Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC review: Bose’s collab has paid off

8.4

Skullcandy is a brand that has always had interesting ideas, but the company’s dedication to bass above all else has held its products back from being actually good. They were fun, looked interesting, and certainly fulfilled the DJ’s request to ‘turn the bass up’, but they were toys, not serious headphones.

Now that the brand has joined the ‘Bose Sound Program’, all the best parts of what makes Skullcandy special can shine alongside refined, mature audio and good quality noise cancelling.

All that combined makes the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC the most interesting headphones I’ve tried this year, and ones that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves bass-heavy genres.

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Audio quality
• Comfort
• Noise cancelling
• Who is the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC for?

First impressions

Taking them out of the box, I noticed the case, which is like a large dice bag, as well as the aesthetic of the headphones. The physical buttons are comically large, and the dial to control the Crusher effect is large enough to make a statement. It can also be easily controlled while wearing winter gloves.

Image: Alice Clarke.

The cans themselves look a bit cheap and plastic, but feel robust. The cushioning on the cups is plush and soft, covered in vinyl.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Setting them up with my iPhone was easy – I paired them in Bluetooth settings and then opened the app to check for firmware updates. Then I was good to go.

SkullCandy Crusher 1080 ANC specifications and price

Driver diameter	36mm
Connection Type	Bluetooth 5.3
Impedance	36Ω±15%
Driver Diameter	36mm
Sound Pressure Level	122.1±2dB at 100Hz with input 0.190V/1mW
Frequency Response	20Hz -20000Hz
Weight	374.2g
Price (RRP)	$399
Warranty	One year in addition to Australian consumer law rights
Official website	Skullcandy Australia

On top of that, the battery life is an impressive 60 hours (without ANC or Crusher), and the sound has been tuned by Bose.

Audio quality

I will fully admit that I went into reviewing this pair of headphones assuming they would be a gimmick and nothing more. I reviewed the previous Crusher Evo model and found it to be a novelty, but not a pair of headphones you could take seriously.

Well, I am delighted to have been proved wrong. I actually, shockingly, love these headphones. They’re what I reach for when I want to get hyped up and listen to music with gusto.

Part of that is down to how Bose has tuned the audio. I find it fascinating how Bose is now branching out to give other brands the signature Bose sound, while still maintaining other brands’ priorities. I’m not sure how that works as a business model, but it’s better than Sennheiser’s approach of dividing up the company into splinters, and it means that there’s better audio for more segments of the market, so I’m a fan.

The other part is how the Crusher effect has matured. The concept of Crusher is to make it so that you feel the bass. On the previous Crusher over-ear model that I tried, it was quite a concussive effect that made the music sound worse.

Image: Alice Clarke.

On this new Crusher 1080 ANC, it’s easy to turn the effect up and down depending on your mood and the genre of whichever song you’re listening to. More importantly, the Crusher is now less about violently vibrating your whole skull, and more about giving you the feeling of being on the barrier at a gig, and feeling the bass vibrate through you.

It reminds me of the first time I went to the Big Day Out: I was 12 years old, it was my first concert, and I just remember the feeling of walking up to the area outside the main stage and having the bass be so strong it reverberated through my chest and changed the way my heart felt. My ribs were vibrating in a new way. The music fully took over my body, and there was nothing I could do but surrender to it. Crusher is a gentler version of that, but it takes the personal listening experience to a whole other level.

With closed-back, audiophile headphones, I always talk about how it gives you the feeling of sitting in the middle of the band in the studio, an intimate listening experience. Crusher is the opposite of that; it transports me to the mosh pit, to a sweaty rave, to sitting at the drum kit with the wedges pointed directly at you as you play a show to a crowd singing along.

It’s obvious that these headphones were designed for dance music. That’s what shines the best, particularly with the Crusher effect.

Music tests

“Sissy That Walk” by RuPaul: The first thing that hits me on this song is how hard the bass hits with the full Crusher effect. I can close my eyes, and I’m in the club with all my friends. I can still hear the synths, and RuPaul’s voice is still super clear, but it has that distorted effect you get when the club has cranked the subwoofer up to max. It’s impossible not to dance along.

“One Second Of Insanity” by The Butterfly Effect: Turns out, Crusher is also great for metal and heavy rock. Once again, the Crusher effect has me feeling like I’m 14 years old sneaking into over-18 gigs.

Listening to “One Second Of Insanity” with Crusher on gives me this sensory memory of being at The Corner Hotel watching these guys absolutely crush this song. It also brings back visceral memories of feeling the reverb from my own kit when my cover band would play this song with far less skill but plenty of enthusiasm.

