Latest news with #Honor400
The Citizen
14-07-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Honor 400 series: How slick is really slick?
The newly launched Honor 400 and 400 Pro proves that quiet design, real-world AI and performance make the loudest statement. There's a clear shift in what South Africans expect from a smartphone. Performance matters but so does style. With a frosted finish, flat edges and carefully considered colours, the new Honor 400 series looks the part, without even trying too hard. Both the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro seize the spotlight when the cameras roll, meetings start and when the cutting-edge AI content possibilities make their entrance with a gasp. Smartphone features matter in Mzansi, which is why most new launches loudly announce their shopping list of specs. Yet, the Honor 400 series knows how confusing this can be for those wanting a device with the right form and fit. This is why they've focused on making their own flair flow into everyday life. It's like great style – it should speak for itself, without needing to be explained. That's exactly where the Honor 400 Series is slicker than the average. At a glance, they carry all the symbols of a high-end device from frosted-glass finishes, polished camera layout, symmetrical lines and simplified style. Both devices then follow through with the confidence to show up in the hands of the right people: creators, entrepreneurs, future-focused students and professionals – who don't just use their phones, they rely on them. Wherever they need to impress, they look the part from power to performance. In lecture halls and study cafés, where next-gen minds capture ideas and edit on the fly; At launch events and small business pop-ups, where content needs to be shot, cleaned and shared instantly; Behind the lens of stylists, designers and curators, where its AMOLED accuracy matters; Or on daily runs of meetings, meetings and more meetings, where battery life can't tap out early. Slick in all the right spaces The AI-enhanced camera system adds to this series' aura. A 200MP main sensor, combined with AI Portrait Snap and Veo 2-powered Image-to-Video, makes your best moment reel-ready without the need for retouching. On the Honor Pro, a 50MP telephoto and 50× AI SuperZoom takes storytelling to new heights and distances. Whether you're translating a business call or reviewing footage under pressure, the Snapdragon chips, supported by MagicOS 9.0 and a 6000mAh battery, keep it on point and on target – power that goes on and on. In an industry where specs often shout, the Honor 400 Series simply fits, effortlessly, elegantly and clearly designed for people who prefer to be noticed for all the right reasons. Because sometimes, the slickest moves are the ones that just quietly step into the spotlight.
The Citizen
04-07-2025
- The Citizen
Honor 400 and 400 Pro enter spotlight with premium features that rival the best in their class
With a 200MP ultra-clear camera, advanced AI tools, and flagship-grade power, the Honor 400 series lands in South Africa with practical innovation and standout design. The hype is real. The newly launched Honor 400 and Honor 400 PRO have officially arrived in South Africa, bringing a bold, AI-led vision to the mobile experience. It immediately impresses with camera hardware that pushes the boundaries. This includes thoughtful software tools and high-performance design, engineered for users who want more from every moment. This is design that rivals the sleekness of flagship devices twice the price. At the heart of the Honor 400 PRO is a 200MP ultra-clear main camera, designed to bring out rich detail and dynamic range. So, whether capturing a milestone portrait, a city skyline, or a quick snap at a weekend braai, it's ready to roll. Real-time enhancements powered by AI Portrait Snap ensure your photos reflect natural movement and emotion, while tools like AI Erase and Remove Reflection simplify edits without the need for apps. For those who want more from a single image, the new Image-to-Video feature turns a photo into a short, dynamic clip ready for sharing. The Pro model includes a dedicated 50MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and up to 50× AI SuperZoom, perfect for capturing subjects at a distance, from wildlife in Pilanesberg to front-row action at the stadium. The base Honor 400 goes the distance, offering 30× AI SuperZoom through its 200MP main lens and the same suite of AI-powered tools. The performance isn't just behind the camera. The Honor 400 PRO runs on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, while the Honor 400 features the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Both are supported by MagicOS 9.0. With up to 12GB RAM and RAM Turbo expanding memory to 24GB, everyday use remains responsive, even with demanding apps and multitasking. Visuals are delivered with pristine presence through a vibrant AMOLED display, 6.55″ on the Honor 400 and 6.7″ on the PRO. This includes a peak brightness of up to 5000 nits for clear viewing in bright sun. A robust 6000mAh silicon-carbon battery supports 80W wired SuperCharge on the Honor 400 and adds 100W wired + 50W wireless charging on the Honor 400 PRO. IP65-rated durability and SGS Five-Star Drop Resistance certification ensure resilience on the go. The Honor 400 and 400 Pro is going to continue to grab the attention of creators, professionals, students or families. It delivers flagship tech without the flagship price tag, a smart and welcome step forward in everyday performance, design and AI-powered photography.
