It’s been a few days without a new affordable Chinese smartphone. Those suffering withdrawal will be pleased to learn that Honor’s 400 Lite has officially launched in South Africa, available both on contract or for cash.
If you’re heading the contract route, you’ll pay as little as R360/m for 36 months (via MTN) while a cash purchase will set you back R7,800 — a little under Honor’s R8,000 recommended price for the handset. That puts it into the upper reaches of the budget range, but what are you getting for your money?
Weighing up the 400 Lite
It’s safe to say that the Honor 400 Lite isn’t competing directly with the Magic 7 Pro, but there are a few interesting specs there regardless. The 6.7 AMOLED screen reaches a peak brightness of 3,500 nits and has a max refresh rate of 120Hz. Once the domain of headline smartphones, screen tech has become stunningly affordable.
A Dimensity 7025 Ultra chipset from MediaTek lives inside, allowing Honor to give you a dedicated AI Camera button for relatively small amounts of money. It’s helped along by 8GB of RAM (there’s a 12GB variant that seems to be unavailable in South Africa) and 256GB of storage.
Read More: Honor Magic 7 Pro review – Formidable flagship
The dedicated key isn’t just for using the long-bolstered camera for impressive shots via the main 108MP sensor (we’re going to lower expectations for that 5MP ultrawide). It’ll also perform basic Google AI functions, like “scan and translate signs, identify local landmarks, or search for that must-have item you saw in a shop in Sandton or Canal Walk.” So… things you could do yourself if you weren’t so lazy.
A 5,230mAh battery, an IP65 waterproof rating, and an under-display fingerprint sensor round out the Android 15/MagicOS 9.0 Honor 400 Lite. Velvet Black (so… black) and Marrs Green (not a typo, also… green) versions have launched in South Africa as of today.
