HONOR 200 Review | Geek Lifestyle

HONOR’s latest addition to its numbered series, the HONOR 200, aims to breathe some new life into the game with some intricate artistry. Packing a slew of familiar-yet-reliable features and some new tricks in the bag, this device is poised to turn heads and pique everyone’s interest. Coming off last year’s HONOR 90 5G, this new installment brought back the premium “Portrait Master” experience–with a taste of some cutting-edge AI.

With the introduction of HONOR’s AI Portrait Engine we’re given a taste of Studio Harcourt’s Classic Portrait Photography–a first in smartphones. Such a timeless feature gives the HONOR 200’s expectedly decent photo capabilities a stylish flair that’s difficult to ignore. It’s definitely a highlight, and not the only thing this smartphone has going for it. We took a dive into the HONOR’s new base variant baby, and did some tinkering with the features it offers. Read on for more.

Geeksthetic

The HONOR 200 exudes both elegance and practicality with its sleek design. Ours sports a n0-nonsense, yet subtly stylish Black colorway with a sweet matte finish. Measuring 7.7 mm thin and weighing a modest 187 grams, it’s neither too bulky nor too light–totally easy to grip and wield. As for fingerprints, you need not worry. Unless you smear grease onto your palms, this phone will stay clean. Don’t ask us if we tried.

We get Moonlight White and Emerald Green colorways as well, but we’re satisfied with matte black. While the former two have a more gaudy exterior, there’s just something about being discreet, yet eye-catching at the same time. Up top, we stray away from last year’s two-camera hole setup and go for a singular oval which houses all the lenses–lenses where the magic happens. More on that later.

To the front, we behold its large 6.7-inch display, boasting an impressive 90.0% screen-to-body ratio. The lack of bezels and chin is quite nice, and there’s a lot of viewing real estate. We get the usual two buttons to the side, a USB-C port, and stereo speakers.

The design is quite simple if you think about it. There really is no need to be over-the-top here. You’ll see soon enough.

Binge-Watching Factor

As mentioned earlier, we do have quite a bit of viewing real estate to work with. We get a 6.7-inch OLED screen that supports 1 billion colors and offers a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Whether you’re scrolling through social media, navigating apps, or watching your favorite shows, you’re guaranteed fluid scrolling and animations. That was pretty much the case in our experience.

The HDR support and 4000 nits peak brightness gave us great visibility even under direct sunlight, and enhanced contrast helped a bit in some particular apps. We didn’t really notice that much, as the display performed well enough right out of the box.

With a resolution of 1200 x 2664 pixels, the display delivers crisp, detailed visuals regardless of what’s on-screen. Your favorite anime? K-pop idol shows? You’ll be satisfied with vibrant colors and sharp imagery. As for audio, you can crank it up to 200% without getting any noise crackling. It’s sufficiently loud, so proceed with caution should you decide to blast some music in public.

Gaming Prowess

Under the hood, we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset. This 4nm processor can absolutely run any game under the sun right now–and surprisingly well. We decided to test it out on two of the most demanding games at the time, Honkai: Star Rail and Wuthering Waves. For the former, we had to tweak the settings a bit, resulting in High settings at 60 fps. This elicited the best results, with buttery smooth gameplay and zero stutters. There would be a frame drop here and there once you enter battle, but nothing egregious.

As for Wuthering Waves, we just let it fly–max settings across the board. Sure, the settings say “Overload,” but we didn’t experience any problems during an hour of gameplay. While the huge vapor chamber is noteworthy for the HONOR 200 Pro variant, the base version fares rather well with its thermals.

Coupled with the Adreno 720 GPU, 12GB of RAM, and a generous 512GB of storage, you get a fairly optimized chipset that’s well-equipped to handle demanding tasks and more graphically intensive games. When it comes to MLBB or HoK, you don’t even have to think twice.

The HONOR 200 can most definitely game.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

The camera system within the HONOR 200’s rear oval is a versatile triple-lens setup. This camera trifecta is geared towards covering a wide range of photographic scenarios. The main 50 MP wide-angle camera with its large 1/1.56″ sensor, 1.0µm pixel size, and OIS delivers some excellent results in various lighting conditions. Even if things get a bit dim, it still performs well. Complementing this is a 50 MP telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom, perfect for portraits and distant subjects.

