Introduction
It’s the Honor Magic 8 Pro and it’s one of the best camera-centric flagships you’ll get in late 2025. It has all the bells and whistles you want in a flagship. A Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen SoC, a gorgeous display, a big battery, and capable cameras. The only thing missing is the QI2 magnet (read magsaf) built in.
What’s even better is that this phone is coming to global markets at large – it’s not just a China-exclusive phone like its competitors. So far, so good. But there are some caveats. Like many other phones, the Magic 8 Pro is also selective about battery capacity depending on the market.
If you’re in China, you get the full 7,200mah pack. If you have the “global” unit, you get a slightly smaller 7,100mAh battery. The difference is so small that it doesn’t matter. However, if you’re in Europe, you only get a 6,270mAH battery – which is about 13% less or similar to the Vivo X300 Pro’s 16 less in Europe. Still, objectively, the battery capacity is better than the Vivo.
Battery controversy aside, the Honor Magic 8 Pro is shaping up to be a great phone. The Honor Magic 7 Pro, which this phone replaces, was already great, especially in the imaging department. But Magic 8 has some interesting improvements.
Honor Magic 8 Pro specs at a glance:
- body: 161.2×75.0x8.3mm, 219g; Glass Front (Giant Rhino Glass), Fiber Reinforced Plastic Back; IP68/IP69K dust tight and water resistant (high pressure water jet; operable up to 1.5m for 30 minutes).
- Display: 6.71″ LTPO OLED, 1B Color, 120Hz, 4320Hz PWM, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, 1800 nits (HBM), 6000 nits (Peak), 1256x2808px resolution, 20.12:9 aspect ratio, 458 ppi; HDR Image Support.
- Chip Set: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm): Octa-core (2×4.6 GHz Orion V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Orion V3 Phoenix M); Adreno 840.
- Note: 256 GB 12 GB RAM, 512 GB 12 GB RAM, 512 GB 16 GB RAM, 1 TB 16 GB RAM; UFS 4.1.
- OS/Software: Android 16, major Android upgrades from 7, Majcos 10.
- Rear camera: wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 23 mm, 1/1.3″, 1.2 µm, multi-dimensional PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 200 MP, f/2.6, 85 mm, 1/1.4″, 0.56 µm, multi-dimensional PDAF, OIS, 3.7x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 12mm, 122˚, 1/2.88″, 0.61µM, Dual Pixel PDAF.
- Front Camera: wide (main): 50 MP, f/2.0, 21mm, 1/2.93″, 0.6µm, PDAF; depth: TOF 3D.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@24/30/60/120 fps, 1080p@24/30/60/120/240 fps, Gyro-EIS, OIS, HDR, 10-bit video; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-eis.
- Battery: 7100mah (global) ; 6270 mAh (Europe); 100W wired, 80W wireless, reverse wireless, 5W reverse wired.
- contact: 5G; ESIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0, Aptex HD, Aptex Adaptive, LHDC5, Oracast, Asha; NFC; Infrared port.
- Miscellaneous:: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); Large-dimension stereo speakers.
The main camera ditches the variable aperture lens, and has a slightly wider field of view at 23mm. You can go to page 3 of this article to see how the camera performed when we took it around Hong Kong.
Ultrawide was already great, and the Magic 8 Pro doesn’t change that – it’s wider than most 12mm ones, and has a brighter f/2.0 lens and a bigger 50MP sensor.
Telephoto has improved. What was a 60mm optical unit on the previous phone (which by default used a crop zoom to shoot at 72mm) is now an 85mm native lens with an f/2.6 lens. The sensor may look the same on paper – a 200MP 1/1.4-inch unit – but it’s the new Isocell HP9.
So, solid cameras all around. Top-shelf processing is also covered. And this is a globally available phone. Not a bad start for Honor’s Magic 8 Pro – it seems to have all the basics covered.
Join us on the next page where we’ll tackle the physical side of the phone on the next page.
