Best Honor phones 2024: the top Honor handsets you should consider

PRICE
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REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
VERDICT
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
Honor Magic 6 Pro on a pink background
The Honor Magic 6 Pro is currently the best Honor phone (Image credit: Honor / Future)

The best Honor phones go toe-to-toe with the best phones from Samsung, Apple, and other more established brands, but Honor's restricted international presence means that its devices are often (wrongly) overlooked by those in the market for some serious pocket hardware. 

For instance, the company's latest premium offering, the Honor Magic 6 Pro, boasts some of the best display and camera credentials money can buy in 2024, while the foldable Honor Magic V3 is thinner and lighter than comparatively priced rivals.

In this guide, we walk you through the best Honor phones for every budget and use case. So, whether you're a price-conscious buyer or someone willing to splash the cash, our selection should feature something for you.

Best Honor phones 2024

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The best Honor phone overall

Honor Magic 6 Pro review

(Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)
The best Honor phone overall

Specifications

Release date: March 2024
Weight: 229g
Dimensions: 162.5 x 75.8 x 8.9mm
OS: MagicOS 8.0 atop Android 14
Screen size: 6.8-inch
Resolution: 2800 x 1280
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM: 12GB
Storage: 512GB
Battery: 5,600mAh
Rear camera: 50MP + 50MP + 180MP
Front camera: 50MP

Reasons to buy

+
Rival-beating display
+
Striking design
+
Strong battery life and performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Cameras are impressive, but inconsistent
-
No generative AI tools

Honor's 2024 flagship, the Honor Magic 6 Pro, is every bit as premium as its predecessor, the Honor Magic 5 Pro, but brings to the table an even more adventurous rear design, a slightly better camera system, and all-new AI smarts.

That camera upgrade comes by way of an almighty 180MP periscope telephoto lens, which sits alongside a 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens in the phone's luxury watch-inspired ‘Star Wheel’ camera notch. Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset keeps things ticking along nicely under the hood, and the Magic 6 Pro's gorgeous 6.8-inch curved OLED display is made even better by Honor's proprietary eye-friendly screen tech.

You'll pay handsomely for the privilege of owning one, and Honor's AI tools can't yet hold a candle to those offered by the likes of Samsung and Google, but the Magic 6 Pro is indisputably the best Honor phone available right now, and a worthy investment for smartphone fans who prefer to stand out from the crowd.

Incidentally, the Magic 6 Pro launched alongside the Porsche Design Magic 6 Pro RSR, which is essentially a souped-up, sportier version of the same phone. It's a tad more expensive, but the upgrades on offer are definitely worth checking out.

Read our full Honor Magic 6 Pro review

The best foldable Honor phone

Review image of the Honor Magic V3

(Image credit: Future / Luke Baker)
The best foldable Honor phone

Specifications

Release date: September 2024
Weight: 226g
Dimensions: 156.6 x 74.0 x 9.2mm (folded), 156.6 x 145.3 x 4.35mm (unfolded)
OS: MagicOS 8.0 atop Android 14
Screen size: 7.92-inch (foldable), 6.43-inch (outer)
Resolution: 2156 x 2344 (foldable), 1060 x 2376 (outer)
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Battery: 5,150mAh
Rear camera: 50MP + 40MP + 50MP
Front camera: 20MP

Reasons to buy

+
Super slim and light
+
Impressive cameras
+
Almost crease-less display

Reasons to avoid

-
Battery life isn't the most impressive
-
Gets a little toasty while gaming
-
Expensive

The Honor Magic V3 is a truly special phone, and if it were available to buy in the US, it would surely rank prominently on our list of the best foldable phones.

The Honor Magic V2 already raised the bar for foldable phone design, wiping the floor with the comparatively boxy Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5Google Pixel Fold, and OnePlus Open, and Honor's latest foldable effort is an even more visually impressive device.

At the time of writing, the Magic V3 is the thinnest and lightest inward-folding phone on the market, measuring just 4.35mm when unfolded and 9.2mm when folded. The Magic V3 trumps the competition on the weighing scales, too, weighing just 226g against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6's 239g.

The Magic V3 also utilizes Honor's proprietary eye-friendly display technology to deliver two of the most impressive foldable screens yet, while its long-lasting 5,150mAh battery should abate any worries surrounding foldable battery life. The phone boasts an IPX8 water resistance rating and 50W wireless charging, too.

Sure, Honor's Magic OS software continues to lack polish (especially when compared to that of its mainstream rivals), but if you value design over all else, the Magic V3 is pretty much the best foldable money can buy right now.

