Honor 200 Pro review: Finally a flagship killer

Today, I’m excited to explore the Honor 200 Pro, a standout device from Honor. Launched alongside the more affordable Honor 200, the Honor 200 Pro stands out with its impressive specifications, making it the focal point of this review. Although both phones are available for pre-booking with attractive offers, we’ll focus on what makes the Honor 200 Pro particularly noteworthy. The Honor 200 Pro represents a new lineup and comes with a higher price tag of NPR 85,000 for the 12+512GB version. I will cover the Honor 200 separately in another article, as I believe the Honor 200 Pro offers more compelling features. 

Pre-booking offers allow you to receive the Honor Choice smartwatch, valued at approximately NPR 14,000, for free. Additionally, both phones come with a one-time free screen replacement. The Honor 200 Pro further includes the Honor Choice X5 earbuds worth NPR 5,500. These offers make the effective pre-booking price quite attractive. Before starting this review, let’s have a quick rundown of its specifications.

Honor 200 Pro Specifications

• Weight: 199g
• Display: 6.78-inch FHD+ OLED curved display
• Resolution: 2700 × 1224 pixels
• Chipset: Octa Core Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 4nm Mobile Platform
• UI/OS: Android 14-based MagicOS 8.0
• Memory: 12GB or 16GB LPDDR5 RAM
• Storage: 512GB or 1TB storage options
• Rear Camera:
  • 50MP main camera with 1/1.3″ OmniVision OV50H sensor, f/1.9 aperture, OIS
  • 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture, 2.5cm macro option
  • 50MP 2.5x portrait telephoto camera with Sony IMX856 sensor, OIS, f/2.4 aperture, 4K video recording
• Battery: 5200mAh battery
• Charging:
  • Supports 100W SuperCharge fast charging
  • Supports 66W wireless SuperCharge fast charging

Honor 200 Pro Review

The Honor 200 Pro stands out in its segment, especially since many competitors like the Samsung S23 FE, which suffers from subpar performance with its Exynos chipset, and the overpriced OnePlus 12R with merely average cameras, don’t quite measure up. This makes the Honor 200 Pro particularly appealing.

Camera

The most notable feature of the Honor 200 Pro is its camera, which is exceptional for its price range. It includes a 50MP primary lens, a 50MP telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. In my experience, this camera easily ranks as the best under NPR 1 lakh. Using this phone, I felt like I was handling a flagship camera.

The photos captured are vibrant with slightly saturated colors and punchy contrast. Despite this, the overall output is satisfying, and the detail and sharpness are impressive even when zooming. The zoom lens also supports macro photography, which in return gives decent output. The phone excels at taking portraits, offering 1X and 2X portraits with the main lens, and 2.5X zoom with the dedicated lens. The subject focus in these modes is excellent. Although highlight management could be better outdoors, it is not a major issue. The black-and-white filters are particularly striking, and the phone performs admirably in low light, producing bright and appealing photos. The camera processing is solid, capturing bright images at night, though sometimes slightly too bright. The details and sharpness remain excellent, and the skin tones in selfies are well-represented. The ultra-wide-angle photos, while not as detailed as those from the primary lens, maintain good color consistency. On the videography front, the Honor 200 Pro supports up to 4K 60 fps recording. The videos are stable and of high quality.

Design

In terms of design, the Honor 200 Pro comes in two colors: Blue and Black. It features a glass back with a sleek, curved design that feels good in hand. Although the display protection is not specified, Honor claims it uses the same material as on the Honor X9B, which should be durable. The frame is not metal, keeping the phone lightweight, but it only has an IP65 rating for water resistance, a trade-off to keep costs down. The camera module is uniquely designed, distinguishing it from other phones.

Display

The display is top-notch with an A+ rating, though it’s not LTPO. It boasts a 1.5K resolution with 10-bit color depth and 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, achieving a brightness of 4000 nits. The low brightness is also excellent. The in-display fingerprint sensor is fast, and the phone holds DXMO Gold Label certification for high-PWM dimming, hardware-level blue light filtering, and TUV Rheinland certification. HDR playback is supported on both Netflix and Amazon, and the speakers are loud and balanced. The typing experience is smooth with a fast display and a responsive vibration motor. 

Performance

Under the hood, the Honor 200 Pro is powered by the SD 8s Gen 3 processor, paired with 12GB DDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. It performs swiftly, though the slim design leads to slight heating, reaching up to 45 degrees during intense usage such as gaming. While it handles PUBG and Mobile Legends with stable performance, it experiences heating and stability issues in Genshin Impact after 10-15 minutes. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in future updates.

OS and UI

Regarding updates, Honor hasn’t provided a specific timeline, but a representative mentioned a commitment to 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates. The Honor UI may take some time to get used to, with a few AI features that didn’t particularly stand out to me.

Battery

The battery is a solid 5200 mAh Si-Ca unit, providing efficient performance. It offers around 7 hours of screen-on time with heavy usage and up to 9 hours with moderate use, reflecting excellent battery life. Charging is fast, with a 100W charger that can fully charge the phone in 40 minutes, and it supports wireless charging at 67W.

Honor 200 Pro Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Exceptional camera system
• Solid performance
• Generous battery life

Cons

• Heating issues
• No LTPO display
• Plastic frames

Honor 200 Pro Review: Conclusion

In conclusion, my expectations for the Honor 200 Pro were modest, but I am genuinely impressed. It offers a complete package with an excellent camera, a strong display, solid performance, and impressive battery life. With current pre-booking offers, the phone's effective price is between NPR 65,000-70,000 for the 512GB variant, making it a great value.

• Meanwhile, watch our review of the Honor 200 Pro