The Honor 600 Pro is so good that it surprised me — this iPhone 17 Pro lookalike has a unique AI feature that all phones need to steal

I love smartphones, and amongst them, recent Honor phones like the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Honor Magic 8 Pro Air have both left me smitten for different reasons. Yet, despite this, I went into my review of the Honor 600 Pro with lower expectations than those of the company's flagships.

For many reasons, this proved to be a blessing, as the Honor 600 Pro consistently surpassed my expectations, even though I was judging it by the same standards as Honor's Magic flagships.

The Honor 600 Pro takes the best of the Magic 8 Pro and makes it more accessible. There's a giant 7,000 mAh battery with 80W charging and 50W wireless charging, a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with 12GB of RAM, and a nifty new AI feature that sets this apart from all other phones.

Of course, the camera plays a huge role as well, and the triple camera is excellent, as it shouldn't come as a surprise. The 200MP primary camera is paired with a 12MP Ultrawide and a 50MP telephoto, offering up to 3x optical zoom and up to 120x total zoom. In short, it appears to be a flagship camera system on paper, and it mostly delivers on that promise in real-world performance.

It doesn't have 'Magic' in its name, but the Honor 600 Pro oozes magic in its delivery. Here's why it is a strong contender for your next phone.

Every Android phone needs to copy Honor's Image to Video

If there's one reason you buy the Honor 600 Pro, it's Honor's new Image to Video 2.0 feature. Simply put, it's magical, and it left my 4-year-old niece in love with the phone. Like last year, this feature is exclusive to Honor, as they built it in conjunction with Google Gemini, but unlike last year, it’s had a sizable upgrade that makes it infinitely more useful.

Check out this awesome Image to Video example from the Honor 600 Pro! - YouTube

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Now, you can combine up to three images and ask the Honor 600 Pro to create a video in either portrait or landscape mode (at 9:16 or 16:9 aspect ratio, respectively). Unfortunately, it’s still limited to eight seconds, and there are limits on how many you can generate for free each day or month, but the results are spectacular.

A stunning example of Image to Video on the Honor 600 Pro! - YouTube

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Like the current trend of vibe coding and prompting, you can use simple text to describe what you want to be created, and the phone does the rest. It’s also worth noting that it can generate audio, and whether it’s names or words — such as a Happy Birthday greeting — the generated audio sounds extremely good.

Although this is based on Gemini’s upgraded multimodal model, an industry first, this feature remains exclusive to Honor phones. It’s a significant step up over last year, and is among the best and most unique AI features on any Android phone to date.

This is my new favorite phone size

The Honor Magic 8 Pro features a 6.71-inch display, whilst my other favorite Honor phone, the Magic 8 Pro Air, has a 6.31-inch screen. The Honor 600 Pro sits firmly between these at 6.52-inches and this is my new favorite size for a phone, especially when I want to use it one-handed.

Like most flagships, the display is AMOLED with a 120Hz Dynamic Refresh Rate, but it also has a few features that stand out. First, there’s a peak brightness of 8,000 nits, and it’s insanely bright, especially under the harsh afternoon sun here in Kuala Lumpur. Then there’s the 3,840 Hz PWM Dimming Rate, along with other eye-comforting features such as Motion Sickness Relief and Low Blue Light.

All of these features continue Honor’s trend of focusing on providing relief for those with eye conditions, and I have found that the Honor 600 Pro's display is particularly pleasant to use at night or in low light compared to other phones. It’s hard to make a bad smartphone screen, but the Honor 600 Pro ranks above average overall, especially with its flat sides that make for a more pleasant in-hand and one-handed experience.

The Honor 600 Pro has outstanding hardware in all the right places

Look beyond AI, and you’ll find a phone that has outstanding flagship hardware in all the right places. There’s IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, as with many flagships, but there’s also IP69K, like the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Honor Magic 8 Lite.

In practice, IP69 and IP69K refer to the same level of protection against high-pressure jets, and, as I discovered, a phone with IP69 — such as the Honor Magic V6 — can survive a full trip through a washing machine. The Honor 600 Pro is also certified by SGS for drop and crush resistance, although I haven’t tested this.

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Then there are the cameras, and Honor has chosen to equip the Honor 600 Pro with the same primary and telephoto cameras as the Honor Magic 8 Pro. The 200MP primary camera takes great photos in all lighting conditions, while the 50MP telephoto camera is as capable as I remember the Magic 8 Pro to be.

The 12MP ultrawide camera leaves a little to be desired, but that’s a small blip on an otherwise great all-around camera. Like many phones, there’s some AI processing and artifacting, but it’s not overly egregious and helps ensure that photos captured at longer focal lengths have clean edges and lines.

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Then there’s MagicOS, and for the most part, this also delivers a flagship experience. The Honor 600 Pro runs on Android 16 out of the box, with Honor’s MagicOS experience on top, and like the best Honor phones, it delivers a polished software experience. Honor’s theming makes it relatively easy to customize the phone, and I particularly like the level of control that you have over the font theme, size, and weight.

The Honor 600 Pro has outstanding performance and battery life

The Honor 600 Pro is powered by the previous-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, rather than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Honor Magic 8 Pro and many of the best Android phones, but it still delivers flagship performance in all the right ways. This is paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage, or 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

The battery life is particularly impressive, regularly delivering 6 hours of screen time with plenty of battery to spare. Even under heavy use — such as during camera testing or a long Google Maps navigation session — the Honor 600 still delivered a very respectable four hours of screen time with battery life to spare. When the battery does need a recharge, this is where the 80W wired charging comes in handy, charging the phone to full in around an hour.

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Like most smartphones, the large battery makes the Honor 600 Pro a great emergency power bank, but unlike the best Samsung phones, Honor has equipped the reverse charging feature with a maximum speed of 27W. That’s extremely rapid, and significantly better than most phones, although it’s worth noting that both Honor and Xiaomi have other phones that offer this reverse charging speed.

The Honor 600 Pro is a great purchase at the right price

I’ve been very impressed with the Honor 600 Pro, and at the right price, this is an excellent choice for your next smartphone. However, the key factor is the right price tag, and while we don’t know what the UK or EU pricing is, the Malaysian pricing does give us some indication.

The Honor 600 Pro starts at RM3,099 (approximately $785 or £580), with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the 512GB version costs $50 more. However, it’s worth noting that the UK and EU pricing is likely to be much higher once import fees, taxes, and customs rates are taken into account. At the right price, this is an excellent purchase, and I’d also expect Honor to have many pre-order deals that either reduce the price or include free accessories.

The Honor 600 Pro comes in three colors, and while I’ve got the white one here, I’ve seen the Black and Orange. Although the black variant is perfectly decent, the white version is my preferred choice. Why those two colors? Honor confirmed that the Orange version won’t be coming to the UK, and it’s unclear which global markets it will be sold in, if any.

Overall, I’ve been impressed by the Honor 600 Pro, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants core flagship features at a more affordable price. It offers the best of the Honor Magic 8 Pro at a lower price, and has a unique AI feature that sets it apart from many of the best Android phones. It’s not perfect, but the Honor 600 Pro is still an excellent smartphone.