Honor 200 Professional Evaluation: Premium Retro for Followers

Honor 200 Professional in a nutshell

Honor launched its 200 Professional telephone in June 2024, after a Chinese language-only launch in Might. The higher mid-ranger (or accessible flagship?) is priced at 800€/£700 for the 12/512 GB mannequin. The telephone won’t be obtainable within the US.

The telephone comes with an enormous 6.78-inch curved OLED show, a real triple-camera setup with a telephoto and ultrawide cameras, and is powered by a flagship-level Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor.

Design and show

There’s a sense of dejà-vu when first seeing the Honor 200 Professional. It has been some time since I final noticed a sub-$1000 telephone with a curved show. And the retro vibes continued on the telephone’s again, with a curved digicam island. 

Execs:

• Stable construct.
• Wonderful show.
• Display screen protector from the manufacturing facility.
• Fingerprint-proof again. 

Cons

• Digicam island design isn’t for everybody.

In response to Honor, the digicam module was impressed by the curves of Casa Milá from Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. The glass cowl has a special form from the underlying metallic base, which curves to satisfy the glass forming an uneven body. It undoubtedly seems to be well-built, however wasn’t precisely for my style (from a self-admitted Gaudí fanboy…).

The remainder of the again is made out of glass, our evaluate unit got here in with a black matte end which not solely seems to be good and feels good to the contact but additionally was free from fingerprints.

The curved again floor is mirrored within the entrance, not not like each single flagship telephone from 5 years in the past. Whereas flat shows have gained within the West, curved shows are nonetheless sturdy in Asia, apparently.

However I digress, the show is an enormous and delightful 6.78-inch AMOLED that not solely refreshes at 120 Hz but additionally is specced to achieve 4000 nits. We couldn’t attain that brightness degree, however had no points utilizing the Honor 200 Professional outdoor.

To utilize that large space, the decision is an equally excessive 2700 x 1200 pixels, leading to 437 DPI. And below the show lies the fingerprint sensor, which labored as anticipated throughout our evaluate. On prime sits a pill-shaped notch which homes the twin selfie setup.

The Honor 200 Professional felt superb on the hand and its large display didn’t end in an enormous telephone due to the curved show and skinny bezels. Button placement was additionally positive, and typically, the telephone felt like a real flagship.
 

MagicOS nonetheless carries the EMUI legacy

The Honor 200 Professional comes with MagicOS 8 on prime of Android 14. The corporate guarantees three Android upgrades and 4 years of safety updates. It nonetheless carries the identical total design as its EMUI predecessor, which feels somewhat dated in some locations.

Execs

Cons

• Interface design feels dated.
• Underwhelming replace coverage.

After a contemporary set up, we counted 9 third-party functions, one thing that we felt didn’t match with a premium telephone. After updating these apps, the system reported 31.28 GB of used storage.

MagicOS 8 nonetheless seems like a straight EMUI successor, with its iOS-based navigation and structure beginning to really feel misplaced with Android, particularly after a few years into the Materials You design. Lengthy-time Huawei and Honor customers, nonetheless, will really feel at dwelling utilizing MagicOS 8.

For extra particulars on MagicOS 8, you may examine Camila’s evaluate of the flagship Magic 6 Professional, and extra particulars on the AI options on this Magic AI hands-on. Usually, regardless of the outdated look, utilizing the system felt snappy, however some inconsistencies across the interface—together with the default Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard—have been distracting.

One private nitpick was that the pure holding place made it barely cumbersome to achieve UI parts on the underside of the show. Even reaching for the area bar whereas typing pressured the hand to seize the telephone in an unbalanced means.

Flagship efficiency from the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3

Powered by the just lately launched Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Honor 200 Professional provides a flagship-level efficiency that’s virtually indistinguishable from the 2024 crop of premium telephones. The usage of trendy reminiscence requirements for storage and RAM is helped by the beneficiant capacities on supply.

Execs

• Good efficiency in every day duties and video games.
• Good thermal administration

Cons

• Telephone throttles all the way down to maintain cool.

Honor appears to have opted for a extra conservative implementation of the highly effective CPU, not sacrificing consumer consolation for the very best efficiency as some rivals normally do. As an alternative, on longer heavier duties, the telephone reduces the velocity to keep away from getting too sizzling.

The impact is noticeable on the 3D Mark Stress Take a look at, during which the Honor telephone dropped its efficiency to virtually half by the top of the check.

On a gaming-oriented telephone that may be a nasty signal, however for a tool geared to most people, prioritizing thermals was most likely the higher alternative. We simply want Honor used a beefier warmth dissipation system.

