Honor has officially lifted the curtain on its next batch of mid-range phones in China, where buyers can now place a deposit for the upcoming Honor 700S, Honor 700, and Honor 700 Pro.
If the company’s previous releases are any indication, the budget-oriented 700S is unlikely to see the light of day in the West, but the more premium 700 and 700 Pro could hit shelves in the coming months.
And, honestly, I’m hoping that they do, because both models are set to bring some impressively high-end features to a market segment otherwise dominated by boring-looking slabs like the Oppo Reno 16, Xiaomi 17T, or Google Pixel 10.
With that in mind, here are the three reasons the Honor 700 is worth looking forward to — and one reservation that could put a damper on the global launch...
It's got a beautiful backside
You might think cool rear displays are exclusive to high-end flagships like the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, but Honor is set to bring them to a cheaper price point with the Honor 700 series. All three models come with a small color display on the rear, and the brand has already been showing off what you can do with them in a flurry of posts on the Chinese social media site Weibo.
This includes the ability to play some cute little time-killing mini-games or unwind by tapping it to rotate a virtual wooden meditation bracelet. It also has some more practical applications, like reading your notifications at a glance without having to pick up the phone when it’s face down on your desk, or seeing a live preview of the rear camera when you’re shooting photos for easier posing. These aren’t exactly brand-new features in the world of phones with rear screens, but the idea of them being available at a more affordable rate is certainly appealing.
For its part, Honor does seem to have some innovation up its sleeve too. One video shows how easy it is to change its appearance with your own pictures, emojis, or GIFs. A new option appears when you hold your finger down to activate the Honor Magic Portal feature. Drag an image to it, and it’ll appear on the rear screen, which seems like a very Gen-Z approach to customization.
I can already imagine quickly tweaking it to reflect my mood, or show off the latest TV show I’m watching or game that I’m playing.
This phone is (literally) on the pulse
There’s another surprising feature buried here as well, revealed in a recent image post. It appears as though the phone will be able to read your heart rate and blood oxygen level, conveying it with a little graphic on the rear display.
It’s not exactly clear how it will do this, but there’s most likely some kind of sensor hidden somewhere on the exterior of the device that you’ll have to hold for a few seconds in order to get a reading.
Smartwatch users might shrug, but as an analog watch wearer who relies on their phone for step tracking and logging exercise routines, I think it's a pretty cool addition that gives you access to some more health data without the need for a standalone accessory.
Similar specs, with some solid improvements
Honor hasn't officially revealed the specs of any of the 700 series phones just yet, but the folks over at GSMarena have put together a 700 Pro spec sheet based on the latest leaks from internet tipsters — and it's certainly promising.
It looks like a very well-considered follow-up to the already excellent Honor 600 Pro, maintaining the same glass back and aluminum frame build that made that phone feel impressively premium despite its less-than-flagship price.
The main screen will seemingly be a very similar AMOLED panel, with the same smooth 120Hz refresh rate and incredible 8,000 nits peak brightness to ensure legibility in even the harshest of lighting conditions.
Rumors suggest the Honor 600 Pro has identical camera specs. (Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)The camera setup appears to be identical too, with a 200MP main shooter, 50MP telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultrawide on the rear, and the same 50MP selfie shooter on the front. I used the Honor 600 Pro as my daily driver for multiple weeks and couldn’t fault its camera performance given its market position. It offered poppy, bright pictures that were perfect for a social media feed, so I can understand Honor not wanting to shake things up this time around.
That said, I am disappointed that the phone will still apparently ship with a USB 2.0 connector, meaning that it will suffer from very slow file transfer speeds if you hook it up to a PC to export all of your pics.
The biggest improvements will likely be to the SoC, with the more recent Qualcomm SM8845 Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 replacing the Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite for a solid performance boost.
The battery is also getting an upgrade, coming in at 9,000 mAh rather than the 7,000 mAh (or 6,400 mAh in Europe) of the last model for even longer-lasting performance — very promising given I was able to squeeze multiple days of use out of the 600 Pro in my testing. Of course, whether markets outside of China get lower capacities is yet to be seen.
But it all depends on the price
The real elephant in the room here is price, as it could make or break the Honor 700 series as a package.
I’m hoping that Honor will be able to maintain the price point of the 600 line (which would help explain the overall rather similar specs), though this might be tricky given the huge hike in costs of key components like RAM and flash storage.
The Honor 600 Pro retailed for £899.99 in its 12GB of RAM and 512GB storage configuration, though it is almost perpetually discounted to around £599.99, where it represents pretty incredible value. The base Honor 600, meanwhile, retails for £549.99, though, again, it is frequently on sale for £449.99.
If the 700 series is available for the same rates, I could see it being a seriously tempting proposition when put up against major flagships. I'll be following the China launch closely.