Honor 200 Pro Review — Premium Experience, Better Price?

There’s no doubt that Honor is bringing variety and options to South African consumers. Buyers are getting the opportunity to opt for ‘lite’, standard, and Pro editions of most of the company’s smartphone line-up. The Honor 200 Pro sits just under the company’s flagship Magic device (with the latest being the Magic 6 Pro), but offers users a pretty high-end experience minus some of the more intricate bells and whistles.

Priced at R17,299, the Honor 200 Pro therefore takes on the likes of the iPhone 15 and Samsung Galaxy S24. The 200 Pro does feature a more ‘normal’ build quality, with a plastic body and glass back compared to some of the more premium materials you’ll find on its competitors. But, in terms of what you’re getting for based on the price-tag, that’s the kind of echelon the Honor 200 Pro falls within, and it still looks and feels great in-hand.

Much like the Honor 200 Lite, which we reviewed earlier this year, the 200 Pro prioritises usability and bang for your buck, rather than having just one standout highlight. It has a 1,224 x 2,700 pixels display (a little under the resolution of the 1,280 x 2,800 resolution on the Magic 6 Pro), which is still bright and vivid, allowing you to swipe around with ease on the 6.78-inch 120Hz screen.

Under the hood, you get 12GBs of RAM, 512GBs of internal storage, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen3 chipset (the same that’s in Honor’s more expensive devices), and a 3 GHz Octa Core Processor. In comparison to the higher-end Magic 6 Pro device, you get the slightly less powerful Adreno 735 GPU, but for casual mobile gaming, it’s more than capable.

You, of course, get all the extras like a fingerprint sensor in the display, facial recognition, and built-in AI capabilities, but still (which is an absolute bugbear of mine) there is no headphone jack, forcing you to use adapters or Bluetooth headphones exclusively. When will this trend end?

While the phone is all about giving a more general-use experience, the Chinese brand always loves its photography, and there’s a pretty decent sensor packed into the Honor 200 Pro. The device includes a powerful triple camera setup (50MP main camera, 50MP telephoto and 12MP Ultra Wide) that utilises the H9000 Ultra-Large Image Sensor for the main shots and the IMX856 sensor for the telephoto lens. There is also a 50MP front-facing camera, so this is very much a camera system designed for bloggers, vloggers, and selfies.

The camera composition itself is great, and captures colour beautifully in both day and night scenes. There’s rarely ever any tinkering or adjusting needed to be done to shots, so if you’re someone who just wants to point and shoot with minimal-to-no faffing around, this is a great option.

The Honor 200 Pro also features the updated MagicOS 8.0, which is a really slick and less cluttered Android experience, along with a sizable 5200mAh Silicon-carbon battery that features wireless and quick charging.

The Honor 200 Pro is a really solid and bang-for-your-buck device that will give you almost everything a more expensive option would. If you prioritise usability, a good camera, and a solid build, the 200 Pro has more than enough in its arsenal and is probably a way better purchase for most people, rather than shelling out for the more expensive options.

The Honor 200 Pro retails for R17,299.