Verdict
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is a fantastic smartphone with impressive cameras, a phenomenal display and top-end performance, but it’s a bit of an iterative upgrade on last year’s Magic 6 Pro, relying instead on AI to bolster the offering – and that’s a bit of a gamble.
Pros
- Highest-resolution telephoto lens around
- Plenty of power under the hood
- Top-end display experience
Cons
- AI Super Zoom leaves much to be desired
- Smaller battery than its predecessor
- Quite similar to Honor Magic 6 Pro
-
Powerful performanceWith Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite at its heart, the Honor Magic 7 Pro can handle just about anything you throw its way. -
Versatile camerasWith a 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide and 200MP telephoto lens capable of up to 100x zoom, the Magic 7 Pro offers a versatile shooting experience. -
Plenty of AI smartsFrom AI-powered camera modes to features that help you identify those random movie clips you see online, AI is a key part of the Magic 7 Pro experience.
Introduction
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is an interesting smartphone; while there are some hardware improvements on offer, much of the ‘newness’ of the smartphone comes from AI-powered features and functionality.
That’s a bit of a gamble on Honor’s part, given the lukewarm reception to AI features we’ve seen on smartphones thus far, but the company is seemingly confident with features like AI Super Zoom that boosts the quality of shots between 30x and 100x, improvements to Magic Portal and new AI functionality baked into the Notes and Gallery apps to entice consumers.
Of course, there’s also improved hardware on offer in the form of the boosted 200MP telephoto lens, representing the most pixel-dense zoom lens around right now, along with Snapdragon 8 Elite power and faster charge speeds, all of which also contribute to the flagship experience on offer.
However, much of the hardware, including screen tech and two of its three rear cameras, remains unchanged, while the battery has actually shrunk a little with this year’s device. The question is, then, is the Honor Magic 7 Pro worth the £1099 price tag? Let’s find out.
Pricing
The Honor Magic 7 Pro comes in at the same £1099 price tag in the UK as its predecessor, with no plans for a release in the US right now.
That is a rather steep entry price, but it does come with 512GB of storage as default, meaning it comes in cheaper than other flagships with equivalent levels of storage – it’s just a shame we didn’t get a more affordable variant with a little less storage to help entice consumers.
The good news is that it’s already available to buy in the UK, both outright and on contract from the likes of EE, O2 and Vodafone.
Design
- Similar design to the Honor Magic 6 Pro
- IP68 & IP69 protection
- Curved edges and rounded corners
It’s a year of refinement when it comes to the look and feel of the Honor Magic 7 Pro, with a design not that dissimilar from last year’s Honor Magic 6 Pro, but considering I was so enamoured with the overall look and feel of last year’s flagship when I reviewed it, that’s not really a bad thing.
There are a small handful of changes on offer that help differentiate it from its predecessor; gone is the vegan leather finish, replaced by a matte-finish glass rear in either blue or black, with a third lunar grey option offering a refractive silvery-grey finish.
I like the latter, offering a bit of character to an otherwise familiar design, but the toned-down black also looks equally sleek – it’s just a matter of preference.
It’s marginally thinner and lighter as a result, but there’s only 0.1mm and 6g between them, so it’s not immediately noticeable in-hand. Generally though, its curved rear and rounded edges make the 6.8-inch smartphone sit rather comfortably in the hand, with the cold feel of glass adding to its premium appeal.
Despite the similarities, Honor has cranked up the durability of this year’s flagship, offering dual IP68 and IP69 water and dust protection, protecting it from both being submerged in 1.5m of water for 30 minutes and against hot pressurised jets of water.
Honor’s NanoCrystal Shield returns once again, offering 10x drop resistance compared to regular smartphone glass according to the company. While I can’t quite confirm that, the phone did survive being launched from a treadmill at 11km/h and sliding, screen down, across a laminate floor without a single scratch or mark. Fair play Honor, that’s pretty impressive.
Screen
- 6.8-inch 1.2K AMOLED screen
- Similar screen tech to its predecessor
- New eye health features are welcome
Like most other flagship smartphones, the Honor Magic 7 Pro has a pretty stellar display.
