Honor 400 Smart 5G review: what €199 gets you in 2025

Harriet L. Whitmore • August 24, 2026 06:42

With premium smartphones constantly stealing the limelight - devices that do almost everything well - it’s easy to forget that the other end of the market can be surprisingly capable too. Of course, you have to judge their strengths and weaknesses in the context of the price. That’s exactly what we’ve done with the Honor 400 Smart 5G, sold for €199.

Which Honor handset do you think has been the biggest in-store hit in 2025? The jaw-dropping foldable Magic V5, the gifted Magic 7 Pro, or the near-indestructible Magic 7 Lite? According to a few snippets of information picked up from inside Honor, it’s none of those. This year, it’s the Honor 400 family that has ended up in the most homes.

In that line-up, you’ll find the Honor 400 released in May, the 400 Lite unveiled this summer, and the “baby bear” of the range: the 400 Smart 5G launched in September. In truth, the success isn’t so surprising. Like its Asian rivals Xiaomi (notably with the Redmi Note 14 5G) or Samsung with its A17, Honor is increasingly aware that sales volume is usually made at the affordable end.

Sold in a single configuration (6/128 GB), with 5G, at €199, the Honor 400 Smart squeezes the idea of value for money as tightly as possible. Better still, it sometimes appears on operator deals, dropping to around €150. When you compare that with smartphones costing over €1,000, the gap is staggering.

Operator discounts regularly push it below €150 - a huge gulf compared with flagships priced north of €1,000 at the top of the food chain. That led us to a simple question: in late 2025, edging towards 2026, what can a phone at this price actually do?

Where the Honor 400 Smart 5G holds up

A safe, all-purpose design

You don’t really expect an entry-level phone to be bold or eccentric. What you do want is a build that feels solid and trustworthy. That’s largely what Honor delivers with the 400 Smart. Despite its sizeable footprint (166.9 × 76.8 × 8.4 mm, 206 g), it sits nicely in the hand thanks to balanced weight distribution.

Naturally, you won’t find premium materials here. Even so, Honor makes a smart choice by pairing the plastic back with a tasteful matte finish that feels pleasant to the touch. The downside is that it can pick up fingerprints, though we’ve seen far worse at this price. The camera module is neatly assembled without any awkward overhangs, so the phone stays steady when laid flat on a table.

A large, smooth 120 Hz display

At this price, compromises are inevitable, and the screen is one of them. You’re looking at a fairly basic LCD panel in HD+ (720 × 1610 pixels) stretched across 6.77 inches. As one of the most expensive components in any smartphone, the display is a logical place for Honor to save money.

Unless you’re planning to run the most demanding Play Store games or do serious photo editing, it’s perfectly adequate for everyday use. You never feel as though you’re staring into a mush of pixels.

What really lifts the experience is the pairing of this large panel with a refresh rate that can reach 120 Hz. Scrolling feels smooth, which is particularly nice for idling on Instagram - where a Samsung Galaxy A17 tops out at 90 Hz.

To top it off, peak brightness is good enough for comfortable outdoor use, even if reading under bright summer sun remains tricky.

Connectivity: it ticks the boxes, but…

Below €300, connectivity often gets stripped back to the basics, and the Honor 400 Smart 5G follows that pattern. Still, it covers the essentials: 5G, responsive Wi‑Fi 5, and stable Bluetooth 5.1 for using true wireless earbuds. USB‑C 2.0 does the job for moving a few photos to your computer, and face unlock is quick, even in low light.

On the audio side, there’s no 3.5 mm headphone jack - a throwback that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G still includes. The single bottom-firing speaker is serviceable, as long as you don’t block it in landscape and you keep volume to around 60% or less. Push higher and distortion and crackling start to creep in.

A welcome surprise is IP54 certification for dust and splash resistance, which is reassuring if you’re prone to accidents. The setup would have been close to ideal if Honor had allowed a microSD card alongside the two nano‑SIM slots - something the Samsung A17 does offer. As it stands, you’ll often need to sort through photos or remove rarely used apps to avoid filling the modest 128 GB storage too quickly.

Where the Honor 400 Smart 5G shows its limits

Performance that won’t set the world alight

The Honor 400 Smart 5G makes no attempt to masquerade as a performance powerhouse. Its Snapdragon 6s Gen 3, paired with 4 GB of physical RAM that can be virtually expanded to 6 GB, focuses on the fundamentals: scrolling social media, watching YouTube, checking email, starting a Netflix series, or browsing the web. For these most common tasks, it does what you need - without random crashes or truly frustrating slowdowns.

