HONOR 600 Review - The sweet spot of power and style?
The new HONOR 600 has recently arrived in the Philippine market as the brand's premium mid-ranger that can live without a telephoto camera.
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| HONOR 600 in Black |
It features a 6.57-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 octa-core processor, Adreno GPU, 8GB/12GB RAM, UFS 4.1, and a 7,000mAh battery.
In front of the HONOR 600 is the 50MP front-facing camera, while at the back are the 200MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera with 2.5cm macro and an LED flash.
In the Philippines, the HONOR 600 starts at PHP 28,999 for the 8GB/256GB variant.
Let's dive in.
The sweet spot of power and style
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| HONOR 600 box inclusions |
Inside the box are the HONOR 600, an 80W SuperCharge wall charger, a USB-A to USB-C cable, documentation, a transparent silicone case, and a SIM ejector tool.
The HONOR 600 arrived with flagship-like build quality and premium materials. This is to be expected given the higher price.
True flagship-like build quality and premium materials!
It is made with a precision-carved unibody featuring a matte texture, sandwiched between a front glass panel and a rear frosted glass panel. The same frosted glass rear panel has a plateau that has a glossy finish.
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| HONOR 600's right and left sides |
The metal frame contains multiple antenna lines on all sides. On the right side are the power button, volume rocker, and the AI camera button.
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| HONOR 600's top and bottom sides |
On top are a set of microphones and the top-firing speaker grill, while at the bottom are the second set of speakers, USB-C port, another microphone, and the SIM tray.
Measuring 156.0 x 74.7 x 7.8mm and weighing 190 grams, the HONOR 600 is surprisingly lightweight and easy to hold given its materials and its massive 7,000mAh battery.
It is IP68, IP69, and IP69K dust and water resistance rated and holds an SGS 5-Star certification for both drop and crush protection.
In terms of design, the phone is clearly inspired by the iPhone 17 Pro Series, and the brand isn't even trying to hide it. It is likely aiming to capture Android users who are drawn to Apple's design.
Opinions among friends and industry peers are divided on this choice. Personally, I don't care. They are all slabs with or without the case.
My teammate Peter said on his HONOR 600 Pro Review that it would have been great if the brand had developed or built upon the unique design of last year's HONOR 400 Pro design.
Very good display experience
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| Crisp and bright panel with super slim bezels |
The HONOR 600 has a 6.57-inch AMOLED screen with a 2,728 x 1,264 resolution, an 8,000 nits peak brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports 1.07 billion colors and covers the DCI-P3 color gamut. It carries HDR certifications for both Netflix and Amazon.
It also features HONOR's AI HDR Display 2.0 and AI Vivid Display 2.0.
It is identical to the Pro variant, and it offers a super-bright image with vibrant but not overly saturated colors. Under direct sunlight, the screen remains legible, and it is one of the brightest phones we've ever encountered, even when outdoors. It even features a Sunlight mode that extends the brightness for outdoor light.
The touchscreen responds accurately and quickly.
It has two speakers in total, which deliver loud yet fairly crisp audio for both music and podcast listening and streaming movies. The quality, however, isn't the best, especially above 80 percent. It struggled most with the bass.
The handset has 3 microphones that record decent quality, and they help with voice isolation for calls.
Good cameras, despite the lack of a dedicated zoom
The next key features of the new HONOR 600 are the cameras, which include the 200MP f/1.9 main camera with a 1/1.4-inch sensor and OIS, a 12MP f/2.2 112-degree ultra-wide angle camera with 2.5cm macro, and an LED flash.
It features a color temperature sensor for supposedly natural-looking tones.
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| HONOR 600 rear camera daylight 1x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera daylight 2x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera daylight 4x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera daylight ultra-wide |
In daylight, the cameras took good photos. What we were most impressed with was the main 200MP camera. Even at 4x crop zoom, the sharpness and detail are still good. The ultra-wide-angle camera is the softest, but not by much. Overall, the colors and contrast are on point, too.
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| HONOR 600 rear camera close-up |
Close-up shots are stunning, too. The sharpness, detail, and contrast make the food pop and appetizing.
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| HONOR 600 rear camera Portrait |
The Portrait mode has added a hint of softness on the face to reduce blemishes, and the faux bokeh is near natural looking. It only struggled with the hair of the subject.
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Indoors, the cameras perform similarly to daylight but are softer. This is most apparent with the ultra-wide-angle camera. Otherwise, the color and contrast are still good.
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| HONOR 600 rear camera lowlight 1x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera lowlight 2x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera lowlight 4x |
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| HONOR 600 rear camera lowlight ultra-wide |
In low light, the story takes a turn with only the 1x image retaining good image quality. The 2x and the ultra-wide-angle camera are noticeably softer, while the 4x is noticeably muddy from the noise reduction.
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| HONOR 600 selfie camera daylight |
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| HONOR 600 selfie camera portrait |
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| HONOR 600 selfie camera indoors |
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| HONOR 600 selfie camera low light |
In selfies, the images are just sharp enough with accurate skin tones and deep contrast. Our one concern is that it had a hard time with lip colors.
Much improved image rendering
For video, the rear camera can record up to 4K at 30fps with acceptable stabilization. Ghosting and artefacts are present. And in low light, noise is present.
The selfie camera can capture up to 4K at 30fps. It has noticeable jitters when recording handheld.
Both video footages are sharp and crisp with vibrant color.
More than enough power for everyday use
For everyday use and tasks, the HONOR 600 runs through them like butter. Navigating through the UI, opening and switching between apps, and background play are nothing to the Phone.
