Best Honor Phones UK 2026 — Which Should You Buy New?

Why buy a new Honor phone in 2026?

Honor spent a decade as part of Huawei before Huawei sold the business outright in November 2020, and that split matters more than most buyers realise. Every Honor phone sold in the UK today ships with the full Google Mobile Services stack pre-installed — Play Store, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Google Pay, Chrome, and on newer Magic-series models, Google's Gemini AI assistant too. None of the restrictions that used to affect Huawei phones apply here.

What's left is a brand that still has to fight for UK market share against Apple, Samsung and Google, all of whom have decades of brand recognition Honor doesn't. The result is a company that consistently prices more aggressively than its rivals at every tier, from £79 basics phones through to £1,200 folding flagships — and because the underlying hardware is frequently a generation ahead of what the price suggests, that aggressive pricing translates into genuinely strong specs for the money.

The honest trade-off is resale value and support infrastructure. Honor's UK resale prices on the secondhand market run lower than equivalent Samsung or Apple models, and the UK repair and service network is smaller than the big three's. If you buy a phone and keep it for years, none of that matters much. If you trade in every 18–24 months and resale value matters to your budgeting, it's worth knowing before you buy, not after.

Compare live prices across every Honor phone GadgetRank tracks before you decide — this guide breaks down which model actually suits which kind of buyer, and where the real value sits in Honor's current range.

Best overall: Honor Magic7 Pro — £1,099

The Magic7 Pro is Honor's flagship non-folding phone, and it's built to go head-to-head with the Galaxy S Ultra and iPhone Pro line at a meaningfully lower asking price. Triple rear cameras give it genuine flexibility for photography — wide, ultra-wide and telephoto rather than a single decent lens propped up by software — and the build quality holds up to close inspection rather than feeling like a budget phone with a big price tag stuck on it.

Fast charging means less time tethered to a cable, and the overall package is the closest thing Honor makes to "buy this if you just want the best phone Honor sells, no compromises." If you're coming from a Samsung or Apple flagship and want to see what the aggressive-pricing alternative actually looks like in hand, this is the model to try.

Price: £1,099

Best for: Anyone who wants genuine flagship specs without paying Apple or Samsung flagship prices.

Best foldable: Honor Magic V3 — £1,199.99

The Magic V3 is Honor's answer to the Galaxy Z Fold — a book-style foldable that opens from a normal-looking phone into something closer to a small tablet. At £1,199.99 it sits meaningfully below what Samsung charges for its equivalent foldable, while delivering the same fundamental appeal that's made the format popular: one device that's genuinely pocketable as a phone and genuinely useful as a small tablet when you need more screen.

Foldables are still a newer format than traditional phones, so the usual caveats apply — the fold mechanism is a moving part that traditional phones don't have, and third-party app support for the unfolded, larger screen varies. But as a statement of what a folding phone can cost when it isn't wearing a Samsung badge, the Magic V3 is a serious option worth cross-shopping against the Fold line directly.

Price: £1,199.99

Best for: Buyers who want a folding phone's flexibility without paying Samsung's foldable premium.

Best value flagship: Honor Magic7 Lite — £249.99

Don't let the "Lite" name mislead you on where this sits in the range — the Magic7 Lite is priced at just £249.99, closer to Honor's mid-range 400 series than to its true flagship siblings, while still carrying design touches and branding from the Magic line. It's a genuinely well-positioned phone for someone who wants the feeling of having bought something premium without spending premium money.

This is the model we'd point most value-conscious buyers towards first: it undercuts the Honor 400 Pro on price while trading on flagship-adjacent branding, which for many buyers matters as much as the spec sheet.

Price: £249.99

Best for: Buyers who want flagship styling and branding on a genuinely mid-range budget.

Best mid-range: Honor 400 and Honor 400 Pro — £329 / £549

The Honor 400 at £329 and the Honor 400 Pro at £549 cover the true middle of Honor's current range, and the roughly £220 gap between them buys a genuinely better camera system and faster charging on the Pro — not a marginal upgrade dressed up as a meaningful one.

If photography is a real priority for you — travel photos, food photos, anything you'll actually look back at — the step up to Pro is worth the extra spend. If your phone use is mostly messaging, browsing, and the occasional snapshot, the standard 400 covers the same core smartphone experience for meaningfully less, and the money saved is better spent elsewhere.

