Honor 400 Pro review: The phone partially AI-generated this review

Guess which part. #honor #smartphone

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Note: This review was first published on 16 June 2025.

Disclaimer: The Honor 400 Pro review unit we received came with a “Not For Sale” sticker appended to the rear of the phone. We’d like to caution readers that there’s a tiny likelihood our review experience may differ from your experience with your retail unit.

The honorable mention goes to...

The Honor 400 Pro leans harder into its bang-for-buck mantra, with upgrades over its predecessor that previously came to Singapore (the Honor 200 Pro).

Besides getting a true 2024 flagship processor, the Honor 400 Pro also has a mildly sharper AMOLED display, an upgraded 200MP main camera, and a bigger 6,000mAh battery than the Honor 200 Pro.

TL;DR version:

“We can see the Honor 400 Pro’s appeal because its overall performance and battery life are quite impressive. It’s an ideal sub-S$1,000 handset for non-fussy folks.

Get the Honor 400 Pro at the official Honor website (Singapore).”

Also on the device has proper IP68/69 water and dust resistance, which is not common in phones priced below S$1,000.

To make this deal even sweeter, Honor said the Honor 400 Pro has improved its MagicOS 9.0 interface (Android 15), and even thrown in a little special AI something called Image to Video. This feature uses Google’s Veo 2 AI video generator to recreate any photo in your Gallery into a five-second clip.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Also helping to sweeten the deal is the inheritance of another tool from its flagship Honor Magic7 Pro, and that is AI Deepfake Detection for phone calls.

The only catch is that it now retails at S$899 (512GB), which is S$100 more than the previous Honor 200 Pro carrying the same storage configuration.

So, how does it hold up against the many budget flagship or flagship-lite options we already have in Singapore? Let’s see.

2015 called, they want their phone back

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro’s overall design is a throwback to yesteryear's flagship and midrange phones. Honor goes back to the future with the Honor 400 Pro’s rounded sides, curved display, frosted rear, and chamfered edges, topped off with its trapezoid camera housing. 

Keen-eyed folks will also notice that the housing resembles the Huawei Pura 70’s cameras, but Honor’s version has raised rims around its lenses. It also takes up more space on the back.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

With its tried-and-tested shape, Honor 400 Pro poses no handling problems during use. The phone feels familiar to the touch, from its 8.1mm thickness to its right-aligned power and volume buttons placement.

Even its visible display bezels are time-honoured traits seen in early Android phones. It looks outdated, except for the obvious and oblong front camera cutout. 

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

The design might delight older users who prefer the curved look of phones they’ve had in the past. If we take a leaf from Apple’s tree of wisdom, getting to pay homage to older designs isn’t always a bad thing.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

That said, the Honor 400 Pro has one component that visibly betrays the phone’s aged mien. It features a sharp-looking 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 2,800 x 1,280 pixels resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. The pixel density (460 PPI) makes native and streamed content look high-quality, especially for casual use.

Outdoors, but not under direct sunlight. Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Outdoors, but not under direct sunlight. Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Viewing under direct sunlight. Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Viewing under direct sunlight. Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

While Honor claims it has a peak 5,000 nits brightness, we weren’t able to trigger it beyond its typical range when using it under direct sunlight. Viewing darker content was more difficult as the display struggled to muster enough brightness to counteract the sun’s glare. Our third-party luminance meter recorded a maximum of 850 nits of typical brightness when the display was manually set to its maximum output.

We like that the phone lets you choose between dynamic refresh (a varied refresh rate based on the app content to help save battery) and maximum refresh for specific apps — it’s truly the best of both worlds when you want to prioritise your browsing and viewing over battery savings at times.

Additionally, the display has an HDR-like feature called Hyper-dynamic Color Display Technology. It can display wider dynamic range if you have the content for it. Hints of these capabilities are available in its Gallery app.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

For streamed videos, Honor 400 Pro offers the AI-powered option that pumps up dynamic range, although this is only available on select video-playing apps (it works for YouTube). When combined with its AMOLED quality and higher-than-1080p sharpness, it makes the phone feel like a treat to use.

Despite its lopsided speaker placement, Honor also did an excellent job in ensuring the stereo sound comes out balanced on both ends, which is best enjoyed in the privacy of your room (getting earbuds isn’t only going to make your audio more pleasant, it’s also common courtesy to use them in public spaces).

Put together, we’re not strongly against Honor 400 Pro’s older-looking build, because we cared more about how nice the display comes across. That’s not bad for a S$899 phone, even if it falls short when it faces direct sunlight.

MagicOS 9.0 returns with AI-powered Image to Video generator 

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro has Android 15 cloaked underneath its MagicOS 9.0 reskin. It promises some upgrades to its AI-infused experience to help smooth out your daily use; we look at some key updates below.

By and large, Honor is catching up to many of the features we take for granted on rival phone brands that have had them for the last 2-3 generations. It now features AI Cutout, which allows you to reposition the photo’s subject effortlessly. They also upgraded AI Eraser 2.0 by adding two shortcuts, letting you remove passersbys and reflections quickly. There’s also AI Outpainting for generative fill, and AI Upscale to restore older photos into sharper-looking images.

