Honor 400 Pro review: All rounder for the price

Hello and Namaste everyone, so Honor has officially launched the latest Honor 400 series in Nepal. If you remember, last year’s Honor 200 series was a super hit model. It gave good competition to Samsung’s A-series and VIVO’s V-series in the NPR 60,000 to 80,000 price range.

And this time, as you can see, three models have been launched in the 400 series – we have the Honor 400 Lite, Honor 400, and Honor 400 Pro! We got many comments and requests asking us to make a video on the Honor 400 Pro. So, by popular demand… today I’ll be talking about the Honor 400 Pro in this article.

Honor 400 Pro Specifications

• Dimensions: 160.8 x 76.1 x 8.1 mm
• Weight: 205g
• Display: 6.7″ AMOLED curved display, 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color
• Resolution: 2700 × 1224 pixels
• Durability: IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm)
• RAM: 12GB LPDDR5X
• ROM: 256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0
• OS & UI: Android 15 with MagicOS 9.0
• Rear Camera: 200MP main (f/1.9, OIS), 50MP telephoto (f/2.4, 3x zoom, OIS), 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2)
• Front Camera: 50MP (f/2.0) + 2MP (depth)
• Battery: 6000mAh silicon-carbon cell
• Charging: 100W wired SuperCharge, 50W wireless SuperCharge
• Audio: Stereo speakers (no 3.5mm jack)
• Connectivity: E-sim, 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, USB Type-C
• Security: In-display fingerprint sensor (optical), Face unlock

Honor 400 Pro Review

Talking about the price, this phone was launched at the height of Mt. Everest during a mountain flight – quite crazy. So, the price of this phone is NPR 88,480! And at this price, we get 12GB RAM and 512GB storage!

But the best part about Honor phones is the crazy pre-booking offers. With the 400 Pro, first of all, we get this Choice 2i smartwatch worth NPR 11,000, then we get Choice Clip open earbuds worth NPR 10,000. So, the effective price of this phone is actually less than NPR 70,000.

Another great thing is we get one-time screen replacement, that is, breakage insurance for free, and 0% EMI just with a citizenship card. So, just take your citizenship, pay around NPR 35,000 as down payment, and then around NPR 4,400 monthly for 1 year. So, if you’re thinking of buying a phone in the NPR 30,000–40,000 range, then getting a premium phone like this with such easy EMI and 0% interest is actually quite useful — unless you can afford to pay monthly EMIs.

By the way, to claim all these offers, please buy from our affiliate link above. We get a small commission, which helps us stay independent and make honest content like this. Alright, since we’ve already talked about honesty, let’s talk about my honest opinion and 1-week experience with this phone.

First of all, in Nepal, there aren’t many phones to compare with the Honor 400 Pro in this under-NPR 90,000 segment. Xiaomi 15 hasn’t launched in Nepal, VIVO’s iQOO 13 also hasn’t launched, the recently launched OnePlus 13s won’t launch in Nepal either, and Samsung’s S24 FE is already quite old. So, this phone is kind of like Will Smith in I Am Legend — virtually no competition.

But still, Honor has made very good improvements compared to last year’s 200 Pro. It looks like Honor has taken customer reviews and feedback seriously and made improvements.

OS/ UI

First of all, Honor never used to clearly state how many years of updates its premium midrange phones would get. But this time, Honor has officially committed to 6 years of updates – which is the highest I’ve seen on a Chinese brand.

Second, this phone finally has IP68 and IP69 ratings. Last year’s 200 Pro only had IP65. Design-wise too, instead of the slightly odd egg-shaped camera module of the 200 Pro, we now get this new module, which looks much better – looks like it was inspired by Huawei’s expensive Pura series.

Battery

Third, we get a big 6000mAh Silicon-Carbon battery, with excellent endurance. Plus, we get a 100W charger inside the box. The European version doesn’t come with a charger, but in Nepal, it does. And it also supports 50W wireless charging. So, in terms of battery, there’s no issue with this phone.

Design and Display

Anyway, the phone felt a bit bulky to me. It’s a bit wide too and not very ergonomic. In physics terms, the weight distribution isn’t great… so it feels a bit heavy and uncomfortable, especially if you have small hands like me.

Regarding the display, I have no complaints. It’s almost flagship A+ level. AMOLED, 1 billion colors, 120Hz refresh rate, 3840Hz PWM dimming, and 5000 nits peak brightness. HDR10 is also supported on YouTube and OTT platforms.

