As with the HONOR 200 Lite, the connection with the numbered series of the new product is less than with the “budget” X series, or more precisely, with one specific model, the HONOR X8c. The HONOR 400 Lite can be called a variation on the same theme. This is a thin and light smartphone with a relatively large screen and the same cameras, but with a more powerful hardware platform and certain design solutions that refer to the “four hundredths”.
The price of the HONOR 400 Lite is slightly higher – let’s see to what extent the idea of a “designer” smartphone in the middle class works and how well the authors managed to balance the ingredients.
⇡#Specifications
⇡#Design
Unlike its predecessor, the HONOR 400 Lite does not have a case from a similar X-series representative. Yes, the key things are the same: flat edges, uniquely thin frames for a flat screen, due to which the dimensions are preserved, an oval cutout for the front camera. But it is impossible to confuse the smartphone with the HONOR X8c.
The rear camera unit is made in the shape typical for the HONOR 400 series – a triangle inscribed in a square. The design code of the series has been preserved. Although yes, here one of the three windows is occupied by a flash, and there are only two cameras.
HONOR 400 Lite, front panel: at the top in the center is an oval hole for the front camera and flash; above, under the edge, is the speaker
The back cover is made of matte plastic, not artificial leather – here I can’t say that the more expensive model has an advantage, after all, even the hard, clearly “plastic” eco-leather of the HONOR X8c looks and feels more interesting. However, the HONOR 400 Lite is pleasant to the touch in any case – the surface is velvety and not too slippery.
HONOR 400 Lite, rear panel: block with two cameras and flash
But the main thing is that the dimensions are still different: the HONOR 400 Lite is slightly thicker than the HONOR X8c (7.3 versus 7.1 mm, not counting the protruding camera block – which, by the way, does not protrude that much), but at the same time it is even lighter (171 versus 173 grams). And yes, compared to almost any competitor, the HONOR 400 Lite is noticeably thinner and lighter, the main trump card of the model works. At the same time, I will not say that it is very comfortable to hold the smartphone in your hand – because of those same flat edges with “chopped” ribs, the case slightly digs into your fingers and palm.
HONOR 400 Lite, left edge without functional elements
HONOR 400 Lite, right edge: power key, volume control/camera shutter key and additional key for operating the camera
The colors are calm: velveteen gray (like the one we tested), velveteen black, and velveteen turquoise. I couldn’t figure out why it was velveteen – it has nothing in common with the texture of this fabric. The colors, as we can see, are calm, if not boring, and the HONOR 400 Lite doesn’t try to attract attention with its brightness.
HONOR 400 Lite, top edge: microphone
HONOR 400 Lite, bottom edge: SIM card slot, microphone, USB Type-C port, speaker
The most unusual thing about the appearance of the HONOR 400 Lite is the additional key, located on the same edge as the two classic hardware buttons. Its shape (flat, almost recessed) makes it seem like it is a fingerprint scanner placed in a separate element, but this is not the case – the fingerprint sensor is located under the screen. And this key simply stands out with its shape to make it easier to find by touch. A single press on it turns on the camera, a long press calls up the Google Lens tool. In the camera app, this key is responsible for releasing the shutter – and it is interesting that the lower part of the volume control key can also perform the same function. It also responds to a swipe gesture – this way you can change the zoom in the camera app (but doing this by touching the virtual icons with focal lengths is still easier than moving along the scale). It is also interesting that you cannot change the functions of this key, but you can adjust the pressure (so that in your pocket, for example, the camera does not turn on from light touches).
This key ultimately brings the HONOR smartphone closer to Sony devices, which have been offering a camera button in exactly the same place for many years. It does not change the perception of the smartphone, but the tool is convenient – instantly turning on the camera from the locked screen is definitely easier than swiping from the corner, and even more so than first unlocking the device and then looking for the icon of the desired application. Of course, the manufacturer links this key to AI in its press materials (nowadays everything that can be linked to a hype topic), but in fact, it has nothing to do with the built-in neural network functions, except for “Google Lens”.