GSM Arena
03-07-2025
- GSM Arena
Honor 400 vs Honor 400 Pro
If you are eyeing Honor's latest upper midrangers, the official Honor online store will be happy to offer you the 512GB Honor 400 for around €500 and the 512GB Honor 400 Pro for around €650. So how much better is the Honor 400 Pro to deserve its price premium? Let's take a closer look. Table of Contents: Design Display Battery Life Charging Speaker Test Performance Cameras Verdict For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following text. Size comparison Honor 400 5G Honor 400 Pro 5G At first glance, the Honor 400 and 400 Pro share a similar design DNA, but there are key differences in execution and ergonomics. The vanilla model is noticeably more compact and lighter at 184g versus the 205g of the Pro. The Honor 400 also has flatter sides and a slimmer profile, making it a bit easier to handle, especially with one hand. The Pro, in contrast, features slightly curved glass on both the front and back, lending it a more premium feel in hand but also making it a bit more slippery. While both phones offer a glass back, the Pro steps up to an arguably more refined finish. The Pro's overall design is more reminiscent of a flagship, while the vanilla model feels more utilitarian—though still modern and attractive in its own right. When it comes to buttons and controls, both devices feature the standard volume rocker and power button arrangement on the right-hand side. Both phones lack a 3.5mm headphone jack, and neither includes a microSD card slot, though you do get dual SIM support. There's official ingress protection rating on both phones but the vanilla Honor 400 has to settle for market-dependent IP65/IP66 protection, while the Pro has IP68/IP69 certification. Connectivity is mostly equal between the two, with both phones offering 5G, dual-band Wi-Fi (though the Pro does come with tri-band Wi-Fi in some markets), Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, and USB-C 2.0. Visually, both phones feature large camera islands on the back, but the Pro's is a bit more stylized, with more emphasis on lens detailing. Despite the similarities in branding, the Honor 400 Pro clearly positions itself as the more luxurious and refined device in both appearance and feel. Display comparison Honor 400 5G Honor 400 Pro 5G Both phones feature AMOLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for 10-bit color, offering vibrant visuals and smooth animations. The Honor 400 Pro has a slightly larger 6.7-inch screen compared to the 6.55-inch panel on the regular Honor 400. Despite the difference in size, both panels deliver similar sharpness, with a matching pixel density of around 460ppi. The regular Honor 400 actually achieves a slightly higher max brightness of 1,550 nits, compared to 1,481 nits on the Pro model, but the difference is really small. Both displays perform well outdoors. Both are well-calibrated and support HDR10+, making them equally capable for multimedia consumption. Battery life Both phones come with identical 5,300mAh battery capacities in Europe, but their real-world endurance differs significantly. The Honor 400 Pro outlasts its sibling with an impressive Active Use Score of 13:54h, while the regular Honor 400 manages a still respectable but shorter 12:29h. This advantage is particularly notable given the more powerful chipset in the Pro, which appears to be well-optimized for power efficiency. In day-to-day use, both phones deliver solid longevity and can easily get you through a full day of mixed usage. However, the Pro model holds a slight upper hand when it comes to screen-on time. If battery life is a priority, the Honor 400 Pro offers a bit more peace of mind. Charging speed Honor 400 5G 5300 mAh Honor 400 Pro 5G 5300 mAh Charging is quick on both devices, but the Honor 400 Pro edges out with its 100W charging support, reaching a full charge in just 38 minutes. The standard Honor 400 isn't far behind with its 80W charging, taking 41 minutes for a full top-up. Neither phone comes with a charger in the box, at least not in Europe. Speaker test Both the Honor 400 and 400 Pro come with stereo speakers, but the 400 Pro is louder and delivers slightly more bass and fullness. The regular Honor 400 performs reasonably well but it falls behind in sound quality. Neither phone includes a headphone jack, though, so it's wireless or USB-C audio all the way. Performance The performance gap between the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro is significant and immediately noticeable. The vanilla model is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset - a competent mid-range platform built on a 4nm process. It delivers smooth day-to-day performance and handles multitasking and moderate gaming well, but it's clearly not aimed at power users. Honor 400 5G Honor 400 Pro 5G The Honor 400 Pro, on the other hand, steps into flagship territory with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This is one of the fastest mobile