The bass drum is obviously at the forefront of the soundstage with the effect on, but the jingling of those open hi-hats is still so present. The bass guitar almost feels like a physical presence. Clint’s voice is perfectly recreated, going from being angelically smooth to a gravelly growl. On Skullcandy headphones, I expected everything to get dragged down and muddy with how the brand usually tunes the bass (and the added emphasis from the Crusher), but that’s just not a factor here. It’s as clean as you’d get at a show, which is dirty as hell, but I think what the company was going for.

Image: Alice Clarke.

With Crusher off, the headphones are still extremely good for this price point. Going back to my usual testing playlist, I can hear more than what I’d usually expect to hear from mid-range headphones, and certainly much more than I’d ever expect from Skullcandy.

“Simmer” by Hayley Williams: Yes, of course, the bass is still far more emphasised on other headphones, even without Crusher. But I can still hear the more delicate cymbal strikes, and most of the snare ghost notes. Williams’ voice is clear, and I can hear some of her little breaths.

“Georgiana” by Dario Marianelli: The idea of testing Skullcandy headphones with a delicate classical piano track would once have been laughable, but I am shocked by how well the Crusher 1080 reproduces this song. It’s beautiful, it’s delicate, and the mids and high tones shine just as brightly as the bass notes.

Unfortunately, the Bose spatial effect isn’t one I could hear clearly during the review period. I’m not sure if that’s a technical issue with my pair, or a broader issue with the technology, but it did not work for me. It’s no great loss for everyday music listening, though.

Comfort

These headphones are so soft. I can (and often do) comfortably wear them for hours. If I had to jump on an 18-hour flight tomorrow, these are the over-ear headphones I’d have in my bag alongside my AirPods Pro.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Noise cancelling

I’m writing this review on a plane, and I can no longer hear the person in front of me who has keyboard clicks on their phone. While I’m vaguely aware of the low hum of the engines, and now and then I can hear the ghost of an announcement over the PA, I can’t hear any of the conversations around me. I am shielded from the most annoying parts of commuting.

It’s perhaps not hitting the lofty heights of what I experience from Apple’s latest Gen 3 AirPods Pro, nor the Bose QuietComfort Ultimate. But enough of the external sounds are being covered that I’m impressed with the performance from this mid-range pair of over-ear cans.

The transparency mode is also very good. Not anywhere near the best in the business, but more than good enough for most uses.

Who is the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC for?

These are the best headphones for people who want to feel the bass in their music. To be transported back to a live music venue while in the comfort of their own home or the discomfort of a commute.

At $399, these are in the territory of being someone’s main headphones for years, and so I am slightly cautious given there are better noise-cancelling options close to this price point. However, these are such good all-rounders for metal, dance and rock music fans that for those who want to feel the bass, it’s a worthy trade-off.

Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC

The SkullCandy Crusher 1080 ANC is the most interesting pair of headphones I’ve tried this year, and ones that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves bass-heavy genres.

Features

9

Value for money

8

Performance

9

Ease of use

9

Design

7

Positives

Excellent sound

Skullcandy's 'Crusher' effect is more refined and enjoyable

Long battery life

Negatives

Very specific aesthetic

Bose's spatial audio feature did not work for me during the review period

8.4

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Sony reckons this is how your TV should look using RGB tech

In the world of TVs, 2026 has been the year of RGB technology. Most of the major TV brands are using some form of RGB-based backlighting, including Samsung, LG, and Hisense. Sony also recently debuted its spin on the technology in the form of the Bravia RGB range.

I recently reviewed the Sony Bravia 7 II, and it really does show how deep the colours can look with RGB technology. As we’ve explored before, RGB backlighting replaces the traditional white LEDs with red, green, and blue backlights, which are capable of displaying the full BT.2020 colour spectrum.

For everyday viewing, the result is deeper and more accurate colours, especially when watching high-quality HDR media, like from a 4K UHD Blu-Ray. Combined with the growing trend of anti-reflective TV coatings, it produces a great viewing experience, day or night. It’s worth seeing in action, just to see what RGB technology brings to the table.

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Motorola Moto Buds Loop Swarovski review: Sparkle Sparkle

6.6

When I was a little kid playing princess dress-ups, long before I was old enough to pierce my ears, my mum got me some shiny clip-on earrings. They clipped onto my earlobes and were encrusted with dozens of sparkling fake diamonds, and they really helped with my role-play of ruling over the land of the teddy bears.