That said, you’ll want to regularly close apps running in the background, because multitasking isn’t its strong suit. Once you pile up more than about seven apps, smoothness begins to wobble. For example, the camera app may take around 3 seconds to open.

When you ask more of it - gaming, for instance - the story is similar. You’ll need to keep expectations grounded and conditions favourable. With its Adreno 619 GPU, simple 3D games are playable, but don’t be too ambitious.

Big-name titles such as Genshin Impact or Asphalt 9 are out of reach. They’re either impossible to install or become unplayable after 20 minutes due to heat and frame-rate drops. In this particular contest, the Redmi Note 14 5G stays ahead.

Cameras: more show than substance

At first glance, if you don’t know the Honor 400 Smart 5G, it’s easy to assume that - for the price - it’s well equipped, with four rear “sensors” lined up on the back. In reality, it’s an illusion.

Only two are genuinely functional: a 50 MP main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, plus a 2 MP auxiliary lens for depth in portrait shots. The other two elements are a LED flash and a dummy module that exists purely for looks. You can see why Honor wanted the camera island to appear visually consistent, but it’s a slightly questionable approach.

Fortunately, in daylight, the 400 Smart can produce usable photos. The centre is sharp, and the colours - a touch pale - still reflect what you see with the naked eye fairly honestly. However, you do need to keep still: the slightest movement quickly erases detail and fine texture. You’ll notice it around the edges when shooting on the move.

At night, you’ll need to be rigidly steady. Noise becomes visible as soon as the light drops, and computational smoothing can’t fully hide the sensor’s shortcomings. Detail disappears, dynamic range remains limited, and many areas look hazy.

To get shots that are worth keeping, you’ll want to stay close to city lighting. As for portraits, the unpredictable bokeh is a long way from the Harcourt-style portraits of the 2024 Honor 200 Pro.

Where the Honor 400 Smart 5G shines

Battery life: it reflects Honor’s know-how

With less demanding screens and processors, budget smartphones tend to be naturally efficient. The 400 Smart doesn’t reinvent endurance, but it does exceed expectations. Thanks to its generous 6500 mAh battery, it’s clearly designed with longevity in mind.

In practical terms, even with fairly heavy everyday usage (social media, web browsing, a bit of YouTube and audio streaming), we averaged close to two full days away from a charger. If you lock the refresh rate at 120 Hz, battery life dips slightly, but it still comfortably gets you through a busy day.

As for charging, there’s no mains plug in the box, but the 400 Smart supports up to 35 W with a compatible charger. Expect roughly 45 minutes to reach around 50%, which is handy. Getting to 100% takes longer, though - a little under 2 hours.

A brief introduction to on-device AI

AI shouldn’t be reserved only for people buying expensive phones. Honor seems to agree, because the 400 Smart 5G includes practical AI tools. It starts with a dedicated AI button on the side, giving you one-press access to common activities.

On top of that, you can interact with Gemini by holding the power button, use the “Magic Eraser” to tidy up photos, and rely on “Magic Capsule” to show certain information on-screen. Yes, premium-phone owners may smirk at this, but Honor deserves credit for not ignoring the feature set entirely.

Another major advantage is Honor’s promise of six years of Android updates and security patches. That matters in this price bracket, where only Samsung tends to match that commitment. Shipped with MagicOS 14.0 on Android 15, the Honor 400 Smart 5G could, in theory, receive updates up to Android 21 around 2031. The modest SoC will likely be a limiting factor by the end, but the effort is still worth recognising.

So, what is the Honor 400 Smart 5G worth?

Reviewing an entry-level smartphone is a delicate exercise - especially if you’re used to devices that cost two or three times as much. You have to judge it through the lens of the price, and adjust expectations accordingly.

With that in mind, the Honor 400 Smart 5G comes across as a straightforward, honest device. Its huge battery, large 120 Hz screen, and solid build are real positives. It also helps that Honor includes a few basic AI tools and backs the phone with 6 years of software support.

Even so, €200 still demands that you know what you’re buying. The modest processor and underwhelming camera hardware will frustrate gamers and casual photography fans. For web browsing and social media, Netflix, a few snapshots, or simple 2D games, it’s fine - but you’re sticking to the essentials. If that matches your needs, the Honor 400 Smart 5G is a pragmatic pick, and it can also make sense as a good deal for a teenager or an older user.