chipsets currently available, also built on a 4nm process, but with vastly superior CPU and GPU performance. It handles demanding 3D games, intensive workloads, and high frame rate usage with ease. In synthetic benchmarks, the Pro achieves roughly double the scores of its vanilla sibling, especially in GPU-heavy tasks like 3DMark Wild Life. As for memory configurations, the base Honor 400 ships with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the Honor 400 Pro ups the ante with 12GB of RAM in its base variant, also paired with 256GB of storage. Neither phone includes a microSD slot, so internal storage is all you get. Both phones ship with nearly identical Android 15 builds with MagicOS 9 on top and promise up to six major OS updates. If raw performance and long-term fluidity are important to you, the Honor 400 Pro easily justifies its premium with cutting-edge hardware. The Honor 400, while perfectly adequate for casual users, simply can't compete in this department. Benchmark performance Honor 400 5G Honor 400 Pro 5G The numbers speak for themselves. The Honor 400 Pro posts nearly double the benchmark scores of the regular Honor 400 across the board. In AnTuTu 10, the Pro reaches an impressive 1.9 million points compared to the 864K of the vanilla model. Geekbench 6 further highlights the gap with single-core and multi-core scores practically doubling on the Pro, and 3DMark Wild Life showcases the raw GPU muscle of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, scoring over three times higher than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 in the Honor 400. These synthetic benchmarks translate into real-world differences in speed, responsiveness, and sustained performance. The Pro feels snappier in general navigation and loads games more quickly. It also handles multitasking more gracefully thanks to its larger RAM. The regular Honor 400 performs fine for casual use and light gaming, but it begins to show its limitations when pushed. If you're looking for a phone that will stay fast and smooth for years, the 400 Pro is the obvious winner. Camera comparison Both the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro capitalize on a flagship-grade Samsung ISOCELL HP3 sensor for their 200 MP main camera. However, their secondary sensors differ significantly. The Honor 400 just has a 12 MP ultra-wide camera (112° FOV, f/2.2), relying on cropping from the main sensor for any zooming. The Honor 400 Pro is much more well-rounded: it adds a Sony IMX856 50 MP telephoto camera (3x optical zoom, OIS) alongside the same 12 MP ultra-wide. That telephoto lens allows the Pro to produce true optical zoom shots and extends clarity up to 6x hybrid and even 10x with AI upscaling. Selfie-wise, both models sport the same 50 MP front camera with 4K video recording, but with fixed focus. The results here are essentially identical—sharp and well-exposed, though the Pro's extra depth sensor on the front offers marginally better portrait separation. Image quality Both the Honor 400 and 400 Pro leverage the same Samsung ISOCELL HP3 200 MP main sensor (1/1.4″ with OIS+EIS), and in daylight, they deliver crisp, high-detail shots with pleasing dynamic range and vivid yet natural colors. The large sensor consistently produces rich textures and accurate exposure in well-lit environments. The ultrawide on both devices, a 12MP shooter with a 112° field-of-view, handles wide shots reasonably well but shows a notable drop in detail and contrast when compared to the main cam. That said, it remains serviceable for landscapes and group shots. The Honor 400 Pro adds a real differentiator: its 50 MP Sony IMX856 telephoto with 3x optical zoom and OIS. This unit succeeds in delivering sharp, clear zoomed-in images up to 3x, maintains usable quality up to 6x with hybrid zoom and AI assist. The vanilla Honor 400 lacks this capability and relies on digital crops, which, while surprisingly decent thanks to the high-res main sensor, don't match the Pro's optical clarity. Honor 400: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x Honor 400 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x In low light, the Pro takes a small lead. Its main camera produces sharper shots with more preserved texture and less aggressive noise reduction. Night Mode kicks in automatically on both phones and does a good job of balancing highlights and shadows. The vanilla Honor 400 holds its own with good exposure and respectable detail, but darker areas can become mushy, and fine textures are often lost. Honor 400: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x Honor 400 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x Video quality Video capture from the main cameras on both the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro is generally quite good, thanks to the shared Samsung ISOCELL HP3 200MP sensor. Daylight footage from either phone is sharp, detailed, and features balanced colors with a slightly saturated but pleasing tone. Dynamic