We’ve recently reviewed one of the members of the HONOR Magic8 series , the HONOR Magic8 Lite . That’s the company’s budget offering, which turned out to be quite compelling. It’s time for the main course, though, it’s time for the HONOR Magic8 Pro review. This is the company’s new flagship smartphone, the pride and joy of the company. I’ve been testing the device for about a month at this point, and I do have a lot to say about it.
The HONOR Magic8 Pro, at first, may look very similar to its predecessor, but it does have more to offer, that’s for sure. HONOR did work on the camera aspect quite a bit, not to mention that Android 16 -based MagicOS 10 brings its own appeal to the table. Those are just two examples, of course. With that being said, let’s get to it, let’s see what the HONOR Magic8 Pro has to offer, shall we?
- Specs
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Design
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: What’s in the Box
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Display
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Performance
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Battery Life
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Camera
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Software
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Audio
- HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Should you buy it?
Flagship power, clever cameras, and serious comfort.
Pros
- Great build quality
- Feels smaller than it actually is
- Excellent display
- Top-notch performance
- MagicOS 10 is a step in the right direction
- Very capable cameras
- 3D facial scanning works like a charm
- Useful side button
- Great battery life
Cons
- Charger & case not included
- MagicOS 10 still needs work
- Camera performance lacks consistency
HONOR supplied us with a review unit of the HONOR Magic8 Pro, but didn’t have a say in our opinion, nor did they see this review before you. We’ve been using the device for about a month before forming an opinion.
Specs
HONOR Magic8 Pro Specs
| Display Size | 6.71 inches |
|---|---|
| Display Resolution | 2808 x 1256 |
| Refresh Rate | 1-120Hz |
| Dimensions | 161.5 x 75 x 8.4 mm |
| Weight | 213 grams |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| RAM | 12GB (LPDDR5X) |
| Storage | 512GB (UFS 4.1) |
| Battery | 6,270mAh |
| Charging | 100W wired, 80W wireless (charger not included) |
| OS | Android 16 with MagicOS 10 |
| Main Camera | 50MP (f/1.6 aperture, 1/1.3-inch sensor size, OIS) |
| Ultrawide Camera | 50MP (f/2.0 aperture, 122-degree FoV, 1/2.88-inch sensor size) |
| Periscope Telephoto Camera | 200MP (f/2.6 aperture, 1/1.4-inch sensor size, 3.7x optical zoom, OIS) |
| Front-Facing Camera | 50MP (f/2.0 aperture, 3D depth camera) |
| Network and Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, GPS, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC |
| Water Resistance | IP68, IP69, IP69K, SGS |
| Colors | Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, Black |
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Design
The HONOR Magic8 Pro is not a small phone, but in the hand, it feels smaller than you’d think. In fact, this is probably the most comfortable large smartphone with a screen of 6.7 inches or larger that I’ve ever handled. HONOR did a fantastic job with the design. I had to open this section with this fact, as it’s something you really need to handle the phone to realize. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not a small phone, and it’s also slippery, but… it does feel smaller than you’d think, and it’s immensely comfortable to hold and use. At least that was the case for me.
HONOR combined aluminum & fiber-enhanced plastic
The phone is made out of aluminum and a fiber-enhanced plastic back. Yes, you read that right, there’s no glass on the back of the device. That’s probably not something you’d even realize on your own, to be honest. I actually appreciate this change as it makes the phone lighter than it would be with a glass back. Furthermore, this backplate won’t shatter as glass would if you drop the phone, so that’s another plus. It has a matte finish, as does the frame all around the device. Smudges are not welcome here.
It has a slightly curved glass on top of a flat display… on the front. You’ll also notice that pill-shaped cutout, which is smaller than the one on the iPhones. More on that later. The bezels around the display are very thin and also uniform, which is always great to see. Its power/lock and volume up and down keys are placed on the right side, along with a third addition lower on that side. That button is supposed to function as an AI button, but it is slightly customizable. We’ll talk more about that later as well, in the software section. The button is almost flush with the frame.
It feels smaller than it actually is, which is a good thing
On the back, the HONOR Magic8 Pro includes a large, round camera island. It does protrude on the back quite a bit, but it’s also a great finger anchor when you’re holding the phone. That is particularly useful if you’re aiming to use it without a case. The backplate is slightly rounded on all four sides towards the frame. The frame itself also offers curves towards the edges, which contribute to the in-hand feel I talked about earlier.