The Motorola Buds Loop is a set of true wireless open-ear headphones, and thanks to the collaboration with Swarovski, it’s covered in crystals. They’re easy to wear so we can all play princess dress-ups again, and I enjoy many aspects of it, including the concept.

But are the Moto Buds Loop worth the money? Or are they just a fun oddity?

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Comfort
• Audio quality
• Aesthetics
• Who is the Moto Buds Loop Swarovski Edition for?

First impressions

My first reaction upon seeing the Motorola Buds Loop was surprise that the case isn’t also bedazzled. I am a strong believer in that if you’re going to do something, you should do it. Commit. These buds don’t commit enough. I’ll get more into the aesthetic choices below, but I had high hopes that were not met.

As far as setup goes, it was easy. I opened the box near my phone and connected from the Bluetooth section in settings, and then was able to ride off on my bike listening to tunes five minutes later.

Motorola Moto Buds Loop specifications and price

Audio technology	12mm ironless drivers Sound by Bose Spatial audio
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.0
Battery life	8 hours of playtime with an extra 37 hours in the case.
Water resistance rating	Water-repellent design
Price (RRP)	$399
Warranty	One year in addition to your Australian Consumer Law Rights
Official website	Motorola Australia

In addition to those specs, it’s worth noting that the sound is tuned by Bose, so it sounds better than it looks.

But otherwise, it’s very clear to see that a large chunk of the $399 is for the crystals. At that price, you could get some really good headphones, or the best open-ear buds on the market. For $399 I would expect Bluetooth 5.3 at minimum, as well as an IP57 rating at least.

Motorola advertises the buds as being protected against “moderate exposure to water such as accidental spills, splashes, or light rain”, which is a bit vague. On a ride the other day, I got drenched when a truck drove through a puddle next to me, and I got splashed. Is that the kind of splash Motorola means? Or the kind of splash you’d see in a Neutrogena ad? With a specific IP rating, you can compare and contrast, not so much with “splashes and light rain”.

At least Motorola is more specific when it says the Moto Buds Loop are “not designed to be submerged in water”.

Comfort

This is a very challenging form factor to make comfortable. If you make the band too soft, it’ll fall off. If you make it too rigid (as Motorola has done here), it becomes uncomfortable if you don’t have the ideal ear shape.

I do not have the ideal ear shape. I can only get the left bud close enough to the entrance of my ear canal to get the optimal fit. By comparison, my right ear has lower-quality audio and the fit hurts.

This clip-on form factor is gaining popularity, with more and more headphones releasing in this style. Personally, I think it’s the worst of all worlds, but other brands (like Shokz and Bose) have managed to make it in a more malleable shape to better suit more ear shapes.

Image: Alice Clarke.

A reason why I think this style is the worst of all worlds is that it’s a pair of open-ear headphones that isn’t designed to be exercised in. One of the main benefits of open-ear headphones is that you can run or ride relatively safely in them.

While I don’t think Motorola would encourage it, I took the Moto Buds Loop for a 20km bike ride with absolutely no problems. They did interact with my helmet strap a few times in a way I found annoying, but they never felt in danger of falling out and (if I put them on in a non-optimal way, away from my ear canal), they were comfortable enough to be worn for an hour.

One thing I do really like is that the back plate of each bud has a physical button to pause or skip songs, and it worked most of the time! Not all the time, but it worked more often than it didn’t, and that’s something.

Audio quality

This style of headphones is designed for open-ear listening, so they’re going to sound different to a pair of AirPods or other more traditional true wireless headphones. The aim is for you to be able to hear the world around you and conduct conversations, while also hearing music or a podcast.

They’re not for audiophile listening or finding the beautiful details in a song. However, the Moto Buds Loop sound way better than they have any right to. Bose really crushed it on this one. They don’t hold a candle to my favourite open-ear buds (the Shokz OpenFit Pro), but they sound better than any other buds I’ve tried in this style.

With the buds in the (uncomfortable) proper position, I get a surprising amount of bass. Often on this style of headphones you can just hear the shadow of the bass, but I can hear the kick drum coming through and the meaty guitars in “Goddess” by Pvris just fine.

It’s better than I would expect on a delicate song like “Infinite Ache” by Kaki King. I get enough of the soundstage that I’m having a good time, even if I can’t hear the human details of fingers on frets.

These aren’t headphones I would choose for a first listen to a new album from my favourite band if I had other options. But were my ears able to comfortably get the optimal fit, I would happily use them while exercising when I was feeling blingy.

