Review: Honor 400 Delivers Flagship Feel at Mid-Range Price

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Those who know me know I love myself a bit of Honor. Recently, the brand released the latest model in its number series (N-series to you), the Honor 400. 

Retailing at £399-£499 depending on memory size (sorry American friends, you’ll need to import yours if you want one), the Honor 400 is a real mid-range monster.

Here’s my review of the device, which is easily the best mid-range handset I have EVER used. Find out why below.

It is a phone in a box

Do we reallllllllllly need to do this? OK then. *sigh

In the box you get:

• Honor 400 smartphone
• USB-C charging cable
• Sim tray ejecting tool
• Bits of important paper with information on them

Like, what do you actually expect? On to the tour!

Beautiful craftsmanship as always

So, in terms of looks, what are we… looking at? As ever, Honor’s design team has excelled and crafted a phone that I personally think is a real stunner.

In terms of size and weight, we’ve got a handset that is 156 x 75 x 7mm. In terms of weight, it is a featherlight 184g, which includes the internal battery. Nothing overly massive or weighty here. It slips into the palm of your hand perfectly.

In terms of the actual appearance, ours came in the Meteor Silver colorway. You can also get a Desert Gold and Midnight Black variation.

Walking you around the device, up front we have the 6.55” AMOLED screen, with a tidy unobtrusive holepunch selfie camera top-center. There is also a pre-applied screen protector.

The silver plastic frame around the sides features the button array on the right edge (power and volume rocker). The bottom edge carries the sim tray, mic, USB-C port, and speaker grille. The top features the usual IR blaster and speaker grille, plus another mic pinhole.

The rear of the phone has (in our case) a mattified silver faceplate, with the camera island up in the top left. This has two sensors and a flash nestled into what I would like to call a ‘soft trapezoidal island’ on account of its curved cornering to the trapezoid shape.

In all, craftsmanship-wise and in terms of handfeel, the Honor 400 is a shining example of how a medium-range smartphone can have an air of flagship about it.

It’s all in the specs

Well, it isn’t actually all in the specs, but I needed a title involving the word ‘specs’, so there we have it.

Anyway the device is relatively well-specced. However, eagle-eyed Honor fans will notice that the same chipset—the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3—appeared in the Honor 200 last year. 

So if you already own the Honor 200, this won’t be an upgrade in terms of the processing power. If you want an upgraded chipset, then go for the Honor 400 Pro instead, which features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Anyway, here are all the specs:

Display	Size: 6.55-inch AMOLED Resolution: 2736×1264 pixels Colors: 1.07 billion colors
Processor	CPU: Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (Octa-core) GPU: Adreno 720
Operating system	MagicOS 9.0 (Based on Android 15)
Memory and storage	8GB+256GB / 8GB+512GB
Camera	Rear: 200MP main (f/1.9, OIS) + 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2) Front: 50MP (f/2.0) Video: Up to 4K resolution Zoom: Up to 30x digital zoom
Battery	Capacity: 5300mAh lithium polymer (Silicon-Carbon) Charging: Up to 66W SuperCharge
Water resistance	IP65 (splash, water, and dust resistant)
Dimensions	156.5 × 74.6 × 7.3 mm
Weight	184g (including battery)

And in practice?

So, in terms of performance, what do we see? Well, the Honor 400 is a mid-range phone, don’t forget. However, there are plenty of features that perform like a flagship. Here’s the nitty-gritty.

Display

The display is great. I do love an AMOLED screen, and the Honor 400 display is no exception. The screen has a peak brightness of 5000 nits, which is superb and offers excellent performance even on a sunny day.

The display also features Honor’s impressive 3840Hz screen dimming, which is fancy science talk for “it helps reduce eye strain”. I notice no eye fatigue even when viewing the display for extended periods.

In general, I found the display most pleasurable to behold.

Productivity

I always like to consider the productivity performance of a handset. Especially mid-range smartphones. The reason is I usually carry a flagship (in this case I also have an Honor Magic 7 Pro, which is also an utterly amazing handset BTW).

So, this means I tend to use a mid-range handset as my “work device”, allowing me to strike a balance and have mobile access to work if I need it, without having to install Slack or have multiple email accounts on my daily driver. Yenno, digital zen and all.

Anyway, for all my work needs, the Honor 400 is awesome. Being neurodivergent, I am often attempting to do seventy different tasks at once.

Thankfully the Honor 400 is more than capable of handling all the apps I have open and running at any given time in the working day. Quite the workhorse!

Battery

If there is one thing to say about Honor, it really does push the envelope in terms of battery. The Honor 400 seems to slip itself through a tear in time-space itself, as no sooner than have I thrown it on to charge, it seems to be at almost 100% when I return to it seconds later.

Obviously I am exaggerating here, but you get my point. The 5300mAh battery (manufactured from Honor’s own proprietary battery tech) is quick to charge, and holds that juice for well over a working day of medium to heavy use.

Using an Honor 66W charger (which you will need to buy separately unless you get it as a free gift with the phone from the Honor store) and the super charge boost mode, I managed to charge the Honor 400 from 19% to 100% in about twenty five minutes, which is nuts.

Sadly this phone can’t charge wirelessly, so my Honor Magic 7 Pro takes pride of place on the Honor charging stand atop my desk while the 400 sits next to it in a regular stand. Boohoo.

Camera

As usual, Honor has excelled with the camera. 

The 400 features a pumped-up 200MP lens (up from 50MP with the Honor 200 so a nice upgrade) and a 12MP telephoto lens (the 200 featured a second 50MP telephoto, boohoo).

You get the same Harcourt filters that the Honor 200 boasts, which allow you to produce some excellent portrait shots if that is your bag.

At 42 years of age, that particular ship has sailed for this reviewer I’m afraid. I prefer to take photos of other things that aren’t my own rapidly aging head and body (like the stars, for example).

However, for the sake of review I obviously tested it and the results are very good, as they were with the Honor 200. You can get some really nice effects with the Harcourt filters in action. Perhaps I should keep the camera shutter on myself for a further decade…

So, camera performance then. Well, it is very good. The 200MP main lens is great, and it can produce some really nice images that are rich in detail and vibrant in color. The 12MP ultrawide is also nice for capturing landscapes and whatnot.

It features a range of capture modes so you can always get the right shot.

These capture modes include (as listed by Honor) AI Super Zoom, Artistic, Film Simulation, Moving Photo, Time-lapse, AI photography, Super Wide Angle, Aperture, Multi-Video, Night shot, Portrait mode, Photo, Pro mode, Video, Slow-Mo, Panorama, HDR, STORY, Filter, WATERMARK, SCAN DOCUMENT, Super Macro, Capture smiles, Timer, HIGH-RES, and more.

In all, if you’re looking for an inexpensive phone with a feature packed camera setup, then you should certainly consider the Honor 400.

Yes, I recommend this phone

The Honor 400 is a triumph in the mid-range sector. With looks, feels, and performance that err more towards flagship quality, the device is ideal for anyone who wants a premium pick without the premium price tag.

A great camera and a REALLY nice screen set this phone up as one of the strongest mid-range contenders out there. Awesome.

Are you tired of choosing between premium features and an affordable price when buying a smartphone? Have you been disappointed by mid-range phones that feel cheap and underpowered? The Honor 400 could give you flagship quality without breaking the bank. Share your smartphone upgrade experiences in the comments below or tell us via our Twitter or Facebook.