It’s a 6.8-inch 1.2K AMOLED panel with an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 5000nits when watching HDR content. That makes it one of the brightest panels around, with the likes of the iPhone 16 Pro Max capping out at 2000nits.
There is a slight curvature to the display, but it’s not as egregious as earlier curved-screen smartphones including last year’s Magic 6 Pro. Instead, it’s effectively a flat screen with a slightly rounded edge purely to make side swipes (a key navigation gesture) feel more comfortable. Coming from the completely flat iPhone 16 Pro Max, it feels comparatively nicer to hold in everyday use.
The eagle-eyed among you might notice that the Magic 7 Pro boasts the exact same screen specification as the Honor Magic 6 Pro, but there are a few new features on hand that help to separate it from its predecessor.
That includes AI Super Dynamic Vivid Technology that boosts detail in low-res videos by 29% and AI HDR Display that boosts dynamic range by 230%, though how much this is noticeable in everyday use is up for debate.
Honor has long focused on eye health with its flagship range, and that continues with the Magic 7 Pro. As well as all the features present on previous flagships, like 4320Hz PWM dimming and Defocus Eyecare, the Magic 7 Pro features a new circular polarised display that simulates natural light fluctuations to help reduce eye fatigue when using the device.
Of course, it’s hard to quantify the effectiveness of the technology, but I can’t say I’ve had much in the way of eye strain over the past few weeks.
Most importantly, the Magic 7 Pro delivers a great everyday screen experience; it’s bright, detailed, vivid and super smooth with that LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, making it an absolute joy to flick through apps like Bluesky and catch up on 90 Day Fiancé on Discovery Plus.
Cameras
- Tripe camera setup, despite offering four lenses
- Highest resolution telephoto camera around
- AI Super Zoom is controversial
A quick glance of the Magic 7 Pro’s camera module suggests that there are four lenses to play with, up from the three on offer from the Magic 6 Pro, but that’s not quite the case. Honor has seemingly done what budget phone manufacturers do and added a junk depth sensor to the rear to increase the count because, of course, more means better.
Rather, what you’re actually getting is a very similar triple lens setup to the Magic 6 Pro, with the exact same 50MP main and ultrawide lenses as last year’s flagship, along with a boosted 200MP telephoto lens.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I was impressed with the main camera last year and that remains the case this time around, rarely failing to deliver a crisp, well-exposed shot with accurate colours – though I’m not a huge fan of the artificial sun flare apparent in shots, with no way to turn it off in the settings app.
That’s also true of low-light photography, with the phone able to take in more light than I could see with the naked eye to deliver impressive results.
It’s a similar story with the ultrawide, even when it comes to low-light performance – and you can’t say that about many ultrawide lenses. It also doubles up as a pretty capable macro lens, though that remains a bit of a niche usecase.
It’s arguably the telephoto lens that’s the most interesting of the bunch, boasting not only the highest resolution telephoto lens on the market but the biggest sensor, at 1/1.4-inch, allowing for improved light intake and, as such, better low-light performance.
It doesn’t perform quite as well as the main sensor, of course, but there is a marked improvement in dark conditions compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
More importantly, the 3x sensor can use those extra megapixels to boost its digital zoom performance with solid results at the 6x and even 10x mark. You can push it further, with decent detail all the way up to around the 30x mark, thanks to that pixel-packed sensor.
One of Honor’s big camera gambits for 2025 is AI Super Zoom, which kicks in on photos taken at between 30x and 100x to boost the overall quality of the image. However, unlike competing AI enhancement tech, the Magic 7 Pro uses Honor’s proprietary Telephoto LM to generate a completely new image based on the photo you took.
Honor says this cloud-based AI feature is mainly intended for landscape shots, rather than buildings, people and the like, but there’s nothing on the phone that tells consumers this, and, in the majority of the shots I’ve taken over the past few weeks, there’s only a small handful that I’d say are passable.
The vast majority of generated images are quite obviously created by an AI with odd details as you start looking more closely – so much so that I’m confident that Instagram, Facebook and the like would flag the photo as AI-generated if shared online. It also randomly adds or removes elements from your original photo, adding to the ‘fake’ nature of the results.
There’s a question about whether this is even considered a photo if your original is only used as a basis for AI-generated images. I feel like this is a step too far with camera AI smarts, though the good news is that it can be disabled if you’re of a similar opinion.
