If you aren't familiar with Honor, then it's about time this company made it onto your radar. It not only manufactures some of the best camera phones that I've ever used and tested, but it also aims to be innovative with each new product launch, while establishing itself as an affordable rival to Apple and Samsung.
I've been a fan of Honor tech for several years now, and I quickly fell in love with the Honor Magic 7 Pro when I was given the opportunity to test it out earlier this year by shooting in Slovenia (it gave my Samsung S24 Ultra a run for its money). This month, Honor has launched its latest camera phone, the 400 Pro model, and I have to say that as a photographer – I'm seriously impressed with its camera quality. There's a bit of a price difference between the Honor Magic 7 Pro (£1,099.99) compared with the latest 400 Pro (£699.99), so what's different?
The HonorMagic 7 Pro has much better specs on paper, with a more powerful chipset and GPU, fancier camera upgrades with a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and the display is 0.1 inches bigger too. But there are a lot of similarities between these models, especially in the camera department, making the 400 Pro a strong mid-range contender as one of the best budget camera phones (under £1K) that you can buy right now.
Take a look at the image sliders and galleries below to see how the new Honor Magic 400 Pro stacks up against Honor's previous Magic 7 Pro flagship. Or you can take a look at our picks of the best iPhones for photography if you're an Apple devotee. Also, check out my camera phone shootout where I pitted last year's Honor 200 Pro (2024) model against my S24 Ultra during a sunny afternoon in London.
Camera Phone Specs
Honor 400 Pro (new) |
Honor Magic 7 Pro |
Honor 200 Pro (2024) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Chipset: |
Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 |
Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite |
Qualcomm SM8635 Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 |
Main Camera: |
200MP (f/1.9) wide |
50MP (f/1.4-2.0) wide |
50 MP (f/1.9) wide |
Zoom Camera: |
50MP (f/2.4) telephoto 3x optical zoom, 50X digital zoom + AI Super Zoom |
200MP (f/2.6) 72mm periscope, 3X optical zoom, 100X digital zoom + AI Super Zoom |
50 MP (f/2.4) telephoto 2.5x optical zoom, digital zoom x50 |
Ultrawide camera: |
12MP (f/2.2) |
50 MP (f/2.0) |
12MP (f/2.2) |
Selfie Camera: |
50MP (f/2.0) |
50MP (f/2.0) |
50MP (f/2.1) |
Video |
4K / 1080P (3840 x 2160) |
4K@24/30/60fps |
4K (3840 × 2160) |
Price |
£699.99 |
£1,099.99 |
£499.99 |
Image comparisons
During today's camera phone shootout, I headed to the beautiful Botanical Gardens in Bath, Somerset, to specifically test out the zoom, aperture, and super macro capabilities of these two Honor smartphones. It was hammering down with rain for most of the shoot, but I didn't mind one bit, as this gave me a better opportunity to shoot raindrops on leaves, without too much natural light interfering.
To keep things fair, I stood in the same spot, used the same aspect ratio (16 by 9), and the same lens type/settings for each test image shot. I found that to make the most out of the Honor 400 Pro for most shooting scenarios, I needed to be using the High-Res mode for the sharpest results. For macro and landscape shots, I absolutely loved using the Aperture shooting mode, as this let me experiment with the depth of field, and add a tilt-shift style focus to otherwise boring images.
The main focus of this camera phone shootout has been macro, wildlife, and landscape imagery, but check out Rankin's 8 steps to Smartphone Photography Success (using the Honor 200 Pro) if you're seeking some excellent tips on shooting portraiture with a smartphone.
The new Honor 400 Pro comes equipped with an impressive 200MP f/1.9 main camera, a 50MP telephoto with 50X digital zoom, and a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera.
In comparison, the Honor Magic 7 Pro boasts a 50MP f/1.4-2.0 Main camera with an H9000 ultra-large Sensor, meaning it can take in a lot more light, as well as a mega 200MP periscope telephoto lens with 100X digital zoom, plus a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide camera.
Both cameras are equipped with Honor's impressive AI super Zoom technology, which uses upscaling to fill in any missing details to create a quality image result. I found that this AI feature definitely needs a bit of work, but being the first of its kind, I applaud Honor for being innovative and attempting to include it.
Zoom test
Image galleries
Photos from the Honor Magic 7 Pro
Photos from the Honor 400 Pro
Verdict
While the Honor Magic 7 Pro has the better camera system out of the two, a lot of the time it was very difficult to tell the images captured on both devices apart, and the mid-range 400 Pro model comes very, very close to the image quality produced by the Magic 7 Pro flagship.
For smartphone shooters who care more about photography than having better hardware tailored to gaming and editing, the Honor 400 Pro is a superb and more affordable choice that helps cut costs without compromising on camera performance.
If I had to pick a winner, it would be the Magic 7 Pro, but I really didn't notice any major differences between these two camera phones, and as you can see from the image galleries above, the 400 Pro captured some excellent macro shots. The Honor 400 Pro still gets a 9/10 from me for its performance, image quality, AI tools, and general use – and I'd highly recommend it for those needing a quality camera phone. My full review of the Honor 400 Pro is in progress, so stay tuned.
