Here is a deeper look at the HONOR 400 5G, which has the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, a 120Hz 5,000 nits peak brightness AMOLED, and a 200MP rear camera.
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HONOR 400 5G's flat rear design |
The new HONOR 400 5G is the brand's most ambitious mid-range smartphone to date. It comes with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, and a 6,000mAh battery with 80W HONOR SuperCharge via USB-C.
The phone comes with a fashion-forward design with a super slim profile of 7.3mm and 184 grams, while having a massive battery.
In front is the 120Hz 6.55-inch OLED screen with a 5,000 nits peak brightness, and the 50MP selfie camera, while at the back are the 200MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an LED flash.
Other features include WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC.
In the Philippines, the HONOR 400 is priced at PHP 22,999. Customers who pre-order get a ton of freebies too.
Let's take a look at it.
Unboxing/Accessories
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HONOR 400 5G's packaging |
It comes in White packaging with gold HONOR 400 5G branding, key features, and regulatory information.
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HONOR 400 5G's box inclusions |
The phone, the 80W HONOR SuperCharge wall plug, USB-A to USB-C cable, SIM ejector, silicone case, and documentation are inside the box.
Unfortunately, there are no earphones in the box.
Build Quality/Design
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HONOR 400 5G's rear design |
At first glance, the phone looks eye-catching because of its slim profile and build materials of a metal frame, glass front, and rear panel.
Upon holding the phone, you immediately notice how lightweight and premium it is. The softened curves, textured glass, and aluminum frame add to the overall upscale experience while significantly reducing fingerprint smudges.
It is IP66 water and dust resistant rated, meaning that the product is resistant to dust and splashes.
It measures 156.5 x 74.6 x 7.3 mm and weighs 184 grams.
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HONOR 400 5G's slim bezels |
In front is the aforementioned 6.55-inch AMOLED screen. Around the panel are slim and symmetrical bezels. The punch hole with the selfie camera is on the upper part of the panel. Above it and inside the top bezel is the super-slim earpiece. The same slim earpiece acts as the second speaker, too.
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Top and bottom |
On top are the microphone port, second speaker grill, and an IR blaster, while at the bottom are the bottom-firing speaker grills, USB-C port, microphone port, and antenna lines.
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HONOR 400 5G's SIM tray |
The SIM tray accommodates up to two nano SIM cards, and it has a rubber gasket.
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Left and right sides |
On the left is a smooth surface, while on the right are the volume rocker and the power button. Both buttons have some resistance to them while feeling plastic-y when pressed.
In the upper left corner is the camera module with the 200MP main camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera, and an LED flash.
Multimedia Experience
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HONOR 400 5G's bright screen |
In front is a 6.55-inch AMOLED screen with a 2,736 x 1,264 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 5,000 nits peak brightness. It supports 1.07 billion colors and the DCI-P3 wide color gamut.
The panel reaches a peak brightness of 5000 nits. This means it's readable under direct sunlight at 80 percent brightness. The colours pop, while the text and fine details are crisp.
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HONOR Eye Comfort Display features |
The panel drops to just 1.5 nits, and it supports a 3,840Hz Risk-Free Dimming Display. It is advertised to reduce eye fatigue by 18 percent because of the hardware-level low blue light.
It supports 10 multi-touch points, making it good for multitasking or games that support multiple simultaneous touch inputs. It responds quickly and accurately to our taps and gestures.
The panel also comes with a Super Rainproof touch, which is advertised to reduce the need to wipe off sweat or moisture on the screen.
The bezels around the panel area are symmetrical and one of the slimmest we've seen on a mid-range phone. On the top bezel is the super slim earpiece, while below it is the punch hole that houses the selfie camera.
The phone is equipped with stereo speakers (top and bottom firing) for audio. Around the phone are microphones used for noise cancellation in calls and audio recording.
The sound from the speakers is always surprisingly loud, especially at 80 percent. What surprises us is that it maintains good sound quality even at 80 percent. Distortion is apparent from 81 percent until its maximum. It can be pushed to 200 percent with noticeably more distortion.
The microphones do a good job of picking up sounds from a meter away, while the noise-cancellation for calls is good too.
Cameras
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HONOR 400 5G's rear cameras |
The back is the rear camera made up of a 200MP f/1.9 main camera with 1/1.4 inch ultra-clear image sensor and OIS, and a 12MP f/2.2 112-degree ultra-wide angle camera with an LED flash.
The included modes of the stock camera app include Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, Pro, Slow-Mo, Stickers, Story, Multi-Video, Time-lapse, High-Res, Aperture, Panorama, Super Macro and Document Scan.
The Pro controls include EV (+-4), ISO (50-6400), Shutter speed (1/6,400-30 secs), Focus, and White Balance.
Added features include Aspect Ratio, Timer, Action Mode, Interval Shooting, and Live Photo.
The Portrait Mode can use the 1x, 1.5x, 2x and 3x camera, and it comes with bokeh strength control (f/1.2-16), and Retouching (1-100).
