The design philosophy of both phones is very different. The Honor 200 Pro has a very artistic design, which is obvious from both sides of the device. The phone features a very distinct glass back panel, which differs based on the color you get. The Ocean Cyan is one of the more interesting hues, which teeters somewhere between green and blue. It also features a dual-texture design, with part of the panel adopting a smooth matte-like finish while the majority of it has a textured look and feel.
Honor follows through with the more artistic design of the camera housing, which was inspired by the rather unique shape found at Casa Mila in Barcelona. The combination of these unique design choices results in a phone that is rather eye-catching and is bound to turn heads.
Meanwhile, Google retained the Pixel’s iconic camera visor on the back with a rather shiny aluminum that wraps around the frame of the Pixel 8 Pro. However, the back is a matte glass with a very soft feel, adding a dramatic contrast to the overall design. The back panel also slightly curves into the frame, which itself is also slightly rounded.
On the front, the phone has a flat display with fairly minimal bezels. This is in stark contrast to the quad-curved screen on the Honor 200 Pro, which seamlessly curves into the plastic frame, mirroring the curvature of the back panel. This makes the phone appear even thinner than it actually is. The Pixel 8 Pro is 0.6mm thicker than the Honor, but it looks even thicker when the phones are placed side-by-side. The Pixel is also slightly heavier, but it’s hardly noticeable.
Both phones have 120Hz OLED panels, and both are quite bright. Honor has the Pixel beat, however, thanks to the much higher 4,000 nits of peak brightness. Honor also took extra care to ensure the display was as comfortable as possible for users. That includes a high 3,840Hz PWM dimming rate—which is ideal for PWM-sensitive users, AI enhancements, TÜV Rheinland certifications, and other features that promote eye comfort.
Both displays are quite vibrant and sharp, but Honor takes the lead here despite the Pixel’s higher pixel density. That goes for the design, too, which is much more inspired than the Pixel’s, although the IP65 rating is noticeably weaker than the IP68 on the Pixel 8 Pro.
Hardware and specs
It’s not just the outside that separates these phones. Internally, the Honor 200 Pro is a bit of a half-step down from phones running the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 inside still features many of the same AI capabilities and can keep up with many of the best Android phones. Meanwhile, the Tensor G3 in the Pixel 8 still uses last year’s Cortex-X3 core, but even so, the phone excels at AI, thanks to the Tensor processing unit. That means you may not get the best performance in all scenarios, but the phone will handle AI features extremely well.
That said, both phones perform well overall, and while gaming performance isn’t particularly a strength of either, the Pixel seems to do a little better (but not by much). Games like Honkai: Star Rail play fairly smoothly on the highest settings, but expect either phone to get quite warm.
Both phones also have 12GB of RAM, which is great for juggling apps.
| Category | Honor 200 Pro | Google Pixel 8 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Android 14 (MagicOS 8), 3 OS upgrades, 4 years of security updates | Android 14, 7 years of OS and security updates |
| Display | 6.78-inch AMOLED, 2700×1224, 120Hz, 4000 nits peak brightness, 3840Hz PWM Dimming | 6.7-inch OLED, 1344×2992, 120Hz, 2400 nits peak |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 | Tensor G3 |
| RAM | 12GB | 12GB |
| Storage | 512GB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
| Rear Camera 1 | 50MP wide, ƒ/1.9,1/1.3”, 2.4μm (pixel binning) | 50MP wide, ƒ/1.68, 1/1.31″, 1.2μm |
| Rear Camera 2 | 50MP telephoto, 2.5x, ƒ/2.4 | 48MP telephoto, 5x, ƒ/2.8 |
| Rear Camera 3 | 12MP ultrawide/macro, ƒ/2.2, 112° FOV | 48MP ultrawide/macro, ƒ/1.95, 125.5° FOV |
| Front-facing camera | 50MP | 10.5MP |
| Connectivity | 5G, Wi-Fi (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, dual-SIM | 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, UWB, |
| Audio | Dual stereo speakers | Dual stereo speakers |
| Battery | 5200mAh | 5050mAh |
| Charging | 100W wired, 66W wireless, 5W reverse wireless | 30W wired, 23W wireless, reverse |
| Ingress Protection | IP65 | IP68 |
| Dimensions | 163.3 x 75.2 x 8.2mm | 162.6 x 76.5 x 8.8mm |
| Weight | 199g | 213g |
| Colors | Moonlight White, Black, Ocean Cyan | Bay, Mint, Obsidian, Porcelain |
One thing that both these phones get right is audio. The dual stereo speakers sound very full and deep, giving your music some needed depth. The Pixel 8 Pro can make voices sound a little echoey, but it’s not too noticeable. The downside is that neither phone has a headphone jack.
On-display fingerprint sensors are pretty good on both phones, but the sensor on the Honor 200 Pro is a bit faster, unlocking the phone almost as soon as I place my finger on the display. The Pixel 8 Pro takes about half a second. The downside of the Honor sensor is that it’s incredibly low on the display compared to the more comfortable placement on the Pixel.
These phones also have little extras that you may or may not find useful. For the Honor 200 Pro, there’s an IR blaster that you can use for the Smart Remote feature. I use it with my Chromecast with Google TV dongle connected to my Vizio TV, and it works very well. For the Pixel 8 Pro, there’s a temperature sensor on the back, which you can use to measure… things as well as people. It feels a bit superfluous as more smartwatches adopt temperature sensors, and probably would’ve been more useful during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but better late than never, I suppose.