Honor 200 review: Reliable phone with cool design

Besides the stunning design language, Honor 200 has a reliable Qualcomm chipset to deliver smooth performance and a big battery, which ensures it lasts a full day under normal usage.

A few weeks ago, Honor's new premium mid-range Honor 200 phone series hit stores in India.

It comes in two variants-- Honor 200 and 200 Pro-- with prices starting at 34,999.

Design, build quality and display

Honor 200 flaunts a slim profile with the premium marble-like smooth wavy-pattern finish on the back. It has a visually appealing oval-shaped camera module in the top left corner. It looks like a pendant, the most beautiful camera capsule I have seen on a phone this year. Unlike other conventional phones, Honor 200's camera doesn't protrude much and slips into the pocket with less hassle.

The railing around the display has a chromium finish, which blends wonderfully with the pearl-white colour of the back panel. Our review unit is moonlight white.

Honor 200 series phone.

The company also offers the device in black. It also looks beautiful.

It has a gorgeous 6.7-inch 1.5K (2664×1200p) OLED 120Hz curved display on the front. It is good for consuming multimedia content on OTT platforms. Even outdoors too, the display manages to deliver a good viewing experience. It supports up to 4,000 nits peak brightness. I never had to squint my eyes to read messages or news articles on the screen.

The stereo speakers are excellent. Even with the volume put to the max, there was no noticeable distortion as such. The audio output remained stable at all times.

Honor 200 series phone.

It also features an in-display fingerprint sensor. It works super smooth without any issues, as long as the finger is dry and clean.

The device also features a type-C USB port for charging and data transfer, and dual-SIM slots (type: nano).

Performance

The new device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (2.63 GHz Cortex-A715 x 1 core + 2.4 GHz Cortex-A715 x 4 cores + 1.8 GHz Cortex-A510 x 3 cores) octa-core processor with Adreno 720 GPU, 8GB/12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB storage.

The device performs smoothly without any pressing issues to complain about. Even while playing games, the Honor 200 remains stable without getting overheating as such.

It runs on Android 14-based MagicOS 8.0. It has a distinct user-friendly interface compared to the other Android phones. It is really easy to navigate through the phone's settings. Also, it has an AI-enabled feature, which learns user behaviour such as which app he/she uses the most and recommends those apps (top four) during that particular period on the home screen.

The Honor 200 series is guaranteed to get three Android OS updates (2027) and four years of software security support for up to 2028.

Honor 200 houses a massive 5,200mAh battery. During the review period, the device consistently delivers more than a day of battery life under normal usage, which includes an average of one hour of video streaming, and regular day-to-day activities such as scrolling newsfeeds on social media platforms, answering calls, replying to messages and a session of gaming.

With 100W SuperCharge support, it can reach from zero to 50 per cent in less than 15 minutes and can hit 100 per cent mark in 40 minutes.

Photography

It comes packed with a triple-camera module-- main 50MP (with 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX906 sensor, f/1.95, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) + 12MP 112-degree ultra-wide camera (with f/2.2, 2.5cm macro option) + 50MP 2.5x portrait telephoto camera (with Sony IMX856 sensor, OIS, f/2.4) with LED flash on the back.

It captures really good pictures in the daylight. The colours of the subject, particularly the flowers come off vibrant and lively in the photos.

Honor 200's camera sample.

Even with low light conditions in the evening too, it takes brilliant pictures.

With close-up shots, the phone captures all the minute details with near-accurate colours.

Honor 200's camera sample.

Honor 200's camera sample.

Indoors too, with controlled light conditions, Honor 200 manages to get decent photos.

Honor 200's camera sample.

With portrait mode, the Honor 200 excels in delivering a perfect bokeh blur effect in the background.

At night, the Honor 200 takes fine photos. It manages to balance the light from street lamps and other sources of light and make the photo more appealing.

Honor 200's camera sample with portrait mode.

On the front, it houses 50MP(with Sony IMX906 sensor f/2.1). It takes brilliant selfies in all light conditions. It also comes with boatload of editing tools to further enhance the beauty of the face.

Honor 200's camera sample.

Both the primary and front cameras support 4K video recording. The video quality is decent and on par with rival brands in its class.

Final thoughts

Honor 200 is a feature-rich premium mid-range phone. It has a cool marble-like smooth finish on the back. Also, the device has a reliable Qualcomm chipset to deliver smooth performance and a big battery, which ensures it lasts a full day under normal usage.

As far as photography is concerned, it takes really good pictures in almost light conditions.

Honor 200 series phone.

It is available in two configurations-- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 34,999 and Rs 39,999, respectively.

The top-end Honor 200 Pro series phones come in two colours- ocean cyan and black- and only in one configuration--12GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 57,999.

Both the devices are available on Amazon in India.

Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech