The Honor 400 Pro surprised us with its AI capabilities, and the newly announced Honor 600 Pro is taking it even further this year. If you can look past the obvious similarities to another smartphone, this device offers some nice upgrades both in the hardware and software department.
In fact, Honor is trying to bill it as an “accessible flagship”. We suppose this is in reference to their more expensive Magic8 Pro flagship device at S$1,499.
Not only does this new “flagship” run on Qualcomm’s 2025 Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, but the Honor 600 Pro also comes with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage.
But do these upgrades justify the new S$1,099 price? Let’s find out.
Looks… familiar
Flat sides, finally.
Photo: HWZ
Unlike the Honor 400 Pro, Honor has decided to draw inspiration elsewhere, with a very familiar design for this phone. We’ll skip debating the ethical aspect of whether such a blatant copy of a competitor’s design is right or not, but we do have to admit that we like how the phone feels in the hand, thanks to the flatness of the sides, the back and screen.
There’s also no denying that orange colourway is quite nice, even if it does make it resemble the iPhone 17 Pro series even more.
Aside from that, you’ll notice the ultrawide camera is in an oval-shaped housing, which does provide a bit more uniqueness.
Large and bright display.
Photo: HWZ
The 6.57-inch AMOLED display is nice and flat, with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a max brightness of 8,000-nits. Colours pop on this display, and the high max brightness means text is legible even under bright afternoon sunlight.
The AI button on the side is a nice trickle-down feature from the Magic8 Pro, and it’s customisable for short press, double press and long press, so you can map three different software activations.
If the AI button can open the camera, why not other apps too?
Photo: HWZ
Just like before, it essentially lives up to its name by mostly activating AI features or the camera. We’d love for Honor to allow us to open useful third-party apps with the button.
The phone does come with IP68, IP69 and IP69K dust and water resistance, which we would expect from a smartphone crossing the S$1,000 mark.
Even more AI-generation capabilities
Running on Honor’s MagicOS 10 skin of Android 16, most of the AI features on the 600 Pro are similar to last year’s 400 Pro (Knuckle Circle, Deepfake call detection, Magic Portal).
Image to Video, Freestyle template
We managed to score an exclusive interview with Batman and Iron Man! Or did we? Disclaimer: AI-generated.
Photo: HWZ
However, the Chinese company has dived even deeper into the AI-generation pool, with different templates and the ability to use up to three images to generate AI content with text prompts.
Previously the Image to Video feature wasn’t compatible with text prompts either, but now we have the ability to customise the output in some templates.
There are also new templates to play around with, whether it’s simply to simulate camera movements or actually merge images and subjects together in one video. We wonder when Dr. Vijay’s interview with Iron Man and Batman will be coming out.
Imaging performance
No, it’s not the other brand’s phone.
Photo: HWZ
The Honor 600 Pro gets a triple camera array similar to its predecessor, and the cameras are:-
- 200MP main camera, f/1.9 aperture, 1/1.4-inch sensor, and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and EIS
- 50MP telephoto camera, f/2.8 aperture, 120x digital zoom, OIS
- 12MP ultrawide camera, f/2.2 aperture
The portrait mode also retains the Harcourt filters, but we shot predominantly on the standard profile across the different photo modes.
The cameras do very well in brightly lit conditions, with great detail and accurate colour temperatures. Colourful images pop, with good saturation and vibrancy while not being too exaggerated.
Detail is preserved well at the 3.5x optical zoom length, although 7x zoom images tend to start getting a little fuzzy when you pixel peep.
The phone actually manages to brighten up low light environments quite well, although it struggles a little with detail when strong light sources come into the picture and the phone has to figure out how to handle the starkly different light levels in the foreground and background.
We did notice that the coffeeshop actually appeared completely blown out on the phone’s preview when we were taking the photo, and while there are still some blown out signboards, the end result is nowhere near as bad. So feel free to trust the phone when taking shots in dark situations.
Ultrawide images do have a bit of distortion, but you can easily fix that in post-processing. Colours are also relatively consistent when changing between the main camera and ultrawide, which is good.
Portraits taken with the phone are great. Even in challenging situations, the phone generally does a good job of evening out harsh lighting while ensuring the subject looks good. There’s also minimal skin smoothening, which means skin textures and colours look accurate and natural.
Benchmark Performance
The Honor 600 Pro might not be using the most recent flagship processor, but the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite is still a powerful option. We’ll be pitting the phone against its predecessor, as well as against flagship-lite options and other devices in the same price range.
The details on how we benchmark Android phones can be found here.
The choice of processor clearly affords the phone a bit more power, with it being able to keep up with competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and the Google Pixel 10. The real test will be when Xiaomi’s 17T series launches, and we’ll be waiting to see how these two phones match up.
