Honor Magic8 Pro hands-on review | Infinium-tech

Introduction

This is the Honor Magic8 Pro and it is one of the best camera-focused flagships you can get in late 2025. It has all the bells and whistles you’d 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 built-in Qi2 magnet (read MagSafe).

What’s even better is that this phone is coming to global markets in a big way – it’s not just a China-exclusive phone like some of its rivals. So far so good. But there are some caveats. Like many other phones, the Magic8 Pro is selective about battery capacity depending on the market.

If you’re in China, you’ll get the full 7,200mAh pack. If you have the “global” unit, you’ll 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 the same cut as the Vivo X300 Pro which gets 16% less in Europe. Still, objectively, the battery capacity is better than that of Vivo.

Barring the battery discrepancy, the Honor Magic 8 Pro is shaping up to be a mighty great phone. The Honor Magic7 Pro, which this phone replaces, was already great, especially in the imaging department. But Magic8 brings some interesting improvements.

Honor Magic8 Pro specifications at a glance:

• Body: 161.2×75.0x8.3mm, 219g; Glass front (Giant Rhino Glass), fiber-reinforced plastic back; IP68/IP69K dust-resistant and water-resistant (high-pressure water jets; submersible up to 1.5 meters 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, 458ppi; HDR image support.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm): Octa-core (2×4.6 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M); Adreno 840.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1.
• OS/Software: Android 16, up to 7 major Android upgrades, MagicOS 10.
• rear camera: wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 23mm, 1/1.3″, 1.2µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; telephoto: 200 MP, f/2.6, 85mm, 1/1.4″, 0.56µm, multi-directional 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@24/30/60/120fps, 1080p@24/30/60/120/240fps, Gyro-EIS, OIS, HDR, 10-bit video; front camera:4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, Gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 7100mAh (global); 6270mAh (Europe); 100W wired, 80W wireless, reverse wireless, 5W reverse wired.
• Connectivity: 5G; é SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC5, Auracast, Asha; NFC; Infrared port.
• various: Fingerprint reader (under the display, ultrasonic); Large amplitude stereo speakers.

The main camera removes the variable aperture lens, and has a slightly larger field of view at 23 mm. You can check out page 3 of this article to see how the camera performed when we took it to Hong Kong.

Ultrawide was already great, and the Magic8 Pro doesn’t change that – it’s the widest at 12mm, and has a bright f/2.0 lens and a big 50MP sensor.

Telephoto has gotten better. What was a 60mm optical unit on the previous phone (which used crop zoom to shoot at 72mm by default) 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 included. And this is a globally available phone. Not a bad start for Honor’s Magic8 Pro – it seems like it’s got all the basics covered.

Join us on the next page where we will tackle the physical aspect of the phone on the next page.