HONOR has been establishing themselves as a serious contender in pretty much every smartphone segment. From the nigh-indestructible HONOR X9 series to their brazenly thin foldables with the Magic V series, they always seem to find a way to distinguish their devices year-in, year-out. For their numbered series, I feel HONOR has been using this as a test bed to try out the brand’s latest partnerships and/or user experience innovations like last year’s Ai Image to Video creation first seen on the HONOR 400 5G. Prior to that, the HONOR 200 brought about the Studio Hardcourt Partnership giving gravitas on the brand’s Portrait Photography obsession.
For the HONOR 600 Series, we’re seeing the brand double-down on their Generative AI capabilities once again. But is this enough to warrant a proper upgrade from the 400? We’re about to find out.
Geeksthetic
2026 is the time of flat-edged phones and the HONOR 600 is not exempt from this. Using a unibody cold-carving process, the device is the most refined in the brand’s numbered series. The back panel is crafted from a translucent Ultra-Durable Composite Fiber that doesn’t just give off a matte feel and finish but somehow adds a certain clarity and shimmer to it. While we only had the black variant at hand, it’s far from boring and it’s not too classic that it feels dated. There’s a maturity to the design that speaks volumes to the numbered series itself.
Gone are the days when they had to create flashy design just to be noticed. The simplicity, warmth, and almost quiet-luxury vibe is enough to turn heads.
At 156mm x 74.7 x 7.8mm and weighing approximately 190g, the HONOR 600 is sized just right that it feels amazing on hand.
And while the camera module feels like they lifted it from the latest iPhone (a lot of Android phones do, anyway), the finish and make of the HONOR 600 feels adequately classy and belonging to a pricier product segment.
Binge-Watching Factor
The HONOR 600 has one of the thinnest display bezels in the segment at 0.98mm going around the 6.57” AMOLED display. It’s one of the best screens we’ve seen on the mid-range segment thanks, in part, to how deep the lighting condition goes. With up to 8000 nits of peak brightness, the HONOR 600 is able to show amazing screen clarity regardless of lighting conditions. And with the phone’s 200% volume capabilities on its dual speakers, you can be assured of booming immersion on your favorite movies or clips.
Gaming Prowess
Powering the HONOR 600 is the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and 12GB of RAM. As a mid-range processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 can pretty much power you through most of today’s games including more demanding titles like Genshin Impact.
At this point, we feel that most mid-range phones can run any games you throw at it.
For Genshin Impact, the device default is to set the graphics to medium at 30 fps. Once upon a time, midrange phones were clocked at low for Genshin.
Then for the usual rosters of games like Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang, Asphalt Legends, and Diablo Immortal, feel free to crank everything up. Your phone might get a bit toasty, but the build of the HONOR 600 can take the heat (or you can just leave the graphic to device default setting which is still at high).
Overall, gaming is a breeze, no surprise there.
Geek Photoshoot Capabilities
On paper, the HONOR 600 seems to rehash optics from the previous generation. It still houses a large 200MP Ultra-clear Night Camera with a max opening of f/1.9 that’s coupled with a 12MP ultra-wide macro camera. The added CIPA 6.0 OIS technology helps tremendously with low-light photography.
Of course, Portrait mode is still one of our favorite camera features to constantly use because of the dreamy Studio Harcourt AI lighting filter. Leaning more into the AI features and functions, the device even has a Portrait Pose enhancer with the Ai Magic Pose – a small feature that detects the background and gives suggested poses for your subject to do.
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- AI Magic Pose
But perhaps, what surprised us the most is the fact that even without a dedicated telephoto camera, the hybrid and digital zoom on the HONOR 600 produces very serviceable photos – even with extremely challenging lighting. It’s actually not bad.
If there is one drawback I had with the photos taken with the HONOR 600, it’s the color temperature. And while sure, you can fix this in post, I just find the default to be a bit too cold for my taste. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s something to consider.
For selfies, the HONOR 600 still has a large 50MP wide-angled selfie camera. Enough that it should be able to fit you and a friend in – or at least get more of the scenery behind you.
