Honor 400 Review | Trusted Reviews

Design

• New boxy design that mirrors Apple
• A more refined camera bump

Compared to last year’s Honor 200 range, the entire Honor 400 series has undergone a major makeover that, as far as I’m concerned, has been made for the better, even if it does feel like it’s unashamedly imitating Apple in a few areas.

Even though I quite enjoyed the colourways that you could get with the Honor 200 (particularly the Emerald Green variant), I could never quite get over just how garish the camera bump was. While it did house a triple-camera set-up, this module contained so much negative space that the whole thing felt at odds with how sleek the rest of the phone was designed to be.

This time around, Honor has thankfully done away with that camera bump, instead opting for a simple vertically laid design that very much mirrors the iPhone 16 and looks all the better for it.

The phone no longer curves in the hand like its predecessor either, with flat railings around the sides that complements the now flat display that sits on top. All of this amounts to an aesthetic that makes the Honor 400 feel far more grown-up, although the only things that holds it back are slightly dull colourways.

Instead of holding on to some of that flare that the Honor 200 exhibited (as well as the Honor 90), the Honor 400 has kept to a toned down set of colours in black, silver and gold. They’re certainly inoffensive and unlikely to clash with anyone’s sense of style, but they do run the risk of looking like every other phone nowadays.

One hidden upgrade is that the Honor 400 now sports an official IP65 rating which makes it far better suited for withstanding dust and jets of water, so you won’t have to worry if you’re using the phone in the kitchen and it sees a little splashback from the sink.

Screen

• One of the best screens I’ve used
• Very easy to use outdoors
• No longer curves at the sides

However, if there is one area where the Honor 400 absolutely stands out from the crowd, it’s the display. I remember being blown away by the screen on the Honor 90 when reviewing that handset a few years back, and now I’ve been bowled over yet again by what Honor is able to provide on a mid-range phone.

This 6.55-inch 2736 x 1264 AMOLED display is a true joy to use. Everything looks crisp, and when paired with the adaptive refresh rate that goes up to 120Hz, it feels very smooth to use with all your favourite apps.

What really sets it apart is the brightness, which can go all the way up to 5000nits, and let me tell you, the colours really do pop when you push the screen to its limits. Watching a few episodes of Prime Video’s Invincible, I loved the way in which the display could do the show’s vibrant visuals justice.

That brightness also helps when it comes to using the phone outdoors – I never found myself needing to squint to see what was on the screen, even against direct sunlight, so you can easily rely on the device for directions via Google Maps when out and about.

I’ll be completely honest, the screen is so good that when I took my SIM card out to start testing a more expensive Android phone, my initial thought was – why doesn’t this look as good as the Honor 400?

The fact that you can get this display for hundreds of pounds less than the best Android phones speaks volumes, and if you value the display above all else, then this should be your sign to choose the Honor 400 as your next upgrade.

The only folks I’d argue who don’t need to upgrade are those who currently own the Honor 200, and this is because of a slight downgrade where size is concerned. Last year’s Honor mid-range had a 6.7-inch display which is larger than what’s available here, so I’d probably wait another year or two before making the jump.

Cameras

• All new 200MP main sensor
• Last year’s telephoto lens is gone
• Harcourt filters make a reappearance

The cameras are another area where there’s a potential downgrade for previous Honor adopters, but I don’t think that it’s as big of an issue as it sounds on paper. Compared to last year, the Honor 400 now features two rear-facing cameras instead of three, doing away with the 50MP telephoto lens.

Serving as something of a replacement, the 400 now boasts a higher powered 200MP (f/1.9, 1/1.4”, OIS) main camera, alongside a 12MP (f/2.2, FOV 112°) ultra-wide which doubles up as a macro camera.

While won’t argue with the idea that it’s always nicer to have a dedicated telephoto lens, I will say that at no point during my testing of the Honor 400’s camera did I feel hard done by with its results.

Taking the phone with me on a sunny walk through Surrey’s Box Hill, the phone’s 200MP sensor was able to capture the colour of the trail beautifully, even in areas that were shaded from the sunlight and could have looked washed out in the final product.

When faced with more expansive vistas, the ultra-wide camera more than held its own, and despite having a lower megapixel count, I was surprised by the amount of detail that could still be tapped into when zooming in.

Speaking of zoom, the Honor 400 provides digital zooming up to 4x, but then goes a step further with a 30x zoom that’s capable via the phone’s AI Superzoom feature. If that’s bringing up a sense of deja vu it’s because it’s the same AI-infused mode that featured on the Honor Magic 7 Pro, and it’s just as controversial here.

What this mode does is use AI to recreate the image it sees with the 30x zoom, so the final product isn’t a genuine photo, but an AI reconstruction of what you saw in the viewfinder. Results can end up being a bit mixed, but in every case there’s a noticeable ‘watercolour’ look that exists on these images, so I wouldn’t personally rely on it too often.

What I can speak more fondly on are the returning Harcourt filters that first appeared in last year’s phones when Honor partnered with the photography studio to give a boost to the portrait mode on its phones.

Trusted Reviews’ Mobile Editor Lewis Painter wrote a whole op-ed on this last year about how great these Harcourt-infused shots look, and I’m inclined to agree. They really help to make subjects stand out in a way that doesn’t look overly digitised.