In testing, efficiency in video games equivalent to Name of Responsibility Cell and Genshin Affect was good. The latter was capable of run on the highest graphical settings on the 60 fps possibility, though the telephone did get heat, particularly across the metallic body.

For easier every day duties, the Honor 200 Professional carried out on the identical degree as any flagship telephone, with app transitions, animations, and results being utilized virtually instantaneously. Artificial benchmarks present that the telephone falls barely under 2024’s prime telephones, however not on a degree that we may discover whereas utilizing the machine.

Digicam gimmicks

The digicam setup on the Honor 200 Professional consists of a most important 50 MP sensor, an ultra-wide lens with a 12 MP sensor that additionally serves as a macro digicam, and a telephoto lens with a 2.5x optical zoom.

Execs

• Versatile digicam setup.
• Wonderful daylight and night time pictures on the primary digicam.
• Cool portrait filters to play with.

Cons

• Secondary cameras are a step down from the primary digicam.
• Finicky settings on the digicam app.
• Inconsistent outcomes from the completely different cameras.

The large 1/1.3’’ most important sensor captures loads of mild each day and night time, with digital zoom pictures at 2x proving very usable. Shade replica was good, with punchy, saturated colours.

In reality, in some instances, the 2x digital zoom from the primary digicam appeared superior to the two.5x optical zoom from the smaller sensor below the telephoto lens, which regularly provided extra muted colours.

Talking zoom pictures, whereas the Honor 200 Professional provides as much as 50x magnification, outcomes are blurry as anticipated from different ultra-zoomers. 10x pictures, then again, whereas not print-quality, could also be adequate for sharing on social media or messaging apps.

The ultra-wide digicam carried out positive in daylight, with out the extent of element from the primary digicam, however nonetheless good for its 12-megapixel decision. At night time, nonetheless, the constraints of the smaller sensor (in each decision and space) develop into clear, with lack of particulars and synthetic processing.

Honor promotes its portrait mode closely on the advertising and marketing materials, with a partnership with the portrait specialists on the French Studio Harcourt. The result’s three colour filters for the portrait mode on prime of the digital processing utilized by the telephone. The results should not obtainable on the selfie digicam, even when utilizing the entrance digicam portrait mode.

Confusingly, whereas utilizing the again cameras in Portrait mode, the Bokeh button permits adjusting the extent of background blur digitally utilized. When utilizing the selfie digicam on Portrait, nonetheless, the button merely turns off the blurring, outputting the identical photographs as the primary Photograph mode. As the selection is saved, many pictures have been misplaced throughout this check.

Interface complaints apart, the selfie digicam was very dependable in daylight, with natural-looking pictures in each the conventional and ultra-wide (0.8x) modes. Portrait mode labored okay, with the same old artifacts on the perimeters when trying up shut. At night time, nonetheless, selfies regarded barely blurry.

One additional factor: The Macro mode on the digicam app makes use of the ultra-wide digicam, and the outcomes have been surprisingly good. It permits focusing actually shut objects, round 2 cm in some non-scientific measurements.

Honor 200 Professional battery

Honor touts its silicon-carbon battery with 5200 mAh capability, and consists of assist for 100W wired charging and 66W wi-fi charging. Confusingly, some markets may have the 100W charger included within the field, and a few gained’t.

Execs

• Quick wired and wi-fi charging.
• When non-compulsory, the charger is normally provided as a bonus.

Cons

• Charger is non-compulsory in some markets.

Honor didn’t provide us with the maximum-rated adapter with the 200 Professional, so the assessments under have been accomplished with third-party USB-PD chargers. Outcomes have been as common as anticipated, with a full cost taking 1h14min on an Anker 65W adapter and virtually double on a equally rated Ugreen charger.

We additionally couldn’t confirm the formidable 66W wi-fi charging claims, however the Honor 200 Professional will also be used with an ordinary Qi charger at a decrease energy.

Regardless of the novel battery chemistry, the rated 5200 mAh capability fared in addition to anticipated, with somewhat bit over a day of normal utilization utilizing the default always-on show mode.

Within the artificial PCMark battery check which calculates the runtime below a simulated workload going from 80% cost to twenty%, the Honor 200 Professional received solely a 11h24 rating. Nonetheless, its efficiency rating was 17091, indicating that the telephone was not holding again throughout the check, one thing that may have influenced the rival OnePlus 12R consequence, for instance.

Honor 200 Professional technical specs

Ultimate verdict