Honor 400 Review: A Mid-Range Phone Overshadowed by AI
The Honor 400 is a solid mid-range Android smartphone priced at £400, and on paper, it checks nearly every box. From its powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip to a massive 200MP camera and long-lasting battery, the hardware is hard to fault. But in the age of generative AI, Honor seems more interested in pushing artificial intelligence than showcasing what actually makes this device special. If you’re searching for a reliable and affordable phone in 2025, the Honor 400 should be on your list — but you may need to look past the AI hype to appreciate what’s truly here. This honor 400 review dives into performance, design, camera, and where AI hits — or misses — the mark.
A Closer Look at Honor 400’s Performance and Hardware
Under the hood, the Honor 400 is a powerhouse for its price range. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset brings consistent speed and fluid multitasking to the table, even under heavier app loads. Whether you're browsing social media, editing photos, or streaming videos, the performance feels snappy and reliable. Honor has paired this with a generous battery that easily stretches into a second day of use, a major win for users who need longevity on a single charge.
Storage and RAM configurations are standard for 2025 mid-range devices, with enough memory to handle everyday usage and light gaming without bottlenecks. There’s also the promise of multiple years of software support, keeping the phone updated and secure — something many buyers prioritize in this segment. While it competes directly with the likes of the Pixel 9a and Samsung’s Galaxy A-series, the Honor 400 offers solid value, especially for those who want flagship-like features without the flagship price tag.
Design and Camera: A Step Back from Honor’s Identity
What once made Honor stand out — thoughtful design language and standout camera experiences — now feels dialed down. Compared to the bolder design of the Honor 200 Pro or the polished feel of the Magic 6 Pro, the Honor 400 looks... normal. There’s nothing wrong with it, but nothing particularly exciting either. It blends into the crowd of matte backs and rectangular camera bumps seen across mid-tier Androids.
Camera-wise, the 200MP lens sounds impressive — and in good lighting, it performs well with detail-rich images and solid dynamic range. But unlike previous models that had a focused camera identity (such as portrait expertise), the Honor 400 lacks a defining strength. Night mode and ultrawide shots are average, and while AI enhancements exist, they don’t drastically improve the experience. More disappointingly, Honor’s hyped image-to-video generation AI feature isn’t even available on the base Honor 400 — it's reserved for the more expensive Pro variant, making the advertised innovation feel like a bait-and-switch for budget buyers.
Honor’s AI Push: Innovation or Marketing Distraction?
The honor 400 review would be incomplete without touching on Honor’s heavy AI messaging. In 2025, AI is everywhere — and Honor is trying hard to ride that wave. Unfortunately, in the Honor 400, that effort feels more like a distraction than a breakthrough. AI features exist — from photo editing to basic text summarization — but they’re not unique, and often, they don’t outperform what Google or Samsung already offer in their similarly priced devices.
More frustratingly, the one feature Honor touts as a headline — the ability to generate short videos from static images — is missing from this base model. It’s available only on the Honor 400 Pro, despite being central to the marketing message. This creates a disconnect between what’s promised and what’s delivered, which may leave users feeling misled. If AI is the future, this phone doesn’t quite feel like it’s living in it — at least not fully.
A Solid Phone That Deserves to Be Seen Beyond AI
In summary, the Honor 400 is a very competent smartphone that delivers where it matters most: performance, battery, and camera quality. It’s a fantastic choice if you’re looking for a budget-friendly Android device in 2025. However, Honor’s insistence on positioning AI as the phone’s unique selling point ends up doing the opposite — it overshadows the phone’s strengths and misleads on capabilities not actually present in the base model.
The Honor 400 doesn’t need to reinvent itself with AI to be great — it already is, for the price. But in trying to market it as an AI powerhouse, Honor risks hiding the very value proposition that makes this phone worth buying. This honor 400 review suggests that if you want a no-nonsense, well-rounded smartphone and are willing to skip the AI gimmicks, the Honor 400 still shines in the essentials.
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