range is respectable. Stabilization is available on both models and works well, but footage from the Pro appears a bit steadier during panning and walking shots. Low-light video is pretty comparable across both phones. You can count on solid clips from the main cameras and probably want to avoid the ultrawide after dark altogether. Honor 400: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • low-light Honor 400 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 3x • low-light The presence of a dedicated 50MP telephoto camera on the Honor 400 Pro gives it a clear advantage when it comes to zoomed videos. The optical zoom delivers noticeably sharper and more stable results than the digitally cropped zoom from the main sensor on the vanilla model. The Honor 400 lacks this versatility and quickly loses detail once you move beyond a basic crop. Verdict While the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro share a name and several core components—including their main, ultrawide, and selfie cameras—they are ultimately targeting very different users. The regular Honor 400 offers great value for its price. It's compact, lightweight, and its display is as bright as the Pro's plus some. With the same high-resolution main camera and solid overall performance for day-to-day tasks, it covers the needs of most casual users without overspending. If you're after the core Honor experience at a more accessible price point, the vanilla 400 is easy to recommend. The Honor 400 Pro, on the other hand, makes a compelling case for those willing to spend more for a true flagship experience. You get top-tier performance thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, longer battery life, faster charging, and a far more versatile camera system that includes a dedicated telephoto lens. It's the better phone overall, and the premium feel, higher ingress protection, and superior zoom and video quality justify its cost - assuming your budget can stretch that far. In the end, the Honor 400 Pro wins on features and performance, but the Honor 400 remains a strong contender for users seeking value without sacrificing core quality. The decision comes down to what you're willing to pay for - and whether you'll really take advantage of the Pro's extra horsepower and optics. The more compact and lighter design. The identical user experience. The same display, as well as main, ultrawide, and selfie cameras. The lower price. The more powerful chipset. The more RAM (12GB vs 8GB). The longer battery life. The faster charging. The dedicated 50MP telephoto lens with 3x zoom. The better video quality with sharper zoom. The higher ingress protection (IP68/IP69 vs IP65/IP66).
Stuff.tv
03-07-2025
- Stuff.tv
I've tested the Honor 400, and it's a lot of the Pro camera experience for a lot less cash
Stuff Verdict A sharp-suited cameraphone with decent budget performance and battery life. The Honor 400 doesn't skimp on AI either – but faces fierce competition at this price. Pros Clean styling belies the plastic build Very capable main and selfie cameras Impressive number of AI-assisted apps for an affordable phone Cons Not a huge year-on-year upgrade Only average performance and battery life Introduction Honor looked to be onto a good thing with its new mid-range 400 series. There was seemingly something for everyone, with a three-camera mid-ranger leading the way, an iPhone-aping Lite chasing cheap phone supremacy, and this, the Honor 400, sitting in the middle. It promised a lot for your £399/€499 (as ever with Honor, there's currently no official way to buy one in the US), including a 200MP lead snapper and more AI-infused software than you'd usually find at this price. It was most of the Honor 400 Pro for half the money. Job done, right? Maybe… until the Poco F7 turned up with its colossal battery and more potent processor. Now it doesn't seem like quite such a slam dunk – but after a few weeks of testing, there are still enough things this wallet-friendly phone does well that it deserves your attention. How we test smartphones Every phone reviewed on Stuff is used as our main device throughout the testing process. We use industry standard benchmarks and tests, as well as our own years of experience, to judge general performance, battery life, display, sound and camera image quality. Manufacturers have no visibility on reviews before they appear online, and we never accept payment to feature products. Find out more about how we test and rate products. Design & build: sharp dresser You can definitely see a family resemblance, but the Honor 400 isn't a carbon copy of the 400 Pro – and happily doesn't stray too far into iPhone pastiche territory like the Honor 400 Lite. That distinctive rear camera island sets this handset out as its own thing, even though the flat mid-frame and faux frosted glass rear panel could quite easily be mistaking for something from the Apple or Samsung stables. The all-plastic build does give away that this is a budget phone, but