Other shooting features, like Honor’s HD Super Burst, work far better, allowing me to capture some very detailed action shots on my recent trip to the slopes on Mount Vogel in Slovenia. I’m also a fan of the Studio Harcourt-powered Portrait mode, which works up to 6x on the Magic 7 Pro, with a variety of styles to jazz up your shots.
When it comes to video, expect the same offering as the Magic 6 Pro, with 4K@60fps video and up to 1080p@240fps when shooting in slow-mo. 8K would’ve been a nice addition to bolster its video offering, but it’s not needed when the vast majority of us don’t own an 8K TV to appreciate that extra detail.
Performance
- Snapdragon 8 Elite power
- Rapid everyday performance
- Impressive audio chops
It shouldn’t come as much surprise that Honor’s flagship smartphone comes with the new top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite, which brings huge improvements to both performance and power efficiency to the tune of roughly 40% and 45% respectively compared to last year’s 8 Gen 3 chip.
With that said, the Magic 7 Pro absolutely flies in everyday performance regardless of what you throw at it; social media, streaming video, and even high-end gaming all work flawlessly on the device – though it can get hot when you really push the chipset’s capabilities in games like Genshin Impact, especially over extended periods of play.
The only time you’ll find yourself waiting with the Magic 7 Pro is if you use the cloud-powered AI Super Zoom, which takes around 10 seconds to upload, be processed and be downloaded back to your device depending on your internet connection. Most other AI features run on-device for near-instant response times – but more on that in a bit.
That’s all pretty much borne out in benchmark testing too, with the Honor Magic 7 Pro comfortably more powerful than last year’s Honor Magic 6 Pro and even the iPhone 16 Pro Max in many tests, though it does fall slightly behind the OnePlus 13 – which is odd considering they share the same processor.
There’s also a healthy 512GB of storage available as standard, which should be plenty of space for most consumers.
Honor also separates itself from the competition in the audio department, offering not only the stereo support found on much of the competition but a dedicated subwoofer built into the phone.
Don’t expect high-end speaker levels of bass here, but music and podcasts don’t sound anywhere near as flat or tinny as they do on many other smartphones, with so much bass at times that the rear panel actually vibrates.
It’s also easily one of the loudest smartphones around, all without getting shrill when cranking the volume to max. I often used it to listen to music in the shower without complaint and actually had to turn it down on one occasion. You can’t say that about many smartphones, can you?
Software & AI
- Honor MagicOS 9 based on Android 15
- Plethora of new AI features
- Boosted five years of OS upgrades
The Magic 6 Pro ships with Honor’s latest MagicOS 9, a highly customised version of the Android 15 operating system with a plethora of UI tweaks, additional features and ecosystem connectivity that allows the phone to play well with Honor-branded laptops and tablets.
Android purists should steer clear then, but it’s one of the more polished Android skins available. It has clear iOS inspiration with Dynamic Island-esque Magic Capule functionality that displays media controls and the like within the screen’s notch, a split control centre and notification shade, and even its customisable lock screen design.
I genuinely enjoy the latter, offering a plethora of wallpapers, some including a customisable 3D avatar that performs different tasks throughout the day, while others let you create composite stylised wallpapers from photos on your phone. I just wish it had widget support like Samsung’s OneUI; that’d be the icing on the cake.
Honor has doubled down on its Magic Portal AI tech, allowing for new functionality including helping you find the name of movie clips you see online using Portal to Movie, and there’s new AI Deepfake detection in video calls, alerting you within three seconds if the person you’re talking to is trying to trick you.
The Notes app has also had an AI-focused upgrade including AI Format that formats notes into different styles, as well as AI transcript tech. The catch is that you need the phone unlocked for the audio to actually record – something I wasn’t aware of until after a 30-minute meeting. Oddly, the recording spans the entire 30 minutes, it’s just completely silent. Why Honor, why?!
Other additions include Google’s excellent Circle to Search, along with a ton of AI photo editing tools including an improved AI eraser, AI image expansion and AI enhancement tech, all available in the phone’s Gallery app.