HONOR 400 Lite in a complete case
The smartphone comes with a transparent silicone case.
⇡#Software
The HONOR 400 Lite has Android 15 OS with the MagicOS 9 shell. We are already familiar with it both in its “full-size” form on the HONOR Magic 7/Magic 7 Pro, and in a stripped-down form on the HONOR X8c. Interestingly, the shell installed on the HONOR 400 Lite has its own characteristics (although globally it is close to what we saw on the “eight”).
Compared to the previous version of the shell for HONOR smartphones, MagicOS 9 is characterized primarily by a fresh system for creating wallpapers for the desktop and lock screens. The security system has also been updated (which is typical for all smartphones on Android 15, however), the capabilities of the Magic Capsule panel have been slightly expanded, and the interface appearance has been updated in places. The number of available AI functions has been increased compared to the HONOR X8c – a built-in translator has been added to the application recommendation service (“Smart Recommendations”) and the Magic Portal fast content transfer service, including in real time (works with both text and sound). There are also a couple of image processing tools: an AI eraser that erases elements from the image at the user’s request, and an AI extension, with which you can, on the contrary, “finish drawing” the image, expanding its boundaries.
The system works quite fast – definitely faster than on the HONOR X8c, but this concerns the interface as a whole. In some applications, the smartphone begins to noticeably slow down – for example, in the camera application it may lag slightly when switching between focal lengths or take quite a long time to process photos. The system takes up 12.1 GB of memory.
The fingerprint scanner is built into the screen sandwich. The sensor is optical, quite standard — moderately sensitive, works quite stably and relatively quickly. It is located close to the bottom edge of the display, but due to the fact that the smartphone is compact and light, it is not too scary to grab it in your hand. There is no tactile confirmation of operation. The user identification system is supplemented with facial recognition using the front camera.
⇡#Display and sound
The HONOR 400 Lite has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2412 × 1080 pixels, with a pixel density of 394 ppi. The refresh rate is 120 Hz.
The refresh rate is adjusted in steps — this is not an LTPO panel (and the smartphone class does not allow for such a development, in fact) — in the range from 60 to 120 Hz (in video — 60 Hz, I was unable to notice a decrease to 30 Hz). In games (at least in CoD Mobile and PUBG Mobile), the increased frequency is not supported. The PWM frequency is 3840 Hz, that is, flickering is not annoying at all, even the most sensitive and picky users should not feel anything.
The display takes eye protection seriously – it has a set of functions typical for the brand’s older smartphones, such as support for circadian rhythms (when the gadget adjusts color rendering depending on the time of day) and the ability to set a schedule for activating the warm-tone mode.
The measured maximum brightness level (under artificial light) is 816 cd/m2, and the level of dynamic brightness achieved in the sun is declared to be enormous – 3500 cd/m2. Apparently, the smartphone produces values at least close to that – in the sun the screen does not lose its properties at all.
In addition to the aforementioned eye protection and brightness settings, you can also set a “smart resolution” (so that depending on the conditions of use, the smartphone itself decides in what resolution to display the picture – as a rule, it keeps the resolution at the maximum level, here it is Full HD+), activate the e-book mode (warm monochrome picture), adjust the font size, activate a light or dark interface theme, and change the color rendering. You can choose between two profiles (“normal” and “bright”) with the ability to adjust the color temperature for each of them. I measured the color rendering in two preset profiles with the default color temperature.
HONOR 400 Lite, gamut in vivid color rendering mode. Yellow line – HONOR 400 Lite indicators, dotted line – reference gamut
HONOR 400 Lite, color temperature in vivid color rendering mode. Blue line – HONOR 400 Lite indicators, dotted line – reference temperature
HONOR 400 Lite, color gamut in vivid color mode. Gray triangle – DCI-P3 coverage, white triangle – HONOR 400 Lite coverage
By default, the HONOR 400 Lite screen operates in the bright color rendering mode. The color range in this mode is even wider than the DCI-P3 standard. The average gamma level is slightly below the norm – 2.16. The color temperature is noticeably increased – the curve is at 7,500 K (with a reference value of 6,500 K). The average deviation for the extended Color Checker palette (grayscale + wide range of color shades) is 4.47 with the upper limit of the norm at 3.
