Honor 600S 5G Review » YugaTech

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If there’s one phone we really enjoyed using this year, it’s the Honor 600 series. Both the Honor 600 and Honor 600 Pro have a lot to offer. Not only are they powerful, but they also feature a great set of cameras, a long battery life, and, like all other Honor smartphones, a tough exterior.

There’s only one issue we have with these two phones: the price. They’re not exactly the most affordable midrange smartphones anymore. Then again, that goes for almost all other smartphones on the market due to rising costs.

For more budget-conscious buyers, thankfully Honor now has a more affordable variant of the 600 series: the Honor 600S 5G. It’s not as powerful as the 600 or the 600 Pro, but it still retains the features we’ve come to expect from the 600 series, at least on paper.

So how does the Honor 600S 5G perform? I suggest you read on to find out.

Design and Construction

First up, we have to talk about the design of the Honor 600S 5G. Compared to its more expensive siblings, the 600S looks nothing like the 600 and 600 Pro, which take inspiration from Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro lineup.

Instead, the Honor 600S looks more akin to a traditional smartphone, featuring a square camera island at the upper left corner of the back panel. Here, you’ll find the “dual-camera” system, which we’ll talk more about later.

The rest of the back panel is clean apart from the Honor logo in the bottom left corner. Our review unit is in the Misty Purple colorway, which I personally like. It’s a subtle shade of purple that helps the phone slightly stand out, but isn’t too loud. Alternatively, you can also choose between Dessert Gold and Velvet Black.

As for the dimensions, the Honor 600S is much bigger and heavier than the 600 and 600 Pro. It features a large 6.87-inch display after all. Despite that, it’s ergonomic to use, with the buttons all easily accessible with one hand.

On the right side, we’ll find the volume rocker along with the power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. At the bottom, there’s the USB-C port, one of two loudspeakers, and the dual-SIM card slot. The right side is where we’ll find the Honor AI Button, and at the top, the earpiece doubles as the other loudspeaker.

In terms of protection, there’s no need to worry about using the Honor 600S anytime, anywhere. It features IP68, 69, and 69K levels of dust and water resistance. So even if this phone goes for a swim, it won’t be an issue.

The same goes for drops, since it features 5-Star SGS Premium Performance Certification for drop and crush resistance. Honor says it can survive a drop of up to 2.5 meters, and from our experience of dropping it, it did survive.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

Moving on to the display, the Honor 600S comes with a large 6.87-inch screen. For those who were expecting an AMOLED panel, well, that isn’t the case. Instead, it only uses a TFT LCD panel with HD+ resolution.

Thankfully, it makes up for it with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 1020 nits of peak brightness. That said, for a TFT LCD panel, the screen of the 600S is decent for watching videos. It’s big, and the animations are smooth.

The borders are relatively thin except for the bottom portion. In addition, the 120Hz refresh rate makes it decent for playing fast-paced games on this phone, which we’ll get to later on.

If you are used to the more vibrant colors and deep blacks of AMOLED displays, you will need to manage expectations. This is a more budget-friendly phone, after all. But for what it offers, it’s more than adequate.

As for the speakers, the Honor 600S comes with dual stereo speakers. They’re not that great, and the audio sounds flat no matter the genre you choose. The majority of the sound also comes from the bottom loudspeaker. So if you accidentally cover the bottom speaker, it ends up sounding worse.

That said, it’s decent enough if you’re just watching a show with a lot of speaking, though. It’s also quite loud, with the ability to bump the volume to 400%. Just note that the sound quality drops further when you do.

For biometrics, users can choose between the side-mounted fingerprint scanner and face unlock. Both work fast and accurately, so just pick which one suits you best.

Cameras

For cameras, the Honor 600S 5G features a “dual” rear camera system. While there are two lenses, one is simply an auxiliary lens. Instead, the main camera uses a 50MP sensor, and at the front, there’s a 5MP camera for selfies.

In all honesty, we had our reservations about a phone with only a 50MP main rear camera. However, the results did surprise us. In well-lit environments, it’s more than adequate for capturing photos.

The images came out sharp, with great clarity and decent contrast. They’re not overly edited in post, nor do they look too moody. Instead, the images have a natural look and feel, which some users might prefer.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when shooting in low light, when users need to zoom in. Since the phone has no telephoto lens, going beyond 2x zoom will result in a noticeable drop in quality.

It’s a similar story when shooting at night or in low light. There’s no OIS, so long-exposure photos could end up shaky or even out of focus. Not to mention, there’s an overall drop in quality and clarity in the images.

The video quality is very similar to what we get to see in the photos. The Honor 600S can record up to 1080P@30FPS max, both for the front and rear. During the day or in well-lit environments, the quality is decent. But since there’s no stabilization, the footage usually ends up shaky even when you’re doing panning movements.