Inside the HONOR 600 is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which HONOR claims offers 27 percent improved CPU performance, 30 percent improved GPU performance, and 65 percent improved NPU performance when compared to the previous HONOR 400.
Alongside are the 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and the 256GB of internal storage.
HONOR 600 benchmark scores
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| HONOR 600 AnTuTu and Geekbench results |
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| HONOR 600 3DMark Wild Life and CPDT scores |
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| GeekBench AI and AI Benchmark results |
- AnTuTu - 1,314,113
- GeekBench 6 - 1,284 Single-core score, 3,913 Multi-core score
- 3DMark Wild Life - 7,272 overall score, and 43.55 fps
- CPDT - 1.16GB/s sequential read speeds, 612.88MB/s sequential write speeds
- GeekBench AI - 1,721 Single Precision score, 2,267 Half-Precision score, 3,286 Quantized Score
- AI Benchmark - 491 Excellent Performance
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| HONOR 600 Genshin Impact Graphics settings |
Gaming is not the highlight of the HONOR 600 series, but we tried Genshin Impact on it. It is still one of the more demanding games for mobile phones. By default, it has set the graphic settings to 'medium'.
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| HONOR's Game Manager |
This phone features the 'Game Manager' that will pop out when you swipe right from the left side of the screen when the phone detects a game being opened. It has Mistouch Prevention, Game Filters, Touch Enhancers, Image Enhancers, Bypass Charging, Screenshot, Screen Recording, Rotation Lock, and Timing Aid.
Unlike its bigger brother, it does not have a vapor chamber, and you notice it after extended play sessions and when using the cameras continuously for at least an hour. When the phone reached that point where it warms up, some stuttering appears when the screen is full of characters and animations.
Connectivity features are good as it connects wirelessly up to 5G, 4G VoLTE, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. It also supports multiple audio codecs, including lossless audio.
We experienced consistent and reliable connections with its NFC and GPS. It can carry up to two nano SIM cards, and it supports eSIM as well. This makes it easy to switch between carriers by either removing the SIM tray, scanning an eSIM QR, or purchasing online.
Excellent battery performance
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| Battery usage with 4K YouTube Video Loop |
As an everyday casual phone, the HONOR 600 has impressive battery life thanks to its 7,000mAh Silicon Carbon battery. It can truly last 2 days of battery life. In our 4K YouTube video loop test, it played it continously for 20 hours and 35 minutes, which the phone's OS claims to be 10 hours and 2 minutes of on-screen time.
GREAT battery!
We even used it as our hotspot for 6 hours straight while taking photos from time to time. It only consumed around 30 percent of the battery.
It comes with the 80W HONOR SuperCharge wall charger that charges the massive 7,000mAh battery from 0 to 100 percent in 90 minutes.
Unlike its bigger brother, it does not have wireless charging.
Like its bigger brother, it has plenty of new software and AI tricks. We take a deeper dive into our HONOR 600 Pro Review.
Generally, the HONOR 600 series and MagicOS 10 have been refined to have smoother animations, faster responsiveness, and cleaner overall software design.
HONOR has improved its Magic Retouch with AI Erase, AI Upscale, AI Cutout, and AI Outpainting. It also has an AI Portrait that can Face Tune to open the eyes of the subject if closed, and an AI Beauty.
Google Gemini AI assistant is preinstalled and is ready to use.
It comes with HONOR Share, Quick Share, and iOS file transfer support with the HONOR Connect App.
HONOR is also committing to 6 major Android OS updates and over 6 years of security patches. This should ensure long-term performance, protection, and value for users.
Pros - Undeniably premium build, slim profile, fast and bright display, good cameras, good speakers that can be boosted to
Cons - iPhone copycat cook can turn some away, lowlight digital zoom images are horrible, noticeable price jump from predecessor
HONOR 600 5G Specs
Display: 6.57-inch AMOLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 3840Hz PWM dimming, 1.5K 2728 x 1264 resolution at 460 ppi
CPU: 2.6GHz 4nm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4
GPU: Adreno
RAM: 8GB/12GB
ROM: 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1
Back Camera: 200MP f/1.9 CIPA 6.0 OIS + 12MP f/2.2 w/ 2.5cm macro AF + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 50MP f/2.0
Battery: 7,000mAh w/ USB-C 80W HONOR SuperCharge, 27W Wired Reverse Charging
OS: Android 16 w/ MagicOS 10.0
Connectivity: WiFi 7, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.4, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Gravity, compass, ambient light, proximity
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IP68/69/69K dust and water resistance, VC cooling system, Colors: Orange, Black, Golden White
Dimensions: 156.0 x 74.7 x 7.8 mm
Weight: 190 g
Price: PHP 28,999 (8GB/256GB), PHP 32,999 (12GB/256GB), PHP 37,999 (12GB/512GB)
Verdict
The HONOR 600 is a capable premium mid-ranger with the looks of an iPhone and the battery performance of a marathoner.
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with the 120Hz 1.5K AMOLED works in tandem to offer a smooth overall experience. While the SoC's NPU allows for much-improved AI gimmicks.
The handset features high-end build materials and design while carrying a massive 7,000mAh battery in a 7.8mm thin frame.
Its 200MP + 12MP rear cameras produce great images but struggle when zooming in low light. While the 50MP selfie camera is its most consistent in all lighting situations.
Our biggest concern with the base HONOR 600 is that when compared to similarly priced competition, the HONOR 600 lacks a dedicated telephoto camera. (such as the OPPO Reno15 5G, vivo V70, and the Xiaomi 17T)
It is a major upgrade from the HONOR 200 Series and a minor update from the HONOR 400.
Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4.0
Performance - 4.0
Average - 4.125
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