HONOR launched its HONOR 200 series smartphones in India last month, as the successor to HONOR 100 series which did not launch in India, after the HONOR 90, which was launched as the company’s smartphone as a comeback into India. We have the HONOR 200 smartphone here.
Compared to HONOR 90, this has an improved AMOLED screen, better SoC, improved cameras, bigger battery, and faster charging. Is this a good phone for the price? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
Regarding the box contents, the unit we got is the European version, but the Indian retail version will be different, and doesn’t come with a charger in the box. The company is selling the 100W charger for Rs. 2,999.
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the HONOR 200 has a 6.7-inch 1.5K curved AMOLED screen with a pixel resolution of 2664 × 1200 pixels, 19.98:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 436 PPI. There is also smart screen resolution option.
The display is bright, since it has up to 4,000 nits peak brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well. The colours are vibrant as well, thanks to 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate. It also has HDR support, which works for YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Under the display options, there are Normal and Vivid options. You also get video enhancer option that boosts colors and contrast for apps like YouTube, Prime Video, Netflix and more.
The phone has, 3840Hz PWM Dimming technology that minimizes flicker, reducing eye strain and ensuring a comfortable viewing experience for users. The phone’s Dynamic Dimming feature replicates natural light conditions, reducing eye fatigue by up to 18%. The display’s brightness adjusts subtly based on external lighting conditions and usage duration, prioritizing user comfort, said the company. You also get ‘always on’ display feature.
The phone has a punch-hole screen that houses a 50-megapixel camera. The earpiece is present on the top edge, and acts as a secondary speaker, which was missing in the HONOR 90. There is minimal bezel below the screen. The phone users a toughened glass for protection.
You can see the glossy frame, which is plastic. The phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right side. The dual SIM slots, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the speaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is present on the top, along with the IR blaster and vents for the secondary speaker.
The phone has a glass back with nice pattens on the Moonlight White model that we have. It is a bit slippery to hold, but the sides have a good grip. It also comes in Black colour that also has a matte finish, but it doesn’t have any patterns.
The phone comes with a 5200mAh battery, yet weighs 187 grams. It doesn’t have IP ratings.
Camera
- 50MP camera with 1/1.56″ Sony IMX906 sensor, f/1.95 aperture, OIS
- 12MP 112° ultra-wide 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
- 50MP front camera with Sony IMX906 sensor f/2.1 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with most HONOR smartphones with MagicUI that include a quick toggles between main camera, ultra-wide camera, zoom option on the bottom, quick toggles for flash, AI, motion photo, filters on the top. Other camera features include Aperture, Night mode, Multi-cam, Pro mode, Slow-mo, Panorama, HDR photo, HDR video, Time-lapse, stickers, Super macro, High-res, Solo cut, Story and Scan document.
Daylight shots came out well, thanks to the 50MP Sony sensor, and the dynamic range is better with auto HDR. There is AI mode which recognizes different photo scenes and automatically adjusts camera settings to make boost the colours.
The 12MP ultra-wide camera does a good job, but it is not as good as the main camera in low-light that offer a lot of details and less noise. Macro option with the ultra-wide camera is decent, but macros with the main camera look better.
The 2.5x portrait telephoto does a good job for portrait shots, and the Harcourt portrait modes are useful. The front camera also does a good job in daylight. The night mode is useful, but it takes a few seconds to process. The bokeh shots good with decent edge detection.
Check out the camera samples
It can record videos in up to 4K 30 fps from both the front and rear cameras, as well as the ultra-wide camera, and you can switch between the cameras seamlessly. The AI video mode recommends the modes, and the multi-cam mode is interesting. There is also a separate HDR video mode that also works in 4K, and a Portrait video mode that is limited to 1080p 30fps. There is always-on EIS for all the cameras, and OIS does a good job.
Software, UI and Apps
The HONOR 200 runs MagicOS 8, powered by Android 14, and it recently got the Android security patch for August, 2024. The company has promised 2 years of software update and 3 years of security patches. This has Google apps and the Google Play Store.
The HONOR MagicOS 8.0 feature MagicLM, an AI large language model. It also includes AI features such as Magic Capsule, Magic Portal, and Magic Ring. It recently got the call recording feature for the native dialer in an update.