Aesthetics

Normally the aesthetics of true wireless headphones wouldn’t merit their own heading, but these Moto Buds Loop are really all about the aesthetic. The Swarovski crystals account for probably half the price.

I can see what they were going for: princess sparkle earrings. The problem is that, like on the case, they just didn’t commit hard enough. Had Motorola chosen a shinier, metallic material for the rest of the buds, they could have looked like premium jewellery. Had they covered more of the buds in the crystals, it would have been sparklier and worked better.

Image: Alice Clarke.

The problem is that these buds look like regular buds that have had some crystals glued onto the band. Which is what they are. The combo of sparkly crystals and (in the case of my Pantone Ice Melt review pair) light blue plastic is a lot closer to the dress-up princess earrings I wore as a very small child than the premium jewellery aesthetic Swarovski normally goes for.

It makes these buds look cheap and tacky, and it brings down the appearance of the crystals. Because of how they’ve been styled and paired, I really can’t tell they’re premium crystals. It’s also worth noting that Motorola has since released additional colours in this range.

I love the idea, and I think it is possible to execute this idea well. I just don’t think they’ve done that here. However, I’m an aging millennial. Maybe this is the aesthetic Gen Z is into. And if you love it, then I’m so glad this niche has been filled for you.

Who is the Moto Buds Loop Swarovski Edition for?

The Moto Buds Loop Swarovski open-ear earbuds are for people who love the way they look. You would buy this pair for purely aesthetic reasons.

You can get the same buds without the crystals for $100 cheaper. Plus, there are better headphones at the same price that (in my opinion) suit a wider range of personal styles. You’d buy these headphones because you like the way they look and want them to be a conversation starter.

Motorola Moto Buds Loop Swarovski Edition

If you loved playing princess dress-ups as a small child, you can now bring that vibe into your adult life with Moto Buds Loop adorned with Swarovski crystals.

Features

7

Value for money

6

Performance

8

Ease of use

7

Design

5

Positives

They sound surprisingly good

Long battery life

Sparkly design stands out

Negatives

Most of what you’re paying for is the crystals, not the tech

Uncomfortable for my ears

Only half-commits to the aesthetic, which is an acquired taste

6.6

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Skullcandy’s new headphones aim to crush much pricier brands

Skullcandy once positioned itself as the punk rock of headphone brands, made for people keen to deviate from the mainstream. While the street culture aesthetic remains, it has a much broader appeal, with plenty of subtle headphone designs for a mass market. With the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC headphones, it’s perhaps the brand’s biggest swing at the top-end market.

I say top-end, but at $399.99 in Australia, the Crusher 1080 ANC is far from the lofty price tags seen on headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 ($699.95) or Apple AirPods Max 2 ($999). Skullcandy isn’t going it alone, either, teaming up with Bose to use its audio technology.

According to a press release, Skullcandy is behind the headphones’ driver technology. The Crusher 1080 ANC uses a dual-driver system that creates a “sensory bass” experience. Listening to the music is one thing; Skullcandy wants you to feel the beat, too.

Image: Skullcandy.

Noise-cancellation and spatial audio are where Bose comes into the equation. Skullcandy’s headphones use Bose’s technology, combined with a six-mic system, to power its adaptive ANC. Plus, the Crusher 1080 ANC supports head-tracked spatial audio, making the music react to your motion.

According to Skullcandy, the new headphones last up to 60 hours without ANC, and up to 50 hours with ANC enabled. Aside from the battery life, there are a few noteworthy smart features. The Crusher 1080 ANC supports multipoint pairing via Bluetooth 5.3, automatic playback start and stop when you put them on or take them off, customisable five-band EQ, sidetone for calls, and reprogrammable physical buttons.

That’s a lot to include in a pair of $399 headphones. We’ll find out how Skullcandy’s latest effort stacks up soon; they’re out in Australia now via JB Hi-Fi and Skullcandy’s online store in black, candy, primer, and cement colours.

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Shokz OpenDots Air review: Solid entry-level earring-style buds

7.2

Shokz is in an unusual position as a company. First, it was a small challenger brand chasing the bigger open-ear headphone companies, like Jawbone. After a few years of rivalry, those other companies went down, and Shokz was left as the biggest and best open-ear brand in town.

But now, with the air-conduction true-wireless open-ear headphones (as opposed to bone conduction) having a moment of popularity, suddenly Shokz once more finds itself competing against bigger brands. However, this time, the brands are much, much larger players, like Bose and Sony, not to mention brands with reputations for brilliant audio quality, like Audio-Technica and Beyerdynamic. Shokz is challenging once again, just this time it’s from the middle, with a leading track record on bone conduction audio.