Aside from that, however, the phone runs smoothly during daily use and can handle graphically intensive games like Where Winds Meet for the most part. The phone does heat up quite a bit under load, with internal temperatures reaching up to 45°C when benchmarking and fast charging.
We did notice a bit of stuttering in Where Winds Meet when the phone was hot, and we were fighting a large number of other players. Other phones we’ve tried have also encountered similar problems, although none have heated up quite as much as the Honor 600 Pro.
Battery Life
Our battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life, with results shown in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage, such as web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing, and more. The test starts at 100% and ends with 20% left on the device.
Battery life in minutes
Photo: HWZ
The huge 7,000mAh silicon-carbon battery inside translates to excellent battery life, and it’s a noticeable improvement from the 400 Pro.
Silicon-carbon batteries have really started to come into its own, with noticeably longer battery uptimes like we’ve seen in the Xiaomi 17 and OPPO Find X9 Ultra. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see even more breakthroughs in terms of battery life in the near future.
There’s 80W wired Honor SuperCharge charging, as well as 50W wireless charging, although you’ll need to purchase Honor’s own wireless charging puck for that. We managed to charge the phone from empty to 50% in 28 minutes and a full charge only took 63 minutes.
Conclusion: A sign of things to come?
A S$200 price increase is painful.
Photo: HWZ
The Honor 600 Pro is not the first smartphone to receive a price hike in 2026, and we reckon it won’t be the last either. What makes it notable is that it’s getting a S$200 price increase compared to its predecessor, while other brands have tried to limit their price hikes to S$100 or S$150.
While it’s not unexpected, considering the recent instability and surge in memory prices, the increase is more than what most of us would expect. Hopefully, this is a one-off incident rather than a warning sign of more significant price hikes.
This blow is softened somewhat by the fact that Honor is offering a rather attractive pre-order package that includes a S$100 rebate, a free Honor Pad X8b, 365-day front screen crack replacement and a 2-year warranty for people who pre-order between now and 29 April 2026. Honor says this package has a value of S$640.
So if you’re planning to get this phone, you’ll want to get it during the pre-order period to get the most bang for your buck.
However, we’re hard-pressed to figure out who might really be the phone’s target audience. If photography is your priority, the Xiaomi 17 with its Leica cameras, newer processor, and better performance costs just S$150 more. Furthermore, the Xiaomi 17T Pro should be on its way soon.
If you absolutely must have an Honor phone, it might even be worth topping up S$400 to get the Magic8 Pro instead, since that’s a true flagship device. Admittedly, S$400 is quite a lot, but it gets you the latest processor, considerably better performance, and even faster 100W charging. It might well be worth it if you intend to keep the phone for a long time.
If you find the price tag too high, there are suitable options in the sub-1000 price range too, such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE that can be found online now for as little as S$700 or S$800. It’s a versatile option that does everything decently well, and if you want a jack of all trades, it can be worth considering if you’re on a budget.
But if you want a phone that has excellent battery life, can charge rapidly at 80W wired, takes excellent portrait photos, and can fool people into thinking it’s the latest iPhone, the Honor 600 Pro ticks all those boxes.
Below is a quick table detailing these alternative options and prices.
| Phone | Processor | RAM + Storage | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honor 600 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite | 12GB RAM + 512GB storage | S$1,099 |
| Xiaomi 17 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 12GB RAM + 512GB storage | S$1,249 |
| Honor Magic8 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 16GB RAM + 512GB storage | S$999 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 FE | Exynos 2400 | 12GB RAM + 512GB storage | S$1,098 |
Honor 600 Pro pre-order, pricing, and availability details
You’ll probably have to put up with your friends ribbing you for your phone’s design.
Photo: HWZ
The Honor 600 Pro will be available in Orange, Golden White, and Black, and retails at S$1,099 for the 12GB RAM + 512GB storage model. Pre-orders run from 22 April to 29 April, with general sales starting from 30 April 2026 onwards.
Pre-orders made between now and 29 April 2026 for the Honor 600 Pro will receive a S$100 rebate, a free Honor Pad X8b, 365-day front screen crack replacement and a 2-year warranty.
Pre-orders will be available at the Honor Online Store, Honor Experience Stores and official flagship stores on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, as well as authorised retailers and telcos such as Singtel, M1 and StarHub.
If you miss the pre-order, fret not because there will still be launch promotions happening from 30 April to 31 May. As part of the launch promo, you still get a S$100 rebate, 365-day front screen crack replacement, and a 2-year warranty. But the free gift will now be a Honor Watch X5i instead of the Honor Pad X8b.