There are gestures and multi-window feature. A few things that needs improvements in the Magic UI is that you can’t go to an app’s settings with a long press to control permissions. There is no option to switch to vibrate mode with the volume buttons.
The HONORShare lets you seamlessly transfer cross-system files between an HONOR smartphone and a PC with HONOR Computer Manager. There is multiscreen collaboration, so you can share screens, keyboards, and mice among different devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
It has MagicText that intelligently identifies text within an image and converts it into a file. You can capture text using the camera and save it as a PDF file.
The version we have packs 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and there is also a 8GB RAM version. You also get up to 7GB of virtual RAM, which is enabled by default. There is 512GB UFS 3.1 of storage, and there is also a 256GB storage version, but you only get 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 512GB options in India. Out of 12GB RAM, you get 11.01GB of usable RAM, out of which about 7GB of RAM is free on boot with just the default apps running in the background. Out of 256GB of internal storage, you get about 222.7GB of usable storage.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
It has an in-display fingerprint sensor that unlocks the phone quickly, but it is not as fast as a physical fingerprint sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. Furthermore, you can change the fingerprint animation and also disable it.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default Music Player. There are Histen sound effects with Auto, 3D audio, Natural and Standard modes, which works when wired or wireless headset is connected. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers and through earphones are good.
This has Widevine L1, so that you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. It supports HDR content on YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The HONOR 200 has support for several 5G Network Bands in India. It has 4G Wi-Fi and VoLTE, with support for Carrier Aggregation on 4G. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS / GLONASS / Beidou. It has OTG support and NFC support. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud.
Since, we don’t have the Indian retail unit, we don’t have the SAR value for the phone in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
This is powered by Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform. It has 1+3+4 architecture, as the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. This uses 1 x 2.63 GHz ARM Cortex-A715 prime core, 3 x A715 performance cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A510 efficiency cores at up to 1.8 GHz.
It is fabricated using the TSMC 4nm Process Technology. It promises 15% improvements in CPU performance compared to Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, which powered by HONOR 90. The phone stainless steel vapor chamber with a generous area of 36,881mm², offering a 10% increase in the dissipation area when compared to HONOR 90, said the company.
This uses Adreno 720 GPU. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games, and it also didn’t get hot. In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 99.6% which is good, and the temperature shot up from 32 to 44 degrees. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the HONOR 200 powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip is decent, but there are phones with Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and even Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 at a cheaper rate, if you need a phone for the performance.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5200mAh (typical) built-in silicon-carbon battery with AI power-saving, slightly bigger than the HONOR 90. It lasts for a whole day with Wi-Fi, but with 4G or 5G and dual SIMs. I got about 6 hours of screen on time with a day of use on Wi-Fi and in 120Hz. This is impressive and is a huge improvement compared to HONOR 90.
The phone has support for 100W SuperCharge fast charging that can charge up to 50% in less than 20 minutes and up to 100% in about 45 minutes. However, the phone doesn’t come with a charger in the box.
Conclusion
Priced competitively at Rs. 34,999, the HONOR 200 shines with its impressive camera system, vibrant display, and long-lasting battery life, significantly surpassing its predecessor, the HONOR 90. The inclusion of stereo speakers and optical image stabilization (OIS) are welcome additions. While performance is solid, there are other options in this price range that offer slightly better processing power.
Pricing and availability
The HONOR 200 is priced at Rs. 34,999 for the 8GB + 256GB model and the 12GB + 512GB model costs Rs. 39,999. It is available from Amazon.in, offline stores and Explorehonor.com. There are bank offers, and at times coupon offers that brings the price of the phone down.
Alternatives
The vivo V40 is a good alternative in the price range with IP68 ratings, ZEISS optics, even though it has the same SoC. For the performance, there is POCO F6, and realme GT 6T, and even the OnePlus Nord 4 at a cheaper rate.
Pros
- Brilliant display
- Eye-catching design
- Good cameras
- Smooth performance
- Decent battery life
Cons
- MagicOS needs improvements
- No charger in the box
With inputs from Siva Bharani