Honor Magic 7 Pro debuts in China with iPhone-threatening specs

The next big thing in tech showed its pretty face in China today, and boy oh boy does it scream innovation. While other brands exploit their former glory and loyal fanbase, Chinese smartphone companies try to win market share through aggressive development.

The brand in question is Honor, and the company has just unveiled its next flagship series, the Honor Magic 7 in China. You can talk all you want about spy conspiracies and government ties, but there’s a reason why the Magic 6 Pro is still on top of our all-time Best Android Phones article.

So, let’s see what the next Magic 7 series brings to the table. The phones are official in China, but we expect a global release later this year or early next year.

Honor Magic 7 Pro specs at a glance:

Display: 6.82-inch quad-curved AMOLED LTPO, 1-120Hz refresh rate, 5000 nits peak brightness
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
Memory: 12GB of RAM, 256, 512, 1TB storage options
Camera system:
Main: 50MP 1/1.3-inch Super Dynamic HONOR Falcon Camera H9000 HDR with variable aperture
Ultrawide: 50MP ƒ/2.0 aperture, 12mm equivalent focal length
Telephoto: 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor, periscope system
Battery: 5,850 mAh third-generation silicon-carbon battery
Charging: 100W wired fast charging, 80W wireless
OS: MagicOS 9.0 (Android 14 based)

300MP camera system

The triple camera system of the Honor Magic 7 Pro | Image by Honor

The combined pixel count of the three cameras on the Honor Magic 7 Pro comes to 300 MP. There’s one 50MP main camera with a large 1/1.3-inch Super Dynamic HONOR Falcon Camera H9000 HDR sensor (probably the same rebranded OmniVision OV50H we know from the previous generation). There’s another 50MP sensor under the ultrawide lens, and finally, a huge 200MP 1/1.4-inch telephoto sensor finishes the job. We suspect this is the same 1/1.4-inch Samsung S5KHP9 sensor used under the telephoto lens inside the Vivo X100 Ultra.

The hardware of the camera is assisted by Honor’s Image Engine 3.0. This engine includes algorithms for portrait refinement, light and shadow enhancement, snapshot enhancement, and telephoto optimization. Finally, the Harcourt Portrait mode is also present.

5,850 mAh third generation silicon-carbon battery

Honor was the first brand to take this tech outside China and offer it inside the Magic 6 Pro. Now we’re at the third gen of the silicon-carbon battery, where there’s some silicon embedded into the carbon anode, offering expanded capacity.

The battery of the Honor Magic 7 Pro is rated at 5,850 mAh, 250 mAh more than the one in the previous generation. Along with the ample battery, the flagship comes with fast wired and wireless charging, 100W and 80W, respectively.

Snapdragon 8 Elite onboard

The phone comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset onboard | Image by Honor

Unsurprisingly, the Honor Magic 7 Pro features the latest and eagerly awaited Qualcomm silicon, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. We already had numerous leaked benchmarks of this chipset, and the results are quite promising. Some say Qualcomm has finally been able to beat Apple on the smartphone silicon scene.

Design and Display

Four hip colors are available | Image by Honor

The design of the Honor Magic 7 Pro follows the same language the company used in its predecessor. There’s a slight curvature on the back glass; the camera system occupied a circular housing, but this year around the quad-curved display is flatter with more gentle curvature all around.

Speaking of the display, it’s a 6.82-inch AMOLED panel with 5,000 nits advertised peak brightness, 1-120Hz variable refresh rate, and a bunch of eye-care features and certifications, including Circular Polarized Display, Dry Eye Friendly, HONOR AI Defocus Display, 4320Hz Risk-free PWM Dimming, Circadian Night Display, and Natural Tone Display.

We’re already familiar with most of these from the Honor V3 foldable, so it’s a good thing we’re seeing the tech dripping down to the regular flagship of the company. The Honor Magic 7 Pro is available in Moon Shadow Gray, Snow White, Sky Blue, and Velvet Black.

MagicOS 9.0 now comes with a working smart assistant

The MagicOS 9 now has a working smart assistant called YOYO | Image by Honor”&nbsp

Honor already unveiled the MagicOS 9.0 a couple of days ago, and this Android 14 based UI powers the Magic 7 Pro. There are some interesting additions onboard, such as the YOYO Agent, a smart assistant that was present on previous versions but not operational.

This YOYO Agent should act as your smart companion, helping with daily tasks and using simple commands. We’re not sure which of the features will be available in the global variant, so we have to wait and test it when the Honor Magic 7 Pro launches globally.

There’s another interesting feature, which is China-only at the moment. The AI Deep Fake detection feature should help users identify spam and fake calls and videocalls. Finally, there’s a circle to search feature coming to the AI suite as well, where you will be able to circle objects to activate text and image comprehension.

Honor Magic 7 RSR Porsche Design

Good news for Porsche fans! The Magic 7 Pro will get its own RSR edition, just like its predecessor. The phone will borrow some design elements from the Taycan Turbo S sports car and will feature a hexagonal camera design plus the same nitride-oxide anti-scratch coating as the previous Porsche Design model.

The Honor Magic 7 Pro starts at 5699 yuan (around $799) for the 12/256GB version.

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