While these aren’t exactly groundbreaking today, users who enjoy these AI features would find this phone satisfactory for their basic photo-editing needs. The true perk is getting them on a phone cheaper than premium-grade handsets, and we’re glad Honor is helping to spearhead efforts to bring such tools to a wider range of consumers.

Honor 400 Pro's Magic Portal. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro's Magic Portal. Photo: HWZ.

While Magic Portal (Honor’s own Circle To Search with a knuckle gesture) improved its interoperability with Google Maps, its implementation for Facebook and TikTok feels rather bizarre. Magic Portal suggests posting your circled image or text as an update to your online profile, and it also prevents you from searching for your circled item using those apps’ search engines.

Even after numerous improvements and tweaks, Magic Portal still feels like a trial-and-error software that doesn’t quite meet our expectations. At this point, it feels like Honor is reinventing the wheel, especially when less-smart sidebars are done to death on decades-old phones and work just fine.

Also returning is the AI deepfake detection for calls, which remained unchanged (but still effective) and is unique to Honor handsets. 

Image to Video on Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Image to Video on Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

A relatively new AI perk is the built-in Image to Video feature, located inside the default Gallery app. In a nutshell, Honor has direct, but limited access to Google Veo 2, the AI video generator that preceded Google I/O 2025’s Veo 3.

Without needing a text prompt, Image to Video can generate a 5-second video clip in both landscape (16:9 aspect ratio) and portrait (9:16) orientation. The resulting clip can be saved in MP4 video format, or saved as a Moving Photo.

Sample image, before Image to Video is applied. Linked to image source.

Sample image, before Image to Video is applied. Linked to image source.

After applying Image to Video using the Honor 400 Pro. Note: We would like to stress that this GIF is AI-generated from the above image and not a video clip from our previous event. Image: HWZ.

After applying Image to Video using the Honor 400 Pro. Note: We would like to stress that this GIF is AI-generated from the above image and not a video clip from our previous event. Image: HWZ.

Honor said that the feature is free of charge only for the first two months after activation. For those two months, an Honor 400 series phone user can attempt 10 Image to Video conversions per day.

Also, it’s unique to the Honor 400 series handsets at the time of writing — you can’t get this on their recent flagship phone models (unless Honor changes their minds).

Using the feature beyond its initial two-month period gets iffy later on. Honor’s official stance is that “extension eligibility will be assessed based on actual usage frequency”, with no elaboration on whether frequent or fewer uses will result in more or less access later on.

From our trials, this feature is quite powerful, and Honor knows it.  You can get a functional moving photo from any of your current or past shots, or pictures taken from the Internet. It puts a lot of power in the users’ hands, which can be easily mishandled by clumsier or malicious peers. This is partly why we agree with Honor’s/Google’s choice to exclude text prompts for this AI feature, even if it takes away a significant amount of customisation. Here's another example why:-

Another sample image before applying Image to Video. Linked to source.

Another sample image before applying Image to Video. Linked to source.

After applying both AI Upscale to the image, followed by Image to Video from the Honor 400 Pro. Note: This GIF is AI generated. Image: HWZ.

After applying both AI Upscale to the image, followed by Image to Video from the Honor 400 Pro. Note: This GIF is AI generated. Image: HWZ.

We’d prefer it if Honor is more upfront about the feature’s viability beyond its two-month trial period, since people don’t usually buy a phone to use it only for two months. Perhaps the brand could work out a longer-term deal with Google on directly using its generative Veo services across more phone models.

We think that Honor’s AI progress for phones is good and steady, if a little slow. The plus point is that the phone isn't full of features nobody needs. However, it would also help the brand if they scaled back on some of their marketing claims and were more upfront about the limitations of their features.

Imaging Performance

Honor 400 Pro's rear cameras. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro's rear cameras. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro’s rear cameras are:

  • A 200MP main camera with f/1.9 aperture, 1/1.4-inch sensor, and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and EIS
  • A 50MP telephoto camera with f/2.4, Sony IMX856 sensor, OIS
  • A 12MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2, 112° field-of-view

To summarise, Honor said its main camera is better than its preceding model, and it can offer 15x to 50x digital zoom with AI image enhancement to help it along. They also updated the Harcourt filters (Vibrant, Colour, and Classic) by adding six more non-Harcourt filters that resemble film photos. However, all these filters are only available when shooting in Portrait Mode.

Main camera. Photo: HWZ.

Main camera. Photo: HWZ.

We’re more interested in the raw power offered straight out of the box, so here are some sample photos that showcase their base capabilities.

Main camera (equivalent to 24mm). Photo: HWZ.

Main camera (equivalent to 24mm). Photo: HWZ.

Ultrawide. Photo: HWZ.

Ultrawide. Photo: HWZ.

6x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

6x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

From the sample photos above, it's clear that the main camera excels at reproducing the accurate time of day (evening) and performs very well when the subject is well-lit.

There is some smudging if you look outside the focus area, which also received minor digital compensation through its built-in tuning.