I’m not going to say any of these features have completely changed the way I use the phone, but Circle to Search is a very handy addition indeed. The experience should continue to improve too, with a promised five years of OS upgrades and software updates for the flagship – though it still falls short of Google and Samsung’s seven-year promise.
Battery life
- 5270mAh silicon-carbon battery
- Can struggle to reach a full day’s use
- 100W wired and 80W wireless charging support
We’ve seen massive adoption of silicon-carbon technology in the smartphone industry over the past 12 months, but it was Honor that led the charge. It first introduced the tech on the Chinese variant of the Magic 5 Pro before coming to all markets with the 6 Pro, and that trend continues with the 7 Pro.
However, despite being in its third generation, the Honor Magic 7 Pro – rather inexplicably – falls behind other silicon carbon-enabled phones in the battery capacity department, clocking in at just 5270mAh compared to the 5910mAh from the Oppo Find X8 Pro and 6000mAh from the OnePlus 13.
Interestingly, it’s actually smaller than the 5,600mAh cell of the Honor Magic 6 Pro and way much smaller than the 6600mAh of the cheaper Magic 7 Lite, representing a bit of a downgrade in terms of battery life – and it has been pretty noticeable during my time with the phone.
It got me through an average day with around 20% left in the tank, but on days where I used the camera more often, it’d only provide around 4-5 hours of screen time before hitting the same 20% mark.
So while there’s potential for all-day use, it really does depend on what you’re up to.
Where the Magic 7 Pro redeems itself is in the charging department. It has 100W SuperCharge fast charging technology where most other silcion-carbon phones are capped at 80W, allowing for a full charge in 33 minutes according to Honor, and there’s 80W wireless charging to boot. The catch is that there isn’t a charger for either in the box.
It can also charge at up to 50W using a regular high-power USB-C charger, though when using Anker’s top-end Prime 250W charger to charge the device, I found that it capped out at around 25W for much of the charge.
Without an Honor-branded charger to hand, the phone managed 43% in 30 minutes with a full charge in 89 minutes – though expect much faster speeds if you do invest in an Honor fast charger.
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Should you buy it?
Buy if you want a phone with great cameras
Even if the cameras are similar to those of the Magic 6 Pro, the Magic 7 Pro captures impressively detailed images – especially telephoto shots.
Don’t buy if you want a phone that’ll keep on going
Despite using silicon-carbon battery tech, the Honor Magic 7 Pro has a smaller battery than both its predecessor and some of the early 2025 collection, and this is reflected in everyday use.
Final Thoughts
Honor continues its streak of excellent smartphones with the Honor Magic 7 Pro, offering a comfortably flagship experience in almost every area, including design, durability, screen tech, camera performance and power.
With that said, this is what many would consider an iterative upgrade with improved durability, a new processor, a slightly better telephoto camera and, rather awkwardly, a smaller battery than both the Magic 6 Pro and the 2025 flagship competition.
Instead, it relies mainly on new AI features to separate itself from its predecessor, and that’s a bit of a risk considering key new additions like Super Zoom AI aren’t all they’re cracked up to be in real-world use.
Still, the vast majority of consumers would be more than happy with the hardware and software on offer from the Honor Magic 7 Pro – just maybe not Magic 6 Pro owners.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
No, there’s no charger in the box.
Yes, it offers both IP68 and IP69-level protection against dust and water.
Honor has committed to five years of OS upgrades and security updates for the Magic 7 Pro.
Trusted Reviews test data
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Manufacturer
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Storage Capacity
Rear Camera
Front Camera
Video Recording
IP rating
Battery
Wireless charging
Fast Charging
Size (Dimensions)
Weight
ASIN
Operating System
Release Date
First Reviewed Date
Resolution
HDR
Refresh Rate
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Stated Power
Verdict
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is a fantastic smartphone with impressive cameras, a phenomenal display and top-end performance, but it’s a bit of an iterative upgrade on last year’s Magic 6 Pro, relying instead on AI to bolster the offering – and that’s a bit of a gamble.
