A 120Hz refresh rate gives scrolling and compatible content that liquid smoothness that you associate with the more expensive models. Additionally, the display features Honor’s Eye Comfort display to ease eye strain throughout the day, and go a bit easier on the peepers before bed. Honor 200’s AMOLED display is simply outstanding at an RRP of €649.
Your Honor
Honor 200 uses Andoid 14 with MagicOS 8. The package allows for some neat personalisation, with some imaginative cards, widgets and buttons for your home screen.
MagicOS 8 also comes with its own AI suite. Honor 200 uses artificial intelligence to enhance photo and video, improve battery life and reduce battery wear. The device also features three frontfacing AI services.
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Magic Portal is like a more versatile version of Google Circle-to-Search. Users can grab images, links, text etc. and drag them to the right of the screen to reveal a hot menu of your favourite apps and the appropriate AI assistant functions.
Magic Text allows users to highlight text and ask the AI to search for more, translate, rephrase, summarise or otherwise process. Magic Text can extract text or numbers from an image, and offer you appropriate actions, like call or translate.
Always with U
The triple-lens camera setup of Honor 200 is also outstanding for the price. Led by two large 50MP sensors, one a 2.5x optical zoom, the other a wide, Honor 200 offers incredible versatility and a knack for perfection to the casual user. The AI support is reliable in adjusting the scene, before and after the shot.
Scene selection and improvements to contrast and lighting as you line up the shot are usually on the money. When there are improvements to be made right after the image is taken, the AI can similarly polish off the majority of images. The results are colourful and sharp images with depth and a professional or ‘Instagram model’ quality.
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The 2.5x optical zoom is a handy tool to have in the pocket, be it get a better view at a gig or get closer to a curious pigeon. Honor 200 can also use hybrid zoom comfortably to around 15x. Image become progressively noisier up the maximum zoom of 50x. When taking images beyond 15x, there is a viewfinder window to aid to finding your subject.
The 12MP ultrawide lens does a good job at squeezing in groups at short distances, or capturing wide vistas. It’s not as strong with detail or dynamic range as the two main lenses, but it’s still in the same league and hopping back and forth between ultrawide and the other lenses won’t be jarring.
Everyday Rider
Honor 200 runs a Snapdragon Gen. 3 with an Adreno 720. Our review model features 12GB of RAM with 512GB of onboard storage. The large onboard storage is a nice bonus in an age when 4K video and outsized images are the norm.
The chipset is more fitting of its price than the display, design and imaging. The tech is certainly mid-range, but the laws of diminishing returns are hitting hard at the high end of mobile CPUs and lesser chips can provide enough juice to perform as well as flagship devices for the majority of tasks the majority of the time.
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And so, despite the mid-range innards, Honor 200 feels slick when navigating its beautiful UI. The device opens all the apps you will use instantly, and there’s no lag when switching between the 40 apps you have left running.
One area where Honor 200 is surprisingly well capable is in gaming. While the most advanced 3D games for mobile may not hit 60fps on max. settings, a little compromise and the device is a gaming beast. The bright, sharp and responsive display only add to the experience.
Charge Dodger
Honor 200 features a 5,200mAh silicon-carbon battery that, on its own, does a lot to give the device excellent stamina. The device also features some AI under the hood to manage your apps and processes in the background to add another few hours.
We found the device would get to bedtime on day two at a canter on our average workload. For many users, Honor 200 will be a two-day device. For power users, Honor 200 has the chops to handle the hardest workdays.
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Honor 200 also features the company’s 100W SuperCharge tech as well as AI charge management. The result is being able to charge your device to over 50% in just 15 minutes, while preserving your battery in the long run.
Honor 200 Specifications
| Chipset: | Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform GPU: Adreno 720 CPU – Octa-core: CPU: 1 × Cortex-A715 2.63GHz + 3 × Cortex-A715 2.4GHz + 4 × Cortex-A510 1.8GHz GPU – Adreno 720 |
| RAM: | 8GB, 12GB (reviewed), 16GB |
| Storage: | 256GB, 512GB (reviewed) |
| Display: | 6.7 inch diagonal, 1200 x 2664 pixels, OLED, 1billion colours, 120Hz, HDR, 4000 nits at peak |
| Camera: | – 50 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS – 50 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 2.5x optical zoom – 12 MP, f/2.2, 112˚ (ultrawide), AF Video: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, OIS |
| Selfie Cam: | Photo – 50 MP, f/2.1, (wide) Video – 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| OS: | Android 14, MagicOS 8 |
| Battery: | Si-C, 5,200mAh |
| Water/Dust resistance: | IP67 resistant – up to 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes |
| Charging: | Wired: Up to 100W with Honor SuperCharge Wireless: 5W |
| Connectivity: | – Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct – Bluetooth 5.3, A2DP, LE, aptX HD – GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS, NavIC |
| Dimensions: | 161.5 x 74.6 x 7.7mm |
| Weight: | 187 grams |
| Colours: | Obsidian, Porcelain, Bay, Aloe |
Honor 200 Ireland Pricing and Availability
In Ireland, Honor 200 (12GB RAM/512GB version) is available from Three Ireland, Tesco Mobile and Harvey Norman for RRP €649 with a range of Bill Pay options.
