If you’re in the market for a new phone with a budget that doesn’t go more than PHP 25,000, the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G has surely proven itself worthy. But with newer options constantly coming in, having second thoughts is kind of inevitable.
A newcomer in town is the vanilla HONOR 200 5G and with the same price tag, how does it fare with the competition?
In this comparison review, we have the HONOR 200 up against the Samsung Galaxy A55. We will tackle each device’s pros and cons to paint a clearer picture on which one would be the better pick.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
Taking a good look at both phones, they definitely exude simplicity. The HONOR 200 goes a bit unconventional with its oval-shaped camera bump. Whereas the Galaxy A55, of course, follows Samsung’s iconic design with vertically left-aligned camera rings.
Holding both phones, we can feel even more differences. The HONOR 200 uses a premium polycarbonate material for its back panel, though it feels somewhat metallic to the touch. It curves on all sides to the frame giving it a relatively more comfortable grip.
The phone is also lighter and slimmer, measuring only 7.7mm thickness and weighs 187grams.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy A55 uses a Gorilla Glass Victus+ not just on its display but also on its back panel. Adding to that is its brushed aluminum frame making it more premium to hold. However, it is a bit thicker and heftier at 8.2 mm and 213 grams.
Perhaps one big advantage of the Galaxy A55 is its stronger build. While the HONOR 200 doesn’t have any ingress protection, the Galaxy A55 takes it up a notch with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. This means it should withstand being immersed under freshwater for a short amount of time. So, that’s definitely a plus.
Design may be subjective, but in this case, I will give this round to the Galaxy A55 thanks to its significantly more durable build.
Display and Multimedia
Now, when it comes to the display department, they both have good panels, but with different executions.
The HONOR 200 sports a 6.7-inch full HD+ Quad Curved AMOLED display with a peak brightness of up to 4000 nits. However, this is the so-called HDR peak brightness, take note of that, as it is only useful in watching HDR content.
On the other hand, the Galaxy A55 has a 6.6-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 1000 nits.
Both run at a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, but the HONOR 200 appears to have a slightly higher display resolution at 2664×1200 pixels compared to the Galaxy A55’s 2340×1080 pixels.
Despite the subtle differences, expect both phones to deliver a good viewing experience, especially the Galaxy A55 thanks to its Dolby Atmos support. Both handsets do have dual stereo speakers with a nice sound stage that is more than acceptable to my ears.
As for display protection, the HONOR 200 uses an “Aluminosilicate glass” and the Galaxy A55 has the aforementioned Gorilla Glass Victus+.
Aside from the curved display on the HONOR 200, there aren’t many advantages to see here. Some may prefer this type of display panel, but personally, I prefer a flat one simply because it won’t be susceptible to glares from the sides. With that, I’ll give it a tie this round.
Performance and Benchmarks
Under the hood, the HONOR 200 opts for a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, a 4-nanometer class chipset from Qualcomm with max clock speeds of up to 2.63 GHz.
The Galaxy A55 equips an in-house chip, the Exynos 1480, also built on a 4-nanometer process node and clocked a tad bit higher at 2.75 GHz.
Performance-wise, they are both generally on par, except the Galaxy A55 may have a slightly better graphics processing power. For context, the Exynos 1480 utilizes an RDNA-based GPU from AMD called the Xclipse 530. It is said to offer improved graphics performance than the Arm-based GPU in last year’s Galaxy A54 by up to 53%.
Galaxy A55 running Asphalt 9
This sounds good on paper and as you can see in our benchmark results, the Galaxy A55 achieved a higher score in 3DMark Wild Life. For those who didn’t know, 3DMark is a benchmark that tests the graphics capability of a device. This figure tells us that the Galaxy A55 may have a relatively better graphics processing than the HONOR 200.
| Benchmark | HONOR 200 | Samsung Galaxy A55 |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 | Exynos 1480 |
| AnTuTu V10 | 831,091 | 728,872 |
| AnTuTu Storage | 64,625 | 59,639 |
| S.Read Speed | 1043.0 MB/s | 1731.7 MB/s |
| S.Write Speed | 1030.3 MB/s | 1009.3MB/s |
| 3DMark Wild Life | 1776 | 3800 |
| Geekbench 6 Single-Core | 1178 | 1143 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-Core | 3384 | 3340 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL | 3597 | 3989 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU Vulkan | 4398 | 4125 |
| PC Mark Work 3.0 performance | 12,743 | 13,174 |
For other tests, though, the results come in close. In ANTUTU, the HONOR 200 scored at 830K which is 100,000 points higher than the Galaxy A55’s 720K points. It’s the same case on Geekbench as well.
Numbers aside, you can expect similar above-average raw performance on both the HONOR 200 and the Galaxy A55.
As for configuration, this is where the HONOR 200 shines as it packs 12GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of internal storage. That’s way better than the Galaxy A55 with only 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, although it compromises with support for expandable storage via hybrid microSD card.
HONOR 200 running Genshin Impact
While I appreciate the addition of storage expansion, it’s a no-brainer that having 512GB storage out of the box for the same price is undeniably better.
With that, the HONOR 200 evens out the match.
Cameras
Now onto cameras and it appears the HONOR 200 has the upper hand here. It packs a better triple rear camera setup and a better selfie shooter as well.
At the rear protrudes quite of a camera bump that houses a 50-megapixel main shooter, another 50-megapixel telephoto — both of which supports optical image stabilization, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. The selfie camera is yet another 50-megapixel sensor.
In contrast, the Galaxy A55 sports a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 5-megapixel macro sensor. In front, it uses a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
Check out some of our sample shots as seen on their individual reviews:
It’s what you would expect, photos that come out of the HONOR 200 generally look better than the Galaxy A55’s. Aside from better hardware, this is likely because of its AI enhancement feature being turned on by default. This basically uses AI algorithms to output well-balanced shots.