All in all, the design of the HONOR Magic8 Pro is one of my favorite aspects of the device. It just feels so good to hold and use, and as I mentioned several times already… the phone really does feel smaller in the hand than you’d expect for a 6.7-inch device.
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: What’s in the Box
In this section, we usually talk about the accessories that come included in the box with a phone. Well, there’s not much to talk about here, so let’s just go over what’s in the box real quick. In addition to the phone itself, you’ll find some paperwork, a Type-C to Type-C charging cable, and a SIM ejector tool. No, a charging brick is not included in the retail box, and the same goes for a case for the device. HONOR used to include both of those accessories on the inside, but not anymore. If you want to take full advantage of the HONOR Magic8 Pro’s charging speed, you’ll need to get a charger separately.
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Display
There is a 6.71-inch OLED display included on this phone. The display itself is flat, but the glass on top of it is not. It’s slightly curved on all four sides, so it’s a quad-curved setup. That curve is very subtle, though, and I personally prefer this than perfectly flat displays. This panel has a resolution of 2808 x 1256 pixels, and it offers a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The refresh rate is adaptive, and it can go down to 1Hz when needed.
The display can get immensely bright when needed
What else? Well, the peak brightness that this panel can reach, in theory, is 6,000 nits. Needless to say, you’ll never soar so high, but the display can get immensely bright when needed. Adaptive brightness worked great for me, so no issues there. Just leave it on, and that’s it. It can also project up to 1.07 billion colors and has a wide DCI-P3 color gamut as well. High-frequency PWM dimming (4,320Hz) is also a part of the offering.
There are a number of other features that this display offers, as HONOR’s panels usually do. Motion Sickness Relief feature is here, as is Dynamic Dimming. The same can be said for Chip-Level AI Defocus and the Natural Tone feature, among others. The panel not only looks great on paper, but it’s great in actual use as well. I received both the HONOR Magic8 Lite (which I already reviewed) and Magic8 Pro at the same time, and the Magic8 Pro’s display quality comes to light really fast when you compare the two. Just to be clear, the Magic8 Lite has a solid display too.
It offers excellent viewing angles, too
The viewing angles are excellent, and the display is plenty sharp. I had no issues with refresh rate, either, nor color accuracy. There are granular settings available if you’d like to fine-tune your display experience, of course. Always-On Display is also here, and it does offer a decent level of customization as well. There’s also a feature that tones down blue light, which you can set to automatically activate when the night comes knocking, and more. There’s really nothing to complain about here, in all honesty. To make things even better, a screen protector does come pre-installed out of the box. You can always upgrade to a tempered glass one if you want, though, of course.
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Performance
The HONOR Magic8 Pro is an immensely powerful phone. It uses Qualcomm’s most powerful processor at the moment, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. In addition to that, HONOR included 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 flash storage here. In the case of the global model, only a 512GB storage variant is available. So that’s a 12GB RAM + 512GB storage combo, and no, you cannot expand internal storage via a microSD card. Some of you may have expected more RAM, but this was kind of expected, and quite frankly, it’s not a problem at all.
The device offers outstanding performance and great animations
Specs on their own don’t show us the full picture, of course. The phone’s actual performance, day-to-day, is reflective of the hardware power, though. The phone offers outstanding performance in basically every way. When it comes to regular, day-to-day use, it’s very smooth. There’s no lag at all here. HONOR’s animations only help things. They’re fast and intentional. They’re not meant to slow down your use at all, and HONOR made a huge step forward in that regard. I’m liking the animations here a lot more than was the case last year. We have MagicOS 10 to thank for that, though.
Gaming is not a problem either, quite the contrary. The phone did get warm during prolonged gaming, just like other flagships, but it did not overheat, even though I was trying to get it to do just that. I’ll let you know why in a minute. The HONOR Magic8 Pro was able to keep everything running smoothly. I was gaming for 2 hours straight (Genshin Impact), and threw in some Subway Surfers and Chess in for good measure. To wrap things up, I also tested out Call of Duty: Mobile. The phone did not get too warm at any point, nor did I see it slowing down in terms of performance.