HONOR 400 Lite, gamut in normal color rendering mode. Yellow line – HONOR 400 Lite indicators, dotted line – reference gamut
HONOR 400 Lite, color temperature in normal color rendering mode. The blue line is the HONOR 400 Lite’s readings, the dotted line is the reference temperature
HONOR 400 Lite, color gamut in normal color rendering mode. Gray triangle – sRGB gamut, white triangle – HONOR 400 Lite gamut
In the normal color rendering mode, the color space narrows to the sRGB standard, the picture warms up, although the gamma is about the same (2.18). The temperature is slightly lower than the standard, which is 6,500 K. The average DeltaE deviation for the Color Checker palette is 1.45, which is already completely within the norm. In this mode, the HONOR 400 Lite display demonstrates extremely accurate color rendering.
The HONOR 400 Lite lacks an analog audio jack, and this is already the norm. Moreover, there is a mono speaker here – another detail that makes the smartphone similar to the HONOR X8c. But the hardware platform is MediaTek, that is, there is no support for the aptX profile when transmitting data via Bluetooth (here – version 5.3) (sometimes it is also found on MediaTek solutions, but this is not the case).
⇡#«Iron and performance
The HONOR 400 Lite is built on the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra hardware platform. A relatively rare chipset these days, which we have only seen once before – on the HONOR X9c Smart.
MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra consists of eight computing cores: two ARM Cortex-A78 with a clock frequency of 2.5 GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 with a frequency of 2.0 GHz. The non-standard PowerVR IMG BXM-8-256 accelerator with a clock frequency of 900 MHz is responsible for graphics. The technological process is conditional 6 nm (TSMC). The instruction set is ARMv8.2-A.
This platform is newer than the Qualcomm Snapdragonn 685, which is installed on the HONOR X8c, but it is not very powerful. For example, it does not support the latest versions of the Vulkan API – tests from our standard 3DMark Wild Life package simply do not run. Yes, the numbers allow it to stay in the general group against the background of its predecessor and some competitors, but, for example, in games it is impossible to achieve more than 60 frames per second, and demanding projects in terms of graphics (like Genshin Impact) work well only at low graphics settings. I already wrote above about the not very fast interface.
In terms of heat dissipation/cooling, the HONOR 400 Lite is more or less OK – in the CPU Throttling Test, we see a decrease in frequencies by slightly less than 18%. The case heats up slightly.
The smartphone is available in Russian retail in a single version in terms of memory capacity: 8 GB of RAM (LPDDR4x) and 256 GB of non-volatile memory (judging by the test results, UFS 3.1 is a pleasant surprise). There is no memory card slot, the RAM can be expanded using a storage device.
⇡#Communications and wireless communications
The HONOR 400 Lite can accommodate two nano-SIM operator cards. The manufacturer does not specify the speed of the LTE modem or the list of supported ranges, but the brand’s smartphones available in large retail stores in Russia never have problems with this, there is no need to worry, the connection is stable. I will add that there is also a 5G modem, but I could not find a list of ranges.
HONOR 400 Lite, dual nano-SIM card slot
The list of other wireless connections includes: dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac; Wi-Fi 6 is not supported), Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and a navigation module with support for GPS (A-GPS), GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo.
⇡#Camera
The HONOR 400 Lite has the same pair of cameras as the HONOR X8c – one with a resolution of 108 MP is responsible for the standard viewing angle, the second, at 5 MP, is responsible for the extended angle. There are no additional cameras (macro, auxiliary modules), such is the pleasant trend of the season with discarding the unnecessary.
