TECH REVIEW – The Honor Magic8 Pro goes all-in on night photography, stamina, and durability, while keeping its software experience noticeably cleaner than you might expect. In the US, you are looking at import pricing around $1,049.99 for the 12GB/512GB model, which is serious flagship money. The question is whether that camera and battery combo is enough to justify it in a market full of strong alternatives.

The Honor Magic8 Pro brings its A-game when it comes to night photography, durability, and battery performance, while also delivering a much cleaner OS experience.

The smartphone market is flooded with Android phones right now. That usually means a new Android flagship in 2026 has to shout for attention, fold in ways that look painful, and practically promise to put the kids to bed so you can finally get a quiet glass of wine and a hot bath.

Honor does not play that game. The Magic8 Pro I have been testing for the last few weeks is, on the surface, kind of boring – in a good way. It is a flagship Android phone with the latest and most powerful Snapdragon chip, and it has a camera system with a lot of big numbers attached.

But is the Magic8 Pro worth your money? It might be – but it also faces some very real competition from very nearby rivals.

At a Glance
Category – Specification
• Colours – Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, Black
• Size & Weight – 161.15 × 75.0 × 8.4 mm, 219 g
• Display – 6.71″ OLED, FHD+ (1256 × 2808), up to 6000 nits HDR
• Processor – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (Octa-core, up to 4.6GHz)
• Software – MagicOS 10 (Android 16)
• Memory – 12GB RAM + 512GB storage
• Rear Cameras – 200MP telephoto (3.7× OIS) + 50MP main (OIS) + 50MP ultra-wide
• Video – Up to 4K 120fps (rear), 4K (front)
• Front Camera – 50MP + 3D depth sensor
• Battery & Charging – 6270 mAh, 100W wired, 80W wireless
• Durability – HONOR NanoCrystal Shield, IP68 / IP69 / IP69K
• Connectivity – 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0
• Biometrics – 3D face unlock, fingerprint sensor
• Audio – Stereo speakers, HONOR Surround Subwoofer
• Ports – USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1)
• In the Box – Phone, USB-C cable, eject tool, guides
• Price – $1,049.99 (12GB/512GB, US import retail)

Specs First, Hype Later

The Magic8 Pro runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, pairs it with 16GB of RAM, and offers three storage tiers – 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

The battery uses a silicon-carbon design and comes in at 6,270mAh – with 100W wired charging and 80W wireless charging. It is big enough and fast enough for basically anyone. Trust me.

For the screen, you get a 6.71 AMOLED panel with the expected 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Big enough, fast enough, and bright enough for basically anyone. Trust me.

The rear camera system is as follows:

• 200MP Ultra Night Telephoto (f/2.6, OIS, 3.7× optical zoom)
• 50MP Ultra Night Main (f/1.6, OIS)
• 50MP Ultra-Wide (122°, macro support)
• The front camera is 50MP with a f/2.0 aperture.

Premium, But Not Loud About It

The Magic8 Pro looks purposeful. It feels premium without trying to be flashy. There are no wild finishes here – just three colour options that look practical and, once again, premium.

The main focus – as is often the case with Honor phones – is, sorry for the terrible pun, the camera system. Those impressive lenses sit inside a huge camera bump, which makes the Magic8 Pro noticeably top-heavy. The upside is a useful little ledge for your forefinger, but it will not be to everyone’s taste.

In the increasingly ridiculous world of water and dust ratings, the Magic8 Pro carries IP68, IP69, and IP69K. The last one has something to do with boiling water, which is genuinely funny. In practice, it should be fine in almost any normal situation.

The display is big, bright, and fast, and it even has its own not-a-Dynamic-Island. If it were anything less than lovely, it would not be 2026.

A 200MP Telephoto That Actually Earns the Headline

The 200MP telephoto camera is the obvious headline spec Honor is pushing with the Magic8 Pro. More importantly, it is backed by impressive stability across roughly 3.7x to 10x zoom, which makes handheld night shots surprisingly successful.

As is usually the case with Honor phones, the Magic8 Pro is a great camera device. Photos come out punchy and a little over-sharpened (welcome to Android), but that also means they look immediately pleasing straight out of the camera.

The zoom range is a smart choice, too. A slightly longer optical reach than 3.7x would have been nice (weird number, right?), but the strong 10x digital zoom does a lot to compensate. I rarely felt short-changed there.

During my testing, the camera system was also consistently reliable. It made one bad call by overexposing a shot of my dog, but that was a rare miss.

Portraits are especially nice, helped by the Harcourt modes, which work very well if you are into that kind of look.

There is also an AI feature called Magic Colour, where the phone can retouch your photos to mimic specific shooting conditions (like golden hour). It is clever and looks pretty good, but I am firmly against these AI photo “improvements”. Leave the image as the photographer and shutter intended, in my humble opinion.

What Can the AI Button Do?

Like the iPhone – and a growing number of Android devices – the Magic8 Pro adds an extra, customizable side button. Here it is called the AI Button, because its main job is to bring up your AI assistant of choice.

Depending on what is on-screen, a long press can summarize content, trigger Circle to Search, or save whatever you are looking at into AI Memories. The last one is a separate app that works as a catch-all for anything you capture through that side button.

In practice, I ended up using the AI button mostly for photos, because a double tap jumps into the camera, and another tap takes the shot.

Performance, MagicOS, and Apple-Friendly Tricks

The Magic8 Pro runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which instantly puts it in flagship territory. With 16GB of RAM, it has more than enough headroom for almost anyone.

I like MagicOS 10, too. And as I have said many times – even if it puts me at odds with some reviewer friends – most versions of Android now feel, well, pretty similar. That is a good thing, by the way.

Where things get interesting is how Honor tries to play nicer with Apple’s ecosystem. Honor Share now supports a tap-to-transfer trick where you place the top of your Magic8 Pro against the top of an iPhone to move stuff over. Just like you can do with two iPhones. The difference is you need an app (Honor Connect) on the receiving iPhone, and the transfer uses the Magic8 Pro hotspot. So it is slower than AirDrop, but it does work.

You can even transfer files from the Magic8 Pro to a MacBook. Again, you have to install an app (Honor WorkStation) on the laptop, but it is at least another AirDrop alternative for anyone thinking about moving from iPhone to Android. I could not get it working on my MacBook Air, but it should be possible, right?

On battery life, the Magic8 Pro is excellent. That 6,270mAh silicon-carbon battery just keeps going. And it charges faster than any iPhone. Which brings me to the inevitable conclusion about Honor’s latest flagship.

Verdict – A Better Camera Than the Best iPhone, Until the Lite Steals the Spotlight

In my humble opinion, the Magic8 Pro has a better camera system than the best iPhone. It is also right up there on raw performance, and the battery experience is simply more convenient thanks to that fast charging.

It can also slot surprisingly well into an Apple-heavy setup, and it behaves nicely around iPhones.

The problem is the Magic8 Lite. It is cheaper, has an even bigger battery, and comes with some wild durability claims (I fired a staple directly into its display during the press briefing, and it did not leave a mark). For most people it will be enough, and that is probably the only real Achilles heel for the Magic8 Pro. Maybe that is exactly what Honor intended.

The other downside is the rather plain, utilitarian look. But that is often what we get with flagships. And for a lot of people, the camera system and battery life will decide it anyway.

If you are in that camp, I cannot blame you at all.

-Herpai Gergely „BadSector”-