The Honor 400 Pro might be the most innovative mid-range phone of 2025

Honor is a brand that many consumers aren't familiar with, but I'd argue that it's one of the most innovative tech companies out there right now. That couldn't be more evident than with the latest Honor 400 Pro smartphone, which offers superb performance, excellent camera quality (especially the macro lens), and unique industry-first AI tools with the debut of Google's impressive AI image-to-video feature which is accessible directly on the phone ( you won't find this with the best iPhones for photography).

As far as first impressions go, I was seriously blown away by the Honor 400 Pro's camera quality after unboxing it, and when combined with AI power, this phone's camera excels in almost every scenario while helping you to capture your best shot with minimal effort. It's difficult to categorise the Honor 400 Pro, given that it's not quite as mighty as the current best camera phones on the market in terms of hardware, yet its price dictates that it's certainly not a budget camera phone either.

I've only spent a short amount of time with the Honor 400 Pro, and as usual with my camera phone reviews, my main focus is always on putting its camera unit through its paces more than anything else. While the 400 Pro might lack some power under the hood compared with the flagship Honor Magic 7 Pro model released earlier this year – I found that it could really hold its own in the camera department when pitted against its sibling.

The Honor 400 Pro replaces Honor's 200 Pro series (which was endorsed by world-famous photographer, Rankin, at launch). With this in mind, I'm going to be assessing its compatibility and performance as a top smartphone for photographers throughout this review.

Honor 400 Pro: Key specifications

Price

The Honor 400 Pro is priced reasonably at £699.99 in the UK, although it's unfortunately not available in regions throughout the US at the time of writing. It's a real shame that consumers are missing out on Honor tech, though the lack of US distribution is not surprising, considering that Honor's parent company used to be Huawei back in 2020.

In any case, I've found that Honor is one of the few tech manufacturers that offers exceptional value for money with its devices. For example, I recently purchased the stunning Honor MagicPad 2 tablet for only £399, and its performance is absolutely phenomenal. The standout feature is the 12.3-inch 144Hz IMAX-Enhanced OLED display, and it even comes with a free premium stylus and keyboard case.

With this in mind, you can rest assured that the Honor 400 Pro certainly offers a lot for its price, although it can still seem a little on the expensive side, given that the phone is more mid-tier and not considered a flagship. Instead, it replaces the Honor 200 Pro series, which was also priced at £699.99 when it launched last summer.

Cameras

If you're here solely for the camera phone verdict, then you've come to the right place. What we're working with is an all-new 200MP main camera (f/1.9), with an impressively large 1/1.4-inch sensor and OIS. During testing, I found that this setup was excellent for letting in light during a macro camera phone shootout where I pitted the Honor 400 Pro against its flagship sibling, the Honor Magic 7 Pro series.

As for the other lenses, there's also a 50MP 3x telephoto lens (f/2.4), which utilises a Sony IMX856 sensor, has OIS, and can be further boosted through the use of AI with Honor's AI SuperZoom feature. This doesn't always produce the best results, especially at the maximum 50x range, and when AI is used to fill in gaps like this, it definitely won't always get it right. But I think this feature, despite small faults, is really innovative and something you won't find on other Android camera phones.

Last in the lineup is the 12MP ultra-wide macro (f/2.2) lens, which performs beautifully when shooting portraiture and smaller wildlife such as birds and squirrels outdoors. I tend to use Aperture Mode a lot when shooting with this phone as I love the fake depth of field that it creates, and it's one of the most natural-looking contrasts that I've seen created by a smartphone, as opposed to using a professional camera.

The 50MP front camera also takes decent selfie shots, and you can make use of Studio Harcourt filters at this stage too, which have been developed in partnership with the Parisian studio to offer presets for getting that signature look in your selfies. Check out my first impressions of the Honor 400 Pro where you can see the very first photos that I snapped with this smartphone straight out of the box.

The standout feature of the Honor 400 Pro, however, is not its camera quality, but its video potential when it comes to quick and easy unique content creation. I'm talking about Google's Veo-powered AI image-to-video tool, which is built directly into the Honor 400 Pro and essentially turns any normal still photo (it doesn’t even need to have been captured using the phone) into a five-second mini-video clip in portrait or landscape orientation.

This is both awesome and a bit freaky if you ask me, and dependent on your personal stance when it comes to AI media. The generated results can be either super realistic or have a complete mind of their own, adding in elements to the video that were never in the source material.

This makes it a fun thing to share with family and friends on social media, and a pretty cool party trick to have built into your phone, though certainly not a powerful videography or editing tool just yet. As for video capture with the Honor 400 Pro, you can expect 4K quality at 60fps, which is a nice feature for a mid-range phone.

Sample images

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Design and display

Compared with Honor's stunning Magic 7 Pro series, and even the Honor 200 Pro – I think this design of the 400 Pro is my least favourite so far. It's not hideous, but to me, the 3-lens lineup does make it look a little uneven and alien-like. It's really not to my taste at all, especially considering I got hands-on with the Porsche edition Honor Magic 7 Pro earlier this year, which knocks every other camera phone design out of the park with its elegance.

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Thankfully, the unusual design and camera arrangement of the Honor 400 Pro plays no part in its performance or usability, and the 6.67-inch quad curved OLED display saves the ensemble from the front end at least. It offers 5,000 nits of peak brightness which is handy for viewing the phone screen outdoors and in brighter areas, and the IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance is another great design feature that outdoorsy types will no doubt appreciate and benefit from.

Features and performance

Let's talk specs. The Honor 400 Pro is hiding a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset under the hood, which is one of Qualcomm’s full-fat offerings that behaves well with AI, and other high-demand tasks such as gaming and rendering. According to our sister site, TechRadar, the Honor 400 Pro comfortably outperforms the entire Google Pixel 9 range when it comes to general use, and trumps the Pixel's G4 Tensor chip.

As for software, you get the company's Magic OS 9.0 UI, which is based on Android 15. I personally get along really well with Honor's interface, but that might be because I'm used to it already on my MagicPad 2. For any Apple users, this could take a bit of adjusting, but there are some great AI features like the Honor Magic Portal and Magic Capsule that make navigating the phone, staying organised, and sharing media a real dream.

The 400 Pro also has a larger-than-average 5,300mAh battery capacity, and is scheduled for six years of OS updates and security patches, which is superb for longevity and sustainability, not to mention great reassurance for consumers who don't want to keep upgrading their phone every two years.

Who is it for?

The Honor 400 Pro is for folks seeking a high-quality camera phone with impressive general performance, reliable hardware, a solid design, and helpful AI tools – yet without the premium price tag associated with top-spec camera phones like the ones made by Apple and Samsung (you know which).

While the Honor 400 Pro can't quite compete with the power of these mighty flagships on a performance or hardware benchmark level, I've still really enjoyed my time testing it. If I weren't accustomed to the performance and camera power of my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I likely wouldn't even notice any major differences with the Honor 400 Pro, and I don't think a lot of general users would either.

Don't be put off by the fact that Honor isn't much of a household name, as I'm willing to bet that this will change very soon as the company continues to dominate UK tech markets. I recommend this phone for students, gamers, and general creatives with a tighter budget to work with, as I think it offers great value for money without much compromise at a mid-range level.

Buy it if...

• You're really into content creation and editing
• You're intrigued by AI and its potential
• You want a great camera phone for both photo and video

Don't buy it if...

• You're looking for flagship-level performance with top hardware specs
• You're not a fan of AI or having these tools on your phone
• You're not willing to adapt to MagicOS software