Honor, a spinoff of Huawei, calls its new 200 Pro smartphone “the portrait master,” but what does this mean in terms of specs and features?
The mid-range smartphone is available in various international markets but not officially in the United States. However, it’s still worth looking closer when a mobile device arrives with such ambitious promises. The “portrait master” sports a triple-camera array, which has become fairly standard and has wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras.
The 50-megapixel main camera has a Type 1/1.3 image sensor and f/1.9 lens. The image sensor is called an H9000, which is reported to be a customized OmniVision chip. It has optical image stabilization and can do pixel binning to improve low-light performance, increasing the effective pixel size from 1.2 to 2.4 µm.
Honor calls its main camera the “portrait camera,” which slightly differs from some portrait-oriented smartphone setups that rely on telephoto cameras for the fancy portrait modes. Honor collaborates with Studio Harcourt, a 90-year-old global portraiture specialist, for its portrait mode, citing “timeless style.”
The device has different Harcourt modes, including vibrant, color, and classic, which simulate various lighting effects and looks.
These modes and others are powered by AI, with Honor saying it learns individual faces to enhance and fine-tune lighting on the face digitally.
There are also AI-enhanced Night Portraits, which incorporate AI to blur the background and preserve accurate colors in challenging low-light conditions.
Next is the 50-megapixel telephoto camera, which sports a stacked Sony IMX856 sensor. It is a Type 1/2 sensor (eight millimeters diagonally) and has 0.8 µm pixels.
The ultra-wide camera rounds out the trio. It has a 12-megapixel chip and an 112-degree field of view.
Overall, the Honor 200 Pro embodies a surprisingly classic look. Between the circular edges around the camera module, flowing designs on the back of the device, and Studio Harcourt inspiration, the Honor 200 looks quite distinct from its peers.
There are modern features here, too, including a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 series processor and a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate.
However, despite being dubbed “the portrait master,” it’s not immediately evident that the Honor 200 Pro breaks the mold with its photographic features. It doesn’t include an especially large image sensor and early reviews, like this one from WIRED, cite inconsistency in the artificial bokeh. That said, the Studio Harcourt looks are pretty nice, and apparently “fun to play with,” but overall results are mixed.
The Honor 200 Pro smartphone is available now in various markets, like India and the United Kingdom, and its price works out to around $900. Complete details and purchasing options are available on Honor’s global website.
Image credits: Honor