Image: Alice Clarke.

That’s kind of where the Shokz OpenDots Air find themselves as well. For Shokz, they’re an entry-level product, as you can tell by the stripped-back feature set compared to the flagship OpenDots 2. However, they’re priced at the high-middle range, competing against the best JBL has to offer, and not cheap enough to be in ‘just give it a go’ territory.

I’ve had the Shokz OpenDots Air for almost two months now, and I like them a lot for what they are. I just don’t know where they fit given all the options out there.

First impressions

The first thing I noticed about the Shokz OpenDots Air is the gorgeous purple colour. It’s more like one of those pearlescent sheen colours with just a hint of purple, and it is very on trend. So sparkly. It’s also available in black, for those who prefer that colour scheme.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Pairing was as easy as you’d expect – on iPhone I paired it through Bluetooth settings and updated using the Shokz app. On Android I just held it near my phone and it paired.

Shokz OpenDots Air specifications and price

Quick charge	10 min = 2 Hours of Usage
Battery life	9 Hours (36 Hours with Charging Case)
Weight	Earbuds: 6.3g ± 0.2g Charging case: 37.3g ± 2g Total weight: 49.9g ± 2.4g
IPX rating	IP55
Microphone type	Dual AI Noise-Canceling Microphones
Audio technology	Bassphere + DirectPitch
Price (RRP)	$219
Warranty	12 months in addition to your Australian consumer law rights
Official website	Shokz Australia

Looking at the specs, the OpenDots Air seem to be somewhere in between the Shokz OpenDots One and OpenDots 2 (yes, the change in naming conventions bothers me too), with a few other cutbacks. However, all the basics are there.

Comfort

While the Shokz OpenDots 2 are the most comfortable earring-style earphones I’ve tried, these are among the least comfortable. After half an hour of wear, the shell of my ear feels fatigued. After an hour, it just straight up hurts.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Perhaps with a couple of months of daily wear, the clamp force will calm down a bit, but after two months of sporadic wear, they’re still not comfortable for me. They’re roughly on par with the MotoBuds in terms of comfort.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Audio quality

The Shokz OpenDots Air aren’t as much of a step down in terms of raw audio quality (as long as you’re not really focusing on it), compared to the OpenDots 2 as I’d feared. They lack the bass power of the flagship, and they certainly don’t have the clarity. But if you’re getting headphones to run with once a week, or just use for podcasts, or to have something on in the background, I actually don’t hate them, and I’m a fussy snob who hates a lot of things.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Listening to my usual playlist, it’s very clear that I’m missing roughly 25-35% of the soundstage. It’s much emptier than I’d expect, even on really full songs. The bass is muddy and holey, though it’s more than present enough to help give you a beat to run to. The mid tones sound fine enough, and the high tones are often audible.

They sound like what you’d expect from a mid-range open ear earring-style earphone, if not a little better, when you consider the severe limitations of the form factor.

Microphone

There is no sugarcoating it – the microphone is bad. It sounds compressed, muffled, and unclear. Using it for calls is an unpleasant experience (because the person on the other end of the call complains). It seems to be designed more for talking to an AI companion than to an actual human.

Who are the Shokz OpenDots Air for?

These are the earring-style open-air earbuds for people who have a decent budget, but don’t want to break the bank. They’re for fashion-conscious users who want to listen to podcasts while they work and still hear their colleagues.

I still maintain that users would get a better experience from an ear-hook-style pair of open-ear headphones (like the Shokz OpenFit Air), because they sound better and are more comfortable. But these do look better and more subtle than the other style, and will better suit some aesthetics. They also come in purple, which is just instantly better.

Shokz OpenDots Air

The Shokz OpenDots Air are the earring-style open-ear buds for people who have a decent budget, but don’t want to break the bank.

Features

7

Value for money

8

Performance

7

Ease of use

7

Design

7

Positives

They come in a sparkly purple colour

Good battery life for the price

Reasonable audio quality

Negatives

Poor microphone quality

Uncomfortable design

7.2

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Snazzy Mova Z70 Ultra Roller doesn’t leave mopping to chance

When you think of gadgets with eye-catching, sparkly aesthetics, robot vacuums probably don’t immediately come to mind. Perhaps it’s time to change that perception, because the Mova Z70 Ultra Roller looks quite different to other robots.

Launching in Australia today, Mova’s new flagship robot vacuum comes with a docking station in a ‘brushed metallic’ finish. There’s a more subtle ‘stone black’ variant, but it’s hard to look past the glam rock stylings of the metallic design.

