Honor steps as much as the large leagues with the Magic 8 Professional

I’ve a easy intestine examine I take advantage of when reviewing telephones, particularly ones that depend on their cameras as a promoting level: how typically do I want I had one other cellphone with me as a substitute?

As of late, it’s largely the Vivo X300 Professional I miss once I’m testing one thing else, a cellphone whose digital camera stays unmatched. Some telephones could finest it on battery life, or have smoother software program, however there’s at all times a second once I’m capturing a portrait, or framing a dimly lit photograph for my meals weblog, that I believe: “The Vivo would have dealt with this higher.”

Within the month I’ve spent testing Honor’s Magic 8 Professional, I scarcely bear in mind pondering that when.

The Magic 8 Professional is Honor’s latest flagship cellphone, launched in China in October however solely getting its European launch now. At £1,099.99 (round $1,500) it’s meant to rival the likes of the iPhone 17 Professional Max and Galaxy S25 Extremely, together with comparable flagships from Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo.

Honor has lengthy pitched its hero units as photographic powerhouses, the identical technique that introduced its former guardian firm Huawei success, however I’ve not often been totally satisfied. It’s made loads of telephones with good cameras, however by no means best-in-class. I don’t suppose the Magic 8 Professional is sort of that both, however it’s nearer than the corporate has ever been and will fortunately outshoot any of the handsets obtainable within the US.

On the coronary heart of the triple rear digital camera is a 50-megapixel, f/1.6 most important lens. It’s joined by a 50MP, f/2.0 ultrawide and a 200MP, f/2.6, 3.7x telephoto. It’s this final lens the place cellphone images battles are being fought as of late, with firms competing not simply to supply the sharpest, longest distance zoom attainable, but additionally cameras that excel at 2-4x, the vary that’s good for capturing portraits, or pets, or unexpectedly dramatic pictures of that nice sandwich you simply ate.

The Magic 8 Professional’s telephoto follows latest traits, adopting a big sensor and quick aperture, that are primarily supposed to assist the cellphone ship properly in darker lighting, even with shifting topics and variable gentle sources. However they’ve a welcome aspect impact: giving the digital camera a slender focal vary, producing pure depth of area in images. It avoids the flat impact that plagues most cellphone images, making photographs out of this cellphone extra like photographs from a bigger digital camera.

None of that’s distinctive to the Magic 8 Professional — flagships from Honor’s home rivals use comparable {hardware} — however the precise high quality of the photographs right here is spectacular. The dynamic vary is superb, colours are heat and infrequently oversaturated, and there’s little noise. That holds true throughout the entire Magic 8 Professional’s three rear lenses, although the ultrawide struggles slightly greater than the others in tough lighting.

So what holds this again from being finest digital camera in a cellphone? Some photographs come out oversharpened, others amp the distinction up slightly a lot. Quick-moving topics are hit and miss — I’ve taken some nice images of cats, canine, and my nephew, but additionally a lot with unwelcome blur. And I barely want the colour tuning in Vivo’s X300 Professional, however that’s as a result of I’m a sucker for its efforts to supply images that really feel slightly extra like movie. However these are largely questions of non-public desire, not of outright high quality, and the Magic 8 Professional feels about pretty much as good as any cellphone digital camera on the market on purely technical phrases.

Whereas Honor hasn’t adopted its rivals in producing {hardware} add-ons just like the telephoto extenders which have turn out to be widespread with Chinese language OEMs of late, it has joined in on the development for a devoted digital camera button. The touch-sensitive aspect button right here can be utilized as each a zoom management and a shutter button, however it additionally performs double obligation as an “AI Button,” a shortcut to open up a few of Honor’s many AI-powered options. These are largely the kind of belongings you’d count on: photograph modifying, transcription, translation, and so forth, they usually largely duplicate options additionally provided by Google Gemini. Sadly, whilst you can customise the button shortcuts to a restricted extent, you’ll be able to’t use it to open apps past the digital camera and AI stuff.

I can’t say I’m a lot of a fan of the cellphone’s design both. The not-quite-circular impact can’t save the digital camera island from being an eyesore — not an issue distinctive to this cellphone, in fact — and the again panel has a unusually plasticky really feel I’d count on from a cellphone that value a lot much less. Stick it in a case and also you’ll by no means discover in fact, however at this worth, feel and appear should matter. MagicOS isn’t my favourite tackle Android both, with a couple of too many preinstalled own-brand apps and unintuitive design selections, however there are not often greater than minor irritations. Honor is promising a reassuring seven years of software program help for the cellphone in Europe, with a minimum of 4 elsewhere on the earth, and the cellphone ships with Android 16.

Outdoors of the digital camera, the Magic 8 Professional has one different main promoting level: its monumental battery. I’ve been testing a worldwide mannequin, with a 7,100mAh capability, although the model happening sale in Europe will likely be just a bit smaller at 6,270mAh. The bigger cell hasn’t lasted me fairly so long as the latest Oppo Discover X9 Professional, however it’s simply a two-day cellphone, liberating you from the requirement to plug in to cost each night time. Like different silicon-carbon telephones, there’s some motive to fret about how briskly that battery will degrade — we haven’t had these telephones round lengthy sufficient to know both means — however a minimum of it’s coming from a formidable start line.

The remainder of the efficiency is predictably premium: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset has dealt with every thing I’ve thrown at it with ease, and the 6.71-inch 120Hz OLED show appears a deal with. There’s quick 100W wired and 80W wi-fi charging, IP68 and IP69K ingress safety rankings, and as much as 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, relying available on the market. However for an Android flagship proper now, most of these are simply desk stakes.

Honor has generally felt like a little bit of an also-ran within the annual Chinese language flagship contest, delivering on the core specs however falling slightly behind the place it counts. The Magic 8 Professional is the primary of its telephones I believe is really aggressive at that stage. For European patrons, it is going to be helped by the truth that Oppo and Vivo’s most up-to-date flagships have solely had inconsistent, restricted worldwide launches, whereas Xiaomi’s new 17 Professional and 17 Extremely haven’t but launched exterior China. Relying on the place you reside, which may make this probably the most highly effective cellphone round proper now, in additional methods than one.

As for me, my month testing the cellphone is up, and shortly I’ll change to the following mannequin. I don’t know what cellphone that’ll be, however now I’m wondering: the primary time it frustrates me, or its digital camera lets me down, will it’s the Magic 8 Professional I want I used to be utilizing as a substitute?

Pictures by Dominic Preston / The Verge