The sensor used in the main camera of the HONOR 400 Lite is not specified, and I could not find reliable information on the Internet. It is only known that this is a Nona Bayer sensor with a resolution of 108 megapixels, which works with optics with an aperture of f / 1.75, equivalent to a focal length of 24 mm, with phase autofocus, but without an optical stabilizer (it was in the HONOR X8c). The wide-angle camera is also equipped with an unnamed 5-megapixel sensor and a lens with an aperture of ƒ / 2.2, with an EFR of 17 mm, without autofocus.
From left to right: shooting at a wide angle, with a standard focal length, with a double hybrid zoom and with a triple hybrid zoom
Despite only (“only”) two cameras, the range of available focal lengths when shooting is wide: two “optical” options (standard angle of view, EFR approximately 24 mm, extended angle of view, EFR approximately 17 mm) are supplemented by two “hybrid” – 2x and 3x – zooms. They are available due to the presence of a 108-megapixel sensor in the camera – a crop is applied to the image taken at maximum resolution, the picture is brought to mind during post-processing.
The most surprising thing is that the 3x zoom on the HONOR 400 Lite works… better! The picture is clearer, there are noticeably fewer distortions and traces of “finishing” objects. And this applies to shooting both in daylight and in the dark – the percentage of defects in the latter case is approximately equal for both versions of the “hybrid” zoom, but all other things being equal, the image is slightly less blurry with the 3x zoom. Although in low light the image quality drops significantly in any case, you can use the zoom at night, but, let’s say, without great expectations.
The main camera at night allows you to achieve a relatively sharp picture, but we still see traces of very active noise reduction, the optics glare a lot, the contour sharpness increases too much. However, there are problems with contour sharpness during daytime shooting – you can see how the smartphone is trying to please the user, but these efforts are too obvious. There are also questions about the dynamic range – there is not enough natural, and the gadget does not always manage to align the lights and shadows with HDR. Color rendition is relatively good, although sometimes the picture may seem oversaturated. White balance, as a rule, is set normally, and stably for all available focal lengths.
The wide-angle camera cannot boast of high-quality shooting: weak dynamic range, low detail (which is natural for a five-megapixel module), pale color rendition. At night, this module is practically useless – detail drops very sharply. But indoors with relatively bright artificial light, you can shoot with this camera.
On the left are photos taken at 12 megapixels, on the right at 108 megapixels
By default, the main module of the HONOR 400 Lite shoots at a resolution of 4000 × 3000, but you can turn on the Hi-Res mode and get shots in the maximum resolution for the camera of 12,000 × 9,000. An example is above. I note that here the increase in real detail is noticeable, but this is largely due to the fact that by default the image is too “over-sharpened”, while here the sharpness is already natural.
On the left – a snapshot in normal mode, on the right – in the night
Night mode is only available for the standard focal length and two zoom options. It works in a standard way for a modern smartphone: it stitches together frames taken with different exposures over several seconds, with subsequent refinement of the result. The brightness increases significantly, light sources are drawn more carefully (and do not turn into light spots), but the image becomes even more “oversharpened”. However, in this case, there is no reason to complain about this – the picture as a whole really improves. But the option to activate night mode for the wide-angle module is frankly lacking.
In portrait mode, three focal lengths are available (standard viewing angle, 2x and 3x zooms), there is artificial bokeh (with the ability to adjust the depth of field) and adjustable retouching. Focusing works correctly, the 2x zoom has the same complaints as the basic shooting format (not enough sharpness, the image is like plasticine). Blurring is done rather roughly, but I did not notice any critical errors.
There is a set of filters, quite original – they tint the picture differently and even add special effects like a “glare” from the sun’s rays in the corner of the frame. There are seven of them in total. Examples are above.
HONOR 400 Lite Camera App Interface
The camera app is typical for Magic OS, navigation is obvious – there will be no surprises for those familiar with Android devices. The set of modes is familiar: you can turn off HDR if you want (in fact, we are talking about additional AI assistance, I do not recommend turning it off – not only does the image saturation drop, but the dynamic range also drops), the “Pro” mode with manual settings, the ability to shoot simultaneously on the rear and front cameras, the ability to shoot video clips using specified templates (“History”) and a shooting mode with artificial bokeh of more or less any objects, and not just people in portrait mode (“Aperture”).
HONOR 400 Lite can shoot video in Full HD resolution at up to 30 frames per second. There is no option to switch between cameras – when recording video on the main module, you can activate a 2x zoom, but you cannot quickly switch to a wide angle (even though you can also record Full HD video on the wide-angle module). It is possible to shoot video with retouching in the same resolution. There is digital stabilization, quite effective, but in general, the smartphone does not shine in terms of shooting capabilities and video quality.
The front camera has a 16-megapixel sensor with a lens with an aperture of ƒ/2.5, without autofocus, but with a flash, which is located right next to the lens in a hole on the screen.
There is only one focal length available, there is a portrait mode (with artificial bokeh and retouching), you can apply filters (but outside the portrait mode). Video shooting is possible with the same parameters as on the rear cameras (Full HD 30p). The shooting quality is quite good, but it is curious that the less expensive HONOR X8c has a better front camera (resolution – 50 MP, higher shooting quality).
⇡#Offline work
HONOR 400 Lite has a traditional lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 19.87 Wh (5230 mAh, 3.8 V). It seems like good numbers, especially for a smartphone with a display that is not the largest by modern standards (6.7 inches – now even larger is accepted), but I can’t say that the gadget can boast serious autonomy. No, the smartphone will hold a charge for a day, but at the end of the day, the percentage in the icon on the status bar is not very encouraging.
In our traditional test with Full HD video playback at maximum brightness, with Wi-Fi enabled, the HONOR 400 Lite lasted only a little over 12 hours, which is a mediocre result for a smartphone with an OLED screen. Either the bright display has an effect, or MagicOS has some excessive appetites in terms of energy.
The USB Type-C (USB 2.0) port is used for charging, and the proprietary HONOR Super Charge fast charging system with a power of 35 W works, which allows you to fully charge the battery from zero in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Wireless charging is not supported, as is reverse charging.
⇡#Conclusion
The HONOR 400 Lite makes a rather strange impression. On the one hand, in its class it is one of the most attractive, thin and light smartphones – a kind of charmer that attracts attention regardless of the technical characteristics. In addition, it has a very bright (brighter than competitors) screen, built-in artificial intelligence (less than TECNO in their fresh CAMON 40 series, but more than other competitors), there is an additional (and not at all superfluous) quick access key to the camera.
At the same time, the smartphone is not just similar to the younger model HONOR X8c, but in some ways even inferior to it (front camera, less successfully configured 2x “hybrid” zoom, case with plastic coating instead of artificial leather, increased frequency is not supported in games). Yes, the hardware platform is more powerful, but not significantly, although the interface here works faster. However, against the background of competitors, who sometimes even offer optical zoom in this price range, it looks somehow poor. At the same time, we note that at the start of sales the price will be 26,990 rubles (according to the promotional offer) with HONOR CHOICE Headphones Pro headphones as a gift. That is, identical to the HONOR X8c – despite the fact that the new product is still a slightly higher level.
Advantages:
- Bright and well-tuned 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 120 Hz support;
- Thin and lightweight case;
- Good quality of shooting on the main camera, acceptably implemented three-fold “hybrid” zoom;
- Front camera with flash;
- Interesting features in the software shell, including those related to AI.
Disadvantages:
- No memory card slot;
- No mini-jack;
- A completely unremarkable wide-angle camera, poorly implemented 2x “hybrid” zoom;
- Video recording only in Full HD with 30 frames per second, the quality is not high;
- There are questions about the hardware platform;
- Games do not support 120Hz frequency;
- Monophonic speaker.