But I digress; this is a robot vacuum after all, and what it does is the most important part. Mova advertises the Z70 Ultra Roller as having up to 36,000Pa of suction power, plus a roller mop that lifts out of the way to prevent getting carpets damp.

This roller mop is one of the most interesting parts about Mova’s latest robot. Over the years, robot cleaning brands have dabbled in various technologies, but roller mop technology has come into vogue recently. Compared to other technologies, rollers are said to apply more downward pressure and therefore clean up more stubborn spills. For reference, Mova claims its mop applies 18N of pressure.

Image: Mova.

Mova also reckons its mop stays cleaner for longer, too. As the robot cleans, the mop roller spins at speeds of up to 800rpm, scraping dirty water out and steadily spraying fresh water in. In other words, it should stay fresh while cleaning, avoiding tracking filthy water through the house.

When docked in the included base station, the Mova Z70 Ultra Roller goes through an automated self-cleaning cycle. Here, it empties the robot’s dustbin, washes the mop with 100°C water, and then dries it with 70°C air.

That it looks nice while doing all this is a bonus. In Australia, the Mova Z70 Ultra costs $2,999 and is sold by JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Harvey Norman, and Mova’s online website.

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Honor 600 Pro review: Fight with honour

8.8

Shrinking the screen while beefing up the grunt, the Honor 600 Pro takes the fight to the mid-sized Android heavyweights.

Spun off from Huawei a few years ago, Chinese gadget maker Honor’s Android smartphones don’t get as much attention in Australia as household names like Samsung, Google and Motorola.

Despite its lower profile, Honor is producing flagship handsets which can go toe-to-toe with its rivals, like the new Honor 600 Pro and the foldable Honor Magic V6. More affordable than some options, but certainly not budget devices, they’re certainly worth a look if you’re prepared to shop beyond the usual suspects.

At $1,499, the Honor 600 Pro has seen a major price jump since the $999 Honor 400 Pro arrived in Australia last year (the 500 Pro was never officially released here).

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Features
• Quality
• Who is the Honor 600 Pro for?

Honor 600 Pro first impressions

With a more premium look and feel than its predecessor, there’s no denying the Honor 600 Pro looks a hell of a lot like an Apple iPhone. Paying homage to Cupertino is a common design strategy among lesser-known Android smartphone makers like Oppo (such as this year’s Oppo Reno 15 Pro), Xiaomi and Realme.

The Honor Pro 600’s unibody aluminium matte frame with sharp edges, sandwiched between a glass front and composite fibreglass-like back, could easily be mistaken for an iGadget. One giveaway, as with most Android handsets, is that all the buttons are on the right-hand side, whereas iPhones place the volume and Action (mute) button on the left.

There’s also a programmable Apple-esque touch-sensitive Quick Button on the right, which can be used to easily launch the camera or access AI features.

While some Pro smartphone screens creep up towards the 7-inch mark, the Honor 600 Pro keeps it at a more manageable 6.57 inches, meaning it shouldn’t be too unwieldy for most hands. It’s a slight step down from the 6.7-inch Honor 400 Pro.

At the same time, Honor has managed to reduce the bezel to a mere .98 mm, making it a fraction thinner than what you’d find on an iPhone, but not enough to get excited about.

As always, I’m disappointed the fingerprint reader isn’t built into the power button. Instead, you need to reach down a long way with your thumb to access the onscreen reader, which I think increases the risk of the phone toppling out of your hand.

Fire up the Honor 600 Pro, and you’re faced with a super-bright and vivid 2728 x 1264 pixel AMOLED display. Even with 6.57 inches of screen real estate, you still enjoy a sharp 458 pixels per inch.

The screen offers 10-bit colour with a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, along with up to 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. What really stands out from the crowd is an amazing 8,000 nits peak brightness, although it’s not for the entire screen. It can only push this extreme brightness to small, specific areas like HDR highlights or fine details,

You won’t see the full benefit of this in day-to-day use, although you can enable ‘sunlight mode’ to ensure the screen is brighter outdoors. You’ll only unlock full brightness when watching High Dynamic Range content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon – supporting HDR10+ but not Dolby Vision.

At the bottom of the handset, you’ve got a USB-C port, alongside a nano-SIM port with the benefit of eSIM, but no microSD card support. The phone features dual speakers for stereo (relying on a dedicated top speaker, rather than an earpiece speaker) but there’s no Dolby Atmos support, and you miss out on an old-school headphone jack.

