Honor 400 Pro review: Jack of all trades

Final 12 months’s Honor 200 Professional cemented itself as a extra reasonably priced mid-range (nearly) different to the standard flagship flock. It provided a really flagship-like expertise, however with a extra approachable £699 .99price, and only a few compromises.

With the Honor 400 Professional, the model is seeking to additional enhance on that providing. It is available in on the identical value, nevertheless it has a sooner chip inside, the next IP score, extra megapixels, a barely bigger battery, and naturally, loads of AI options.

Thus far, so good, however the one method to actually know what it’s like is to place it to the take a look at. After utilizing it as my principal cellphone for the previous week, right here’s what I’ve discovered concerning the Honor 400 Professional.

Design & Construct

• Plastic body, curved glass again
• 205g
• IP68 / IP69 rated

The Honor 400 Professional has a quad-curved design on its entrance and rear, with gently curved aspect rails becoming a member of the 2. It’s an analogous form to the Magic 7 Professional and Oppo Discover X8 Professional, which provides it a flagship-like vibe, regardless of remaining comparatively reasonably priced.

The obvious giveaway that we’re coping with a mid-ranger is the plastic body. In all honesty, I don’t have any issues about sturdiness, the cellphone feels rock strong – however with out the cool feeling of an aluminium body, you may inform that this one’s on the extra reasonably priced aspect.

On the plus aspect, it permits the cellphone to be pretty light-weight. At 205g, it’s lighter than most 6.7-inch handsets, and that feels nice in your pocket. It additionally doesn’t have an effect on the sealing, because the Honor 400 Professional has been awarded the very best IP68/69 score for mud and water resistance.

There’s a brand new digicam format for this 12 months, which sees the lenses positioned in a triangular formation. It jogs my memory of a cross between the iPhone digicam and the Huawei Pura 70-series. I wasn’t very keen on final 12 months’s oval design, so I’d name this a little bit of a glow-up.

Luke Baker

I’ve the Lunar Gray model in for testing, which has a silky-feeling matte glass again. It’s fully proof against fingerprint smudges, and it’s deceptively grippy, which is nice information, as there’s no case included within the field. It’s additionally accessible in Midnight Black, which options black rear and aspect rails for a stealthy, skilled look.

Display & Audio system

• 6.7-inch, 2800 x 1280, OLED, 120Hz
• 5000 nits peak brightness
• Stereo audio system

The Honor 400 Professional has a large 6.7-inch OLED panel with an adaptive 120Hz refresh charge. Peak brightness is supposedly 1000 nits greater than final 12 months’s mannequin, which makes it very straightforward to see whenever you’re out within the sunshine, and it additionally appears to be like nice whenever you’re watching HDR content material.

Luke Baker

Arguably, probably the most impactful change with this mannequin is the form of the glass. The Honor 200 Professional had a standard curved design, with sweeping curves on the left and proper sides of the show, whereas the 400 Professional has a quad micro curve design. 

I battle to get together with curved shows, as I typically find yourself swiping the sting of the show unintentionally, however these new micro curve designs clear up the issue fully. Many of the show is flat, and the curves have a sharper radius that begins on the bezel. It signifies that gesture controls nonetheless really feel tremendous clean, however unintentional touches are fully eradicated.

Luke Baker

All in all, I actually don’t have any complaints concerning the show. It’s vibrant and vivid with colors that seem correct, together with the distinctive distinction that solely OLED panels can present.

I examined the usual Honor 400 earlier than transferring on to the Professional, and whereas the audio system sounded good, they weren’t significantly loud. I assumed I used to be in for extra of the identical with the Professional, however they’re far more highly effective. There’s not as a lot bass response because the audio system on the model’s flagship Magic 7 Professional, however they sound very first rate.

Specs & Efficiency

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB storage

The Honour 400 Professional runs on Qualcomm’s last-gen flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It’s a apply that we’re seeing extra mid-rangers undertake this 12 months, maybe as a result of there doesn’t appear to be an 8s Gen 3 equal for the 8 Elite on the time of writing.

Luke Baker

I’m all for it. The 8 Gen 3 remains to be a supremely highly effective chipset, and never way back, it was one of the best that cash might purchase. Making it accessible in additional reasonably priced handsets creates a greater worth proposition in comparison with last-gen flagship refurbs.