In both the Photo, Portrait, and Video Modes, users can use preset filters. The Portrait modes allow for Artistic and Film Simulation Filters. These include the Harcourt filter variants called Classic, Colour, and Vibrant.
Rear Camera Samples
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HONOR 400 5G rear camera daylight 1x |
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HONOR 400 5G rear camera daylight 2x |
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HONOR 400 5G rear camera daylight 4x |
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HONOR 400 5G rear camera daylight ultra-wide |
The images from the ultra-wide, 1x, 2x and 4x are good. Detail, color, and contrast are good. Although the ultra-wide is slightly softer than the rest.
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HONOR 400 5G close-up |
With close-up images, the areas that are in focus are sharp while the out-of-focus areas have a nice fall-off. The color and contrast are good, too. White balance is on point too.
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HONOR 400 5G indoors 1x |
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HONOR 400 5G indoors 2x |
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HONOR 400 5G indoors 3x |
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HONOR 400 5G indoors ultra-wide |
For low light, the camera app automatically runs Night Mode-like shots. The 1x, 2x and 4x are good, and they all have consistent white balance, color, and contrast. What impressed us is the controlled noise and color accuracy.
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Rear camera Harcourt Portraits |
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Rear camera Portraits 1x and 2x |
For portraits, the HONOR 400 5G offers a choice between 1x, 1.5x, 2x and 3x, allowing users to apply filters and artificial bokeh. The bokeh at f/1.2 looks somewhat artificial, but with great edge detection.
Overall, the rear camera has produced consistently good images from a smartphone so far. Our only nitpicks are that the ultra-wide is slightly less sharp than the other cameras.
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HONOR 400 5G's selfie camera |
The 50MP f/2.0 selfie camera on the punch hole on the display.
Camera modes include Photo, Video, Portrait, Night mode, and Multi-Video.
Selfie Camera Samples
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HONOR 400 5G daylight selfie |
Daylight selfies from the HONOR 400 5G are good too. The colors, sharpness, and contrast are around what we expect in its premium price point. The white balance and skin tones leaned towards more yellow, though.
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HONOR 400 5G Portrait selfie |
Like with the portrait mode bokeh of the rear cameras, the edge detection is great, but the bokeh looks decent. The White balance and skintones leaned towards red tones in this shot.
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HONOR 400 5G indoor selfie |
Indoor selfies are the same as daylight. However, the skin tones and white balance are warmer than real life. Otherwise, it has decent contrast and detail.
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HONOR 400 5G lowlight selfie |
In low light, the selfie looks good even though some grain was introduced in the shadow areas.
Overall, the front cameras produced good images across the board; however, the white balance and skin tones need to be tweaked. Also, the ultra-wide camera is slightly softer than the other cameras, and the artificial bokeh of the portrait mode can be harsh at maximum aperture f/1.2.
The rear and front cameras can record up to 4K at 30fps. The footage is sharp and vibrant in color. The noise is noticeable in some areas. Stabilization is okay. Not the best, but it's better than none. If you want to reduce micro jitters, there is an Ultra Steady mode that records up to 1080 at 60fps but crops the field of view.
The rear and front camera video capability is somewhat decent.
Performance
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AnTuTu and GeekBench scores |
Inside the HONOR 400 5G are the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 octa-core processor, Adreno GPU, 12GB RAM, and 512GB storage.
During the AnTuTu test, the phone's temperature increased by 7 degrees while the Silicon Carbon battery lost 4 percent power.
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GeekBench AI and AI Benchmark scores |
In the more intensive 3D Mark Wild Life, the HONOR 400 5G managed to score 5,350 overall with an average frame rate of 32.04.
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CPDT and 3DMark benchmark results |
In GeekBench AI, it scored 690 in single precision, 692 in half-precision, and 1,354 in the quantized score. The internal storage got 740.65 MB/s in sequential read speeds and 400.60 MB/s in sequential write speeds.
HONOR 400 5G benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 855,471
- Geekbench 6 - 1,146 (single-core), 3,144 (multi-core)
- 3DMark Wild Life - 5,350 overall score, 32.04 average FPS
- CPDT - 740.65 MB/s sequential read speeds and 400.60 MB/s sequential write speeds
- AI Benchmark - 151 - Good performance
- GeekBench AI - 690 single precision, 692 half-precision, 1,354 quantized score
The HONOR 400 5G scores in the Benchmark scores are within the expected range. However, there are better-performing smartphones at similar price brackets.
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Genshin Impact Graphics on HONOR 400 5G
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The phone unlocked the low graphics settings as the default in Genshin Impact
In our experience, the phone can handle the majority of tasks like navigating through the OS, opening apps, web surfing, and social media without struggling.
The phone has an optical In-Display fingerprint sensor and face unlock for security. The initial setup and subsequent uses are quick, and it detects our biometrics instantaneously. It works even if your finger is a little sweaty.
The face unlock only struggles when the camera is dirty. The screen brightens up when used in the dark.
