If you’ve noticed a lot of buzz about HONOR’s latest device, there’s a good reason.

Besides its hardware, many features, like the HONOR AI Portrait Engine and Studio Harcourt filters, make the HONOR 200 Pro a very strong contender in its segment—one of the better choices, I’d even say. As a whole, paired with its price, it offers great value, especially if you’re into photography.

HONOR 200 Pro Camera Specs

The HONOR 200 Pro is equipped with a triple rear camera setup comprised of a 50-megapixel main with the Super Dynamic H9000 Sensor, 50-megapixel telephoto with 2x optical zoom sporting a Sony IMX856 sensor , and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide that also doubles as a macro lens.

You’ve got another 50-megapixel Portrait selfie shooter in the front as well.

Optical image stabilization is available on the main and telephoto cameras, and you also have digital zoom up to 50x.

Studio Harcourt and HONOR AI Portrait Engine

Now, the big deal with the HONOR 200 series, particularly the Pro, is its partnership with the prestigious Studio Harcourt in Paris.

Personally, I think it’s what gives the HONOR 200 Pro that extra special sauce.

In my previous experience with HONOR phones, while they showcased quality photos technically, I wasn’t a fan of their color profile and baked-in post-processing. That’s where the partnership with Harcourt steps in.

The HONOR AI Portrait Engine is all about making your photos look professional with AI doing most of the heavy lifting.

The collaboration with Studio Harcourt means it was trained to edit your photos to look like they were shot professionally.

You can narrow down what it does to three things: AI Optical Effects Enhancement, AI Shadow and Light Enhancement, and AI Artistic Style Enhancement.

• AI Shadow and Light Enhancement: This feature adjusts the lighting and shadows in your photos, making sure your portraits look well-balanced and professional, even in difficult lighting.
• AI Optical Effects Enhancement: It improves the depth of field and background blur in your photos, making the subject stand out clearly and giving your portraits a high-quality look.
• AI Artistic Style Enhancement: This feature adds artistic touches to your photos by applying various filters and styles, allowing you to give your images a creative, professional look, whether it’s black and white or a cinematic style.

When you snap a photo, the AI instantly adjusts the lighting and shadows to achieve the perfect balance. Simultaneously, it enhances the depth of field and background blur and fixes colors as well.

And it was a whole process that involved more than 20 experts and was developed meticulously for about 400 days.

In a nutshell, the HONOR AI Portrait Engine takes care of three things: giving you natural-looking smart bokeh, color grading for a more refined look, and light, shadow, and facial enhancements. All done with AI.

The Real-World Result?

Easy, dramatic photos. The AI post-processing is very refined, especially in the right light. But even on-the-go, non-studio snaps look great, making these filters an easy go-to.

Harcourt Vibrant is the choice if you want to document the every day as it is. It’s the most natural-looking of the three. But if you want some drama in your photos, like I do, switch over to Harcourt Color.

You get a warmer photo with slightly less saturation but with the proper vibrancy. The vignette can be harsh at times, depending on the scene, but it’s probably not that noticeable to most.

But whatever color profile you choose, you’ll still be getting all the other benefits of the AI Portrait Engine, including that natural and soft background blur.

In most portrait modes I’ve used, the default bokeh is often dialed up too much, looking artificial. If you’re not technical, you might be put off by this, which is why I always recommend checking your aperture before shooting.

With the HONOR 200 Pro, I rarely had that problem.

Even outside the studio, I was very impressed at how the AI intelligently detects the background’s distance from the subject, resulting in a natural depth of field without needing adjustment.

It’s just unfortunate that you can’t adjust the blur level of the photo after taking it.

A missed opportunity, however, is the absence of these filters outside of portrait mode.

In regular photo mode, you’re back to the HONOR color profile, which I’m not a big fan of. I often switch to Natural from Vibrant. But if that’s not a dealbreaker for you, the HONOR 200 Pro really shines when it comes to clarity and versatility.

The 50-megapixel camera is fantastic at capturing fine details, making it perfect for all kinds of situations.

You’ll get the best results in bright light, with vibrant colors and sharp details. Plus, turning on HDR makes a noticeable difference by enhancing the dynamic range. Just check out these shots: with HDR, you can see the sky’s texture and colors, whereas without it, the sky turns into a washed-out white blob.

What you’ll be missing here is zoom. You get up to 50x digital zoom, but the quality is… well, very digital.

Optical zoom goes up to 2x, which still provides great detail and is the best lens for portraits because of the nice background compression compared to 1x.

Low light and Pro Mode

The Honor 200 Pro delivers impressive results in low light, especially when you switch to Night Mode.

In standard Photo Mode, the camera performs well, capturing detailed and well-exposed images with accurate colors. However, Night Mode enhances this further with better balance between lights and shadows as well as better noise reduction.

On the flip side, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera shows its weaknesses in low light. It struggles with softer images, noticeable noise, and reduced detail compared to the main lens.

While the Honor 200 Pro’s primary camera impresses after dark, Night Mode is essential for getting the best results. Moving past that and looking at the system overall, the HONOR 200 Pro is commendable for photography. Unexpectedly, the 12-megapixel wide lens is the weakest—a common issue for similar setups. This, in particular, has a more limited field of view but less detail loss and edge distortion.

The dual 50-megapixel shooters, along with behind-the-scenes post-processing, will handle most of the work if you decide to get this phone.

I’ve said this before: if you put “Pro” in the name of a device, it should ideally fit into a pro workflow.

Testing out Pro mode, I’m happy to report that we do have RAW support.

Obviously, shooting RAW does mean more noise when shooting at higher ISOs, but it was easily reduced in post-processing. Dynamic range is respectable and there is room to save your highlights and shadows.

Beyond cameras

Normally, I stick to just talking about the cameras in reviews because usually, if it’s a camera-focused phone and not a flagship, there are some trade-offs.

But I’m really happy to find out that the HONOR 200 Pro isn’t just a one-trick pony. Its performance as a daily driver has been pleasantly impressive, so I wanted to share my favorite things about it and how it provides great value.

First, it’s a performer. While it technically isn’t an upgrade from the HONOR 100 Pro, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the better choice for AI processing.

Generally, it’s still a speedy phone that can handle all the daily tasks with ease. Editing photos or creating layouts in Canva didn’t cause any slowdown, and I could tick off my to-do list faster.

No issues with social media, and it can also game! Granted, I’m not a heavy gamer, but if you want to put in some hours, the HONOR 200 Pro can keep up to a certain extent.

Battery life is commendable. I used the HONOR 200 Pro during a race weekend. I had three phones with me, and only the HONOR 200 Pro didn’t need a mid-day top-up.

Even if it did, I’m super happy with its charging speeds, both wired and wireless. You’re really getting a lot for its price. Competitor-wise, there are a few, that match it on paper, at least, but the HONOR 200 Pro stands on its own.

Looking at specs, I’d suggest the HONOR 200 Pro for its portrait capabilities. The Harcourt filters are honestly gorgeous. While not an all-scenario feature, they’re something you can use both casually and professionally.

The HONOR 200 series includes the HONOR 200 and the HONOR 200 Pro. Both are available in select markets around the world. In Singapore, the HONOR 200 is available in two variants with a starting price of S$799 while the Pro is priced at S$799. In the Philippines, you can get the HONOR 200 base model for PhP 24,999 while the Pro variants sits pretty at just PhP 29,999.