Ultrawide has noticeable fisheye distortion, but the image quality is largely on par with what the main camera can achieve (aside from some contrast handling differences). Zoom, even when digital, also receives AI compensation to help enhance sharpness.

However, things can become challenging if you push the phone's shooting capabilities to their absolute limits.

Main camera. Photo: HWZ.

Main camera. Photo: HWZ.

Ultrawide. Photo: HWZ.

Ultrawide. Photo: HWZ.

2x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

2x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

3x zoom (optical). Photo: HWZ.

3x zoom (optical). Photo: HWZ.

6x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

6x zoom. Photo: HWZ.

50x "AI Super Zoom". Photo: HWZ.

50x "AI Super Zoom". Photo: HWZ.

Trying anything beyond its 6x zoom (an in-sensor crop of the 3x optical zoom) can be quite futile, since the phone generally excels in its optical and in-sensor crop zoom ranges. From above, you can see that no amount of AI (in its current form) could make its 50x zoom usable.

For an S$899 phone, we think the Honor 400 Pro shoots well. It's going to fall a little short compared to some of the best phone cameras out there, but this device is half the price, with only minor sacrifices in its main camera imaging quality.

Benchmark Performance

The Honor 400 Pro uses a true flagship processor from 2024, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Its S$899 price and 512GB storage put it up against a known and true “flagship killer”, the Poco F7 Ultra (S$869 for 256GB and S$929 for 512GB). 

Its other rivals offer a more realistic match-up with a wider variety of processor choices and features. Examples include the portrait-expert OPPO Reno13 Pro (S$999, 512GB), the value-for-money Xiaomi 14T Pro (S$799, 256GB) and Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (S$1,028 for 256GB).

To see how far Honor has come, we’re throwing in the Honor 200 Pro’s results as well.

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark remarks

If your phone budget does not exceed S$1,100, you will be spoiled for choice. That’s made even more salient now that Honor 400 Pro is at play.

Upgraders can see that Honor 400 Pro offers big enough leaps to new levels of performance when compared against the preceding Honor 200 Pro. Picky users would also be able to tell that it fares well against most alternatives, save for the true flagship killer (Poco F7 Ultra). In short, Honor 400 Pro is one of the next best options at its price range, from a performance POV.

Similarly, if you have other specific needs (camera, uptime, phone design etc.), the competing options can offer some variety without excessive sacrifices.

Honor 400 Pro kept to a stable 39°C during stress testing — you’d barely feel the difference in hand. We’ve seen higher fevers in people, which speaks to the phone’s excellent thermal management.

Battery life

Our battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

The 6,000mAh battery granted a healthy 15.5 hours of testing uptime on Honor 400 Pro. This is despite our tests requiring the device to be using its best display settings (maximum possible resolution with maximum possible refresh rate).

The phone offers 100W wired charging. It took 25 minutes to charge from 0% to 50% and a total of ~60 minutes for a full 100% charge. While this is typical and expected for more expensive phones, such speedy charging makes the S$899 Honor 400 Pro more attractive to users who enjoy chasing after high-end devices that don’t cost an arm or leg.

The phone also comes with 50W wireless Honor Supercharge support, which we verified using a magnetic wireless charging puck. While it’s not the most efficient juicing method, we appreciate the option, and it’s something the regular Honor 400 does not have.

A little more expensive for a little more mileage

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Despite its mild shortcomings, the Honor 400 Pro is a viable flagship-lite alternative that measures up well against its closest competitors. It comes with two unique AI features that are rarely found in other alternatives, which can help appeal to budget-conscious flagship aficionados.

Will it surpass the S$869 Poco F7 Ultra? Not quite. Poco’s similarly priced phone has a better display resolution, a significantly more powerful chipset, and decent camera performance to help it along. However, the S$899 Honor 400 Pro trades all that out for an upsized battery uptime, which satisfies a group of users who care more about longer hours than anything else.

Among its many alternatives, only the S$799 Xiaomi 14T Pro poses a real threat, offering comparable performance in every aspect. Aside from its Leica-powered cameras, the Xiaomi alternative is nearly equal in other aspects (display resolution, performance, battery life, and even its S$869 price for 512GB storage). 

To pick the Honor 400 Pro over Xiaomi’s T-series alternative, you need to value those two unique AI perks — Honor’s Image to Video generation and its deepfake call detection capabilities — over Xiaomi’s Leica cameras. That comes down to your personal preference.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Against all the other alternatives featured in the benchmark above, it’s clear that Honor 400 Pro fills the need for performance and uptime. While it may not measure up against competitors who tout better imaging quality, more robust software, and better displays, the Honour phone makes up for that in its own way without ignoring the necessities.

Its predecessor was a different kind of bang for buck, and Honor 400 Pro almost repeats that with its careful mastery over value-for-money by cherry-picking what works and is proven to be important. While a significant S$100 price increase detracts from its appeal somewhat, this phone still offers a good fit for people who want high performance, up-to-date software, and subtle AI enhancements that make a difference in small ways.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro. Photo: HWZ.

Honor 400 Pro retails at S$899 (512GB) at the following locations:

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