Review verdict: HONOR has a winner with the 400 thanks to a more affordable price tag, bigger battery, and better overall software features despite ditching a few features found on its predecessor.
Pros
- Compact and slim, yet has a 6000mAh battery
- Has the most comprehensive set of AI features in its segment
- Long software update commitment
Cons
- No telephoto camera
- Same internals as its predecessor
HONOR wants to be dominant in the midrange attempt, with the 400 being its key offering for 2025. Armed with a price tag that’s lower than its predecessor at launch, is the HONOR 400 worth the hype beyond all the AI features?
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Design
This time, HONOR went for a more compact approach with the 400, being smaller and lighter than its predecessor. It has a more boxy look that makes the HONOR 400 look similar to an iPhone if not for its camera module. It improves from its predecessor by having an IP65/66 rating to keep it safe against water splashes, and it also has an eSIM. The latter is a handy feature especially for travellers, saving them the hassle of lugging around multiple physical SIM cards when they go to another country.
The HONOR 400 is 7.3mm thin, and making it impressive is that you get a big 6000mAh battery inside while being 0.4mm thinner than the HONOR 200 (which comes with a 5200mAh battery). It’s proof of HONOR’s excellent engineering, and its nice to see how the brand implements ways to balance between keeping their devices more compact without compromising on battery capacity.
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Display and speakers
If it’s not obvious enough, the HONOR 400 has a smaller AMOLED display at 6.55-inches, and they settled for a flat panel instead of a quad-curved one. It’s also a better display with higher peak brightness of 5000nits and a slightly higher display resolution. Comparing it to flagship devices like the Magic7 Pro, the HONOR 400’s display matches it closely in terms of image quality.
You get stereo speakers, which sound just as good as with our experience on the HONOR 200.
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Cameras
While it has the same selfie and ultrawide camera as its predecessor, HONOR tweaked a few things on the 400. It loses the telephoto camera, and trades it with a 200-megapixel sensor for the main camera–still having OIS on board.
Is losing the telephoto camera a big deal? Not so much, since the main camera is capable of shooting at 2x and 4x lossless digital zoom, and HONOR’s improvements with its post processing makes good use of that 200-megapixel sensor on the 400. Echoing our sentiments in our first impressions, the HONOR 400 does extremely well in both bright, well-lit environments as well as low-light situations. Exposure is good, and dynamic range is handled well.
For video recording, all three cameras are capable of shooting at 4K, making the HONOR 400 a good option for content creation–especially when paired with all the AI features it has on board.
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life
Like the HONOR 200, the HONOR 400 also uses the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor, along with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. While that might sound underwhelming since it’s not an upgrade, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is still a good choice for midrange phones. From our experience, phones that use the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 can run demanding titles like Genshin Impact at high graphics, which is not bad for the HONOR 400’s asking price.
Outside of the familiar hardware, HONOR went all in with the software experience. Beyond the plethora of AI features, the HONOR 400 stands out with its image-to-video generation that utilizes Google’s Veo 2. It’s the only phone as of writing to have this feature, and the output we got using it is generally good. You’re limited to 30 requests a day, and the feature is on a limited free trial–we don’t know how much Google will charge for this feature in the future.
Aside from its features, the 400 stands out for its long update commitment, with HONOR promising six years of Android updates. That’s among the longest we’ve seen on a midrange device, only to be matched by Samsung’s Galaxy A56.
You get a 6000mAh battery inside the HONOR 400, which is bigger than what’s found on its predecessor despite being physically smaller. Power optimization is better, as we managed to use the HONOR 400 for 1.5 days before needing a charge. Charging speeds is slightly slower at 80w, but that’s fast enough to top up the battery in an hour.
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
Despite losing the telephoto camera and using the same internals as its predecessor, the HONOR 400 offers great value thanks to a more affordable price tag and a more refined software that includes powerful AI features and a long update commitment.
HONOR 400 Review Philippines: Price
The HONOR 400 is priced at Php 22,999 in the Philippines.