Price: £329 (Honor 400) / £549 (Honor 400 Pro)

Best for: Buyers who want a genuinely capable everyday phone without flagship-level spending.

Best budget: Honor 400 Smart — £169

At £169, the Honor 400 Smart is where Honor's aggressive UK pricing strategy really shows its value. This is a genuinely usable everyday smartphone for well under £200 — not a compromised device that merely functions, but one that handles calls, messaging, browsing, and everyday apps without the frustration that budget phones sometimes carry.

This is the model we'd point a first-time smartphone buyer, a teenager getting their first handset, or anyone who needs a reliable backup phone towards. It won't compete with flagship cameras or gaming performance, but for its actual job — being a phone that works, every day, without drama — it does that job well.

Price: £169

Best for: First phones, backup phones, or anyone who wants reliability without spending much to get it.

Cheapest new phones on the market: Honor X6c and X5c Plus — £79–£89

If even £169 is more than you want to spend, the Honor X6c at £89 and the Honor X5c Plus at £79 are about as cheap as a genuinely new smartphone gets in the UK in 2026. These are honestly basic phones — don't expect flagship cameras, gaming performance, or premium materials — but they're real, new, unlocked Android handsets at a price bracket most competitors don't even attempt to compete in.

Where these two shine is as a fast, low-cost replacement when something's gone wrong with your main phone, as a genuinely disposable-budget spare device, or as a first phone for a child where you'd rather not hand over anything expensive.

Price: £79 (X5c Plus) / £89 (X6c)

Best for: Absolute minimum budget, a spare or emergency phone, or replacing a lost or broken device fast without a big outlay.

The middle-ground option: Honor 600 Smart — £249.99

Sitting at £249.99, the Honor 600 Smart lands at exactly the same price point as the Magic7 Lite above, but with a different design language and a different generation of internals behind it. Worth cross-shopping both directly if you're buying in this bracket — which one actually suits you will come down more to preference on design and feel than to any clear spec-sheet winner, since they're priced to compete directly with each other as much as with anything from Samsung or Apple.

Price: £249.99

How Honor compares to Samsung, Apple and Google

The honest, unvarnished comparison: Honor phones consistently undercut equivalent Samsung and Apple models by a real, meaningful margin at every price bracket, from £79 basics through to £1,200 foldables. That's not marketing spin — it's the structural result of a brand still building UK market share against three companies with decades of head start.

What you give up buying Honor over the big three is ecosystem integration. There's no AirDrop-equivalent tight integration with a wider family of devices the way Apple offers across iPhone, Mac and iPad, and no Samsung One UI continuity if you already own a Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Tab. The UK service and repair network is also smaller than Samsung's or Apple's, meaning a warranty repair may take longer or require more legwork to arrange.

If you're buying a phone standalone, with no existing ecosystem investment pulling you toward a specific brand, Honor's value case is genuinely strong across this entire range. If you're already invested in Apple's or Samsung's ecosystem — other devices, subscriptions, accessories built around one platform — the switching cost usually outweighs whatever you'd save buying Honor instead.

It's also worth reading how buying new compares to buying refurbished more generally before you commit either way, since the maths shifts depending on which specific model and condition you're comparing against. And since every Honor phone above is sold SIM-free and unlocked, pairing it with a cheap SIM-only plan rather than locking into a contract will almost always work out cheaper over the life of the phone.

Which Honor phone should you actually buy?

• Want the best phone Honor makes, no compromises: Magic7 Pro (£1,099)
• Want a folding phone for meaningfully less than Samsung charges: Magic V3 (£1,199.99)
• Want flagship styling and branding on a genuinely mid-range budget: Magic7 Lite (£249.99)
• Want a solid, capable everyday phone: Honor 400 (£329) or 400 Pro (£549) if photography matters more
• Want reliability first, spending kept low: Honor 400 Smart (£169)
• Want to spend as little as possible on something that works: X6c or X5c Plus (£79–£89)

Compare live prices across every retailer GadgetRank tracks on our Honor phones page before you buy — prices genuinely move week to week, and the cheapest retailer for one model isn't always the cheapest for another, so it's always worth a final check before you commit.

Related reading: Compare all Honor phones on GadgetRank · Buy New phones SIM-free · Refurbished vs new phone — is it worth it? · Compare SIM only plans · Compare Samsung Galaxy phones · Compare Google Pixel phones · Compare iPhones · Phone contracts compared · Sell your old phone · All buying guides