Honor 400 Pro review: Is this near-flagship phone worth buying?
From performance to photography and multitasking, here’s how this sub-S$1,000 smartphone stacks up in everyday use.
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The Honor 400 Pro is bundled with a 100W wired charger. It also supports 50W wireless charging. Photo: Scott Marsh
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
The Honor 400 Pro is part of a growing group of near-flagship devices. These offer higher specs than mid-range phones but are priced cheaper than flagship devices. The Honor 400 Pro offers plenty for its S$899 retail price. Highlights include a capable 200MP main camera, support for 100W fast charging (charger and cable included) and a 6,000 mAh battery that easily offers one full day of battery life.
Honor differentiates the 400 Pro from the pack by going big on AI-imaging features. One of the highlights of this is an image-to-video feature that converts photos into five-second video clips. Processing is handled by a previous-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which powers last year’s Android flagships like the Samsung S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14.
We’ll explore its AI and camera capabilities, performance and battery life. Whether you're shopping for the best near-flagship phone in Singapore or just curious about the Honor 400 Pro’s capabilities, this review has you covered.
HONOR 400 PRO SPECS
- 6.7-inch FHD+ (2,800x1,280) Super Amoled display, 120Hz refresh rate
- 200MP main, 50MP Telephoto, 12MP Ultra Wide, 50MP selfie
- Max video recording resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160) @60fps
- 12GB RAM + 12 GB Virtual RAM, 512GB storage
- 100W wired charging
- 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery
- IP68 and IP69
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset
AI FEATURES
The Honor 400 Pro goes big on AI, integrating features like AI Eraser, Face Tune, upscaling low-res images and AI cutouts into its gallery app. If you enjoy editing your photos, then it’s very useful to have all these functions integrated into the Gallery app instead of using third-party apps like Snapseed. Paired with a camera array that includes a capable 200MP main lens, it also offers AI-enabled 50x zoom.
Image to video is arguably the phone’s party piece. It uses Google’s Veo 2 AI video engine to automatically generate five-second animated clips from photos. It takes one to two minutes to generate clips. Unlike the full-fat Veo 2 and Veo 3 engines, this version doesn’t accept prompts. So, if you’re dissatisfied with your results, you’ll need to re-submit the photo.
This AI-generated video was created from a photo of my dog. While this was an acceptable clip, your results will vary depending on the type, quality and context of the source image.
Your results will vary tremendously. It produced a convincing clip of my dog "walking". Other attempts produced mixed results that ranged from curious to creepy. One animation of a family picture in a restaurant added random people walking behind us, even though we were in an enclosed booth. Our expressions and movements also appeared unnatural. Pro tip – don’t try to create an animation from a passport photo, unless you enjoy scaring yourself silly.
CAMERAS
The Honor 400 Pro’s rear camera array includes three lenses:
- 200MP Ultra-clear AI Main Camera(f/1.9, OIS)
- 50MP Telephoto Camera (f/2.4 , OIS)
- 12MP Ultra Wide Camera(f/2.2)
The 200MP main camera is quite impressive, capturing detailed photos even in low light. The telephoto lens is decent though image quality does suffer at full 50X zoom. While the ultra-wide lens is useful for 0.5 selfies, images can be soft in low-light. It produces decent results in brightly-lit environments although it lacks the detail and contrast of the main lens.
PERFORMANCE
The Honor 400 Pro may use a year-old processor but it doesn’t feel compromised in use. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset still posts competitive benchmark scores and has 12GB of RAM and 12GB of virtual RAM.
In daily use, it feels fast and responsive. It performs everyday tasks smoothly. Scrolling socials and videos, editing images, chats and browsing are smooth – even when multiple apps are open. Gaming performance is good. Demanding titles like PUBG: Mobile and Call of Duty are smooth, even at high graphics settings.
Honor’s Magic OS 9.0 is generally fast and smooth in daily use. However, it is prone to bloatware. For instance, some pre-installed apps and services like Honor Docs duplicate more popular apps, though these can be uninstalled or disabled.
DISPLAY
Its 6.7 inch Amoled display, has a 2,800 x 1,280 resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate. It offers deep blacks and rich, vibrant colours and supports HDR10+. This makes it outstanding for viewing video content on supported apps like Prime Video and YouTube.
BATTERY LIFE
The Honor 400 Pro’s 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery easily offers enough power for an entire day of use. After about one-and-a-half days of use, I had about 30 per cent of battery life remaining. This included this included four to five hours of surfing, listening to music and watching videos.
HOW IT STACKS UP
The Honor 400 Pro (S$893, Usual Price: S$899) delivers a compelling blend of performance and price. From its 200MP main camera and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset to its 100W fast charging, Honor has packed serious value into this device. The Honor 400 Pro stands out for users who prioritize photography, battery life, and AI-powered features. If you're shopping for a powerful phone for under S$1,000 in Singapore, this is worth considering.
Pros: Great display with HDR support, good main camera, AI-integrated imaging, automatic photo-to-video generation, good battery life
Cons: Average ultra-wide camera, photo-to-video feature produces mixed results
Get it if: You want a powerful near-flagship device with AI smarts, a capable main camera, good screen and great battery life
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Prices are accurate as of the time of publication.
