Verdict
A very impressive budget handset, the Honor 200 Lite doesn’t cut too many corners and offers a solid Android experience.
Pros
- Good battery life
- Big display
- Decent cameras
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Large displayThe 6.7-inch AMOLED screen is a treat at such an affordable price point, especially with a FHD+ resolution. -
Great priceAt just shy of £200, the Honor 200 Lite is certainly affordable. -
Solid battery performanceThe 4500mAh battery and power-efficient chipset means the Honor 200 Lite can comfortably last all day, if not a little longer.
Introduction
The Honor 200 Lite is a budget phone with mid-range aspirations, and it doesn’t cut too many corners to bring the price down.
It feels like it wasn’t long ago that there was a distinct wall between budget phones and those wanting to offer a little more bang for your buck, but in recent years we’ve seen things shift. Now you can get 5G, slim, genuinely stylish phones with larger screens for a fraction of what they used to cost, and the Honor 200 Lite is a great example of how far we’ve come.
This sleek handset comes in at under £200, but still offers a big display, decent battery life, 5G, and a nice design that belies its lower price tag. Add to that the inclusion of Android 14 and you’ve got a great out-of-box experience that could be ideal for a family member or even for enterprise.
When reviewing cheaper models, like a Moto G34 5G or Moto G54 5G, you find that they sacrifice plenty to hit a price point while still offering 5G, and I’m pleased to say that’s not really the case here.
Design
- Three colour options
- Matte back and smooth sides
- Lack of waterproofing or headphone jack
The Honor 200 Lite is as good-looking a phone as you’re likely to find in this price bracket. Not only are each of its three colours nice to look at (this is the Cyan model, but Black and Starry Blue are available as alternatives), but it feels premium in the hand and drastically lighter than my iPhone 15 Pro Max daily driver at a rather lightweight 166g.
It’s got a single, colour-matched rail around the outside, with a USB-C port at the base and a mono speaker grille, as well as a SIM slot on the left.
On the back, its three cameras and flash are raised from the chassis and buffered by a subtle edge that matches the chassis, and the back itself has a matte texture that makes it easier to grip. It does tend to highlight fingerprints in certain lighting conditions, however.
There’s no headphone jack, so you’ll need Bluetooth cans, and there’s no mention of any kind of dust or water resistance either, so be careful when near a pool or at the beach.
That latter point is worth noting because we dinged the Nothing CMF phone for similar reasons, but even that had an IP52 rating and a modular design that perhaps led to not offering more protection. It feels like there’s no real excuse for there being no kind of dust and water resistance here.
Another very minor gripe is that the sleep/wake button sits almost entirely flush to the side of the phone, meaning in trying to unlock it as I took it out of my pocket, I found myself hitting the volume rocker instead. If you’re using it for longer than a review period of a few weeks, though, I’d imagine it’s something you’ll soon get used to.
Screen
- The large AMOLED display is big and bright
- Bezels aren’t too thick, but aren’t as slim as others either
- No HDR, mono speaker
It’s hard not to be impressed by the large 6.7-inch screen, which other manufacturers tend to match size-wise but not in terms of display technology.
Rather than a cheaper LCD panel at a ‘just about HD’ resolution, the Honor 200 Lite packs an AMOLED panel that has a 2412×1080 resolution for impressive sharpness and clarity.
It gets bright, too, at 1200nits, and Honor’s very vibrant MagicOS 8 Android skin helps accent that. Even in challenging lighting conditions, it’s easy to read what’s on the screen, and has a refresh rate up to 90Hz to boot.
It might not be the 120Hz offered by some competitors, but it’s the jump from 60Hz that remains most noticeable anyway. Sadly, there’s no HDR support, which is a shame.
The bezels are fine for a phone at an affordable price point, and I’d rather have them a little thicker than coming at the cost of the vivid AMOLED display tech. It’s not quite the show-stopper of the TCL 40 Nxtpaper with its matte display, but it’s certainly better than the majority of screens in this price range.
As with any review, however, I’m disappointed we only get a mono speaker. Sound is muddy at the best of times, and with the display being so large and ideal for watching a movie or TV show, it feels a shame to not have another speaker at the top. Still, you can’t have it all for under £200.
