OPINION: Honor has lifted the lid on its new Honor 200 vary, together with the Honor 200 Professional, the primary Professional mannequin from the road to make an look within the UK.
Coming in at a cool £699, it’s very a lot a premium affair with a smattering of high-end specs, a gorgeously detailed 6.7-inch OLED display screen and stable battery life, however it’s the digital camera, and the Portrait mode specifically that actually stands out.
The Honor 200 Professional has a fairly spectacular suite of cameras, headed up by a 50MP most important digital camera with a 1/1.3-inch Tremendous Dynamic H9000 sensor with a large f/1.9 aperture, flanked by a 50MP telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide. When you would possibly assume that it’s the primary digital camera driving the expertise, for me, it’s all about that telephoto lens.
Honor claims you can get ‘studio-level portrait digital camera efficiency’ from the snapper, which is a declare that I’ve heard all too typically from producers, and often with out the proof to again it up. Nonetheless, the Honor 200 Professional is completely different.
That’s as a result of Honor has teamed up with well-known French images studio Harcourt, and by utilizing AI that has been skilled on the varied kinds of images the studio is thought for, the telephone can replicate the look with out the high-end digital camera gear.
That is excess of only a filter that’s added to portrait images too; the digital camera AI is sensible sufficient to know particular person components of the picture and the right way to gentle and color them independently, with spectacular outcomes.
In reality, I used to be so impressed by the primary few snaps I took that I made a decision to see the way it’d fare in a head-to-head shootout with the top-end Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely. You would possibly say that it’s an unfair comparability – the S24 Extremely prices £550 greater than the Honor 200 Professional, in spite of everything – however reader, it doesn’t matter.
That’s as a result of the Honor 200 Professional, utilizing the AI-powered Harcourt Portrait results, constantly delivered better-looking portrait pictures than the competing Galaxy S24 Extremely, each when it comes to total element and elegance.
Take the shot under. It was taken on the primary of three Harcourt capturing modes, Harcourt Vibrant, and the vibrancy is instantly noticeable, even in comparison with the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s saturated various.
Each provide comparable ranges of spectacular edge detection, however it’s the framing that makes it. The sphere of view can also be barely completely different throughout the 2 regardless of each utilizing a 2x zoom, with the Honor 200 Professional’s tighter subject of view providing higher portrait pictures than Samsung.
That’s all effectively and good, however what about if you get into extra stylised choices? That’s the place Harcourt Color and Harcourt Traditional come into play. The previous gives a barely hotter look than the Vibrant mode, emulating the traditional Harcourt portrait palette, once more offering a greater look and elegance than what the Galaxy S24 Extremely can obtain with out heavy modifying.
I’ve received to confess, it’s the Harcourt Traditional that’s my favorite of the bunch. That is arguably essentially the most simply recognisable Harcourt fashion, specializing in black and white images with an emphasis on excessive highlights and lowlights that may add numerous drama to a portrait shot, as seen under.
Now, don’t get me incorrect, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely stays a fully gorgeous digital camera telephone with superior zoom prowess and a extra succesful most important digital camera in addition, however that doesn’t imply it towers above the competitors in each single picture mode.
Compared to the Honor 200 Professional, the Portrait mode on the S24 Extremely appears a bit fundamental, missing a lot in the way in which of stylisation, as an alternative solely providing the flexibility to regulate the bokeh or allow an excessively aggressive portrait mode. If something, I’d say it’s extra much like Apple’s portrait mode results, however even in comparison with Apple’s choice, I believe these pictures look higher.
All this makes the Honor 200 Professional the higher match for portrait images – and truthfully, that’s not one thing I assumed I’d ever say once I first received my arms on the system. I’ve handy it to Honor, the corporate’s greater than pulled it out of the bag on this one.