you'd need to pick it up to tell. From a distance it looks quite flash, even in my review unit's black colour. Honor has played it safe here, with the silver and gold variants looking more subtle than showy. The firm's flair for more distinctive colours hasn't carried down from its flagship models this year. Up close, the materials avoid feeling cheap and the whole thing has a considerable heft to it. Some affordable phones can feel a little hollow, or show some flex in their back panels, but there's none of that here. An IP65 rating should provide some reassurance when it starts to rain, and the hardened front glass should hopefully survive accidental impacts. You don't get the AI camera button seen on the 400 Lite here. It's unusual that the cheapest version would be the one to take the lead on that particular feature, given we'll almost certainly see the iPhone Action button-style functionality on a lot more phones in the future. About the only thing of note around the edges is the IR blaster at the phone's top edge, letting you control older, non-smart gadgets from your phone screen. Biometric security is by an under-display fingerprint sensor, which sits a sensible distance from the phone's bottom edge. It uses capacitive tech, rather than the faster, pricier ultrasonic kind, but I had no problems with it recognising my digits. Screen & sound: from a class above The Honor 400's 6.55in AMOLED screen might be smaller than that of the Pro's, but it's no less capable. Resolution is a close enough match that pixel density is all but identical, and perfectly crisp at arms' length. The glass is flat here, rather than with a 2.5D curve at the edges – which could go down well with anyone that isn't a fan of curved screens, no matter how subtle. It's an OLED, so viewing angles are excellent and contrast is superb. It helps that the panel can boost brightness as high as 5000 nits, and while that figure only applies to a tiny part of the screen at any given time, HDR video content still gets properly punchy. Outdoor visibility was great, shining as brightly as some high-end phones costing several time the price. Given the budget I wasn't surprised to see a 60-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, rather than the more flexible 1-120Hz enabled by LTPO tech. It was quick enough to react to my inputs and onscreen motion that I never felt the need to force 120Hz on all the time, though. Everything felt seriously smooth for the most part. Honor makes a big deal about its eye comfort tech, and you're getting pretty much the lot of it here. High frequency dimming lowers eye fatigue, there are settings to automatically adjust colour temperature and filter out blue light wavelengths that can keep you up at night, and the defocusing mode softens the edges of the screen to give your retinas a rest. I had no complaints about the Honor 400's speakers, which get plenty loud enough and produce decent enough sound. The down-firing main driver and earpiece tweeter combo are tried-and-tested by this point, and while they don't have much in the way of bass, they weren't overly tinny either. Cameras: pixel peeper Missing telephoto lens aside, there's very little to separate the Honor 400 from its Pro big brother here. Both have a 200MP lead snapper, complete with optical image stabilisation, and both have a 12MP ultrawide that can double as a macro camera; a focus distance of 2.5cm is very close indeed. There's also a 50MP sensor behind the punch-hole selfie lens up front. With so many pixels, the lead lens is able to crop in for 2x and even 4x zoom snaps that are surprisingly clean and composed when capturing well-lit subjects or scenes. 4x shots are softer, sure, but hold up well under scrutiny. 2x images are wonderfully sharp and a near-perfect match to 1x shots. It helps that Honor's image processing doesn't go overboard on the image sharpening, while colours and contrast are natural-looking and true-to-life. Dynamic range is great for the most part, only sometimes struggling to expose especially bright highlights as it tried to maintain shadow detail. The ultrawide lens is a noticeable step back in detail, with softness at the edges of the frame and more evidence of strong image processing. I did think colours were a close match to the main camera, though, and its ability to shoot macros adds to the phone's toolbox. You really can get very close to your subject. Low-light shooting isn't class-leading on either camera, but it's the ultrawide that drops off first. The lead lens is better able to preserve detail, cope with bright light sources, and keep noise to a minimum. Google's Leo image and video generation model comes baked into Honor's image gallery now, letting you create some genuinely impressive/eerie short video clips from your still photos. Not every one is convincing, and you have no control over what kinds of camera movement, subject animation or offscreen characters it'll introduce, which can make for some surreal