It did a fantastic job in benchmarks, too
Even if we take a look at benchmarks, things are just right. The HONOR Magic7 Pro tended to crash during 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, it simply got too hot during that brutal benchmarking process. That’s not happening on the HONOR Magic8 Pro. I’ve tried to get it to break down benchmarking three times, but the phone managed to push through all that with ease. The HONOR Magic8 Pro is a true powerhouse, and it shows. There’s really nothing you should worry about here, performance-wise.
Benchmarks:
Geekbench:
| Device | Single-Core | Multi-Core | GPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 3,637 | 9,419 | 23,965 |
| OnePlus 15 | 3,648 | 10,788 | 24,530 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 3,388 | 10,393 | 23,051 |
3D Mark (Wildlife Extreme Stress Test):
| Device | Best Loop | Lowest Loop | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 7,083 | 4,488 | 63.4% |
| OnePlus 15 | 6,878 | 4,434 | 64.5% |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 6,809 | 3,563 | 52.3% |
Capcut video export:
| Device | Time to export (seconds) |
|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 7.02 |
| OnePlus 15 | 15.75 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | N/A |
Thermals:
3D Mark (Wildlife Extreme Stress Test) thermals:
| Device | Temperature (F) |
|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 118.3 |
| OnePlus 15 | 119.6 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 112.8 |
Genshin Impact thermals:
| Device | Temperature (F) |
|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 96.2 |
| OnePlus 15 | 97.6 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 93.5 |
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Battery Life
TEXT
| Device | Battery life | Charging |
|---|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 26:02:35 | 0:40:37 |
| OnePlus 15 | 23:52:47 | 0:40:21 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 23:57:00 | 0:39:20 |
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Camera
The HONOR Magic8 Pro is HONOR’s flagship. It has always been a camera-centric phone, at least to a degree, so you’d expect quite capable cameras to be included. Well, that is the case here as well. Is it the best camera smartphone around? Well, no, probably not. It exceeds more in other areas, in my opinion. However, it does have both a very compelling camera setup and camera performance as well. It has the camera performance worthy of a flagship, that’s for sure.
You’ll find three cameras on the back of the HONOR Magic8 Pro. There is a main 50-megapixel camera with an f/1.6 aperture lens, and a 1/1.3-inch sensor size. The second camera is a 50-megapixel ultrawide unit with an f/2.0 aperture lens, 1/2.88-inch sensor size, and a 122-degree FoV. The third camera is a very compelling 200-megapixel periscope telephoto unit (f/2.6 aperture lens, 1/1.4-inch sensor size, 3.7x optical zoom, OIS). On the front, HONOR included a 50-megapixel camera (f/2.0 aperture) and a 3D Depth Camera for facial scanning. Facial scanning works beautifully here, by the way, as it did on the previous model. It’s sublime.
Shutter speed is not as fast as I’d like
While I did enjoy using the HONOR Magic8 Pro for its camera prowess, I do have some complaints. So I’ll just get those out of the way first, before we start talking about a lot of good things that you’re getting here. The first thing I noticed is a slightly slower shutter, compared to the competition. Don’t get me wrong, the shutter is plenty fast, but it’s slightly slower than what I’m used to. That is especially true when the light is not around. This is an area in which HONOR can make some improvements.
This brings us to the second small complaint, low-light results. Now, they’re not bad at all, in fact, low-light pictures are great, but they do look a bit unrealistic. The phone ended up brightening up some low-light scenes a bit too much. Most of them looked outstanding, but some were unrealistically bright. That’s why the shutter takes a bit longer in such conditions, so the company could tweak this a bit differently. On the other hand, many people probably prefer such results, so… if that’s you, then you’ll love the performance here.
Reds tend to look off at times
I’ve also noticed that the red color tends to be a bit too emphasized at times, it simply looks off, which you’ll notice in the camera samples. It’s not always the case, though, it has to be a stronger red color in play. Those are three smaller complaints, everything else is pretty much wonderful, actually. In fact, what I mentioned above may not bother many people, but considering this is a flagship we’re talking about, it had to be mentioned.
The main camera provides great results, usually
Now, for all the good things, starting with the main camera. The images end up looking great overall. With plenty of details and sharpness in general. They’re nice-looking, but not too sharp or artificially sharp. The colors look great, and the dynamic range is excellent. The same can be said for white balance. The images end up looking vibrant, which is what most people will prefer. There’s really not much to complain about here in terms of performance, as you can see below. That red color I talked about does stand out a bit too much, but that’s the only thing that I noticed, really.
