The Honor Magic8 Pro launched in China last month, and is coming soon to the global stage. But we got the rare opportunity to take it for an early spin, so we traveled east straight to the source.
The camera system itself has been tweaked slightly, but it isn’t overhauled. The main camera is still a 50MP 1/1.3-inch sensor, but its lens is a fixed f/1.6 and no longer an f/1.4-2.0 unit. We can live with that – variable aperture systems in wide-angle phone cameras are more of a gimmick than anything. The lens is also now slightly wider at 23mm compared to 24mm on last year’s model.
The zoom camera, which is arguably the star of the show, on paper has the same specs as last year, but Honor confirmed to us it’s using the 200MP 1/1.4-inch Samsung ISOCELL HP9 sensor with improved autofocus and light gathering performance. The lens in front of the sensor is different too – it’s true 85mm instead of the 72mm of the Magic7 Pro, which was really 60mm but always used some sensor crop zoom.
The ultrawide and selfie cameras seem to be the same as last year.
Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 23mm, 1/1.3″, 1.2µm, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; 4K@120fps.
Telephoto 3.7x: 200 MP, f/2.6, 1/1.4″, 0.56µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS, 3.7x optical zoom; 4K@120fps.
Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 12mm, 122˚, 1/2.88″, 0.61µm, dual pixel PDAF; 4K@60fps
Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.0, 21mm (wide), 1/2.93″, 0.6µm, PDAF, 4K@60fps, ToF sensor.
Photo samples
We won’t pass judgment regarding the image quality until we get back and we put the phone through its paces. We prefer just to show you the camera samples we have. We’ll start with samples from the main cam.
Main camera samples (1x)
Lowlight main camera samples (1x)
We also have a limited direct comparison to the iPhone 17 Pro in low light. You will see both shots from the main cam as well as one from the zoom camera.
Low-light camera comparison: Magic8 Pro • iPhone 17 Pro
Main camera samples (2x)
Next up are the photos by the Honor Magic8 Pro’s zoom camera.
Telephoto camera samples (3.7x)
Lowlight telephoto camera samples (3.7x)
This camera can focus from impressively close too.
Telephoto camera samples (Closeup)
Zooming beyond what is available as optical zoom is, of course, also an option. Honor claims they’ve optimized their reconstruction algorithms to provide improved zoom from 10x and beyond.
Telephoto camera samples (10x)
Ultrawide camera samples
Video samples
All cameras can capture 4K video. Below, we have a selection of several videos gathered in a YouTube playlist.
The Honor Magic8 Pro keeps the DNA of its predecessor intact. It’s a camera-centric phone with top-shelf specs and a great build, but it hasn’t gone all flat and angular and has kept some of its curves.
We’ll show you more about it in the coming weeks.