I bought an Android smartphone for 35,800 rubles, and half of my friends are convinced I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max. I recently picked up a OnePlus 15 instead of an iPhone 17 and had no regrets, and now the Honor 600 in orange has caught my attention. I spent a week using it as my main device, swapping the SIM from my usual iPhone. At first it was just an experiment, then I simply liked it. Below I’ll explain how an ordinary Android so confidently passes for a top Apple smartphone, where the illusion falls apart, and why I recommend getting the version with 12 gigabytes of RAM. You pull it out at a café, and the person across from you glances over: did you get the new iPhone? From a distance, you can’t spot the difference.
You probably didn’t immediately figure out what smartphone I’m holding just from this picture
Honor 600 Design: Why It Looks Like an iPhone
The first thing that catches your eye is the flat body with straight edges. No curved sides, no rounded edges — everything is even and clean. The frame is matte aluminum, cool and pleasant to the touch, just like on expensive devices. The back panel is also flat, with sharp transitions between surfaces.
Honor 600
And this is iPhone 17 Pro Max
Then there’s the camera module. On the Honor, it features a large bump spanning the full width of the device, and in the orange color, the association clicks instantly. Apple once released an orange iPhone, and now that shade is permanently linked to Cupertino’s flagships in the average buyer’s mind. Honor cleverly took advantage of this.
The illusion only breaks when someone picks up the phone and sees the Honor logo on the back and the MagicOS shell on the screen. Until that moment, everyone is convinced it’s an iPhone. Tested on relatives, colleagues, and a pickup point worker who handed over my order commenting on the “new iPhone.”
The smartphone looks really great
And here’s a nice bonus: it’s a full-fledged Android, which means there are no issues with VK and its services. While some familiar apps are struggling on iPhones, VK Music, VK Video, and the messenger all work just fine here. A small thing, but a pleasant one. I should also note the protection. The Honor 600 has IP68, IP69, and IP69K ratings plus an SGS durability certificate. You can get it wet, drop it in the sink, and shoot in the rain without worrying.
Honor 600 Specs: Display, Processor, and Battery
The screen here is genuinely good. It’s an AMOLED panel at 6.57 inches with a 120 Hz refresh rate, resolution of 2728 by 1264 pixels, and peak brightness rated up to 8000 nits. Under direct sunlight the image is perfectly visible, nothing washes out. The interface flies, scrolling is smooth, and animations are silky.
The screen is high-quality and easy to read in sunlight
Inside there’s a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip. It’s not top-tier hardware but a solid mid-ranger; in AnTuTu it scores around 1.4 million points, and for everyday tasks that’s more than enough. Messengers, maps, a browser with tons of tabs, YouTube, photos — everything opens without hesitation or lag. Gaming on medium-high settings is also fine.
Where Honor truly outperforms most iPhones is the 7000 mAh battery. The massive battery easily lasts a full active day, and with moderate use stretches to two days. After an iPhone that begs for a charger by evening, this feels like a breath of freedom. Charging is handled by an 80-watt adapter — from zero to full in about half an hour.
Important for our market: dual SIM and eSIM. You can keep your home plan on a physical SIM and add a local eSIM package when traveling. And since it’s Android, notifications arrive without glitches, unlike iOS where you sometimes have to manually pull them from the messenger.
Honor 600 Camera: How It Shoots
The main camera here is a 200-megapixel sensor with optical stabilization. The number is marketing-driven, but in practice the shots come out detailed and sharp, especially in good light. Dynamic range is wide, and colors don’t veer into oversaturation. At night, stabilization helps a lot — shots come out cleaner than you’d expect from a device at this price.
The camera will impress you with quality shots
Complementing the main module are an ultrawide lens and a 50 MP front camera for selfies and video calls. The base version records video in 4K, though only at 30 fps — 60 fps is reserved for the older Pro model. For vlogs and stories, it’s more than enough.
A separate story is the AI features. Honor added a photo animation mode that creates short clips with motion from one or several photos. It works with templates, and you can also set your own text prompt. It’s a novelty that’s fun for a couple of evenings, but it’s a hit in social settings.
How Much Does Honor 600 Cost and Which Configuration to Choose
Now let’s talk about the money, which is really what this is all about. On a marketplace, I got the orange Honor 600 in the 12/256 GB configuration for 35,800 rubles. For comparison, the new iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at a price that could buy four of these Honors with money left over for cases. That’s the whole secret behind the iPhone illusion.