Main camera samples (daytime) :
What about low-light performance? Well, the vast majority of images look pretty much spot on. Some have been a bit too bright for low-light conditions, but those are in a vast minority. You’ll see some great samples shared below. There are plenty of details there, and almost no noise. The colors are great. Not much you can complain about, really. The main camera does a wonderful job in low light.
Main camera samples (low light):
The ultrawide camera is technically the weakest one, but it’s still good
What about the ultrawide camera? Well, it is technically the weakest link, based on the hardware. However, the ultrawide camera performs better than you’d think, actually. Even in low light. It keeps up with the main camera in terms of the color profile, and considering the size of the sensor, I expected worse performance in low light. The camera deliver, however. Yes, the images are a bit softer than the ones from the main camera, and do offer a bit less detail, but they’re still very nice looking. I’ve seen flagships with far worse ultrawide shooters.
Ultrawide camera samples:
The periscope telephoto camera does a fantastic job
When it comes to HONOR flagships, I usually always have the most fun with periscope telephoto cameras. The same was the case here, actually. The performance of this 200-megapixel unit is excellent. I’ve used it to shoot images up to 30x, and it did a fantastic job, I’d say. Yes, even eat 30x, HONOR’s AI does a nice job of helping out, and the images do end up looking far less artificial than was the case in the past. The colors and details are at a high level. Even when the light goes away, this periscope telephoto camera can do a wonderful job. I’ve managed to capture some really nice low-light shots, which you can see below. The level of detail remains high even in low light.
Periscope telephoto camera samples:
The camera UI here is exactly what it should be. There is a scrolling menu above the shutter key that allows you to switch between your favorite modes, such as Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, and Pro. Above that, you’ll find preset zoom options, and if you scroll over that menu, you’ll be able to fine-tune zoom. The gallery is in the bottom-left corner, and some additional options are at the very top. Everything is easy and fast to access, and if you don’t like something, HONOR does offer you a chance to customize things.
Camera UI is highly customizable
What can you customize? Well, everything that matters, basically. You can choose different options for the scrolling menu above the camera shutter, as well as different options at the top, below your status bar. It’s very easy to set just the options you’ll actually use, and then be able to access them without messing with the menus. This is one of the best camera UI implementations out there, and if you’re taking a lot of pictures/videos, you’ll definitely appreciate the customizability options.
Camera UI:
4K video recording thermals:
| Device | 5 minutes | 10 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| HONOR Magic8 Pro | 95.7 | 100 |
| OnePlus 15 | 98.7 | 100.7 |
| Vivo X300 Pro | 93.9 | 98.2 |
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Software
The HONOR Magic8 Pro comes with Android 16 out of the box. On top of Google’s operating system, you’ll find MagicOS 10, the latest version of HONOR’s Android skin. MagicOS 10 feels much better to use than MagicOS 9, in my experience, and it does bring some changes from the designs standpoint too. The design is more consistent now, and the animations have been much improved. That’s the difference that I noticed the most. They’re immensely fluid, and yet very fast, and thus the UI feels very snappy to use.
MagicOS 10 is notably more polished than MagicOS 9
Don’t worry, all of your favorite MagicOS features are still here. HONOR did not remove anything of note, but it did polish up the UI, which is much appreciated. There are, of course, still things that could and should be improved, as there are some options missing that… well, should not be missing. HONOR does want to differentiate from the rest, but in the process, it did not offer some somewhat standard features that you may expect. Let’s talk about those, before we get to features in general.
One great example of what’s missing has to do with the notification shade. This is a two-pronged problem, actually. Many users swipe down across the home screen to access their notification shades. Well, you can do that here as well, but only if you dig through the settings and decide on that option instead of HONOR’s search. Even when you do that, however, things will not work as you’re used to, at least if you’ve used some other Android brand thus far.
HONOR should have handled some parts of MagicOS 10 a bit differently
You can access your notification shade, but only when you swipe from the left side of the screen. If you swipe down from the right side of the screen, you’ll get quick toggles. You can scroll through them by swiping left and right, but this is not the best solution, for right-handed users, at least. You’ll be opening your notification shade far more frequently than quick toggles, so it would make sense to have that swipe accessible easily, not having to do it on the left side of the screen. It’s not a big problem, but it’s an extra step that not many will appreciate. You need to get used to it.