I only wish that these filters could also be used on the 50MP selfie camera (maybe a feature for next year’s phone), but it’s not a huge setback as this front-facing snapper can still take a great shot when you need it to, with great autofocus to boot.

Night mode could probably use a bit more work. It’s fine in some circumstances, but it does trip over itself if any streetlights are caught in the shot, as if the phone isn’t quite sure what to do with the light source.

Performance

• Same Snapgdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset as last year
• Works well in everyday use

Honor has opted against any major performance upgrades this year as the Honor 400 has carried over the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset from its predecessor, but I think that’s fair given how competent I’ve found that processor’s overall performance to be.

When jumping between apps, utilising the picture-in-picture mode or even having the phone run as a hotspot for my iPad in the background, I didn’t notice any meaningful drops in performance, which just further complements the value proposition that Honor is presenting here.

Unless you’re dead-set on carrying out intensive on-the-go video editing or a similar task, I think you’ll get on just fine with this phone.

I will say that when you do push the device to its limits, it can rack up some noticeable heat at the back, but it was never enough to give me concern when using it.

The Honor 400 holds up well when it comes to gaming. Diving into a few rounds of Call of Duty Mobile, I was able to run around the classic Nuketown map without experiencing any framerate dips, which was handy as (for once) I was on a bit of a winning streak.

Moving over to Asphalt Legends Unite, I did notice odd bits of stuttering but it was rare enough that it never impeded the gameplay, and in fact it only felt more immersive thanks to the vibrant colours that the Honor 400’s display is capable of.

Software

• MagicOS is better but still has a way to go
• Honor AI also needs work to deliver on its promises
• Six years of updates

One area where Honor phones have unfortunately been lacking in the past is in software. Tried as I might, I could never quite gel with the company’s MagicOS overlay, and the overall clunkiness just had me clamouring to get back to iOS.

Luckily that’s less of an issue here thanks to overall improvements in the software, and several touches that have been taken straight out of Apple’s playbook.

The actual software runs a great deal smoother than I remember, and there’s a good amount of customisation available too, from changing the style of app icons to completely overhauling the design language via the Themes app.

Fans of iOS will appreciate the Dynamic Island-style pop-up that appears whenever you’re listening to music, as well as the ability to see either the control centre or your notifications depending on which side of the display you swipe down from.

What’s more impressive than any of this is that Honor is finally making a long-term commitment to supporting its mid-range phones well into the future.

While it doesn’t quite match the seven years of support provided for the latest Samsung and Google phones, Honor’s new pledge to provide updates for the Honor 400 over a six-year period is still great news for consumers, as it means you can live with this phone for a lot longer without feeling worried about needing to upgrade sooner for security’s sake.

Just be aware that one of the ways in which the Honor 400 is no doubt able to ship with such an affordable price tag is due to the amount of bloatware that comes pre-packaged with the device. You’ll find all sorts from Temu to Booking(dot)com on the home screen, and that’s on top of Honor’s own-brand apps. It’s a faff to have them here as it always results in time wasted trying to delete them from the device.

Similar to almost every other manufacturer out there, Honor has made sure to highlight a ton of new AI features that have made its way to the 400 series, but just as it’s been my experience with other phones, the whole thing amounts to a mixed bag.

I will say that on the better side of the equation, Honor’s MagicPortal works well, operating like an offshoot of Google’s Circle to Search, except this Honor rebrand lets you highlight text and images quickly by using your knuckle, after which AI can generate a list of apps that you can share your highlighted object to.

I’m afraid that the same enthusiasm can’t be shared for the likes of AI Subtitles and AI Deepfake detection. When trying to bring about subtitles for a YouTube video via the former, it all came out in an illegible mess, and unfortunately the latter feature only works with video calls whereas I think it could be put to better use scanning images that you come across online.

There’s definitely some promise here in Honor’s AI capabilities, but the company’s vision just doesn’t quite match how the software works at this present moment.

Battery

• Larger 5300mAh capacity
• Confidently sees you through a day and a half
• 66W wired fast charging only

With a slightly larger 5300mAh cell in tow (5200mAh on the Honor 200), the Honor 400 can pull off a solid bit of endurance, with the company claiming a comfortable ‘all day battery life’. In fact, I’d argue that after putting the phone through its paces, you can easily get about halfway through a second day under normal use.

For a really intensive day of use, which included about four hours of screen-on time, compiled from various apps including 40 minutes of Instagram and 25 minutes of streaming on Prime Video, not to mention a whole one hour and 39 minutes of using the phone as a hotspot, I was able to get from 8:30am to 10:30pm with 30% left in the tank.

Unless you’re really planning on pushing this phone every single day, I think you’ll get on just fine without it giving you any major battery anxiety.

When you do need to top things up, you can get up to 66W wired fast charging, just don’t expect to see a compatible charger included in the box.

When using my own fast charger at a slightly slower 60W rate, I was able to get the phone from 20% to a full battery in just 54 minutes. If you’re pressed for time, then you’ll be glad to know that it took just 30 minutes of charging to reach 69%.

Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging to speak of here, so if you value that feature, you may want to check out the Pixel 9a instead.

Should you buy it?