Why not call it a full A+ display then? Because:
No. 1 – There’s no Gorilla Glass Victus 2 level protection. Honor is using its own glass protection — which, like the Honor X9C, is drop-resistant but still prone to scratches.
No. 2 – It has an optical fingerprint sensor, not the more premium ultrasonic type. Its position is lower, and if your finger is wet or sweaty, it doesn’t unlock.

Performance

Now, coming to performance, this phone has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 — last year’s flagship processor. So, no complaints in performance. It’s extremely fast, with UFS 4.0 storage and DDR5X RAM.

That’s why, even after 3–4 years, this phone shouldn’t slow down. Gaming → PUBG runs at 120fps, Genshin Impact runs at 60fps at max settings.

Weird part – The vibration feedback isn’t flagship level, and the speaker quality is just average. For NPR 90,000, Honor should’ve done a bit better on these two aspects.

Honor has done a lot of work in AI over the past year, in collaboration with Google, spending over $10 billion. And here, we get plenty of cool AI features:

• Deepfake detection – during video calls, it detects if you’re being called from a fake AI ID.

• Converts still images into 5-second videos – old photos can be animated like this, quite fun to use.

• AI writing tool – checks grammar and refines whatever you type via the keyboard — very useful.

• One feature I found interesting is similar to Circle to Search – Honor has its own “knock to circle” feature to share content/images easily.

However, speaking of overall UI/UX, Honor is still a bit behind Samsung, OnePlus, and Nothing in terms of core user experience. There are no major bugs, but the core software experience doesn’t feel very mature. From the icons to the responsiveness when opening apps — it feels like something is missing.

Camera

Alright, finally let’s talk about the most important aspect of a premium midrange phone – the camera. Last year’s Honor 200 Pro had the best camera under NPR 1 lakh, and this year Honor has further improved the camera hardware.

Now it has:

• A 200MP primary camera instead of 50MP

• A 50MP 3X zoom camera instead of 2.5X

• A 12MP ultra-wide, which remains the same

Honor rolled out a camera-focused update last week, but even then the camera felt a bit unoptimized in my usage. For example, from the main camera, 50% of the time, it clicks really detailed photos with good colors and dynamic range. But the other 50% — especially when shooting against the sun — photos are overexposed and highlight roll-off gets messed up! So, another update is needed.

The ultra-wide camera is very good for the price. It doesn’t have the same exposure/highlight issues as the main camera. While details aren’t as sharp as the main sensor, it’s still solid for the price.

Same with 3X zoom shots. You get good detail up to 10X. It’s not a periscope lens like on flagships — it’s a 3X optical lens, so zooming further reduces details.
AI upscaling helps a bit here, as you can see from these samples.

You can also take portraits with the 3X zoom lens. And like with the main camera, portraits feel a bit unoptimized. In good lighting, you get good results. It smoothens skin a bit, but I think with updates, Honor needs to fix the exposure, highlights, and focus issues.
So maybe after one or two updates, I’ll make another long-term review video.

In portraits, like last year, there are different modes. This Harcourt B/W filter is my favorite. It allows you to take really nice black-and-white portraits – looks very good.
Similarly, I really liked the selfies too. Nice skin tones, good dynamic range, and wide angle as well. So, good enough.

For videography, you can shoot up to 4K 60fps with the main and 3X cameras. With the ultra-wide camera, it’s up to 4K 30fps. The video quality of all three cameras is good. There is a bit of oversharpening, but in terms of stability and color, I’d give the footage a solid B+.

Honor 400 Pro Review

Pros:

• Great performance with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• Big 6000mAh battery with fast charging
• Bright AMOLED display (120Hz, 5000 nits)

• Solid build with IP68 & IP69 ratings

Cons:

• A bit bulky and heavy
• Camera needs some optimization

• Average speakers and fingerprint sensor

Conclusion:

Okay, so I think I’ve covered almost every aspect of this phone.

And I think, for Nepal, the Honor 400 Pro is going to be a very important product. Why? Because the Honor 400 Pro has smartly tapped into the market in this price range. First of all, Honor Nepal has set the price well — it’s about NPR 35,000 cheaper than in Europe!

More importantly, in the NPR 90,000 price range, you’re getting an all-rounder phone:

• Nice design with IP69 rating – Check
• Bright, fast AMOLED display – Check
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 performance – Check
• 512GB storage – Check
• Big battery + 100W charging – Check
• 6 years of OS updates – Check

• Good cameras, which will improve with updates – Check

So, all in all, the Honor 400 Pro is an easy recommendation for Nepal.