Honor 600 Pro specifications and price

Display size	6.57-inch
Display resolution	2728×1264 pixels, 458 ppi
Display technology	AMOLED 1.07 billion colours DCI-P3 wide colour gamut 120 Hz refresh rate 8000 nits Netflix and Amazon HDR certified
Bands	5G sub 6, 4G LTE-FDD/LTE-TDD, 3G WCDMA, 2G GSM
Chipset	Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform Octa-core CPU
GPU	Adreno 830
Rear cameras	200 megapixel (f/1.9 aperture, AF, OIS)
	50 megapixel periscope telephoto (f/2.8 aperture, AF, OIS)
	12 megapixel ultrawide (AF)
Front camera	50MP Camera (f/2.0)
RAM	12 GB
Onboard storage	512 GB
microSD slot	No
SIM	Dual Nano SIM + eSIM
Charging	USB Type-C, USB 2.0 wired 80W SuperCharge wired reverse 27W wireless 50W SuperCharge
Battery	7000 mAh Lithium polymer battery
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be 2×2 MIMO 2, 5G and 6GHz Wi-Fi Hotspot Wi-Fi Direct
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 6 BLE SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LHDC3.0, LHDC4.0, LHDC5.0, LC3
Operating system	MagicOS 10 (Based on Android 16)
Security	Fingerprint reader Face Unlock
Ruggedness	IP68, IP69 and IP69K
Dimensions	156 x 74.7 x 7.8 mm
Weight	200 gm
Colours	Orange, Golden White, Black
Price	$1,499 RRP
Warranty	2 years
Official website	Honor Australia

Features

The Honor 600 Pro runs Android 16, customised with Honor’s own MagicOS 10, which unsurprisingly feels a lot like Apple’s iOS. You have to deal with a reasonably restrained amount of preloaded social media bloatware, plus links to popular apps like Spotify, WhatsApp and Netflix, so you can install them without searching the Google Play app store.

Honor says the handset will only receive two major Android OS updates and three years of security patches in Australia. That’s outrageous considering that Europe gets six years of coverage for the exact same device. Honor says it is “continuing to evaluate based on market and consumer needs” – which is corporate speak for “Australians are second-class citizens and we’ll see how many people complain before we even think about changing it.”

MagicOS 10 comes with the mandatory dollop of AI, including AI Deepfake Detection, real-time AI Translation, AI Text Extraction, AI Memories and AI Writing assistants. There is also an AI-powered photo editor, plus the ability to turn photos into videos.

Of course, if AI features are important to you, make sure you consider the Google Pixel 10 Pro.

As you’d expect with the Pro name, one of the Honor 600 Pro’s big selling points is a triple-lens rear camera array. Flip the handset over, and you’ll find a 200 MP s primary shooter with the benefit of optical image stabilisation. It’s blessed with a large 1/1.4 inch sensor to improve low-light performance.

The handset boasts a CIPA 6.5 rating (from the Camera and Imaging Products Association), meaning it can shoot at a shutter speed 6.5 steps slower than normal without motion blur to improve handheld and low-light photography.

The Honor 600 Pro triple rear camera array features a periscope telephoto lens. Image: Adam Turner.

Alongside is a 50 MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical and 8x digital zoom, combining to deliver a 120x hybrid super zoom – similar to the Oppo Reno 15 Pro, Oppo Find X9 Pro, Google Pixel 10 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and rivals from the likes of Xiaomi.

At this price range, a 3.5x telephoto lens is better than you’d expect, and arguably more useful than a macro lens. The trade-off is that the ultrawide lens is only 12 MP, where you’d really expect it to be 50 MP.

While the island around the rear camera array extends across the width of the phone, it’s still not enough to completely eliminate wobble when sitting on a flat surface.

Around the front, you’ve got a 50 MP ultrawide selfie camera, surprisingly lacking autofocus. It opts for a punch-hole design rather than relying on an Apple-esque notch, but MagicOS still replicates Apple’s Dynamic Island with Magic Capsule.

Under the bonnet, the Honor 600 Pro packs a beefy octa-core Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform with an Adreno 830 GPU. They’re accompanied by a generous 512 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM. The 8 Elite is no longer the latest and greatest, but it still packs quite a punch.

When it comes to connectivity, it’s a sub-6 5G handset with the benefit of dual nano-SIM and eSIM. You can take advantage of Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, with an impressive spread of audio codecs, including aptX Lossless and the lesser-known LHDC5.0.

The phone packs a very generous 7000 mAh battery, which should get you through a very long day and well into the next. When it’s time for a top-up, the phone can take advantage of 80-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging, although keep in mind there’s no AC charger in the box.

