Honor isn’t spending any time getting its new Magic 8 Pro ready for its domestic China launch this month, even if it’s hard to believe that new flagship phone season has already begun again. My firsthand impressions are based on the pre-production unit that Honor supplied me prior to the launch.
Honor’s Magic OS 10 software, which is based on Android 16, is installed on this China model. It has Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 hardware, a state-of-the-art camera system, a beautiful, elegant design that is lighter than before, and the largest battery I’ve ever seen in a flagship phone – despite the weight decrease.
Before making its way to other regions, such as Europe, later this year in Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, and Black hues, the Honor Magic 8 Pro will make its debut in China in October 2025.
At launch, the phone comes with a 7,200mAh battery and a single SKU with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. Because of European battery size constraints, the European model will come with a 6,270mAh battery.
Honor comes with a clear TPU case, a USB cable, a 100W charger, and a film screen protector already fitted on the phone. Very good deal when compared to other flagships!
| Category | Honor Magic 8 Pro |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.71-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED, native 10-bit, 2808 x 1256, 6000 nits |
| Eye care | DC-dimming and 3840/4320Hz PWM dimming, hardware blue light filtering, defocus myopia prevention, custom contrast and color |
| Rear camera 1 | 50MP main, f/1.6, 1/1.3”, OIS, 4-in-1 2.4μm large pixel output |
| Rear camera 2 | 200MP tele, f/2.6, 1/1.4”, 3.7X optical zoom, OIS |
| Rear camera 3 | 50MP ultrawide, f/2.0, 122-degree wide angle, 2.5cm Macro Photography |
| Front camera | 50MP f/2.0 |
| Security | Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner, 3D depth front camera for face recognition |
| Battery | 7100mAh (China) or 6270mAh (Europe) Silicon-carbon battery |
| Charging | 100W wired, 80W wireless |
| Durability | IP68, IP69, IP69k |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 512GB |
| Dimensions | 161.15mm x 75mm x 8.4mm |
| Weight | 213g |
| Colors | Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, Black |
I could sense the difference from the previous year as soon as I took the Honor Magic 8 Pro out of the package. In addition to being smoother than before (in a non-slippery fashion, strange as that sounds), the phone’s soft, brushed metal sides also organically curve into the front and rear of the chassis, offering remarkable weight alleviation over the previous model.
Honor appears to have found a good mix between the flat side trend and a more pleasant set of curves, which is something I dislike about most phones with flat edges. Only the extreme margins of the corners are pushed into a curve, making the display flatter than before.
The new design’s touted feature is a new AI button, which is situated around two-thirds of the way down the phone’s right side. Although it may also be used as a camera control button with swipe-to-zoom capabilities, this long button, which is flush with the frame, is primarily used as an AI button right out of the box.
In China, YOYO video AI can be accessed by long-pressing the button; this capability at least somewhat resembles Gemini Live. Honor hasn’t officially disclosed their plans, but it’s probable that international versions will include this feature with Gemini rather than YOYO.
Additionally, you can personalize a single or double press of this button to take a screenshot for AI memories, start the camera, or open the AI memories center.
I really enjoyed this final feature since it made it simple for me to keep track of facts throughout the day. For instance, I came across a local post about a Harry Potter event that was taking place at the end of the month while perusing Instagram. The screenshot of this incident was saved in my AI memories when I tapped the AI button, and I can locate it by searching for “Harry Potter” in the AI memories app.
These days, my preferred method of finding information is this kind of context-sensitive information searching, which is comparable to the Pixel Screenshots app. You can even request that YOYO “find all my screenshots and eliminate the fuzzy ones” for the Chinese models. If you choose not to utilize it, the implementation is totally ignorable and doesn’t feel intrusive at all.
You will care about the improved battery even if you don’t give a damn about the new AI button. With Honor’s latest silicon-carbon battery technology, which has an incredible 7,100mAh capacity, the Magic 8 Pro has the largest battery I’ve ever seen in a typical flagship phone. Despite this, the phone weighs less than the one from the previous year.
The Honor Magic V5 also featured a comparable capacity increase and this battery technology. This isn’t “empty capacity” or anything because, at the beginning of the third day of my testing, I had barely less than 20% remaining after going two full days without charging. It’s authentic.
Every shot I took with the Honor Magic 8 Pro impressed me on a pleasant fall day. As I’ve come to anticipate from Honor phones, this one performs especially well in motion capture, portrait mode, and with the telephoto camera. It’s not surprising to see that upgraded here with even better sensors because even Honor’s more reasonably priced phones capture beautiful portrait mode photos.
Images captured using the viewfinder’s 2x, 3.7x, or 10x presets are outstanding. The camera performed well in every situation I tested it in, and I doubt I could ask for more from any camera with a zoom of less than 10x.
Honor also emphasizes the phone’s capacity to capture images in difficult lighting conditions, an area where other phones frequently falter. One such moment is The Blue Hour, which occurs immediately before the sun sets.
In addition to the fact that color is typically difficult to capture at this time, longer exposure times are frequently required to obtain sharp images. Comparing the Magic 8 Pro to the Pixel 10 Pro XL, the former passed this test with flying colors.
Furthermore, all of the exciting new toys are buried in the AI processing, even though the telephoto camera has some amazing new stability and low-light characteristics as well as improved dynamic range.
Viewing your images in context is no longer the only use for motion photos. With only two taps, you can add motion trails, turn any motion snapshot into a slow-motion video, or make an amazing stop-motion animation with the Magic 8 Pro’s new AI editing features.
Additionally, Honor is introducing some cool new AI-based recoloring modes, including as Warm Sunset, Golden Autumn, and Romantic Blue, to give your old photographs a fresh look.
As the international debut draws nearer, we’ll be discussing the many interesting and fresh announcements regarding this phone. As of right now, Honor’s most recent products are receiving great reviews, and the business is consistently improving both the hardware and software designs, such as the new MagicOS 10 that runs on Android 16.
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Luiza Mosneagu is Reviews Editor at Droid Tools. A psychologist by training and tech writer by passion, she has tested over 60 Android devices since 2020 - always for a minimum of two weeks before writing a word. Her focus is camera quality, everyday usability, and cutting through marketing claims to tell you what a device is actually like to live with.
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