Read our full Honor Magic V3 review

The best mid-range Honor phone

Honor 200 Pro

(Image credit: Future / Luke Baker)
The best mid-range Honor phone

Specifications

Release date: June 2024
Weight: 199g
Dimensions: 163.3 x 75.2 x 8.2mm
OS: MagicOS 8.0 atop Android 14
Screen size: 6.7-inch
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
RAM: 12GB
Storage: 512GB
Battery: 5,200mAh
Rear camera: 50MP + 12MP + 50MP
Front camera: 50MP

Reasons to buy

+
Awesome portrait effects
+
Long battery life and speedy charging

Reasons to avoid

-
Curved screen is prone to phantom touches
-
MagicOS 8.0 takes some getting used to

If you like the look of the Honor Magic 6 Pro but would rather avoid paying its four-figure price, then Honor's latest premium mid-ranger, the Honor 200 Pro, is well worth considering instead.

With its slim chassis, curved edges, and impressive 6.8-inch OLED display, the Honor 200 Pro feels like a flagship phone. Sure, its Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset is slightly less powerful than the standard 8 Gen 3 (which you'll find inside the best Android phones, and indeed the Magic 6 Pro), but in testing, we didn't notice too much of a difference between this phone and the Magic 6 Pro.

The Honor 200 Pro also boasts comparable battery life, as well as similar charging speeds (100W wired and 66W wireless). You’ll need Honor’s SuperCharge charger to get the full power output, but we think it's worth the investment. 

The headline feature of the Honor 200 Pro is its innovative portrait camera mode, which recreates the Studio Harcourt method of portrait photography by leveraging intelligent AI software with premium hardware. The phone's overall camera setup is impressive, too. You'll get a 50MP main lens, a 50MP telephoto lens (with 2.5x optical zoom), and a 12MP ultra-wide macro lens, though these camera specs are, understandably, dwarfed by those of the camera-focused Magic 6 Pro.

Read our full Honor 200 Pro review

The best budget Honor phone

Honor 90 display

(Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)
The best budget Honor phone

Specifications

Release date: July 2023
Weight: 183g
Dimensions: 162 x 74.1 x 7.8 mm
OS: Android 13
Screen size: 6.7-inch
CPU: Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition
RAM: 8GB / 12GB
Storage: 256GB / 512GB
Battery: 5,000mAh
Rear camera: 200MP + 12MP + 2MP
Front camera: 50MP

Reasons to buy

+
Rich, eye-friendly display
+
Premium-looking design

Reasons to avoid

-
No IP water-resistance rating
-
Only two years of software updates

The mid-range Honor 90 launched for a very reasonable £449.99 in 2023, but the phone is now even better value – it's currently sitting at around £300 – thanks to the arrival of its premium successor, the Honor 200 Pro, in June 2024.

Despite its affordability, the Honor 90 boasts a slew of impressive specs. For starters, the phone sports a 6.7-inch quad-curved AMOLED display with a resolution of 2664 x 1200 and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It’s big, bright, and more than suitable for gaming and watching movies, thanks to HDR10+ support and HDR certifications from streamers, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

On the back, you're getting a triple-camera system that comprises a 200MP main lens (with a 1/1.4-inch sensor), a 12MP ultra-wide lens (with a 112° field of view) and a 2MP depth sensor that helps the camera accurately gauge distance.

Less impressive is Honor’s software and security support commitment to the Honor 90. You’ll get two years of Android updates and three years of security updates with this phone. That’s markedly fewer than, say, Samsung is committing to its Galaxy A54 and A55 devices. But then again, the Honor 90 offers more base storage, faster charging, and better display credentials than almost all of its mid-range rivals.

Read our full Honor 90 review

The best value Honor phone

Honor Magic 5 Pro held in a hand in front of a bush

(Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)
The best value Honor phone

Specifications

Release date: April 2023
Weight: 219g
Dimensions: 162.9 x 76.7 x 8.77 mm
OS: MagicOS 7.1 atop Android 13
Screen size: 6.81-inch
Resolution: 1312 x 2848
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
RAM: 12GB
Storage: 512GB
Battery: 5,100mAh
Rear camera: 50MP + 50MP + 50MP
Front camera: 12MP

Reasons to buy

+
Vivid, eye-friendly display
+
Exceptional rear cameras

Reasons to avoid

-
Impractical design will divide opinion

You'll have to go digging through third-party retailers to find the Honor Magic 5 Pro, but if you can snag one for under £600, you'll be in possession of the best value Honor phone money can buy.

The Honor Magic 5 Pro rivals the best of Apple and Samsung's 2023 flagships in almost every department, and at £949.99 / €1,199, it was a touch cheaper than the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at launch. The arrival of the Honor Magic 6 Pro in March 2024, however, meant the Magic 5 Pro suddenly became much more affordable, and it continues to be one of the best-value flagships on the market.

Here's the deal: the Magic 5 Pro's 6.81-inch OLED display is exceptionally bright and certified eye-friendly, its three 50MP cameras are some of the most impressive we've ever tested, and its large 5,100mAh battery ensures you get at least 12 hours of heavy use before needing to reach for a charger.

The only obvious drawbacks we came across when testing the Magic 5 Pro were a handful of photography hiccups and the need to get used to the phone's unique rear camera protrusion. All in all, though, this is a great option for Android fans unbothered by the clout of brand names.

Read our full Honor Magic 5 Pro review

Axel Metz
Phones Editor

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.  Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.