Regarding connectivity, we have the following: WiFi, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.4 LE, NFC, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, and dual nano SIM.
Connections are usually stable for WiFi, and we get 4 to 5 bars of mobile data signal most of the time.
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PCMark Battery Benchmark and Battery usage |
Inside the phone is a large 6,000 mAh Silicon Carbon battery. In daily use, we would end the day with 25 to 30 percent battery after 7 hours of on-screen time (on performance mode) even when constantly connected to 5G, WiFi, and Bluetooth devices.
The battery charges via USB-C with the 80W wall charger, which charges the phone from 0 to 40 percent in 15 minutes. It takes around 70 minutes to charge the phone to 100 percent.
It does not have wireless charging.
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HONOR MagicOS home screen |
It is running on MagicOS 9.0 based on Android 15. At first glance, it looks and feels like it builds on the previous generations' visuals and features. However, because of the endless list of new features to the even longer list of features added over the years, the UI can get overwhelming, and it is difficult to find the feature or setting when it is deep in the menus. It was confusing at first. A learning curve must be considered when buying into the MagicOS UI.
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HONOR AI settings and AI Deepfake Detection |
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AI Subtitles and AI Translate |
In the main Settings app is a new HONOR AI category. In it are the different AI features that come with MagicOS 9.0, such as AI Suggestions, Magic Text, Magic Portal, AI Subtitles, AI Translate, AI writing, and AI Deepfake Detection. In our experience, the AI Subtitle, AI Translate, and AI Deepfake Detection had the most impact as it can work while doing our usual routine with the phone. Although the translation and subtitles can be off, it will get better with time.
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Gallery App's Image to Video |
At the bottom of the Gallery App is the Create button. Users can select an image, and the app will use AI to generate a short video from the image. The video created will generate an image using the context from the objects and the environment. It does it surprisingly well. We did however, notice that faces tend to not look exactly like they are supposed to. However, with more time, this can get better.
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AI Cutout |
AI Cutout allows users to select a subject or object from one image and then isolate it and then give the option to select different backgrounds. This means you can place the subject in a photo of a different place. It's not the cleanest solution but it works.
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AI Outpainting, AI Eraser and AI Upscaling |
With AI Outpainting, users can expand images using the context already in the image. It's a hit or miss, but you can always retry generating the expansion. The generated part of the new image sometimes looks lower resolution. The AI Upscale works well to remedy this.
Last up is the AI Eraser, which allows users to select objects that the user wants to be removed from the image. They can select objects either with a circle to erase, a brush to erase or erase passers-by. The selected objects will then be filled with AI-generated content using the context of the rest of the image. Like any AI-generated images, it is either hit or miss. But you can keep trying until you find what you like.
The same can be said for Remove reflections. It does not totally remove the reflections, but it does minimize them to the point where you have to be looking for the reflections to actually see them.
Like other brands, we expect that these features will get updated continuously in the coming months, which should increase effectiveness and reliability.
It also comes with Google Gemini and Circle to search. It is the same as the iterations from recently launched smartphones.
Pros - Eye-catching and Slim design, Premium build materials, IP66, large capacity battery, fast 80W charging, decent camera performance, tons of new AI features,
Cons - SoC performance is good, but competition is stronger. Some AI features miss more than they hit,
HONOR 400 5G Specs
Display: 6.55-inch flat AMOLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 3840Hz PWM dimming, 5,000 nits, 1.5K 2736 x 1264 resolution at 460 ppi
CPU: 2.63GHz 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno
RAM: 12GB
ROM: 512GB
Back Camera: 200MP f/1.9 Ultra-clear AI main camera w/ OIS + 12MP f/2.2 112-degree ultra-wide-angle w/ macro + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 50MP Portrait Selfie Camera
Battery: 6,000mAh w/ 80W HONOR SuperCharge
OS: Android 15 w/ MagicOS 9.0
Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.4, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers, IP66 dust and water resistance, USB-C, Colors: Midnight Black, Desert Gold
Dimensions: 156.5 x 74.6 x 7.3 mm
Weight: 187 g
Price: PHP 22,999
Verdict
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HONOR 400 5G web surfing |
We are pleased with how great the phone looks, especially when you consider how slim it is while carrying a 6,000mAh Silicon Carbon battery.
At PHP 22,999, the HONOR 400 5G offers the most capable and most varied AI features at its price range. And that is on top of its stunning design and premium build materials.
Inside is the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 octa-core processor, Adreno GPU, 12GB RAM, and 512GB storage. When compared to the competition in its price range, it may struggle in raw performance.
We love the 5,000 nits 120Hz AMOLED screen, the massive 6,000mAh battery, the MIL-STD and IP66 rating, and the large variety of AI features, especially at this price range.
Our only concerns are the camera skin tone inconsistencies and the consistent trial and error with the AI features.
We recommend the HONOR 400 5G if you want a beautiful and slim phone with a massive battery that can take good photos and is capable of AI features usually found in higher-priced phones.
Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4
Performance - 4
Average - 4.125/5
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