creations. There's a ways for the tech to go before I'd consider paying to use it. This is on top of the now-familiar generative image expansion, smart subject cutouts, and reflection or background object removal tools most phone brands are going big on. Software experience: AI starts here With essentially the same software selection as the 400 Pro, you're getting Honor's full suite of AI-enhanced apps here – not bad at all given the budget pricing. That includes automatic subtitles, voice transcription, live language translation and writing assistance, on top of Google's usual Gemini voice helper and Circle to Search. I wouldn't say anything here is significantly better than what rivals are doing, but the fact you're getting it at all is a big win if that sort of tech is high on your wish list. Magic Portal uses more contextual AI to suggest relevant apps and functions based on what image or text you drag to the side of the screen. While Magic Capsule sounds like it'd be similarly clever, it's really just an Honor spin on Apple's Dynamic Island. The shortcuts it pops over the front-facing camera slot are decent enough, but there aren't that many of them. No third-party support, either. I've tried quite a few Honor phones running MagicOS 9 at this point, but I'm still not a fan of the iOS-inspired layout, with your apps spread across multiple home screens by default. Happily you can enable an app drawer easily enough. It's a shame you've got to spend so much time stripping out the bloatware when you first set up the phone, though. There's quite a lot of it here, but as it's a pretty common sight on other budget models this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Buy this phone and you could be in for the long haul if you treat it well. Honor has committed to six years of new Android versions and six of security updates. That's an excellent lifespan for such an affordable phone, and almost on par with class-leaders Google and Samsung. Performance & battery life: you get what you pay for With a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset and either 8 or 12GB of RAM running the show, the Honor 400 puts in a decent performance for a budget smartphone. OK, it won't blitz through performance benchmarks with the ferocity of the Poco F7, so if raw numbers matter most you might be disappointed by its league table placing – and the fact this chip also appeared in the older Honor 200 will disappoint anyone planning a year-on-year upgrade. That said, it's no slouch, scoring similarly to the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion in many tests and hardly left behind by the Samsung Galaxy A56 either. Real-world performance felt perfectly nippy, with apps opening quickly enough and multitasking never grinding things to a halt. It never felt as responsive as a flagship – or even a mid-ranger – but equally wasn't sluggish or frustrating to use at all. As long as you keep your expectations in check, this phone can handle casual 3D gaming just fine. More demanding titles aren't going to be hitting the Honor 400's 120Hz refresh rate cap all that often (if at all), but Call of Duty Mobile didn't throw up any obvious slowdown or stuttering. Thermals are pretty good, too. The phone definitely heats up under prolonged heavy use, but never to the point that performance took a major dive. Honor 400 benchmark scores Geekbench 6 single-core 1136 Geekbench 6 multi-core 3135 Geekbench AI 1460 PCMark Work 3.0 12569 3DMark Wild Life Extreme 1482 I expected the Honor 400 to put in a very respectable showing when it came to battery life, considering it has a sizeable 5300mAh cell to power a mid-tier chipset. While I had no trouble lasting a full day between charges, however, it wasn't quite the longevity champ I'd hoped for. My usual mix of 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS mapping, video streaming, Bluetooth music listening, social scrolling and camera use saw me dip towards 20% at the end of a long working day. Silicon carbide chemistry has quickly meant that sort of performance is now actually a bit middle of the road, and rivals with 6000mAh cells (or larger) are lasting that bit longer. It's something to think about if you need a phone that can survive a weekend away from mains power. Charging is by cable only, as wireless top-ups just aren't in the budget for a phone this affordable. Provide a sufficiently beefy power brick and the Honor 400 will suck down juice at 66W. That's enough for a full refuel in under an hour. Honor 400 verdict The affordable phone space is a veritable battle royale right now, with lots of brands packing in serious specs for comparatively little cash. While the Honor 400 comes out swinging with its clean looks, high pixel count camera and AI-packed software, it can't quite land its punches in other areas. It's no performance powerhouse, at a point where rivals like Poco are putting chips from the class above in their cut-price handsets, and battery life is more respectable than