Honor introduces the 200 series smartphones focused on photography

Honor is on a list. Fresh off its recent collaborations with Porsche Design – including the one-of-a-kind Magic V2 RSR we recently reviewed – the brand has announced its new 200 Series, a pair of photography-focused smartphones developed in collaboration with the legendary Parisian photography Studio Harcourt. Claiming in its latest press release to be “Europe’s fastest growing smartphone brand”, Honor’s latest is a double launch featuring the new 200 and 200 Pro devices – a sure move in today’s busy smartphone market and one, perhaps, that is evidence of its ambitions.

Photography is at the heart of the Honor 200 Series and both the 200 and 200 Pro share a common array of four cameras on board; each device comes equipped with a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 50-megapixel front-facing selfie camera. The telephoto, ultra-wide and selfie cameras are identical on both devices, with the telephoto featuring Sony’s IMX856 sensor and the ultra-wide camera capable of capturing a 112° field of view. While the IMX856 is quite old now (having been released in 2018), it was once a flagship sensor from the Japanese photography giant and still holds up today thanks to its all-pixel autofocus, impressive dual-exposure HDR functionality and its ability to capture 4K video at 30 frames per second. The differences between the two phones lie in their primary cameras; although they share the same 50-megapixel resolution, the main camera on the 200 uses the latest Sony IMX906 sensor, while the main camera on the 200 Pro is held by the same H9000 sensor found in Honor’s flagship Magic6 Pro smartphone. The H9000 is a 1/1.3” sensor with a Quad Bayer filter array capable of rendering colors beautifully in both day and night scenes, and along with the camera lens – stabilized and af/1.9 aperture, slightly larger than the 200’s f/1.95 aperture – the main camera on the 200 Pro sounds very promising.

Hardware aside, Honor has worked with Studio Harcourt to co-engineer an AI-powered algorithm that they say will improve portraits taken by users. The Paris-based studio, founded by French photographer Cosette Harcourt in 1933, lends its nearly century-old knowledge of light and photo-making to the tech brand, with the two teams working together to analyze “thousands of images” as well as “over 1,000 lighting scenarios and millions of data sets” in search of “the perfect balance of light and shadow inside,” according to the press release.

Both phones are powered by Snapdragon processors, but it’s the Pro 200 that packs one of the chipmaker’s latest – the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. This chipset is similar in specs to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – Snapdragon’s current flagship mobile processor – available in the market – flagship devices such as the Samsung S24 and Sony’s latest Xperia 1 VI. It features an octa-core processor that, along with 12GB of RAM on board, should make light work of demanding apps and games, adding to the Pro 200’s overall credentials as a pretty versatile device. Backing this up is the Adreno 735, a highly capable GPU that will help render graphics smoothly and smoothly.

The Pro 200 features a 6.78-inch, quad-curved AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 4,000 nits; the 200 model has a very similar screen, albeit slightly smaller at 6.7 inches. Honor’s proprietary Eye Comfort Display technology is found on both phones, a feature the brand has implemented to reduce eye strain in its users. It does this by adapting the display’s brightness and warmth to a user’s environment, reducing blue light, as well as using AI to detect a user’s circadian cycles and adjust the display accordingly. Both devices have also received Tüv Rheinland’s ‘Flicker Free Certification’.

Keeping everything in place on both models is Honor’s MagicOS 8.0, an operating system based on Android 14 but built from scratch by the brand. Both devices have an impressive 5,200mAh battery and are capable of 100W fast charging. They have Bluetooth 5.3 on board for fast and seamless connectivity with peripherals like headphones and game controllers, and feature dual SIM slots .

Both the Honor 200 and 200 Pro are available now in the UK via the brand’s website. The Honor 200 comes in ‘Moonlight White’, ‘Emerald Green’ and ‘Black’ colors and is priced starting at £499.99 GBP depending on spec; The Honor 200 Pro comes in Ocean Cyan, Moonlight White and Black, priced at £699.99. Both models will soon be launched in Europe.