This chip is paired with 12GB of RAM and both 256GB or 512GB of storage. Greater than sufficient for most individuals’s wants.

As you may count on, with this a lot horsepower below the hood, the Honor 400 Professional feels lightning fast. Apps open immediately, swiping across the OS is clean as will be, and multitasking poses no risk.

Luke Baker

In fact, this efficiency extends to gaming, too. The Honor 400 Professional will fortunately play any title you may throw at it on excessive graphics settings with relative ease.

I loved a couple of hours of Genshin Influence on excessive settings at 60fps, and I by no means observed any stutters or slowdowns. The cellphone does get fairly toasty throughout lengthy classes, however when you have a case on it, I’m certain it’ll be a lot much less noticeable.

Honor 400 Professional benchmarks

Cameras

• 200 Mp f/1.9 principal digicam
• 50 Mp f/2 3x telephoto
• 12 Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
• 50 Mp, f/2.1 selfie digicam

The Honor 400 has an analogous digicam setup to its non-Professional sibling, nevertheless it provides a separate 3x telephoto to the equation. So, you must get nicer photographs whenever you zoom in.

In any other case, you get the identical extremely high-resolution 200Mp 1/1.4-inch principal sensor and 12Mp f/2.2 ultrawide. The principle sensor is a wholesome improve in comparison with final 12 months’s mannequin, however the ultrawide and telephoto appear to make use of the identical sensors because the 200 Professional. The one distinction is that the telephoto is a bit more zoomed in, at 3x, relatively than 2.5x.

Whereas the 200Mp principal sensor shared by each 400-series units can produce first rate digitally cropped photographs, the devoted telephoto nonetheless supplies a transparent benefit. Pictures on the native 3x FOV are noticeably sharper and extra detailed, and whenever you push the zoom additional, that also stays true.

It’s simply as noticeable at night time. Zoomed-in photographs from the usual Honor 400 lack element and change into noisy, whereas the Honor 400 Professional’s devoted telephoto permits for a lot cleaner low-light snaps.

It will get just a little extra difficult at 15x zoom and above, the place you may select to make use of AI to upscale the picture, identical to the model’s flagship Magic 7 Professional. The AI processing does quite a lot of heavy lifting right here, and the outcomes change into rather more comparable. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless a bonus to the Professional, as it could possibly zoom all the way in which to 50x, whereas the usual 400 maxes out at 30x.

I’ve been more than happy with the photographs from the Honor 400 Professional. The picture processing is usually a little hit or miss (as I’ve discovered with most Honor telephones), however when it hits, it’s able to completely beautiful outcomes.

The weak level of the system is macro pictures. It makes use of the ultrawide for macro photographs, which is the least spectacular lens of the trio, and it means you need to get the lens extraordinarily near the topic, normally leading to shadows.

The cellphone gives the identical wonderful Studio Harcourt portrait results that debuted with the 200-series final 12 months. On this mannequin, they’re simply as beautiful as ever, and whether or not you’re capturing individuals or pets, you may count on distinctive outcomes.

The selfie digicam is unchanged from final 12 months, and that’s a disgrace, as a result of it’s just a little underwhelming. Don’t get me improper, you may take some nice selfies with it, however when a cellphone is so good at capturing portraits with the rear lenses, absolutely it’d make sense to beef up the selfie snapper, too.

For video seize, the Honor 400 Professional can shoot at as much as 4K 60 fps on the principle and telephoto cameras, whereas the ultrawide and selfie cameras max out at 4K 30 fps. It’s one other space with a transparent leg-up over the usual 400, which maxes out at 4K 30 fps on all of the rear lenses.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5300 mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging

The Honour 400 Professional has a 5300mAh silicon-carbon battery inside. It’s bigger than your common cellphone, however in 2025, we’re beginning to see loads of Chinese language producers pushing to the 6000mAh mark and past, so it’s nothing too exceptional.

Nonetheless, in use, this capability proved to be greater than sufficient for me. I might simply make it over a day and a half on a cost, and two is feasible if you happen to use your cellphone just a little extra conservatively.

Luke Baker

Charging is blazing quick, too. It helps as much as 100W speeds with a wire and 50W utilizing Honor’s official wi-fi charging stand.