At night or in low light, again there is a very noticeable drop in quality. In fact, depending on how dark it is, some might find the footage to be unusable given how grainy and low-quality the video output becomes.

Then again, this is to be expected given the hardware limitations of the Honor 600S. But to give you a better idea, check out the gallery below.

Performance and Benchmarks

Underneath the plastic back panel, the Honor 600S runs on a Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 chipset. Our review unit comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s a relatively budget chipset often found on entry-level smartphones, but it can get the job done whether it’s for work or play, at least for lighter titles.

When it comes to everyday use, the 600S is more than capable of handling all productivity tasks. Even if we left apps running in the background, we could quickly pick up where we left off when we switched. So whether you’re browsing social media or getting work done, it won’t be a problem.

Then there’s the matter of playing games. Playing light games such as Mobile Legends, Honor of Kings, or CoD: Mobile isn’t an issue for the Honor 600S. Users can even take advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate display for a smoother gaming experience.

However, on heavier titles like Genshin Impact, it has a harder time running the game on medium graphics. But if we keep it at the graphic settings at the lowest and at 60FPS, the game is very much playable without any framerate drops or stutter. Is it enjoyable? Well, that’s a different story.

More importantly, the phone has no heating issues even when we were playing games for extended periods of time.

As for the benchmark scores, they’re decent, and you can check them out below.

OS, Apps, and UI

Out of the box, the Honor 600S comes with Android 16 skinned with MagicOS 10. For those who have used an Honor smartphone before, they’ll definitely feel right at home. It looks and feels very much the same as any other modern Honor device.

As expected, it also comes with a bunch of AI features to boot, such as AI Memories, AI Writing, and even AI Editor in the gallery. Not to mention Google’s Circle to Search and Gemini functions are available too. Like before, the Honor AI Button is fully configurable to whatever app or function you choose.

Perhaps the newest feature is Honor’s AI Image to Video 2.0. It’s a quirky gimmick that you can play around with to, as the name suggests, turn photos into videos using AI. There are multiple options to choose from to turn the photos into videos, and they’re all found under the Create tab in the Gallery.

As for the bloatware, there aren’t a lot, thankfully. Instead, they’re all neatly located in one folder, making it easier to delete them.

Battery and Connectivity

Perhaps one of the strongest aspects of the Honor 600S is the battery. It packs a large 8100mAh Li-Po battery, which is huge considering this isn’t a silicon-carbon battery often used in newer smartphones.

From our experience, the battery lasts a very long time. During my trip up to Baguio, I left the house with only 24% battery life left since I forgot to charge the phone. After taking photos, videos, and even taking some B-roll shots the next day, I still had about 17% by the time I reached home.

This just shows how long-lasting the battery life of the Honor 600S is. The benchmark showed similar results too.  Our video loop test scored 33 hours and 20 minutes, which is a decent result, no doubt. For reference, the test was done with 50% brightness, zero volume, and on airplane mode.

When it’s time to recharge, the Honor 600S features 45W Honor SuperCharge. Unfortunately, no wireless charging or reverse charging here.

For connectivity, you get dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, GPS, and 5G.

Conclusion

Overall, the Honor 600S 5G is a decent phone for what it offers. It’s got a very long battery life and decent performance to boot. Best of all, it’s still a very tough phone, similar to its more expensive Honor 600 siblings.

The only downside is that the cameras aren’t that great, especially in low-light situations. In addition, you only get a TFT LCD screen as compared to an AMOLED display. But considering this is the entry-level version of the Honor 600 family, it is to be expected.

Price

That said, it also gets an entry-level price point. For reference, the Honor 600 starts at PHP 28,999, while the 600 Pro retails for PHP 49,999. In comparison, the Honor 600S retails for just PHP 19,999 for the 8+256GB variant we have here. There’s also a more affordable variant that retails for PHP 18,999 but with only 128GB of storage, and is available exclusively online.

It’s a lot more affordable, but there are some drawbacks. Still, what do you guys think of the Honor 600S 5G? A worthy member of the family, or are you better off saving for the base 600? Whatever the case, share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:

• Decent performance
• Long battery life
• Very rugged and tough exterior

What we didn’t like:

• Cameras aren’t great
• Lackluster display

Honor 600S 5G Specs:

6.87 inch TFT LCD

1592 x 720 resolution, 120Hz

Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen4

Adreno 613

8GB RAM

128GB, 256GB storage

50MP main camera

Auxiliary Lens

5MP front camera

Stereo speakers

Android 16 (MagicOS 10)

Bluetooth 5.1

GPS, NFC, 5G

USB Type-C 2.0

Fingerprint (side-mounted)

8,100mAh Li-Po battery

45W HONOR Supercharge

168.3 x 78.54 x 8.30mm

216.5g

IP68/IP69/IP69K

Misty Purple,Desert Gold,Velvet Black

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