After the delightful experience of reviewing the Oppo Find N5 folding phone, we return to reality with a new device from Honour, a brand known for its number-oriented series. This time, we’re focusing on the Honor 400 Lite 5G.
Without further delay, here’s an unboxing video for you to enjoy:
Now that you’ve seen the unboxing, it’s time for our comprehensive 360-degree walk-around of the device.
Starting on the right-hand side, we have a volume rocker button, below which sits a sleep/wake/lock/unlock and power button.
Below that, we have a camera launch button, which also doubles as a zoom control when in the camera app. If long pressed, this will trigger a visual search via Google Gemini.
Moving down to the bottom of the phone, we’ll find the USB Type-C 2.0 port, the dual SIM design SIM card slot, and the speaker grill, which is the only external speaker. There’s also a pinhole microphone down here.
On the left side, we have nothing at all. It’s completely clean, not even a single antenna brake line.
Moving around to the top, we have a solitary pinhole mic and that is it.
Our front panel boasts a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2412 x 1080 and a PPI of 394. It can reach a maximum brightness of 3500 nits at its peak settings. The screen to body ratio is 89.9%, and the aspect ratio is 20:9. Additionally, the screen supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which can be adjusted through the settings. However, I don’t believe it will go down to as low as 1Hz, as this is not an LTPO panel.
On top of the display, we have a camera cutout, which features Honor’s Magic Capsule, which I will talk more about in the software section.
Above this, you have a very small earpiece slit which houses the earpiece but sadly no other speaker.
Behind the camera module, we find a 108 megapixel wide-angle camera with an aperture of f/1.8. Alongside this, we also have a 5 megapixel ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, and a single-tone LED flash.
There is no wireless charging on the back panel, and there is also no MagSafe mounting.
In terms of material, the back feels like it could be metal, but I believe it is plastic or a glass-plastic composite.
One interesting point to note is that when the torch is turned on, there’s significant light bleed from the left and right edges, as well as the bottom of the back panel. This suggests that the plastic glass composite I mentioned is being used. However, I’m leaning towards this being plastic, given the phone’s price point.
An error I made in the unboxing video is that I said this phone didn’t have an IP rating. This is incorrect, as it does have an IP64 rating and is also SGS five-star certified for water resistance and drop protection.
When the phone drops, it will be available in three colours: Marrs Green, Velvet Black, and Velvet Grey. Here’s the Marrs Green version.
This phone is running Android 15 out of the box with Honour Magic Os 9.0 on top. I’m reviewing the 256GB storage and 8GB RAM version, but it’s also available with 12GB of RAM and the same storage (in other markets, not the UK).
I was able to do a quick charging test on the Li-Po 5230 mAh battery, and using my Anker GAN 67w charger, I was able to get a full charge from 0 to 100% in 1 hr 37 mins. This was apparently using the Honor Supercharge protocol, as that was being displayed on the phone throughout. This should have allowed the phone to charge at 35w. I will continue to experiment with this as I have some Honour-branded chargers in the house somewhere!
