MOST people buy phones because they want a better camera capability, and that's how the majority of the phone makers have been designing their phones around.
Some even ventured into strategic partnerships with established camera players or photography studios to enhance their phone's camera and photography capabilities.=
Frankly, I see this as a clever way to stay ahead of competition, and it's even being practised in other industries like automotive.
The latest Honor 200 Series phone saw the phone maker adopting this strategy, but not with a camera maker, but with a renowned photography studio in Paris - Studio Harcourt.
I've seen and tested phones that use technology from camera and optic makers like Leica, Zeiss, Hasselblad, but this is the first time I came across one that partners with a studio.
Honor 200 Pro
Honor's new 200 Pro is designed to redefine mobile photography with its advanced AI-powered capabilities, and offer better photography capabilities.
At the launch, the company said it offers impressive portrait photography, next-generation Magic AI experience, and value-oriented flagship specifications.
Camera-wise, at the core of the Honor 200 Pro is the AI Portrait Engine, co-developed with the renowned Studio Harcourt in Paris.
If you're not familiar with Studio Harcourt, it is a photography studio founded in 1933 by Cosette Harcourt at 11, rue Christophe-Colomb in Paris.
This studio is known in particular for its black-and-white photographs of movie stars and celebrities.
This is the secret recipe that Honor has been working on to offer better photography results.
According to Honor, this collaboration brings studio-level portrait photography to the hands of everyday users.
By partnering with Studio Harcourt, Honor trained its AI, ensuring that the Honor 200 Series can capture stunning portraits with professional quality.
Imaging quality
The Honor 200 Pro boasts a 50MP main camera, featuring a 1/1.3-inch H9000 main camera sensor, similar to the one used in the Honor Magic6 Pro, along with a Dual OIS (OIS+EIS) anti-shake system, ensuring sharp and stable images even in challenging conditions.
I'm pretty impressed with the image quality that comes out from the phone.
I took it out for a test, both during daytime and after dark, and found that the images are sharp, in focus and contrasty.
For portrait shots, the phone offers nothing short of brilliant images.
The AI engine managed to handle tricky lighting conditions and backgrounds easily, producing natural-looking colours and bokeh.
Even when taking photos at night, I find the images are sharp and detailed.
Phone design
The Honor 200 Pro has a unique camera compartment design.
Instead of the mainstream rectangular housing for the camera, Honor decided to give a unique elongated circular camera compartment,
I find this design refreshing and attractive and adds a premium aesthetic with a silver bezel surrounding the camera glass.
The overall design, with curved edges and a high-gloss metal frame, ensures the phone is comfortable to hold and visually appealing.
Performance
To support its advanced camera capabilities, the Honor 200 Pro is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor.
It comes with the MagicOS 8.0 with enhanced Magic AI Experience, providing smooth and efficient performance. The Honor C1 + RF Enhanced Chipset in the Pro model further boosts its capabilities.
The phone comes with a robust 5,200mAh battery and supports 100W Wired Honor SuperCharge technology. It features a 120Hz AMOLED display with TÜV Rheinland Flicker Free Display Certification and TÜV Rheinland Full Care Display Certification, ensuring a comfortable viewing experience.
The phone is available in Ocean Cyan and Moonlight White, and is priced at RM2,699 (12GB RAM+512GB storage).