I really enjoy taking photos with my phone, almost to the point where it becomes a problem (I have 15,978 items in my camera roll right now). I use my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra far more often than my Sony A7III and Canon 5DS cameras, and I think this is not only down to the improved quality of some of the best camera phones, but also the fact that I hate how heavy expensive gear and lenses are to lug around.
With the grotty weather we've been having in the UK lately, I've been reminiscing a beautiful sunny day in London where I spent the afternoon visiting museums and, you guessed it, taking photos with my phone. This day back in June 2024 was the perfect weather for a camera phone shootout, and I pitted my S24 Ultra against the AI-powered Honor 200 Pro.
You may not be familiar with the Honor 200 Pro, but this smartphone can take on all of the best iPhones for photography, and it has been endorsed by world-famous photographer, Rankin, too. If you're in the mood for some wintery scenes, I recently had another camera phone shootout between my S24 Ultra and the new Honor Magic 7 Pro in the stunning Slovenian Alps.
Here are the results from my London summer shootout.
The Honor 200 Pro comes equipped with a triple 50MP studio-quality camera array, comprising a 50MP portrait main camera (f/1.3), a 50MP telephoto camera (f/2.4) with 50X digital zoom (and a customized telephoto Sony sensor), plus a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide macro camera.
In comparison, my Samsung S24 Ultra boasts a 200MP main camera (f/1.7), a 10MP telephoto (f/2.4), a 50MP periscope telephoto (f/3.4), and a 12MP Ultra-wide (f/2.2) camera array. In terms of footage, my Samsung can shoot 8K at 30fps, compared with 4K at 30fps with the Honor 200 Pro.
As you can see from the image sliders above, the Honor produces a sharp and vibrant image that is much more cropped than images produced from my S24 Ultra. I would argue that the photos from the Honor 200 Pro actually look much better than those captured with my Samsung, especially when viewed on a screen – although, when you thoroughly zoom in to these images, it's clear that the S24 Ultra is actually capturing a much sharper photo with more detail.
I should also mention that this shoot-off didn't involve any portraiture, which I think the Honor 200 Pro would excel at, possibly beating out the S24 Ultra thanks to the Studio Harcourt AI portrait features that this phone offers. See Rankin's 8 steps to smartphone photography success for more info on this.
Photos from the Honor 200 Pro
Photos from my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
The verdict: I've found from testing several Honor camera phones that they're excellent for photography and capturing an Instagram-ready shot, but, if you're ever hoping to enlarge these images, print them or post-process them, then the results produced from the Samsung S24 Ultra offer a much better starting point.
It's kind of like the difference in shooting JPEG vs. RAW image quality in some ways, with the Samsung capturing more data to work with and the Honor offering better JPEG vibrancy. For photographers and smartphone shooters who like to tinker with their photos, then a camera phone with a larger sensor is the way to go. But if you're more into point-and-shoot perfection, then Honor phones are a superb choice (and much more affordable too!).
