This phone was amazing for a day at Wimbledon in three ways, but awful in one

For many tennis fans, the most important fortnight of the year has just begun.

In case you weren’t aware, Wimbledon is underway, with the iconic tournament taking place from 1-14 July this year.

As a big tennis fan who lives near London, I knew I wanted to be there on the first day to watch top-class action and soak up the atmosphere.

However, without signing up for the ballot ahead of time, I knew the only way I could get tickets was to join the queue. That meant a long day of waiting around, followed by constant checking of scores and courts once inside the grounds.

That placed a lot of demands on my smartphone, so I needed a device which was up to the task. I test phones for a living, so had plenty to choose from, but opted for the Honor 200 Pro that I’d recently reviewed without much thought.

Overall, it turned out to be a good decision, but there was one aspect that left me nearly regretting my choice. Let’s start with the good.

Capturing the moment

Going to Wimbledon isn’t something you get the chance to do very often, so being able to document it was important to me.

Whether it was selfies in the queue or the view from my seat, I needed a camera that was up to the task.

Luckily, the Honor 200 Pro was just what I needed. Shots from the main rear lens were consistently excellent for detail and colour accuracy, yet still able to capture the atmosphere of the moody skies.

The telephoto camera was a great alternative when I was a little further from the action, with its 2.5x optical zoom ensuring quality remained high.

And while the ultrawide camera is a clear step down in terms of quality, I still appreciated the versatility it offered, especially when showing the vastness of the surroundings.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

However, the front-facing lens was probably the most impressive of the lot, producing detailed selfies that perfectly captured the moment.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Video wasn’t quite as good, as is often the case on Android phones, but footage was still plenty good enough for sharing with friends and family, which was my top priority.

The Honor 200 Pro might not be quite up there with the best camera phones you can buy, but for its £699.99 asking price, you’ll struggle to find better. And that’s before you even consider the superb portrait photos it can take.

Brightening my day

The Honor 200 Pro has one of the best displays in the business: a 6.78-inch Full HD+ AMOLED panel with smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

However, none of those premium specs matter much if you squint at your phone every time you use it outdoors. And at Wimbledon, that’s something you could end up doing a lot.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

So, the more relevant feature here is maximum brightness, which should kick in automatically if you have auto brightness on. The Honor 200 Pro’s peak of 544 nits meant I could easily see it outdoors – even during the rare moments of direct sunlight.

Powering through

On the face of it, a day at Wimbledon shouldn’t present much of a challenge for a modern smartphone. For me, this involved taking lots of photos, texting friends and family, scrolling social media and checking the Wimbledon app for schedule and score updates.

However, you’d be surprised how many smartphones can struggle with this, especially when quickly switching between them or exposed to hotter temperatures than normal.

Not the Honor 200 Pro, though. Its Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset and 12GB of RAM ensured it powered through the full day without any issues whatsoever. As my full review showed, it can handle much more demanding tasks, too.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Can’t go the distance

However, as good as the Honor 200 Pro was for a day at Wimbledon, there was one key aspect that nearly ruined my experience: poor battery life.

I’ll admit that my preparation here wasn’t exactly ideal. I’d only been able to charge the phone to 75% in the morning and didn’t bring a portable charger with me.

But even so, the 200 Pro’s 5200mAh battery (one of the larger capacities around) should’ve been more than enough to make it through the full 13-hour day. It wasn’t even like I was using my phone excessively – a total of 2 hours and 22 minutes of screen time is well below my daily average.

However, from around 4pm onwards, I was often worried about it running out of charge. Granted, this was mainly due to having signed up for the Centre Court ticket resale (which notified me when a ticket was available via text), but I also wanted to be able to contact my friend if we ever got separated.

There were charging stations dotted around the grounds, but I really didn’t want to pay £10 and wait next to my phone for it to charge. The Honor 200 Pro’s fast 100W charging speeds might be great most of time, but they’re of little use when the charging station wouldn’t support it.

I eventually nursed the phone to the end of the day, but only after turning off mobile data and GPS. It also added a significant amount of undue stress to what was otherwise a brilliant day.

So, as good as the Honor 200 Pro was for a day at Wimbledon, disappointing battery life means I can’t recommend it if you’re planning to spend a long day away from the power.

Alternatively, you can be more sensible than me and pack a power bank.

Check out our dedicated guide to watching Wimbledon in 4K Ultra HD and HDR

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