Mario Bautista
The best Honor phones have the credentials to rival top devices from Samsung, Apple and other more established mobile brands, but Honor’s restricted international presence means its phones are often (wrongly) overlooked by those in the market for some serious pocket hardware.
In fact, since Huawei sold the Honor sub-brand in 2020, Honor’s flagship handsets have often proven some of the best phones, period. For instance, the company’s latest premium offering, the Honor Magic 6 Pro, boasts some of the best display and camera credentials money can buy in 2024, while the foldable Honor Magic V2 is thinner and lighter than its comparatively priced rivals.
In this guide, then, we walk you through our favorite Honor devices, with all manner of needs and budgets catered for in the list of options below. So, whether you’re a price-conscious buyer or someone who’s willing to splash the cash, our pick of the best Honor phones should feature something for you.
Best Honor phones 2024
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Honor’s 2024 flagship, the Honor Magic 6 Pro, is every bit as premium as its predecessor, the Honor Magic 5 Pro, but brings to the table an even more adventurous rear design, a slightly better camera system and all-new AI smarts.
That camera upgrade comes by way of an almighty 180MP periscope telephoto lens, which sits alongside a 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens in the phone’s luxury watch-inspired ‘Star Wheel’ camera notch. Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset keeps things ticking along nicely under the hood, and the Magic 6 Pro’s gorgeous 6.8-inch curved OLED display is made even better by Honor’s proprietary eye-friendly screen tech.
You’ll pay handsomely for the privilege of owning one, and Honor’s AI tools can’t yet hold a candle to those offered by the likes of Samsung and Google, but the Magic 6 Pro is indisputably the best Honor phone available right now, and a worthy investment for smartphone fans who prefer to stand out from the crowd.
Incidentally, the Magic 6 Pro launched alongside the Porsche Design Magic 6 Pro RSR, which is essentially a souped up, sportier version of the same phone. It’s a tad more expensive, but the upgrades on offer are definitely worth checking out.
Read our full Honor Magic 6 Pro review
Honor’s first globally available foldable, the Honor Magic VS, was pitched as an affordable alternative to the mainstream foldables on offer from the likes of Samsung and Google, but its successor, the Honor Magic V2, is as premium as foldables come.
At the time of writing, the Magic V2 is the thinnest and lightest inward-folding phone on the market, measuring just 156.7 x 74.1 x 9.9mm when folded and 156.7 x 145.4 x 4.7mm when unfolded. The Magic V2 trumps the competition at its thickest, too, measuring just 9.9mm when folded (versus 13.4mm for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and 12.1mm for the Pixel Fold).
The Magic V2 also utilizes Honor’s proprietary eye-friendly display technology to deliver two of the most impressive foldable screens yet, while its long-lasting 5,000mAh cell should abate any worries surrounding foldable longevity.
There’s no IP rating, no wireless charging, and Honor’s Magic OS software occasionally lacks polish, but despite that, the Honor Magic V2 ranks among the best foldable phones of 2024.
Read our full Honor Magic V2 review
If you like the look of the Honor Magic 6 Pro but would rather not shell out for its four-figure price tag, then Honor’s latest premium mid-ranger, the Honor 200 Pro, is well worth considering instead.
With its slim chassis, curved edges and impressive 6.8-inch OLED display, the Honor 200 Pro feels like a flagship phone. Sure, its Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset is slightly less powerful than the standard 8 Gen 3 (which you’ll find inside the best Android phones, and indeed the Magic 6 Pro), but in testing, we didn’t notice too much of a difference between this phone and the Magic 6 Pro.
The Honor 200 Pro also boasts comparable battery life, as well as similar charging speeds (100W wired and 66W wireless). You’ll need Honor’s SuperCharge charger to get the full power output, but we think it’s worth the investment.
The headline feature of the Honor 200 Pro is its innovative portrait camera mode, which recreates the Studio Harcourt method of portrait photography by leveraging intelligent AI software with premium hardware. The phone’s overall camera setup is impressive, too. You’ll get a 50MP main lens, a 50MP telephoto lens (with 2.5x optical zoom) and a 12MP ultra-wide macro lens, though these camera specs are, understandably, dwarfed by those of the camera-focused Magic 6 Pro.
Read our full Honor 200 Pro review
The mid-range Honor 90 launched for a very reasonable £449.99 in 2023, but the phone is now even better value thanks to the arrival of its premium successor, the Honor 200 Pro.
Despite its affordability, the Honor 90 boasts a slew of impressive specs. For starters, the phone sports a 6.7-inch quad-curved AMOLED display with a resolution of 2664 x 1200 and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It’s big, bright and more than suitable for gaming and watching movies, thanks to HDR10+ support and HDR certifications from streamers, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
On the back, you’re getting a triple-camera system that comprises a 200MP main lens (with a 1/1.4-inch sensor), a 12MP ultra-wide lens (with a 112° field of view) and a 2MP depth sensor that helps the camera accurately gauge distance.
Less impressive is Honor’s software and security support commitment to the Honor 90. You’ll get two years of Android updates and three years of security updates with this phone. That’s markedly fewer than, say, Samsung is committing to its Galaxy A54 and A55 devices. But then again, the Honor 90 offers more base storage, faster charging and better display credentials than almost all of its mid-range rivals.
Read our full Honor 90 review
The Honor Magic 5 Pro rivaled the best of Apple and Samsung’s 2023 flagships in almost every department, and at £949.99 / €1,199, it was a touch cheaper than the likes of the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, too (though you’ll likely find it even cheaper than that in 2024).
The phone’s 6.81-inch OLED display is exceptionally bright and certified eye-friendly, its three 50MP cameras are some of the most impressive we’ve ever tested and its large 5,100mAh battery ensures you get at least 12 hours of heavy use before needing to reach for a charger.
The only obvious drawbacks we came across when testing the Magic 5 Pro were a handful of photography hiccups and the need to get used to the phone’s unique rear camera protrusion. All in all, though, this is a great option for Android fans unbothered by the clout of brand names.
Read our full Honor Magic 5 Pro review
