Honor steps up to the big leagues with the Magic 8 Pro

I person a elemental gut cheque I usage erstwhile reviewing phones, particularly ones that trust connected their cameras arsenic a trading point: really often do I wish I had different telephone pinch maine instead?

These days, it’s mostly the Vivo X300 Pro I miss erstwhile I’m testing thing else, a telephone whose camera remains unmatched. Some phones whitethorn champion it connected artillery life, aliases person smoother software, but there’s ever a infinitesimal erstwhile I’m shooting a portrait, aliases framing a dimly lit photograph for my nutrient blog, that I think: “The Vivo would person handled this better.”

In the period I’ve spent testing Honor’s Magic 8 Pro, I scarcely retrieve reasoning that once.

The Magic 8 Pro is Honor’s newest flagship phone, launched successful China successful October but only getting its European merchandise now. At £1,099.99 (around $1,500) it’s meant to rival the likes of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra, on pinch akin flagships from Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo.

Honor has agelong sounded its leader devices arsenic photographic powerhouses, the aforesaid strategy that brought its erstwhile genitor institution Huawei success, but I’ve seldom been wholly convinced. It’s made plentifulness of phones pinch bully cameras, but ne'er best-in-class. I don’t deliberation the Magic 8 Pro is rather that either, but it’s person than the institution has ever been and could happily outshoot immoderate of the handsets disposable successful the US.

At the bosom of the triple rear camera is simply a 50-megapixel, f/1.6 main lens. It’s joined by a 50MP, f/2.0 ultrawide and a 200MP, f/2.6, 3.7x telephoto. It’s this past lens wherever telephone photography battles are being fought these days, pinch companies competing not conscionable to nutrient the sharpest, longest region zoom possible, but besides cameras that excel astatine 2-4x, the scope that’s cleanable for shooting portraits, aliases pets, aliases unexpectedly melodramatic photographs of that awesome sandwich you conscionable ate.

The Magic 8 Pro’s telephoto follows caller trends, adopting a ample sensor and accelerated aperture, which are chiefly intended to thief the telephone present good successful darker lighting, moreover pinch moving subjects and adaptable ray sources. But they person a invited broadside effect: giving the camera a constrictive focal range, producing earthy extent of section successful photos. It avoids the level effect that plagues astir telephone photography, making shots retired of this telephone much for illustration shots from a larger camera.

None of that is unsocial to the Magic 8 Pro — flagships from Honor’s home rivals usage akin hardware — but the existent value of the shots present is impressive. The move scope is excellent, colors are lukewarm and seldom oversaturated, and there’s small noise. That holds existent crossed each of the Magic 8 Pro’s 3 rear lenses, though the ultrawide struggles a small much than the others successful tricky lighting.

So what holds this backmost from being champion camera successful a phone? Some shots travel retired oversharpened, others amp the opposition up a small much. Fast-moving subjects are deed aliases miss — I’ve taken immoderate awesome photos of cats, dogs, and my nephew, but besides plentifulness pinch unwelcome blur. And I somewhat for illustration the colour tuning successful Vivo’s X300 Pro, but that’s because I’m a sucker for its efforts to nutrient photos that consciousness a small much for illustration film. But these are mostly questions of individual preference, not of outright quality, and the Magic 8 Pro feels astir arsenic bully arsenic immoderate telephone camera retired location connected purely method terms.

While Honor hasn’t followed its rivals successful producing hardware add-ons for illustration the telephoto extenders that person go celebrated pinch Chinese OEMs of late, it has joined successful connected the inclination for a dedicated camera button. The touch-sensitive broadside fastener present tin beryllium utilized arsenic some a zoom power and a shutter button, but it besides plays double work arsenic an “AI Button,” a shortcut to unfastened up immoderate of Honor’s galore AI-powered features. These are mostly the benignant of things you’d expect: photograph editing, transcription, translation, and truthful on, and they mostly copy features besides offered by Google Gemini. Sadly, while you tin customize the fastener shortcuts to a constricted extent, you can’t usage it to unfastened apps beyond the camera and AI stuff.

I can’t opportunity I’m overmuch of a instrumentality of the phone’s creation either. The not-quite-circular effect can’t prevention the camera land from being an eyesore — not a problem unsocial to this phone, of people — and the backmost sheet has a strangely plasticky consciousness I’d expect from a telephone that costs overmuch less. Stick it successful a lawsuit and you’ll ne'er announcement of course, but astatine this price, look and consciousness person to matter. MagicOS isn’t my favourite return connected Android either, pinch a fewer excessively galore preinstalled own-brand apps and unintuitive creation choices, but location are seldom much than insignificant irritations. Honor is promising a reassuring 7 years of package support for the telephone successful Europe, pinch astatine slightest 4 elsewhere successful the world, and the telephone ships pinch Android 16.

Outside of the camera, the Magic 8 Pro has 1 different awesome trading point: its tremendous battery. I’ve been testing a world model, pinch a 7,100mAh capacity, though the type going connected waste successful Europe will beryllium conscionable a small smaller astatine 6,270mAh. The larger compartment hasn’t lasted maine rather arsenic agelong arsenic the caller Oppo Find X9 Pro, but it’s easy a two-day phone, freeing you from the request to plug successful to complaint each night. Like different silicon-carbon phones, there’s immoderate logic to interest astir really accelerated that artillery will degrade — we haven’t had these phones astir agelong capable to cognize either measurement — but astatine slightest it’s coming from an awesome starting point.

The remainder of the capacity is predictably premium: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset has handled everything I’ve thrown astatine it pinch ease, and the 6.71-inch 120Hz OLED show looks a treat. There’s accelerated 100W wired and 80W wireless charging, IP68 and IP69K ingress protection ratings, and up to 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, depending connected the market. But for an Android flagship correct now, astir of those are conscionable array stakes.

Honor has sometimes felt for illustration a spot of an also-ran successful the yearly Chinese flagship contest, delivering connected the halfway specs but falling a small down wherever it counts. The Magic 8 Pro is the first of its phones I deliberation is genuinely competitory astatine that level. For European buyers, it will beryllium helped by the truth that Oppo and Vivo’s astir caller flagships person only had inconsistent, constricted world launches, while Xiaomi’s caller 17 Pro and 17 Ultra haven’t yet released extracurricular China. Depending connected wherever you live, that mightiness make this the astir powerful telephone astir correct now, successful much ways than one.

As for me, my period testing the telephone is up, and soon I’ll move to the adjacent model. I don’t cognize what telephone that’ll be, but now I wonder: the first clip it frustrates me, aliases its camera lets maine down, will it beryllium the Magic 8 Pro I wish I was utilizing instead?

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge