Honor 600 Pro review: questionably familiar looks, undeniable performance

Honor's number-series phones attempt to find the balance between flagship performance and affordable pricing, nestling themselves in between upper mid-range phones and lower-tier flagships. We were quite impressed with last year's 400 Pro, and now, its successor has arrived.

The Honor 600 Pro has adopted a very different look, and it's not hard to figure out where the inspiration came from. It also sports a more premium finish, with matte aluminium side rails, rather than a plastic frame.

There's a healthy upgrade to a more powerful chip, a bigger battery, and a brighter, flatter display, with slimmer bezels. When it comes to the cameras, though, the changes are quite subtle. Is this phone worth considering? Or can you save yourself some money and grab last year's instead? Let's find out.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Honor 600 Pro is only available in one configuration in the UK, with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It carries an MSRP of £899, which puts it in competition with the likes of the Xiaomi 17, Google Pixel 10, and Samsung Galaxy S26.

However, there's a promotion running to celebrate the launch, which knocks a whopping £200 off the asking price. With that discount applied, the phone is competing against the likes of the Xiaomi 15T Pro and base model Pixel 10.

As usual, it won't be launching in the US, but availability is broad elsewhere. It's available to order now via Honor's official store and through third-party retailers like Amazon.

Design

Honor has taken the design of the 600 Pro in a very different direction. While the previous generation featured soft curves on all sides, the latest model has a flat front and rear, with boxy, squared-off side rails.

The camera bump also looks very different, and now spans the top of the phone, mimicking the iPhone 17 Pro's style. Something is off about this version, though. The dimensions make it look a little squished, and the elongated ultrawide lens looks weird, too.

The Pro model comes in Golden White (pictured) or Black, while the standard model adds a very iPhone-like Orange. The colour choices are nice enough, but the similarities with Apple's latest are just a touch too far, in my opinion. Honor shouldn't feel like it needs to copy Apple to get attention, and yet, at a glance, 99% of people will see this phone as a cheap iPhone knockoff, which is a real shame.

Otherwise, the build is decidedly more premium than last year. Honor has ditched the plastic frame, and you now get matte aluminium sides that are immune to fingerprint smudges. I can't quite tell what the rear panel is made from, but it also has a smudge-free matte finish, and the camera platform has a more glossy translucent finish carved from the same material.

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The Honor 600 Pro has the usual power button and volume rocker on the right-hand side, but this model also gets Honor's "AI-button", a lot like the one we saw on the Magic 8 Pro a few months back. However, while it might look the same at a glance, this one isn't quite so advanced.

The AI Button on the 600 Pro is just a button; it's not sensitive to swiping like the Magic 8 Pro's button or Apple's Camera Control. You can use it to take a photo, but it's not a two-stage button, so there's no half-press to focus. Still, I like buttons, and this is a handy way to open your favorite app or snap a quick photo, so I appreciate the inclusion.

The phone now boasts IP69K dust and water resistance, on top of the IP69 rating from last year. The ratings essentially mean the same thing, but the "K" testing is even more stringent. In real life, it means this phone will probably survive an accidental trip through the dishwasher. SGS also rated it 5-stars for drop and crush resistance, so it should be able to take a beating.

Display

As mentioned, the screen is now flat, with no micro curves at the edges, and the bezels are much slimmer, too. Honor claims they're less than a millimetre thick, and they're symmetrical the whole way around, which makes for a super premium look. The cutout for the selfie camera is also much smaller, now a typical circular punch hole, rather than a pill shape.

Honor claims an astonishing 8000 nits peak brightness for this panel, but I'd take that number with a grain of salt. All that matters is that it can get very bright, and it's easy to see in bright sunlight. Otherwise, you get all the usual flagship display perks, including a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, deep inky blacks, and rich vibrant colours. It just looks great.

Camera Performance

The Honor 600 Pro has a very similar camera setup to its predecessor. You still get an impressive 200MP main camera with a 1/1.4-inch sensor, and a slightly less impressive 12MP ultrawide camera. This time, though, the 3x telephoto has been replaced with a 3.5x, so you get slightly more optical reach.

All three of the rear lenses have autofocus, but only the ultrawide has macro capabilities. It's not my favourite setup, I much prefer using the telephoto for macro shots, but in fairness, you can still get decent close-ups with that lens if you digitally crop to 7x or higher.

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As for the selfie camera, it has the same specs as the previous generation. It takes very decent snaps, and Honor's skin tones have improved a lot, but it still lacks autofocus. So you'll need to stand in the sweet spot to get the best snaps, and group photos might not look as crisp.

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I haven't been the biggest fan of Honor's image processing in years past, but something has changed recently. The Honor Magic 8 Pro felt like a turning point, with more accurate colours and less extreme sharpening.

I'm happy to report that those positive changes have all made their way to the 600 series, too, and I really enjoy the default look of the images. There are also loads of filters and film simulations to play with, and they make it easy to give your photos a more stylised look. My only gripe is that beautification is enabled by default, so you have to remember to turn that off if you don't want your portraits looking unnaturally smooth.

The excellent Studio Harcourt-backed portrait mode effects also make an appearance here, and I still love the look - especially the moody black and white option.

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Overall, I have been quite impressed with the Honor 600 Pro's photographic abilities. Photos look excellent in the daylight, and while this phone might not quite match the Magic 8 Pro for low-light snaps, it still does well, especially with the main camera.

It's really only the ultrawide that lags behind the other lenses. It's not awful, but the smaller, lower-resolution sensor doesn't resolve nearly as much detail as the other cameras. It's especially noticeable in darker scenes.

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When it comes to video capture, the Honor 600 Pro can shoot at up to 4K 60fps on the main camera and telephoto, and 4K 30fps on the others. I was a little disappointed in the lack of 4K 120fps recording, as we're starting to see that more from rivals like the Vivo X300 FE and Xiaomi 15T Pro. There's also no Log profile, despite the phone having a Pro Video option.

That said, videos taken with this phone look pretty great. The stabilisation is decent, and autofocus is reliable. So, as long as you keep your expectations in check, you're in for a good time.

Phone Performance

Following in the footsteps of the Honor 400 Pro, rather than using a current-gen mid-range chip, the Honor 600 Pro opts for last year's flagship instead. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and while it might not be the latest and greatest, it's still overkill for the majority of users.

This time, it's paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, along with Honor's largest vapor chamber to date. In tandem, these components provide an excellent experience for power users. No matter if you're editing large 4K video files, multitasking, or playing games at the highest graphical settings, the Honor 600 Pro can handle it all.

After using it for the past week, I have no complaints about the performance. It feels super quick, no matter what you're doing with it, and it handled a Wuthering Waves session at max settings without any issue. It does heat up when you're pushing it that hard, but it doesn't become uncomfortable to hold, which is all you can really ask for.

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The 600 Pro runs Honor's latest software, Magic OS 10, which is a very heavily customised version of Android 16. Matching the outside of the phone, there's a lot of Apple influence in the software, too. Some elements have Liquid Glass-like styling, there's a Dynamic Island clone, and the default layout is very similar to iOS.

Where Magic OS differentiates itself is with the customisation. If you browse through the theme options, you can make the system look completely different. So, if you're not feeling the default aesthetics, you can change them completely with a few taps.

There are also boatloads of AI features to play with, including all the usual writing assistance, translation, and transcription tools. One of the most interesting additions is Image to Video 2.0. This tool is powered by Google, and it's debuting on the Honor 600 series before anywhere else.

It's similar to the Image to Video feature that debuted with last year's Honor 400 series phones, but this updated version supports multiple images, custom prompts, and also generates audio. The app gives you a selection of starting points, but there's also a freestyle option where you can enter whatever prompt you want.

It's definitely more of a novelty feature than something that you'd use for content creation, but it's a lot of fun. The output can be very unpredictable, and my friends and I had a great laugh generating bizarre videos of each other.

The problem is that this isn't really an Honor feature, so while it may be available on the 600-series first, it'll likely come to other phones in the near future. And even more importantly, it's not free. I don't have exact details on pricing, but Honor will give you 10 free uses per day for the first 3 months, then you'll need to pay Google for any additional slop generation.

The Honor 600 Pro has a sizable 6400 mAh battery inside, and the battery life has been pretty fantastic throughout my testing. I can easily go a day and a half between charges, and if I'm careful, it's possible to squeeze two days from a charge.

It also charges very quickly. It supports up to 80W speeds with a wire, and 50W wirelessly. There's no charger in the box, though.

Overall, my experience with the Honor 600 Pro has been quite positive. The OS has some really handy features, and the performance from the 8 Elite chip is as impressive as ever. The only real downsides are that there's a lot of bloatware preinstalled when you first set the phone up, and the battery optimisation has a habit of killing your background apps. But both can be remedied with a bit of tinkering.

Final Verdict

The Honor 600 Pro is a great all-rounder that's equally adept at gaming, productivity, and image creation. I'm not a big fan of the looks, but it feels premium and well-built, and it comes with a gorgeous display, a sizable battery, and speedy charging.

Whether I can recommend getting one all comes down to the pricing. At the full-price MSRP of £899, the competition is stiff. You can currently get the Xiaomi 17 for less than that, and it's a better phone in almost every way.

However, at the discounted launch price of £699, the Honor 600 Pro is a great deal, with better specifications than competitors like the Pixel 10. In that case, it's a much more compelling option.

Alternatives

Vivo X300 FE

The Vivo X300 FE offers a similar set of features at a similar price, but it has a more compact size, and the cameras are a little more consistent. If the Honor 600 Pro appeals, it's well worth checking this one out, too.

Xiaomi 17

The base model Xiaomi 17 comes in at a similar price to the Honor 600 Pro, but it has a newer flagship chip inside, a much better ultrawide camera, and more advanced video options.