revolutionary. Spend a little more and you can get proper endurance. There's not a whole lot of breathing room between this and the last-gen Honor 200, either. However, if you're a fan of the looks – or value photography over trips to a power socket – and don't want to raise your budget to a more mid-range alternative, the Honor 400 still holds a certain appeal. Stuff Says… Score: 4/5 A sharp-suited cameraphone with decent budget performance and battery life. The Honor 400 doesn't skimp on AI either – but faces fierce competition at this price. Pros Clean styling belies the plastic build Very capable main and selfie cameras Impressive number of AI-assisted apps for an affordable phone Cons Not a huge year-on-year upgrade Only average performance and battery life Honor 400 technical specifications Screen 6.55in, 2736×1264 AMOLED w/ 60-120Hz CPU Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Memory 8/12GB RAM Cameras 200MP, f/1.9 w/ PDAF, OIS + 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide w/ AF rear 50MP, f.2.0 front Storage 256/512GB Operating system Android 15 Battery 5300mAh w/ 66W wired charging Dimensions 157x75x7.3 mm, 184g
The Citizen
30-06-2025
- The Citizen
Experience a new era of AI photography, creative editing and flagship performance
The Honor 400 Series brings the perfect blend of style, power and innovation. Honor, a global leader in smart devices and AI-driven innovation, has officially opened pre-orders for its latest flagship lineup, the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro in South Africa. With its breakthrough features, bold design and next-level AI capabilities, the new series is set to redefine the smartphone experience for South African consumers. Built to push the boundaries of mobile photography, creative editing and intelligent performance, the Honor 400 Series brings the perfect blend of style, power and innovation to those who demand more from their device. Elegant, nature-inspired design meets flagship power The Honor 400 will be available in Midnight Black and Desert Gold, while the Honor 400 Pro comes in Midnight Black and Lunar Grey. Capture life with game-changing AI photography The Honor 400 Series redefines mobile photography with its 200MP Ultra-Clear AI Camera System, powered by the Honor Image Engine. The Pro model offers up to 50x AI Super Zoom, ideal for capturing everything from detailed wildlife to city skylines. With AI Portrait Snap, users can effortlessly take dynamic portraits, even of moving subjects, with a natural background blur for a professional finish. ALSO READ: 'AI already reshaping traditional job functions,' says Microsoft SA Edit like a pro with the new AI Creative Editor Creativity is made simple with Honor's all-new AI Creative Editor. Turn your favourite photos into vibrant 5-second video clips with AI Image to Video, all within just one minute. Whether you're creating for social media or just for fun, this tool supports MP4 and moving photo formats in both landscape and portrait orientation. Tired of photobombers? The AI Erase Passers-by feature lets you remove unwanted background figures in a single tap, while AI Upscale enhances old or low-resolution images to bring cherished memories back to life. Other editing tools include AI Eyes Open, AI Remove Reflection, AI Outpainting, and Moving Photo Collage, giving users endless creative possibilities. Smarter, seamless experience with MagicOS 9.0 Built on Android 15, MagicOS 9.0 offers a host of intelligent features designed to simplify your life. These include: AI Subtitles for real-time video or voice-to-text translation; for real-time video or voice-to-text translation; Honor Connect for easy data transfer between devices — including iOS to Android; for easy data transfer between devices — including iOS to Android; AI Translation for effortless multilingual conversations; for effortless multilingual conversations; Advanced features like AI Magic Portal 2.0 and AI Deepfake Detection for added safety and productivity. Power that lasts, speed that delivers Under the hood, the Honor 400 is built to perform. With a massive 6000mAh battery, the Honor 400 Pro also supports 100W Honor SuperCharge, giving users hours of power in just minutes. Durability is also top-tier, the Honor 400 comes with certified water and dust resistance, while the Pro version goes even further with IP68 and IP69 ratings for rugged use. Perfect for creators, professionals, and everyday users Whether you're capturing content, working on the go, or simply want a smarter and faster smartphone, the HONOR 400 Series delivers across the board. With its stylish finish, powerful AI features and all-day battery, it's built to meet the needs of modern South Africans. Availability & pricing The Honor 400 Series is available now at leading retailers nationwide. Pricing starts from R12 999 for the Honor 400 and R17 999 for the Honor 400 Pro. NOW READ: Honor 400 series redefines portraits with 200MP AI Camera and next-gen features
