This budget phone has a 108MP "AI Camera" with an "AI Camera Button"

The iPhone 16 series introduced a dedicated button geared toward smartphone photography, but Android users will soon have access to a similar shortcut without switching operating systems. The newly announced Honor 400 Lite 5G brings an Android-first AI Camera Button along with its 108MP main camera and 16MP selfie camera.

The dedicated AI Camera Button serves as a shortcut to open the camera app quickly. Once there, it also serves as a shutter release button to take a photo or video. A long press opens the camera app, a quick press takes a photo, and pressing and holding the button starts a video. The physical button can also be used to zoom by sliding a finger across it.

Besides serving as quick access to the camera, the physical button enables smartphone photographers to shoot with gloves on, Honor says. The button also works underwater; while the camera has an AP65 rating for waterproofing and a 1.8m drop protection rating, Honor still recommends a waterproof case for underwater photography, and the waterproofing doesn’t apply to salt water or deep dives.

While the iPhone 16 series already has a camera button, Honor says that the 400 Lite 5G is the first Android phone with the feature. The company also calls it an “AI” camera button because it can also be used to bring up Google Lens, a visual AI tool for anything from identifying plants and animals to shopping for similar items.

The main camera on the smartphone reaches up to 108MP – although that’s with computational photography in the high-res mode – and has a lens with an f/1.75 aperture. The main camera is also accompanied by a 5MP wide and depth camera with 1x, 2x, and 3x zoom modes.

While the camera array looks like a three-lens deal, the rear camera has just the two cameras – the third circle in the array is a fill light, that serves as a flash and video light. The 16MP selfie camera is also paired with a flash.

AI is integrated into several aspects of the Honor 400 Lite’s camera, including the Honor RAW Domain Algorithm that uses AI to balance the highlights and shadows. An AI Eraser for removing unwanted objects from images and an AI outpainting for using image generation to zoom out of a photo are also among the tools, accessible with the smartphone’s dedicated Gemini Power Button.

Those cameras sit in a slim smartphone that weighs just 171g and is a mere 7.29mm thick, though that measurement excludes the camera bump. Despite the small design, the smartphone manages to fit in a 5230Ah Li-ion battery, an octa-core CPU, and an integrated 5G modem. The highest capacity model offers 256GB of storage, which can accommodate up to 64,000 images.

The smartphone’s 6.7-inch AMOLED display is paired with several features designed to reduce eye staring, including reducing blue light, Dynamic Brightness, and even an e-book mode. A fingerprint sensor sits under the display for quickly unlocking the phone without the bulky button-style sensor.

Availability for the new smartphone begins on April 22 in the UK, with a starting price of £249.99. Honor smartphones are not currently sold in the US.

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