Cameras
- Three cameras; 108MP Main, 5MP Ultrawide, 2MP Macro
- Low-light images are solid
- The front camera has portrait mode, but it lacks nuance
There’s a triple-lens camera setup on the back of the Honor 200 Lite, so you get a 108MP main snapper, 5MP ultrawide and 2MP Macro. I’m still not entirely sure why companies persist with macro, but it’s OK here; I’ve seen better, but I’ve also seen much, much worse.
What surprised me was the amount of detail the main camera could capture. It’s clear that Honor is making good use of all those megapixels, especially with pixel-binning tech at play to boost the overall quality of the image. Look at the picture of the Destiny figurine, for example, with a ton of detail and intricate sculpting captured on his shoulder pads.
Another pleasant surprise was the low-light photography. It’s not as nuanced as you’d find on a flagship, tending to overexpose ever so slightly from where I’d consider the sweet spot, but I’m still impressed even though it comes at the cost of some detail.
Selfies are fine, too, delivered by a surprisingly high-res 50MP sensor, although I didn’t see a whole host of differences from the portrait to the standard front-facing camera options.
Performance
- 8GB of RAM
- Benchmarks lower than some rivals
- Not built for gaming, but does offer 5G
Sadly, it’s in the performance department that we start to see some of the corners cut to hit the Honor 200 Lite’s budget price point. It’s not that it’s a slow phone, powered by the Dimensity 6080, but it’s weaker than some of its rivals and that might put you off playing games on it.
I was able to enjoy Marvel Snap, for example, but even with the 90Hz refresh rate, I can’t see myself jumping into more demanding titles like Wild Rift.
Thankfully, it handles multitasking well with the usual offenders like Gmail, Google Calendar, and YouTube. That could be due to the 8GB of RAM which, while not monstrous by any stretch, is certainly a step up from cheaper 5G handsets that hover between 4GB and 6GB RAM offerings.
As the benchmarks show, however, the numbers definitely underwhelm compared to similarly-priced models. For most people, that’s unlikely to be a problem; you likely aren’t buying a modestly priced phone to act as a dedicated gaming machine, but if you are looking to do something a little more demanding, you may need to wait until you get home and boot up a laptop or tablet instead.
Software
- Running Android 14
- Some bloatware
- Colourful overlay from MagicOS 8
The Honor 200 Lite runs Android 14 while also incorporating Honor’s own MagicOS 8.
That does lead to a few unwanted bloatware ‘usual suspects’ like Facebook, Booking.com, TikTok and AliExpress, but on the flip side, it does give the whole UI some nice colour, incorporating an Apple-esque dynamic island at the top of the screen and giving access to all the Play Store has to offer.
I also really like the small screensaver options that come up when the device is asleep and you tap the screen, and there are plenty of options for how you want to navigate, too, including the classic Android trio of buttons at the bottom of the screen.
It should get a little better too, with Honor committing to two Android OS upgrades that’ll take the budget smartphone through to Android 16. It’s not exactly the Pixel’s seven-year promise, but it’s not too bad for a phone at this price point.
Battery life
- Average charging times
- 35W charging speeds
- Expect a day and a half with normal use
The 4,500mAh battery in the Honor 200 Lite isn’t anything particularly impressive, but combined with the power-sipping Dimensity 6080, it’ll easily run you through a day and a half if you’re not gaming or poking at it too much, and with those modest performance benchmarks, it’s unlikely you’ll be doing much of the former.
The battery can’t be removed, and there’s no wireless charging so you’ll be using USB-C at 35W.
It’s not glacially slow, but it’s not particularly fast when compared to some of the fastest charging phones around, though it’s still a decent return for a handset in this price range – as long as you can source an Honor-branded charger, anyway.
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Should you buy it?
You want a 5G phone with a big screen
The 6.7-inch AMOLED display is a big improvement from rivals with LCD panels.
You want the best performance possible
The Honor 200 Lite’s Dimensity 6080 doesn’t cut it for more demanding tasks, even compared to other budget options.
Final Thoughts
A big bright 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, decent cameras headed by a pixel-packed 108MP snapper and a really nice, lightweight design have all helped the Honor 200 Lite become one of our favourite affordable 5G devices around.
While we’d have liked a little more power under the hood and a stereo speaker in place of the mono offering, it remains a great pickup as a second phone for work, or for a loved one.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
No, there’s no official dust- or water resistance on offer, so we’d be careful at the beach or near pools.
Honor has committed to two OS upgrades and three years of security patches for the Honor 200 Lite.
