Honor has recently launched its latest smartphone series in the form of the Honor 400 range, which includes handsets to suit all budgets.

While the series is headed up by the premium Honor 400 Pro, you can also choose between the mid-range Honor 400 or budget-friendly Honor 400 Lite.

But what really separates the two lower-priced Android phones? Should you pay more for the Honor 400, or is the cheaper Honor 400 Lite enough for you?

To help you decide, we’ve outlined the five biggest differences between the two budget-friendly smartphones. Otherwise, make sure you visit our Honor 400 vs 400 Pro and Honor 400 vs Pixel 9a guides to see how the mid-ranger compares. 

Pricing and Availability

Although the Honor 400 is the more expensive of the two, it’s still a solid mid-range option with a starting price of £399.99 for the 256GB model. For an additional £50, you can get a boosted 512GB.

As its name suggests, the Honor 400 Lite is the least expensive in the Honor 400 series, with a starting RRP of just £249.99.

Honor 400 runs on Snapdragon 7 Gen 3

While some smartphone line-ups use the same processor across all their handsets, such as the Pixel 9 series using the Google Tensor G4, Honor doesn’t follow suit. Instead, all three of its phones use a different processor.

While both the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro use a Qualcomm chip, the Honor 400 Lite instead runs on MediaTek Dimensity 7025-Ultra. Although we haven’t reviewed a phone with the MediaTek processor yet, Honor promises it should ensure the smooth running of the 400 Lite’s AI tools including AI Eraser and AI Outpainting. 

Similarly, the Honor 400’s use of Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 should also ensure its AI tools run smoothly. In fact, in our review of the handset we found the phone performed well in everyday use and even handled gaming generally well, although the latter did sometimes stutter in use. 

Honor 400 has a 200MP main camera

Both the Honor 400 and Honor 400 Lite have a total of three lenses across their respective handsets: one front camera and two at the rear. While they both offer lots of AI functions, which will get to later, they differ with the resolution. 

Firstly the Honor 400’s rear lenses include a 200MP main, which is the same resolution as the premium Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and a 12MP ultrawide and macro camera too. The Honor 400 Lite, on the other hand, sports a 108MP main and a 5MP wide and depth lens.

We found the Honor 400’s camera to be capable overall, especially in good lighting. We also appreciated the return of Harcourt filters. Plus, with AI SuperZoom, you can get up to 30x zoom when taking a photo.

As we haven’t reviewed the Honor 400 Lite yet, we’ll have to hold off on making any early judgments. However, on paper, the 5MP wide and depth lens definitely doesn’t give us much hope. 

Otherwise, both handsets offer a range of AI-powered tools to help elevate both photos and the capturing experience. Alongside the aforementioned Super Zoom of the Honor 400, both phones have AI Eraser which removes unwanted objects from photos and AI Outpainting, which expands images beyond their original edges. 

Honor 400 Lite has an AI Camera button

Somewhat surprisingly, the Honor 400 Lite is the only phone in the series to feature an AI Camera button. Akin to Apple’s Camera Control, the AI Camera button allows you to open the camera app, take a photo or record a video, or zoom with ease. 

Honor also promises that using the AI Camera button is easy, whether you’re wearing gloves or holding your phone in one hand.

Honor 400 supports 66W charging

The Honor 400 has a slightly larger battery capacity at 5300mAh, although considering the Honor 400 Lite’s is 5230mAh, the difference here is negligible. 

Where the phones differ the most when it comes to battery is their charging speeds. The Honor 400 Lite supports up to 35W, which although higher than the Pixel 9 series, is a way off true fast charging standards. The Honor 400 supports faster speeds, up to 66W. You’ll just need to ensure you buy a compatible charger. 

Honor 400 Lite has a larger screen

At 6.7 inches, the Honor 400 Lite is the same size as the Honor 400 Pro, although it’s worth pointing out that the Honor 400 Lite is considerably lighter at just 171g compared to 205g. In comparison, the Honor 400’s screen is 6.55 inches and weighs slightly more at 184g.

Size aside, neither the Honor 400 or 400 Lite excel with their respective water resistance ratings. While most of the best mid-range smartphones and even some of the best cheap phones sport an IP68 rating, the Honor 400 Lite only has an IP64 rating. 

Although slightly higher, the Honor 400 has an IP65 rating, which means it’s protected against “water projecting in jets against the enclosure”. 

Early Verdict

As we haven’t reviewed the Honor 400 Lite yet, we can’t give a conclusive verdict as to which phone is better. However, with a solid processor, AI features and a larger screen, the Honor 400 Lite is a promising budget-friendly phone.

On the other hand, it’s worth pointing out that we gave the Honor 400 a solid four-star rating and praised the Android for being great value for money.