Specs
| Honor 400 Lite | ||
| Dimensions and Weight | Height | 161 mm |
| Width | 74.55 mm | |
| Depth | 7.29 mm | |
| Weight | Approx. 171g (including the battery) | |
| Display | Size | 6.7 inches |
| Colour | 16.7 million colours, 100% DCI-P3 | |
| Type | AMOLED | |
| Resolution | 2412*1080 | |
| Gestures | Multi-touch gestures, up to 10 touch points supported | |
| Processor | CPU Model | MediaTek Dimensity 7025-Ultra |
| CPU Type | Octa-core | |
| CPU Dominant Frequency | 2xA78 2.5GHz + 6xA55 2.0Ghz | |
| GPU | IMG BXM-8-256 | |
| Keyboard Type | Gestures, Three keys, Navigation dock | |
| Features | Magic Lock Screen/Magic Portal/Magic Capsule/AI Translate/ HONOR Notes/HONOR RAM Turbo/Multi-window/Dark mode/eBook mode/HONOR Share/ Shrotcuts&gestures/APP Twin/Device Clone/Backup&restore/One-handed mode | |
| System | Operating System | MagicOS 9.0 (Based on Android 15) |
| User Interface | MagicOS 9.0 | |
| Memory | 8GB+256GB | |
| Camera | Rear Camera | 108MP Main Camera(f/1.75)+5MP Wide&Depth Camera(f/2.2) |
| Rear Camera | Video Shooting | Support up to 1080P video shooting |
| Focus Mode | Up to 10x digital zoom | |
| Image Resolution | Support up to 12000*9000 pixels | |
| Video Resolution | Support up to 1080*2520 pixels | |
| Capture Mode | Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, PRO, Aperture, Multi-video, Slow-Mo, Panorama, Time-Lapse, Watermark, Stickers, HIGH-RES, Story, Scan Document, HDR, Moving Photo, Highlights Capture, Capture smiles, etc. | |
| Front Camera | 16MP Camera (f/2.45), Selfie Light | |
| Image Resolution | Support up to 4608*3456 pixels | |
| Video Resolution | Support up to 1080*1920 pixels | |
| Video Shooting | Support up to 1080P video shooting | |
| Capture Mode | Photo, Video, Portrait, Watermark, Stickers, Multi-video, Moving Photo, Capture smiles, Mirror reflection, Gesture control, etc. | |
| Face Recognition | Support 2D Face Recognition | |
| Battery | Capacity | 5230 mAh (typical value) |
| Type | Li-ion Polymer Battery | |
| Wired Charging | Support up to 11V/3.2A super charge | |
| Standard Charger | 35W HONOR SuperCharge | |
| Water and Dust Resistance | IP64 | |
| Cellular Network | Network Standard | 5G NR |
| 4G LTE-FDD/LTE-TDD | ||
| 3G WCDMA | ||
| 2G GSM | ||
| SIM Card | SIM Card 1 | Nano SIM card |
| SIM Card 2 | Nano SIM card/eSIM | |
| Connectivity and Location | WLAN | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz | ||
| Wi-Fi Hotspot | ||
| Wi-Fi Direct | ||
| Bluetooth | BT5.3 | |
| Others | Support OTG | |
| USB: USB Type-C, USB 2.0 | ||
| Positioning | GPS/AGPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo | |
| Network-Based Positioning | ||
| WLAN-Based Positioning | ||
| Sensors | Gravity Sensor | |
| Fingerprint Sensor | ||
| Compass | ||
| Ambient Light Sensor | ||
| Proximity Sensor (Ultrasonic approach, non-physical approach sensor) | ||
| Media and Audio | Video | *.3gp, *.mp4, *.webm, *.mkv |
| Audio | *.mp3, *.mid, *.amr, *.awb, *.3gp, *.mp4, *.m4a, *.aac, *.wav, *.ogg, *.flac, *.mkv | |
| In the Box | 1) Phone (battery included) x1 | |
| 2) Quick Start Guide x1 | ||
| 3) HONOR SuperCharge x1 | ||
| 4) Type-C Cable x1 | ||
| 5) Eject pin x1 | ||
| 6) Warranty Card x1 | ||
| 7) TP protective film x1 (Attached on the phone before delivery) | ||
| 8) TPU Protective case x1 | ||
| Colours | Velvet Grey, Velvet Black, Marrs Green |
Quick thoughts
Having used the Honour 400 Lite for a few days now, I can say that it falls firmly into the lower end of the current smartphone market. This is perfectly acceptable, as it aligns with the intended market.
However, there are a couple of shortcomings that I’ve noticed.
The most significant ones are the single loudspeaker setup and the lack of wireless charging. While these features are not uncommon in high-end or high-priced devices, they are still a downside for this phone.
The performance can also be a bit slow at times. However, this may be due to the fact that the phone is currently running on pre-release software, as it is not officially launching until the end of the month.
Despite these minor flaws, if you’re looking for a low-cost entry-level smartphone with good battery life and reasonable charging speeds, then the Honour 400 Lite might be worth considering.
I’ll provide a more detailed review in the future, after I’ve had a chance to use the phone for a bit longer.