Users also have the convenience of getting studio-level portraits thanks to some portrait modes in collaboration with Studio Harcourt, a popular French photography studio.
The Galaxy A55 ain’t that bad, but assuming that its camera setup might just be a carryover from last year, this model could have gotten more improvements. It does have better post-processing to say the least.
For videos, both phones can record up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). Like I said earlier, they both have optical image stabilization that helps reduce shaky footage.
With better hardware and additional photography features, the HONOR 200 definitely owned the camera department.
Battery Life
Battery-wise, the HONOR 200, again, has the advantage. It gets a higher 5200mAh battery capacity, and it now deploys a silicon-carbon battery. In simple terms, this technology is said to contain more power in a given space. That explains the phone’s thinner profile despite having a larger battery.
On the other hand, the Galaxy A55 packs the usual 5000mAh (lithium-ion) battery.
In our PCMark battery test, the Galaxy A55 surprisingly lasted a bit longer at 13 hours and 12 minutes as compared to the HONOR 200’s 12 hours and 55 minutes of battery life.
It’s a different story in our video loop test whereas the HONOR 200 was able to last a good 27 hours and 17 minutes. That additional 200mAh capacity seemed to pay off well. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A55 wasn’t too far behind at 22 hours and 46 minutes of uptime.
Charging is another advantage for the HONOR 200 thanks to its fast 100W wired charging. The Galaxy A55’s supported charging rate is a bit underwhelming at 25W.
This gives the HONOR 200 a two-point lead in this matchup.
Connectivity and Other Features
On the software side, both phones run Android 14 out of the box. The HONOR 200 is skinned with MagicOS 8.0 and the Galaxy A55 with One UI 6.1 on top.
Software experience is another subjective topic, but for me, One UI feels better to use. Honor’s MagicOS is decent, but it still somewhat has remnants of EMUI that it once used before.
What secures this round for the Galaxy A55 is its longer software support. Samsung promises up to four (4) major OS upgrades and five (5) years of security patches. That’s a year longer than the HONOR 200 with three (3) major OS upgrades and four (4) years of security patches.
For connectivity, both have the essentials here: 5G, NFC, and eSIM support. Both phones also feature an under-display fingerprint sensor for biometrics security options.
Lastly, the HONOR 200 adds an Infrared remote control, which means you can use this phone as a universal remote for your home appliances. While that may be useful for some, longer software support holds more weight for me.
Which one should you get?
Now with everything said and done, we answer the question, “Which one is THE better pick?”
While both phones offer solid performance and impressive features, the HONOR 200 consistently outshines the Galaxy A55 in key areas. Its superior camera system, longer battery life with faster charging, and a bigger 512GB storage make it a compelling choice in the sub-PHP 25,000 price range.
If camera quality, battery life, and performance are your top priorities, the HONOR 200 5G is the clear winner in this comparison, priced at PHP 24,999.
For the same price (at PHP 24,990), the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G isn’t without its merits, boasting a more durable build, potentially better graphics performance, and longer software support.
Ultimately, the choice is always yours. Are you Team HONOR or Team Galaxy in this comparison? Which one would you pick and why? Let us know in the comments below!
HONOR 200 vs Samsung Galaxy A55 specs
| HONOR 200 | Samsung Galaxy A55 |
|---|---|
| PHP 24,999 | 12GB+512GB | PHP 24,990 | 8GB+256GB |
| 6.7-inch FHD+ Quad-Curved AMOLED display | 6.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display |
| 2664×1200 pixels, 120Hz refresh, 435 ppi | 1080 x 2340 pixels, 120Hz refresh |
| 4000 nits (HDR) peak brightness | 1000 nits (peak) brightness |
| Aluminosilicate glass | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 | Samsung Exynos 1480 |
| 4nm, 8-cores, up to 2.63GHz | 4nm, 8-cores, up to 2.75GHz |
| 12GB RAM | 8GB RAM (+8GB extended memory) |
| 512GB storage | 256GB storage |
| Expandable up to 1TB via microSD (hybrid slot) | |
| Triple rear cameras: | Triple rear cameras: |
| - 50MP f/1.95 main, OIS | - 50MP f/1.8 main, OIS |
| - 50MP f/2.4 telephoto, OIS | - 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide |
| - 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide | - 5MP f/2.4 macro |
| 50MP f/2.1 selfie shooter (hole punch notch) | 32MP selfie shooter (hole punch notch) |
| Nano SIM + eSIM | Dual nano-SIM + eSIM |
| 5G, 4G LTE | 5G, 4G LTE |
| Wi-Fi 6, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax | Wi-Fi 6 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax |
| Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| GPS/ AGPS/ GLONASS/ BeiDou/ Galileo | GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| USB Type-C | USB Type-C (USB 2.0) |
| NFC | NFC |
| Under-display fingerprint sensor | In-screen fingerprint sensor, face unlock |
| IP67 water and dust resistance | |
| Dual stereo speakers, Infrared RC | Dual stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos |
| MagicOS 8.0 (Android 14) | OneUI 6.1 (Android 14) |
| 5200mAh Si-ca battery | 5000mAh battery |
| 100W charging (wired) | 25W wired charging |
| 161.5 x 74.6 x 7.7 mm | 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2 mm |
| ~187g | 213g |
| Moonlight White, Emerald Green, Black | Awesome Iceblue, Awesome Navy, Awesome Lilac, Awesome Lemon |
| Glass front, plastic back (premium polycarbonate material) | Glass front, glass back (both Gorilla Glass Victus+) |