When it comes to ruggedness, you’ve got IP68, IP69 and IP69K certification – the latter of which is the highest ingress protection rating, meaning it is completely dust-tight and can survive close-range, high-pressure and high-temperature water jets. The body has an SGS 5-star certification for drop and crush resistance, but I’d feel better if Honor also cited the nature of the glass.

Compared to the more affordable $999 Honor 600, the $1,499 600 Pro upgrades to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, while adding the 50MP telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom and 50W wireless charging. 

Quality

Geekbench 6 results tell an excellent story thanks to that Snapdragon silicon, scoring 3,053 single-core, 9,039 multi-core and 17,990 OpenCL. That sees it outgun most handsets around this price point, like the Oppo Reno 15 Pro and Google Pixel 10 Pro. It still falls short of the more expensive Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Oppo Find X9 Pro, not to mention the more affordable standard-issue Apple iPhone 17, which has inherited more ‘pro’ features.

Phone	CPU single-core	CPU multi-core	GPU
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra	3,770	11,422	23,805
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max	3,768	9,443	45,451
Oppo Find X9 Pro	3,165	9,418	20,447
Motorola Signature	2,609	9,391	17,415
Apple iPhone 17	3,520	9,057	37,161
Honor 600 Pro	3,053	9,039	17,990
Google Pixel 10 Pro	2,317	6,455	3,233
Apple iPhone 16e	2,679	6,144	23,732
Oppo Reno 15 Pro	1,555	6,330	11,828
Motorola Edge 60 Pro	1,432	4,695	9,107
Samsung Galaxy A57	1,389	4,435	6,674
Motorola Edge 60 Fusion	1,050	3,014	2,581

Geekbench 6 results (sorted by CPU multi-core).

When it comes to photography, 200 MP primary shooters always sound impressive, but we all know by now that pixels aren’t everything. Thankfully, it does an impressive job, delivering sharp and vivid images that don’t look too overblown or overprocessed. Thanks to that large sensor and great stabilisation, it does a particularly good job with tricky lighting conditions and low-light environments.

1x zoom on the 200 MP main shooter produces impressive results in complex lighting. Image: Adam Turner.

The 120x super zoom also does an impressive job; unfortunately, the For Sale sign across the creek from my house is gone, but it still does well with challenging scenes that don’t just include straight lines (making it harder for AI to make an educated guess). Overall, it’s not as impressive as the 100x super zoom on the Honor Magic V6 that I’m testing at the same time (review to come).

A semi-open doorway roughly 150 metres away looks quite detailed with 120x zoom. Image: Adam Turner.

You do see a quality drop when switching across to the 12 MP ultrawide lens, although it’s not as big a drop as you might expect.

Honor spruiks the 600 Pro’s low-light capabilities, and it did a very good job of my standard low-light test in the junk in cupboard under my stairs. But like most phones, it struggles to get the balance right outside.

The photo below was taken at 10:30 PM mid-winter. The clear sky should be black and at least one star should be visible, but the photo is working too hard to brighten the scene (while leaving the shadows very murky). The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra did a better job, but not as good as the iPhone 17.

The sky should be black. Image: Adam Turner.

When it comes to selfies, you don’t have the option of 2x optical zoom as with some rivals, but I respect the default ‘warts ‘n all’ results, resisting the temptation to go all-in on AI-assisted retouching.

The selfie camera bucks the trend of ironing out wrinkles. Image: Adam Turner.

Who is the Honor 600 Pro for?

The Honor 600 Pro has a lot to offer if you’re looking for a great camera array including a telephoto lens. All in a relatively compact handset with a decent battery life and heaps of grunt.

That said, there’s some tough competition in the pro space. Its nearest competitor would be the similarly priced iPhone-esque Oppo Reno 15 Pro, which doesn’t pack as much screen real estate or grunt but offers a slightly better camera array (such as 50 MP ultrawide, selfie auto-focus) and throws in a fast AC charger for good measure.

Honor 600 Pro

Tons of grunt and a great telephoto lens see the Honor 600 Pro stand tall among better-known Android mid-size heavyweights, even if its pathetic local software support is well below competing brands.

Features

8.7

Value for money

7.5

Performance

9.5

Ease of use

9

Design

9.5

Positives

Great cameras, including telephoto

Lots of grunt

Decent battery life

Generous storage

Rugged

Negatives

No AC fast charger included

Camera array specs not best in class

Only two major OS updates planned for Australia

8.8

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