Mario Bautista
The Honor 200 Pro is the company’s new flagship number series device. It is the upgrade to last year’s Honor 90; however, this year is the first time South Africa gets the “Pro” version.
The Honor 200 Pro ticks all the boxes when it comes what’s under the hood. It is powered by a Snapdragon 8s Gen3 octa-core chipset with a dedicated Adreno 735 graphics card, 24GB of RAM (12+12GB) and a generous 512GB of storage.
The 6.78-inch handset has an Amoled display in full HD resolution with 2700×1224 pixels, a 5200mAh battery with 100W fast wired charging – the plug is included in the box, and it supports 66W wireless charging.
READ: Review | Skyworth and Showmax partner to offer two streaming devices
So, if you want a speedy handset that can handle playing games, never run out of storage and a long-lasting battery – or one that recharges quickly, the Honor 200 Pro fits the bill.
Honor has been punting the 200 Series as a device with “studio-level photography” features through a partnership with a French photography studio who “co-engineered” its portrait engine.
The portrait camera by Studio Harcourt includes three filters – vibrant, classic and colour, but more on that in a bit.
Camera features
The rear camera comprises of a 50MP wide, 50MP telephoto and 12MP ultra-wide lenses. The selfie-camera is also 50MP.
Both cameras shoot 4K HD videos with a multitude of modes.
It has a large oval shaped camera bump, but it does come with a clear phone case in the box to keep it somewhat protected.
It has a large oval shaped camera bump, but it does come with a clear phone case in the box to keep it somewhat protected.
It also has AI features for enhanced low-light photos, and video editing, introduced on last year’s Honor 90.
For the most part, the main telephoto camera is great. If you have the AI feature on, it will correct and balance the light, making landscape shots more detailed, like if there are clouds, it will be visible and not washed out. And shots are vibrant.
I found wide angle shots were better during the day.
I found wide angle shots were better during the day, and some of my night shots were hit and miss.
The selfie-cam bokeh events were also a mixed bag with my dark hair, so I turned off the blurriness.
A dedicated portrait mode
A phone with dedicated portrait filters excited me when I received it – I thought I could take some arty selfies, until I realised the practicality of it: the filters were on the rear camera.
The selfie-cam bokeh events were also a mixed bag with my dark hair.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a train smash, but this means you would need someone else to take portraits of you, or use it to take portraits of others.
I don’t like asking others to take pictures of me because they probably won’t do it the way I would. You know, like when you ask strangers to take photos when you travel.
You just end up taking more photos till you get the right shot.
I’m not big on selfies, so I eventually tested it on myself by propping it up in front of another screen so I could see what I looked like in the frame from the rear camera before taking pictures of myself.
READ: Review: The Radisson at OR Tambo is the epitome of luxury
It was alright to test, but not practical. When I met up with friends for lunch, I didn’t want to turn it into a “I’m testing this phone, could you pose for me” scenario, so I snapped a bunch of pics casually.
The filters are not overdone or exaggerated; I liked the artiness of it. Even the “vibrant” shot didn’t feel saturated.
The portrait filters being on the rear is something to consider.
The portrait filters being on the rear is something to consider, which makes sense for a photographer.
Otherwise, you’re going to end up asking others to take pics of you.
AI features on the Honor 200 Pro under “Create” on the Photos app, it is easy to use the AI Instant Movie feature, but this is suited to those who don’t know how to edit and want to perhaps turn holiday pics into a cool video to share on social media.
I like that you can edit the results, and choose your own frame, etc. There is also templates to choose from to create your own story, plus other editing tools.
Other AI features include Magic Portal and Magic Text.
Other AI features include Magic Portal and Magic Text. Magic Portal will let you easily open apps from the screen you’re on.
Example, if you long press a photo in the gallery, and drag to the side panel, you will see apps you can share it to, including social media.
Similarly, Magic Text will let you open Maps if it’s an address, paste it into notes to save, or even read it out aloud.
These features are available via Android 14, with Honor’s MagicOS 8.0 overlay.
It also has the nifty Parallel Space feature to create an additional virtual space to keep sensitive information private, which we tested on the Magic V2.
It’s like having two phones in one, and if you are running a business and personal line on the phone, it make sense to separate those profiles by apps.
Connectivity, sensors and battery
In terms of connectivity, the Magic 200 Pro offers dual physical SIM slots, plus eSIM support and has 5G capabilities.
It also offers NFC for tap to pay, WiFi Direct, Infrared remote control, a fingerprint sensor and 2D facial unlock.
There’s a USB-C port for both charging and connecting earphones as there is no 3.5mm audio jack. The battery is huge, and the standby time, great.
Honor provides a fast-charging plug in the box so if you forget to charge it overnight, you can quickly recharge the morning. You can go from 0-100% in about 45 minutes, which is impressive.
READ: Plenty of good news for tech, gaming and comic nerds in SA in September
As mentioned with this flagship, it ticks the boxes of what you’d want, spec-wise; it’s snappy and battery life is excellent.
I found the camera to be good, with certain modes hit and miss. However, at its price point of R19 999, you should compare what else is available.
Samsung’s Galaxy S24 is in a similar bracket with some differences, but comes with seven years of Android upgrades.
