Ever since the Huawei incident, Honor has made fewer devices each year. Since the company was divorced and sold off, it has been focusing on creating its own devices with its own teams, and they’re now aiming to create the best Android smartphones on the market. This isn’t very surprising — the company has a lot of experience, after learning from the second-biggest phone manufacturer in the world. It’s possible Honor may one day become as big as Huawei, and sell some of the best smartphones.

Honor is well known for creating excellent budget and affordable mid-range smartphones, So we’ve collected some of the best Honor phones from the company that you can buy today. Some of the devices cost nearly the same as Samsung smartphones, so if you’d rather go for a more familiar brand, we’ve also got you covered.

Best Flagship: Honor V40 5G

Honor V40 5G

The Honor V40 5G is an excellent smartphone for power users. It has a 6.72-inch AMOLED FHD+ display with 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10 support. It’s powered by a MediaTek 1000+ chipset and has 8GB of memory and 128/256GB of storage. The rear camera setup also features a 50MP main sensor, an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro camera for close-up photos. The selfie camera features a dual 16MP sensor.

While the V40 comes with Android 10 and Magic UI 4.0, sadly it doesn’t have Google Play Services. The 4,000 mAh battery can last a long time on a single charge, and even if you run out of juice, a 15 minute charge can top you back up to 60%, thanks to the 66W fast charging technology.

Honor V40 5G
Honor V40 5G

If you're looking for a device that’s excellent for gaming, takes excellent photos and can last a full day on a single charge, the Honor V40 5G is a great choice.

Runner-Up: Honor 50 Pro 5G

Honor 50 Pro

Announced back in June 2021, the Honor 50 series are the first flagship devices from the company since it separated from Huawei. The Honor 50 Pro comes with a large 6.72-inch OLED FHD+ display and 120Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset and 8GB of RAM. As for storage, there’s only a 256GB model available at the moment. The 50 Pro also comes with Magic 4.2 on top of Android 11 and it will also support Google Play Services in the future.

The quad-camera setup on the back is housed in a circular camera module, which makes it rather unique. It has a large 108MP main sensor, an 8MP ultrawide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 12MP ultrawide and a 32MP main sensor to up your selfie game while you’re out and about.

Speaking of out and about, the 4,000 mAh battery will allow you to stay out for longer, and if you ever need to charge on the go, it supports 100W fast charging. You can go from a flat battery to 100% in just 25 minutes, according to Honor. This is one of the best Honor phones the company has ever made.

Honor 50 Pro
Honor 50 Pro 5G

The Honor 50 Pro may not have a premium Snapdragon chipset, but it has more than enough power to let you play games, browse social media and snap beautiful photos. It’s excellent for those wanting to take selfie pictures and who don’t want to wait hours to charge up their devices.

Best for Most: Honor 50 5G

Honor 50

The Honor 50 is largely the same device as the Honor 50 Pro, but it’s slightly smaller. It has the same internals, except for a few exceptions which will be highlighted here.

The Honor 50 has a 6.57-inch OLED FHD+ display and a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by the same Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset, but it has 8/128GB and 8/256GB memory and storage configurations available. It also has the same rear camera setup, but the selfie camera on the Honor 50 includes only a singular 32MP sensor. The 4,300 mAh battery is also larger, but it “only” supports a still very fast 66W charging speed. It’s advertised to go from 0% to 70% in just 20 minutes.

Honor 50
Honor 50 5G

If you want to save a little bit of money and don’t mind the slightly smaller display and the lack of the great selfie camera setup from the Honor 50 Pro, the Honor 50 may even be a much better smartphone for a lot more people.

Best Affordable: Honor 50 SE 5G

Honor 50 SE

The Honor 50 SE was announced alongside the Honor 50 and Honor 50 Pro flagship devices. This SE model is mainly aimed at those who want to spend less money, and don’t necessarily need the extra power. It comes with a large 6.78-inch IPS FHD+ LCD display and 120Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset, which also happens to support 5G. Fortunately, if you’re looking for a device that can download extremely fast, this is one of the best Honor phones that will allow you to do just that.

It also has 8/128GB and 8/256GB memory and storage configurations available, but keep in mind the storage isn’t expandable. The rear camera setup features the same 108MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP cameras as on the more expensive Honor 50 and 50 Pro devices, but it lacks the 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a single 16MP snapper. The 4,000 mAh battery should last a full workday on a single charge, and it also supports 66W fast charging.

Honor 50 SE
Honor 50 SE 5G

If you’re on a tight budget, but still would like to get most of the same functionality that can be found in the Honor 50 flagship series, the Honor 50 SE includes everything you need.

Best Budget: Honor Play 5 5G

Honor Play 5

If you want to save even more, the Honor Play 5 5G comes with a 6.53-inch FHD+ OLED display, and is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 800U 5G chipset. It has 8GB of RAM and 128/256GB storage options to choose from. On the back, there are four camera sensors, including a 64MP main, an 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. Flipping it back to the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera and a USB-C port at the bottom. The 3,800 mAh battery is advertised to last a full day, or even more, depending on how much you use it. It also has 66W fast charging support, so luckily a full charge will only require 35 minutes of your time.

On a side note, the Play 5 5G has not yet been confirmed to have support for Google Play Services, so if you’re dependent on Google applications, it’s worth waiting or doing a bit of research to see if it has been added yet.

Best for Basics: Honor Play 20 

Honor Play 20

The “Best for Basics” category stands for normal internet browsing, reading, calling, texting, and the occasional use of social media and other applications. The Honor Play 20 offers just that, at a very affordable price tag. It has a large 6.5-inch IPS HD LCD display and is powered by a Unisoc T610 chipset. It has 4-8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, which can also be expanded via a MicroSD card slot.

The rear camera setup includes a 13MP main sensor and a 2MP depth sensor, while on the front, there’s a single 5MP camera. The 5,000 mAh battery should last a long time on a single charge, and fortunately, it also supports 10W charging. The Honor Play 20 also doesn’t feature Google Play Services.

Our Recommendation

These are some of the best Honor phones we could find today. If you want all of the power and great features, and don’t mind the lack of Google Play Services, the Honor V40 5G is the best smartphone you can buy today. If you’re looking for something more recent, the Honor 50 Pro and Honor 50 are both excellent choices, they support 5G, and may have Google Play Services installed in the near future, so it’s certainly worth considering.

The Honor 50 SE is the best affordable model from the Honor 50 series, and it doesn’t sacrifice a lot. It has an excellent chipset that provides all the power you need to surf the web, talk to friends and family, and snap a few photos every time you travel or visit places. On the other hand, if you are looking for the absolute basics to communicate with loved ones, love reading and browsing the web, the Honor Play 20 may also be an excellent choice.