Then we come to the notification shade itself. You can swipe from left to right to dismiss notifications, but you can’t do it the other way around. If you do it the other way around, no matter how fast, you’ll get an additional menu, in which you’ll need to tap the trash icon to dismiss a notification. This is also not the best solution, in my opinion, but that’s how HONOR has been doing it, and the company is sticking to it. These are only some examples, but MagicOS 10 tends to do things a bit differently.
HONOR has a very compelling AI suite to offer
There are a lot of great features here, though. Features you’ll love. Like HONOR AI, for example. There are many features included here, actually. HONOR included the AI Button, Magic Portal, AI Memories, Magic Sidebar, AI Translate, AI Subtitles, and more. There’s plenty to choose from here, and I really liked some of these, actually. Let’s talk about that AI Button first. That’s the physical key on the right side of the phone, the one you can customize. Unfortunately, the UI looks very similar to what Apple offers, and the options are not exactly vast either. You cannot (at least not yet) set any app to be launched by that button. You’re limited to AI, camera, and several other options. The good news is that you can use a single click, double click, and press-and-hold options to set whatever you like.
AI Memories are basically a collection of information you get from screenshots, web pages, videos, documents, and images. Magic Sidebar, on the other hand, allows you to quickly launch apps in a windowed format or split-screen mode. All you have to do is swipe from the right side and hold for a second. Magic Portal was particularly interesting to me. It allows you to touch and hold text, images, or other content for quick access to desired services. So you can drag and drop an image from the screen to an app of your choosing. This is a neat feature, but it doesn’t work great with every app, results vary. It would be great if we could do that and quickly drag and drop something to a specific contact within a specific third-party app, but that’s not up to HONOR.
You’ll find plenty of customization options here
MagicOS 10 also offers plenty of customization. You can customize both your lock screen and home screen with ease. Change themes, Always-On Display, fonts, icons, and so on. The options are limited, and you can’t even use third-party icons from the Play Store, unfortunately. It would be great if HONOR added that feature. Still, some of these options are quite neat.
Overall, MagicOS 10 is a step in the right direction. It does offer much better animations, a couple of cool new features, and it feels more consistent in terms of design. However, many of its old pain points are still there. It’s still not my favorite Android skin, but as I said, it’s a step in the right direction and works really, really well. Many of you seem to love it, and if you liked MagicOS 9, you’ll love this.
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Audio
What about the phone’s speakers? Well, it has a stereo speaker setup, and in all honesty, I was blown away by them from the get-go. The first thing I noticed considerable loudness of the speakers, and how clear the sound is. Almost at the same tim,e I realized that the back side of the phone vibrates quite a bit when you’re using the speakers. I don’t know if that’s because of the fact it’s not glass, but it’s noticeable when you’re holding the phone.
HONOR opted for two symmetrical speakers here, symmetrical as in size, and the company used 1216 (12 x 16mm) speakers here. In other words, these speakers are quite large. An open cavity design was also used. The vocals those speakers were able to deliver were clean, while the bass was good and precise. There’s really not a single thing to complain about when it comes to the output of the phone’s speakers, though the vibrations may be a bit weird for some of you at first.
HONOR Magic8 Pro Review: Should you buy it?
Is the HONOR Magic8 Pro worth it? Well, sure, especially if you want the best HONOR has to offer. It’s amongst the most powerful phones in the market, that’s for sure. It offers great performance, improved software, very capable cameras, and great battery life, amongst other things. I wish the shutter was just a little bit faster, most of all, but that’s not something that will bother all that many people. The HONOR Magic8 Pro sure is a great option.
You should buy the HONOR Magic8 Pro if you:
- Want the best facial scanning tech on Android
- Want to get the best phone HONOR has to offer
- Take a lot of pictures
- Have been waiting for an improved MagicOS experience
- Love having a physical shutter key
- Appreciate good battery life and fast charging
You shouldn’t buy the HONOR Magic8 Pro if you:
- Used camera phones with blazing fast shutter speed
- Want a charger & case to be included in the retail box
