Everyone loves a good David vs. Goliath match-up, and thanks to the newly launched Honor 400 Pro, we have the opportunity to have a camera shootout where this mid-priced phone goes up against the toughest opponent the smartphone world can muster.
At £700, the Honor 400 Pro is roughly equivalent to Samsung's Galaxy S24 FE, which sells for $649/£649/AU$1,100. But to really give the 400 Pro a challenge, I instead opted to bring the $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,150 Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung's top phone for photography right now, and our top pick of the best camera phones you can buy today.
This isn't as weird a comparison as you may think. The Honor 400 Pro has a very similar camera loadout to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with a 200MP main camera, 50MP 3x optical zoom camera, 12MP ultrawide camera and 50MP selfie camera. While the Honor 400 Pro lacks a second telephoto camera like the S25 Ultra, these are still remarkably similar specs for a phone almost half the price.
More to explore with the Honor 400 series, and we'll go through those in a review at a later date. But right now, let's see how much of a fight it puts up against a more expensive and better-equipped component.
Main Camera
It's a strange start with this shot of the entrance to a brick building. The Honor 400 Pro's image is weirdly bright, even after me picking out one of the darkest shots of the ones I took.
It doesn't degrade the image's level of detail, but compared to the more natural-looking Galaxy S25 Ultra, it looks off. We don't see this kind of color processing in the Honor 400 Pro's other photos, so it's either a fluke or something to do with the 200MP main camera specifically. Either way, the Honor's tripped over and given Samsung an easy win.
Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra
Ultrawide
In this shot of a church and its yard, and putting the difference in zoom level aside, we have two good images to look at this time. So far, so good.
The Samsung take on the scene is more saturated, whereas the Honor has focused on brightness. Given the state of the weather on the day I took these photos, the Honor's view of the scene is much more honest, while also showing off the old stonework at its best.
Winner: Honor 400 Pro
3x Zoom
This first of two telephoto tests is at a zoom level where both phones get to use a dedicated zoom camera. But having the right lens is only the start.
Pointing the phones at this town sign, the Honor has more color and more detail. While the Samsung’s image looks brighter, the sign itself is darker and quite grainy, which is not what you need in a photo like this.
Winner: Honor 400 Pro
5x/6x Zoom
Here's the place where the two phones’ camera set-ups differ. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a dedicated 50MP 5x telephoto camera, whereas the Honor 400 Pro uses its 3x camera with some digital zoom to create a lossless 6x image.
This snapshot of a cat I happened to pass on my travels is roughly the same level of detail in both phones' shots, although you can see more in the S25 Ultra's version, likely because of the native zoom level. But it's hard to see the difference unless you zoom in further, making the Galaxy S25 Ultra's win only a slim one.
Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra
Selfie
We wrap things up with a selfie-off. And it’s immediately obvious that the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s image is brighter, helping rescue the darker parts of the image from obscurity, while the Honor 400 Pro leaves them in shadow.
Honor's selfie camera output is a slightly higher resolution than the Samsung’s, with the option to go even higher if you want more detail. But as it stands, this image is weaker in terms of contrast, making fine elements like my hair harder to differentiate from my skin in places.
Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra
Verdict
And so, Samsung remains control of the top spot on our best camera phones guide. But I didn't put it up against the Honor 400 Pro thinking it would lose. I wanted to see how wide the margin of quality was, and we've seen it's not as large as you'd expect.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a smarter pick for most photography-focused users, both practically because of its greater availability and in terms of its overall shot quality. But the Honor 400 Pro’s cameras keeping up and even beating the Samsung in places is no mean feat.
While too expensive to be considered for our best cheap phones guide, the Honor 400 Pro may have a claim to being one of the best value phones of the year, sitting alongside devices such as the OnePlus 13R and the Google Pixel 9a. We'll let you know for sure after further testing, but right now Honor deserves a pat on the back for going five rounds in the ring with the Galaxy S25 Ultra — and coming out alive.
More from Tom's Guide
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
