Honor knows its new 600 Pro has ‘familiar premium aesthetics’ — but it beats the iPhone 17 Pro in two key ways

Honor has never been shy about revealing its design inspirations. The camera module on the Honor 200 Pro was a nod to Barcelona’s Casa Milá, the Magic 6 Pro’s ‘Star Wheel’ to luxury watchmakers like Panerai, and the Porsche Design Magic 6 RSR’s ‘peakline’ to the Porsche Taycan. I expect the Chinese brand will be less forthcoming about the muse for its latest phone, the Honor 600 Pro.

Honor is pitching its newest mid-ranger (which succeeds the Honor 400 Pro outside of China) as a rival to the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE, but the 600 Pro’s undeniably Apple-inspired looks invite comparison to the iPhone 17 Pro instead.

There’s the full-width horizontal camera module, the “precision-carved unibody design”, and the identical arrangement of the phone’s rear lenses and sensors. The Honor 600 Pro also comes in a choice of Black, Golden White, and Orange, which is an odd trio of colors that I’m sure I’ve seen offered elsewhere recently.

Jokes aside, these similarities are, I suspect, completely intentional on Honor’s part, and no doubt the brand knew it was in for a barrage of good-humored ribbing when it teased the 600 series earlier this month. But Honor is also confident that 600 Pro offers enough in the way of unique features to be considered more than just an industry imitator. And it’s right to be.

“The [600] series has been designed to balance familiar premium aesthetics with Honor’s own distinctive identity,” the brand told TechRadar. “While it reflects broader industry trends towards minimalist and refined forms, it also introduces unique Honor elements, such as the unibody cold-carving process, ultra-narrow bezels, and carefully crafted material finishes.

“For the Honor 600 Pro specifically, the updated camera module design was driven by both functional and aesthetic considerations — enabling a more balanced layout while supporting the upgraded imaging system, including the periscope telephoto lens, and creating a cleaner, more modern visual language compared to the previous generation.”

In justifying the 600 Pro's new design, Honor is alluding to two of the three biggest selling points of its latest smartphone: the improbably thin display bezels, the 200MP main camera, and the almighty 7,000mAh battery.

Starting with the display, the 600 Pro boasts a 6.57-inch AMOLED screen (2728 x 1264) whose surrounding bezels measure just 0.98mm — the thinnest of any phone, ever. For reference, the display bezels on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro measure 1.42mm and 1.44mm, respectively. I've personally never used a phone with bezels narrower than 1mm, so the 600 Pro’s near-borderless screen is quite something to behold.

The 600 Pro’s rear camera system comprises a 200MP wide lens (f/1.9), a 12MP ultra-wide lens (f/2.2), and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens (f/2.8) with 3.5x optical zoom, which is a versatile setup for different shooting situations. You’ll, of course, get plenty of AI assistance to go with all that hardware, too, including Honor’s AI Color Engine and its new SuperMoon 2.0 night mode.

We’ve come to expect iPhone-, Pixel-, and Samsung-beating batteries from the best Android phones out of China, and the Honor 600 Pro is no different. It packs a 7,000mAh silicon-carbon cell under the hood, which is significantly bigger than the 5,300mAh battery inside last year’s Honor 400 Pro and just a tad smaller than the 7,300mAh battery in the ridiculously long-lasting OnePlus 15.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max, meanwhile, runs on a 5,088 mAh battery.

Other key features of the Honor 600 Pro include its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (which is also used in the Samsung Galaxy S25 series), a dedicated AI button for easy AI-powered video creation (we’ve got a TikTok on Honor’s AI Image to Video 2.0 tool coming soon), and 80W wired and 50W wireless charging.

In other words, Honor’s latest mid-ranger isn’t really a mid-ranger at all. It boasts specs that rival — and in some cases, surpass — those of bona fide flagships like the iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and if Honor can get the price right, we could be looking at one of the best-value phones of the year.

We know the 512GB model costs the equivalent of £620 in Malaysia, but Honor hasn’t yet confirmed official UK pricing — availability in the US and Australia seems unlikely, though Honor did recently launch the 400 Pro in the latter region, so the 600 Pro could follow at a later date.

We’re still putting the Honor 600 Pro (as well as its cheaper sibling, the Honor 600) through our full review process, so you can expect to read our verdict on both phones in the coming days. But in the meantime, rest assured that Honor’s latest ‘Number Series’ device is much more interesting than its unoriginal design might have you believe. Besides, who doesn't like orange?

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