There’s no charger included, only a cable, however with the suitable wall adapter, you may take the cellphone from totally lifeless to 85% charged in simply half an hour. Wi-fi charging is shockingly fast, too, however Honor’s Wi-fi SuperCharger is a dear add-on, and also you’ll want that to achieve the max pace.

Software program & Apps

• MagicOS 9, based mostly on Android 15
• New Google Picture to Video characteristic
• Plenty of AI performance

The Honor 400 Professional runs MagicOS 9, Honor’s closely customised model of Android 15. For those who’ve used one other current Honor system, you’ll know what to anticipate. But when not, it’s fairly iOS-inspired, and for that motive, it’s just a little divisive.

Luke Baker

Personally, I fairly like MagicOS. The format and styling can take some getting used to, however whenever you’re extra acquainted with it, there are tonnes of helpful options packed in. It additionally feels fast and snappy, and it appears to take advantage of out of your battery.

The most important change with this model is the addition of quite a few AI-powered options: some designed by Honor itself, and a few in collaboration with Google.

The Honor 400 sequence telephones are the primary fashions to debut Google’s new Picture to Video device. Basically, it means you may decide any picture in your gallery, faucet a button, and AI will magically remodel it right into a 5-second video.

The outcomes are astonishingly real looking, however you solely get a single button to activate the characteristic; there’s no method to immediate the AI, so the outcomes are relatively unpredictable. Because it stands, it’s mainly a celebration trick, albeit a really spectacular one.

Honor’s different AI options are extra sensible. There are all the standard issues, like translation and summarisation options, and a pair that you could be not have seen earlier than, like AI deepfake detection for video calls and AI-generated subtitles that work throughout all apps.

It’s the picture enhancing instruments that I discovered myself utilizing probably the most, although. Modifying photos from the Gallery app now contains choices to chop out and transfer topics, and AI will fill within the background. You can even open individuals’s eyes in the event that they blink throughout a bunch shot, take away reflections, improve low-quality photographs, and develop a picture’s area of view. It’s very complete.

One other massive win is that Honor now guarantees 6 years of main OS upgrades and 6 years of safety patches. Final 12 months’s Honor 200 Professional solely obtained 3 main updates and 4 years of safety patches. So, whereas it doesn’t fairly match the flagship 7+7 coverage, it’s an enormous step in the fitting route.

Worth & Availability

The Honor 400 Professional is obtainable to order now within the UK from Honor’s website, Amazon and numerous different authorised retailers. It’s accessible in most areas globally, however as regular, this mannequin gained’t be launching within the US.

Within the UK, it begins at £699.99 for the bottom mannequin with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, within the EU, the identical mannequin begins at €799. Honor has additionally confirmed that the 400 Professional will probably be accessible on contract through EE, O2, Three, Vodafone and Tesco Cellular.

The outright value means it’s in direct competitors with units just like the iPhone 16e and Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. The Pixel 9 will also be discovered at an analogous value, although there are many different different mid-range telephones which can be value contemplating.

Do you have to purchase the Honor 400 Professional?

The Honor 400 Professional is a strong higher mid-range handset that doesn’t fall brief in any explicit space. Regardless of your priorities, the 400 Professional has one thing to supply.

The cameras are nice (though the ultrawide might use an improve), and the Harcourt portrait results are as spectacular as ever. The display is beautiful, the battery lasts a very long time, and there’s loads of energy for hardcore avid gamers.

There are additionally plenty of AI options to play with, the whole lot’s included from productivity-focused instruments to picture enhancing and past.

As for downsides, the plastic body detracts from the in any other case premium really feel, and Magic OS strays very removed from the inventory Android expertise, so it gained’t be to everybody’s tastes.

In any other case, this cellphone trades blows with its equally priced rivals, and sometimes comes out on prime.

Specs

• MagicOS 9, based mostly on Android 15
• 6.7-inch, 2800 x 1280, OLED, 120Hz
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB storage
• Cameras:
• 200Mp principal sensor
• 12Mp ultrawide
• 50Mp 3x telephoto
• 50Mp selfie digicam
• As much as 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 5110mAh battery
• 66W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging 
• 160.8 x 76.1 x 8.1 mm
• IP68 / IP69 licensed
• 205g
• Colors: Midnight Black / Lunar Gray