In summary
- Mid-range Honor 500 series announced in China
- Stand-out 200Mp main camera
- Huge 8,000mAh battery
The Honor 500 series has been announced in China, and this mid-range smartphone series has some seriously impressive specs.
We’ve been anticipating the Honor 500 launch for some time – especially given how good the Honor 400 (pictured below) turned out to be – so there was very little of surprise at the official China launch .
Even so, we can’t help but be impressed. Both the Honor 500 and the Honor 500 Pro feature a 200Mp main camera with a large 1/1.4-inch CMOS sensor, as well as a 12Mp ultra-wide camera.
Only the Honor 500 Pro gets a 50Mp telephoto camera on top of that, aided by Honor’s bespoke SOIS stabilisation system. Honor has also supplied six Film Live colour modes to shoot in.
Honor 500 performance and battery
There’s a difference when it come to performance, with the Honor 500 running on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and the Honor 500 Pro packing the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Neither is cutting edge, but should still provide a flagship-ish level of performance.
Meanwhile, Honor’s own C1+ RF Enhanced Chip promises to significantly improve signal reception, network stability, and uplink speed.
Luke Baker
Perhaps the stand out specification here for both phones is a whopping great 8,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, which dwarfs even that of battery champ the OnePlus 15.
Both models also get 80W wired charging, while the Pro model adds 50W wireless charging to the equation.
Honor 500 design and software
Both phones run on MagicOS 10, Honor’s home-brewed Android UI. It should tie in nicely with a customisable one-touch AI Button that can provide provides instant access to frequently used functions.
Talking of hardware, both phones adopt a new design that boasts a so-called “cold-carved unibody design”, with the camera module and rear panel being crafted out of a single piece of glass. Both phones are 7.75mm thin, sport 1.05mm-thick screen bezels, and feature IP68 / IP69 / IP69K certification.
The Honor 500 series comes in Blue, Pink, Silver and Black, with prices starting from 3599 RMB for the Honor 500 Pro and 2699 RMB for the Honor 500. We can’t tell how that will translate to the West as yet, but it’s worth remember that the Honor 400 landed at £400 and the Honor 400 Pro arrived at £700.
It’s quite likely, then, that the Honor 500 will undercut the Pixel 9a and the Honor 500 Pro will gazump the Pixel 10 . Watch this space.
We’ll have to wait for news of a global launch. For now, we here in the West can look forward to the global launch of the company’s flagship Honor Magic 8 range later this week.
Honor 400
Author: Jon Mundy, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Jon is a freelance journalist who got his start covering mobile games at the dawn of the App Store. He has since covered everything from smart home tech and laptops to food and culture, but always seems to return to his fascination with smartphones.
Recent stories by Jon Mundy:
- Nothing Phone (4a) and Pro get tipped release date
- Xiaomi 17 Ultra European pricing leaks, and it’s good news
- Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold could be a bigger deal than expected
