Honor 200 Pro Review: A Premium Challenger with a Focus on Portraits
Honor’s return to the Indian smartphone market has been marked by a series of impressive devices, and the Honor 200 Pro is no exception. This phone aims to compete directly with the likes of Samsung and Apple in the premium segment, offering flagship specifications, a sleek design, and a strong focus on photography. But does it have what it takes to lure in discerning buyers? Let’s dive in and find out.
Honor 200 Pro Design: Premium and Sleek
Honor knows how to design attractive smartphones. The Honor 200 Pro comes in two sophisticated color options: Black and Ocean Cyan. The Ocean Cyan model, with its velvety, wavy texture inspired by coastlines, is a real head-turner. While the phone is undeniably stylish, its slippery finish makes using a case highly recommended.
The Honor 200 Pro boasts a slim profile measuring 8.2mm in thickness and weighs 199 grams. This balanced distribution of weight makes it comfortable to hold for extended periods. However, the phone only has an IP65 rating, which pales in comparison to competitors offering IP68 or even IP69 in a lower price bracket.
Honor 200 Pro Display: Colourful and Bright
The Honor 200 Pro features a spacious 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED curved display with four-sided bezels, delivering an immersive and borderless experience. The display is bright, boasts 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut, and supports HDR10+ for vibrant and impactful visuals, making it ideal for consuming HDR content on streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Videos, and YouTube. The 4,000 nits of peak brightness will ensure readability even in outdoor conditions.
Additionally, the phone has a 120Hz screen refresh rate, ensuring smooth scrolling and a fluid user interface. The display also features 3840Hz PWM Dimming, which helps reduce eye strain, especially during late-night use.
While the in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and responsive, its location is a bit lower than optimal for most users. However, you can choose from several animations, adding a touch of personalization. Sadly, the phone lacks Corning Gorilla Glass protection, making a screen protector a necessity.
Honor 200 Pro Software: Bloatware is a Mood Killer
The Honor 200 Pro runs on MagicOS 8.0, built atop Android 14. The user interface is intuitive and offers a good degree of customization. Honor highlights various AI-powered features such as Magic Capsule, Magic Portal, and Magic Ring, allowing for a more personalized user experience.
However, the software is marred by an excessive amount of bloatware, which can be a major turn-off for many users.
Honor 200 Pro Performance: Smooth Operator
The Honor 200 Pro is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor (also found in the Xiaomi 14 Civi). While the performance is impressive, it slightly trails behind other high-end devices like the OnePlus 12, Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, and iQOO 12, as evidenced by benchmark scores.
The phone delivers a smooth user experience across the board, with the 12GB (LPDDR5X) of RAM and 512GB (UFS 3.1) of storage ensuring smooth multi-tasking and ample storage space. Even demanding tasks like gaming are handled effortlessly, although the camera module may get slightly warm during extended gaming sessions.
Honor 200 Pro Cameras: Star of the Show
The highlight of the Honor 200 Pro lies in its camera capabilities, particularly portrait photography. In collaboration with Studio Harcourt, a renowned French photography studio specializing in portraits, Honor has engineered a system that delivers stunning results.
The rear camera system is comprised of:
- 50-megapixel OmniVision OV50H sensor with f/1.9 aperture (Main)
- 12-megapixel Ultra-Wide Camera
- 50-megapixel Sony IMX856 2.5x portrait sensor
The 2.5x Sony IMX856 sensor captures incredibly detailed and natural-looking portraits, with pleasing bokeh effects and realistic skin tones.
The Honor 200 Pro also offers three Harcourt modes:
- Harcourt Vibrant
- Harcourt Colour
- Harcourt Classic
The Harcourt Classic mode is particularly impressive, generating studio-quality black-and-white portraits with exceptional detail and definition.
Beyond portraits, the Honor 200 Pro delivers strong daylight photography with vibrant and accurate colors. The phone’s dynamic range is excellent, preventing overexposed areas in high-contrast scenes. While the ultrawide camera lacks the same level of detail as the primary sensor, it captures usable images with balanced colours, albeit with some distortion along the edges.
In low-light conditions, the main camera again performs well, minimizing noise and preserving colours. However, the ultrawide camera struggles, producing images with less detail and increased noise.
The 50-megapixel Sony IMX906 front camera with f/2.1 aperture excels at capturing high-resolution selfies with plenty of detail and accurate skin tones.
Honor 200 Pro Battery: Decent Backup, No Fast Charger in Box
The Honor 200 Pro boasts a substantial 5,200mAh dual-cell battery, providing excellent battery life. With light to moderate usage, the phone can last for nearly two days. Even under heavy use, you can expect a full day of use.
The phone supports 100W SuperCharge fast wired charging. However, an unwelcome surprise is the lack of a charger in the box. You’ll need to purchase a compatible charger separately. The Honor 200 Pro also supports 66W Wireless SuperCharge, but sadly, the brand is yet to release a dedicated wireless charger in India.
Charging speeds are impressive, with the phone reaching 33 percent charge in 15 minutes, 65 percent in 30 minutes, and a full charge in one hour.
Honor 200 Pro Verdict:
The Honor 200 Pro is a valiant effort by Honor to secure a foothold in the fiercely competitive premium smartphone segment. This phone offers a compelling combination of a stylish design, a vibrant and responsive display, impressive performance, and an exceptional camera system that excels in portrait photography.
While the battery life is commendable, the lack of a charger in the box is a major misstep. Additionally, the excessive amount of bloatware in the software detracts from the overall user experience.
The Honor 200 Pro faces stiff competition from devices like the iQOO 12, OnePlus 12, Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, and even the Xiaomi 14 Civi. Choosing the right phone for you will depend on your individual priorities and budget.
Ultimately, if you’re seeking a premium phone with an emphasis on portrait photography and a sleek design, the Honor 200 Pro is definitely worth considering. However, the lack of a charger in the box and the bloatware present in the software may be dealbreakers for some users.