: 0.6X

: 1X

: 2X

The 12 MP ultrawide camera with its 112˚ field of view rounds out the system, allowing for expansive landscape shots and creative perspectives. You get a sufficient amount of detail, for as long as your subject is well-lit. Just switch to the Super Macro feature on your camera app, and you’re good to go.

Now, for the highlight. What truly sets the HONOR 200 apart is its groundbreaking HONOR AI Portrait Engine, developed in collaboration with the renowned Studio Harcourt. Studio Harcourt’s century-old–and not to mention, quite expensive expertise in portrait photography is now in the palm of your hand. The AI Portrait Engine analyzes millions of light and shadow datasets, replicating Studio Harcourt’s meticulous lighting techniques that typically involve at least eight tungsten filament light sources and a two-hour setup process. It’s some sophisticated technology for sure, but all you need to know is you’re getting three Studio Harcourt filters to play around with–and boy, are they fun to play around with.

: Harcourt Vibrant

: Harcourt Colour

: Harcourt Classic

Harcourt Vibrant is your default filter. It’s worth noting that you can’t shoot “pure” portraits, as Vibrant is what you’ll be using from the get-go. That being said, it’s very close to the default camera’s color grading, so you need not worry. Harcourt Colour adds a more cinematic “film” effect for those who want a more retro feel for their photos. Now, Harcourt Classic is undoubtedly the one that’ll get the most use among the three. It’s just timeless. Black and White never goes out of style.

The AI Light and Shadow Enhancement feature assesses various aspects of lighting, including angles, positions, brightness levels, color temperatures, and intensity. It even analyzes the subject’s skin color and overall scene composition. It’s also worth mentioning that you can even snap photos of subjects in motion–for as long as they’re not flailing around at breakneck speed. Just imagine the photowalks that involve taking photos of people walking. Very nice.

Now, if you thought they’d cut corners with the selfie camera, that’s not the case. The 50 MP front-facing camera is capable of capturing detailed self-portraits–regardless of which setting you fire up. While you only get 0.8X and 1X zoom, it’s enough to capture some great selfies. When switching to portrait selfie mode, make sure to activate bokeh–if you want to have bokeh. Otherwise, you won’t get any blurry background.

: 0.8X

: 1X

: Portrait Bokeh

Video capabilities are equally impressive, with 4K recording at 30fps and 1080p at up to 60fps–for both front and rear cameras. Both benefit from gyro-EIS while only the main shooter has OIS.

The default photos are nice, let’s admit. But we all know we’ll be breaking out Studio Harcourt anytime we have a chance.

Everyday Reliability

The HONOR 200 comes with all the bells and whistles you need–along with some quality of life features. A couple of which cast a bit of AI Magic to further enhance user experience. By that, we mean the Magic Capsule and Magic Portal.

Magic Capsule allows you quick access to audio recording, media playback, and your clock. It all appears the the tippy-top of your screen where you can just tap and swipe to navigate. This is most invaluable when playing music, as you don’t need to dig into your folders to access the media app.

Magic Portal, on the other hand, allows for quick transfer of files from app to app. For example, you can easily share and post photos from your gallery–or your browser onto your favorite social media site in a snap.

Aside from new quality of life features, we do get the classic reliable ones–like a hefty battery. Sporting a large 5200 mAh battery, the HONOR 200 can get you through more than a day on daily light use over wifi, and a bit less if you incorporate some gaming. Of course, once you switch on mobile data, all bets are off. You’ll need a charger much sooner than later. When that time comes, the 100W wired HONOR SuperCharge can get you back 57% charge in just 15 minutes–and all topped up in about half an hour.

With an optimized processor, ample RAM, and large storage capacity, you’re guaranteed a classy, capable partner–if you should decided on the HONOR 200 as a daily driver.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

The HONOR 200 presents itself as a compelling option, not only for its premium specs, but also for its HONOR AI Portrait Engine–namely, its collaboration with Studio Harcourt. It’s not a novelty, and definitely not a gimmick. This is a feature that, in our opinion, will be used countlessly in the future. It delivers photos that either harken back to simpler times or bring out the style and class in everyone. For some, it’s likely style and class that they didn’t know they had.

It also offers a gorgeous display, powerful performance, and an excellent battery life with fast charging capabilities. Whether it be your simple daily driver or bombastic, fashionable partner, the HONOR 200 will deliver.

You can pre-order the AI Portrait Master starting at PHP 24,999 from July 17 to 26, 2024 to get FREE JBL Soundgear Frames worth Php 9,499. For availability, check out Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.

For more details, do check out HONOR’s official social page and website.