HONOR 200 Lite Review

We think that the company that made an inexpensive smartphone has given up some features to keep the price low. Some of these things must be present: an old design, a bad screen, or weak hardware. But lately, even in the cheap range, companies have been putting out the most well-balanced gadgets.

The HONOR 200 Lite 5G is the youngest phone in the brand’s new line, and it’s already available in Russia. This smartphone is small and light, and it has an AMOLED screen that is great for taking pictures. We find out what else is interesting about it in the review.

Specifications

Equipment

The kit comes with a cord, directions, and a 35 W power source in addition to the smartphone. The kit doesn’t come with a case; you’ll need to buy one separately.

Design

Apple started the trend of making phones with flat screens and sides, which is what the HONOR 200 Lite has. The case on the phone is only 6.8 mm thick, it weighs 166 g, and it fits nicely in your hand. The back panel is made of plastic and has a shimmering surface.There are three shades of the HONOR 200 Lite: Midnight Black, Ocean Blue, and Blush Blue.

The camera block is square and has three lenses and a flash. There is a hole in the screen that makes the front camera look like it has two lenses. However, the second part next to it is actually a flash. There is no “chin” on the frame around the screen; it is thin on all sides. It is best to keep the smartphone away from water and dust since it doesn’t have those built in.

Screen

The HONOR 200 Lite has an AMOLED screen that is 6.7 inches across the width. The screen shows colors naturally, with a blue tint that doesn’t turn blue like some IPS screens do. Full HD+ is the resolution. The lighting of the screen is just right so that you can read the picture even when it’s directly outside. You can choose between normal and bright modes or set the color temperature by hand in the settings.

The screen frame rate is 90 Hz, which is speedy enough to show what’s going on the screen while scrolling and in other situations. The PWM frequency is 3240 Hz, which means that there is almost no flashing and your eyes won’t get tired even if you use the device for a long time.The oleophobic layer makes it easy to clean the screen of fingerprints and other dirt.

Other features include:

• Circadian mode support. Turn this feature on and the colors will become warmer — automatically reducing blue light in the evening and at night will allow the body to better prepare for sleep. This option is available in all the latest smartphones from HONOR.
• Automatic brightness control. Adapts to the surrounding lighting for comfortable use of the gadget even in complete darkness – the light will not blind your eyes, you will not disturb anyone with brightness and will save battery charge longer.
• Always On Display. A standard feature for all AMOLED displays, but in this case it is a bit cut down: it works for 10 seconds and turns off.

Performance

The HONOR 200 Lite is based on the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chip, which can handle 5G. It works well enough for using social networks, messaging apps, and directions without any problems. A great example of how to do simple things.

Things aren’t clear when it comes to games. High levels and 50 frames per second are stable for PUBG Mobile and Honkai: Star Rail. In Genshin Impact, you need to turn down the image settings all the way to the lowest level to play without freezing. We get 429,586 points on the AnTuTu test, 773 points on Geekbench Singlecore, and 2076 points on Geekbench Multicore.

The phone comes with 8 GB of RAM, and the built-in memory can be used to add another 8 GB. Even though this isn’t real RAM, it still speeds things up.

Camera

The HONOR 200 Lite has a full camera system with three lenses: a main camera with a normal focal length, an ultra-wide-angle camera for taking panoramic pictures, and a module for taking close-up pictures.

During the day, the main 108 MP camera gets pictures that are clear and full of details. You can get a 2x or 3x zoom for photos with bokeh. There is no optical picture stabilizer, but the white balance works fine. When there isn’t enough light, the quality of the photos goes down, but when you switch to night mode, noise is almost invisible and the level of clarity doesn’t change much. To get a good picture at night, you’ll need to hold the phone still for a second or two.

The 5MP ultra-wide-angle camera gets clear shots of the whole scene, but the edges are fuzzy. When it’s daylight, the pictures are good enough.

The 2 MP macro camera is more like more affordable models, but you can only shoot things that are 4 cm away. Even though there is no focusing, the shots are still good enough.

This phone is called the “portrait master,” and it’s a good one. Its 50 MP front camera takes great pictures even when there isn’t much light. The camera instantly changes between a 1x zoom mode and a 0.8x zoom mode for pictures and group shots. It doesn’t have autofocus, but the shots are fine: lots of details and skin tones that look realistic. In this area, the HONOR 200 Lite easily beats most of its rivals in this price range.

Video can be recorded on the phone in 1080p at 30 frames per second. There are no 2K or 4K versions available. This is because the processor isn’t very strong. The movies are still clear, with lots of contrast and true to life colors, even though there is no stabilization.

Play sound

Only one speaker can be used for stereo sound on the smartphone. The MediaTek processor is to blame for the lack of support for the aptX codec; only Qualcomm chipsets support aptX. Other than that, there are no problems with the sound quality. At high volumes, it doesn’t wheeze, and the bass can be felt but doesn’t get in the way of the sound.

The phone doesn’t have a normal 3.5 mm audio jack, which might not seem like a big deal when reviewing high-end phones but isn’t for this mid-range model. On the other hand, Bluetooth lets you connect wireless headphones to the phone.

operating system

The phone uses MagicOS 8 on top of Android 14 to make it work. There aren’t any ads, and almost no apps come pre-installed.

The Magic Capsule is one of the highlights. When a timer goes off, a call comes in, or a voice player starts recording, the animation will show up in the front camera area. Parallel place is another feature that lets you make a second place that is hidden and protected with a password.

The phone works with Google services, like Google Play. You can also get apps from the company’s AppGallery shop or from RuStore, which is Russian for AppGallery.

Battery life

The phone’s battery life is 4500 mAh, which is a little less than most cheap electronics. The battery life stays high, though. You won’t need to rest until the evening.

With 35 W of power, fast charging can fully charge the battery in 51 minutes. It will take a little more than an hour to fully charge. It’s not possible to charge wirelessly.

Additional features

The smartphone works with the NFC module, but not with e-SIM, which is a small problem for a brand-new device in 2024.

VoLTE lets you make fast calls over 4G with great sound quality and less power drain. It also works with VoWiFi. With this technology, you can make Wi-Fi calls and use your cell phone without any problems.

The power button on the side of the gadget has a fingerprint reader built right in. There is also a compass, an accelerometer, a face detection sensor, and a proximity sensor on the phone. It does not have a ToF sensor.

Does the HONOR 200 Lite smartphone have any competitors?

Yes, there are quite a lot of them, including smartphones from the company’s line. For example, the HONOR X8b, which we have already reviewed. They are both compact, have good battery life and the same screens. But the HONOR 200 Lite wins thanks to a more recent version of the operating system and a modern processor. The smartphone confidently occupies its niche in the middle segment and can even become one of its leaders.

Pros:

• Compactness
• Bright AMOLED display
• High autonomy
• One of the best front cameras in the price segment
• Good processor performance
• Stylish design
• Interesting feature of Magic Capsule

Minuses:

• Does not support memory cards, a 3.5 mm audio jack, e-SIM
• Video shooting is only available in 1080p format, with no stabilization for photo and video shooting
• There is no dust or moisture protection