Now, hardware aside, the HONOR 600 opens up a whole smorgasbord of AI tools for you to play around with, chief among them is an updated Ai Image to Video creation tool kit. While you can still let the phone decide on the magical movement and animation done to the images that you took with the HONOR 600 (or, really, any image that you have), you now have the ability to create your own prompt and enhance the experience even further.
If you’ve been tinkering with Generative AI and have been prompting for a while, you will thoroughly enjoy this device. If you’re like me that hasn’t been dabbling in learning how to prompt, uh, properly, then you can follow the default suggested prompts from the phone or do trial and error ad nauseum until you force the device to render what you specifically want.
Really, at this point, you’re only limited by your imagination. The video also includes voices now – in varying languages as well. How well or how accurate the characters speak is now dependent on how specific you prompt.
HONOR Philippines gave a lot of local media a 13-day Ai Image to Video challenge and I’ve seen my peers produce some really mesmerizing work. While we managed to create funny videos, it’s not to the same elevated quality as that from our peers. Which now removes the onus from the device itself and into the hands of those using it. The clarity of image, the timing, and the transition now all depends on how expertly you prompt. Click here for examples.
And while it could be frustrating to get what you exactly want, the phone does help you out by giving you multiple templates to achieve the one closest to your vision.
Everyday Reliability
The HONOR 600 is the brand fully embracing the AI life by adding a dedicated button specifically to trigger AI tools. This button can also be used to quickly open the camera and be used as a camera shutter. If you double press on the button quickly, it opens the camera. If you long press on it, you can choose between triggering circle to search or adding clips to AI Memories.
The HONOR AI home tab also opens up various AI Agents for you to use like AI Setting Agent where you can simply utilize to set your device better, or AI Photo Agent to help you enhance photos you’ve taken with the phone using a host of AI-editing tools. Primarily, the AI button can help streamline and make life a bit more convenient for you. You need an article summarized, hold and press that button, you want to transcribe something, hold and press that button. Ultimately the HONOR 600 has been optimized to integrate a lot of AI tools at your disposal in the quickest way possible.
Now powering all of this is one of the largest batteries on the segment at 7000mAh with 80W SuperCharge technology and a 27W reverse-wired charging capability. This should last you the entire day and then some.
Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict
The HONOR 600 is definitely a phone that heavily utilizes a lot of AI components. If you’re the type that uses a lot of AI tools and can prompt easily, then this device is definitely for you as you’ll be able to maximize the unit. If you’re a bit more old-school and don’t mind not being able to really explore the wonders of AI, you may want to wait for the next iteration or get the equally awesome previous gen HONOR 400.
For the HONOR 600, you’ll have to splurge a bit more as well (this is expected across all smartphones and electronics this year). The HONOR 600 retails at Php 25,999 (special promo price) for the 8GB/256GB variant, Php 32,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant, and Php 34,999 for the 12GB/512GB variant.
Pre-orders for the HONOR 600 starts now until May 24, 2026 and you can stand the chance to get a Mercedes-Benz EQA 250 in gorgeous orange. This is reportedly worth 4 million Pesos! Wild! Aside from that you’ll also receive a free HONOR Choice Earbuds clip worth Php 4,999 which you can claim on March 30, 2026.
HONOR 600 Specs
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4 nm)
- Adreno 722
- 6.57” AMOLED Display HDR (2728x 1264), 120Hz refresh rate, 8000 nits peak brightness
- 12 GB RAM (12GB HONOR RAM Turbo)
- 256GB/512 GB Storage
- Rear Camera: 200 MP, f/1.9, (wide) 1/1.4″, CIPA 6.0 OIS Ultra-Clear Night Camera (Main) + 12 MP, f/2.2, 112˚ POV ultrawide & macro camera
- Front-Facing Camera: 50 MP, f/2.1, (wide) AI Portrait Camera
- 5G, LTE, Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint scanner (under display), USB Type-C
- 7000mAh battery with 80W HONOR SuperCharge support & 27W Wired Reverse-Charging Support
- Android 16, MagicOS 10.0
- Black, Golden White, Orange
- Prices:
- 8 + 256 – PHP 25,999 (special pre-order price) – SRP – PHP 28,999
- 12 + 256 – PHP 32,999
- 12 + 512 – PHP 37,999