Pros
- Highest-resolution telephoto lens around
- Plenty of power under the hood
- Top-end display experience
Cons
- AI Super Zoom leaves much to be desired
- Smaller battery than its predecessor
- Quite similar to Honor Magic 6 Pro
-
Powerful performanceWith Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite at its heart, the Honor Magic 7 Pro can handle just about anything you throw its way. -
Versatile camerasWith a 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide and 200MP telephoto lens capable of up to 100x zoom, the Magic 7 Pro offers a versatile shooting experience. -
Plenty of AI smartsFrom AI-powered camera modes to features that help you identify those random movie clips you see online, AI is a key part of the Magic 7 Pro experience.
Introduction
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is an interesting smartphone; while there are some hardware improvements on offer, much of the ‘newness’ of the smartphone comes from AI-powered features and functionality.
That’s a bit of a gamble on Honor’s part, given the lukewarm reception to AI features we’ve seen on smartphones thus far, but the company is seemingly confident with features like AI Super Zoom that boosts the quality of shots between 30x and 100x, improvements to Magic Portal and new AI functionality baked into the Notes and Gallery apps to entice consumers.
Of course, there’s also improved hardware on offer in the form of the boosted 200MP telephoto lens, representing the most pixel-dense zoom lens around right now, along with Snapdragon 8 Elite power and faster charge speeds, all of which also contribute to the flagship experience on offer.
However, much of the hardware, including screen tech and two of its three rear cameras, remains unchanged, while the battery has actually shrunk a little with this year’s device. The question is, then, is the Honor Magic 7 Pro worth the £1099 price tag? Let’s find out.
Pricing
The Honor Magic 7 Pro comes in at the same £1099 price tag in the UK as its predecessor, with no plans for a release in the US right now.
That is a rather steep entry price, but it does come with 512GB of storage as default, meaning it comes in cheaper than other flagships with equivalent levels of storage – it’s just a shame we didn’t get a more affordable variant with a little less storage to help entice consumers.
The good news is that it’s already available to buy in the UK, both outright and on contract from the likes of EE, O2 and Vodafone.
Design
- Similar design to the Honor Magic 6 Pro
- IP68 & IP69 protection
- Curved edges and rounded corners
It’s a year of refinement when it comes to the look and feel of the Honor Magic 7 Pro, with a design not that dissimilar from last year’s Honor Magic 6 Pro, but considering I was so enamoured with the overall look and feel of last year’s flagship when I reviewed it, that’s not really a bad thing.
There are a small handful of changes on offer that help differentiate it from its predecessor; gone is the vegan leather finish, replaced by a matte-finish glass rear in either blue or black, with a third lunar grey option offering a refractive silvery-grey finish.
I like the latter, offering a bit of character to an otherwise familiar design, but the toned-down black also looks equally sleek – it’s just a matter of preference.
It’s marginally thinner and lighter as a result, but there’s only 0.1mm and 6g between them, so it’s not immediately noticeable in-hand. Generally though, its curved rear and rounded edges make the 6.8-inch smartphone sit rather comfortably in the hand, with the cold feel of glass adding to its premium appeal.
Despite the similarities, Honor has cranked up the durability of this year’s flagship, offering dual IP68 and IP69 water and dust protection, protecting it from both being submerged in 1.5m of water for 30 minutes and against hot pressurised jets of water.
Honor’s NanoCrystal Shield returns once again, offering 10x drop resistance compared to regular smartphone glass according to the company. While I can’t quite confirm that, the phone did survive being launched from a treadmill at 11km/h and sliding, screen down, across a laminate floor without a single scratch or mark. Fair play Honor, that’s pretty impressive.
Screen
- 6.8-inch 1.2K AMOLED screen
- Similar screen tech to its predecessor
- New eye health features are welcome
Like most other flagship smartphones, the Honor Magic 7 Pro has a pretty stellar display.
It’s a 6.8-inch 1.2K AMOLED panel with an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 5000nits when watching HDR content. That makes it one of the brightest panels around, with the likes of the iPhone 16 Pro Max capping out at 2000nits.
There is a slight curvature to the display, but it’s not as egregious as earlier curved-screen smartphones including last year’s Magic 6 Pro. Instead, it’s effectively a flat screen with a slightly rounded edge purely to make side swipes (a key navigation gesture) feel more comfortable. Coming from the completely flat iPhone 16 Pro Max, it feels comparatively nicer to hold in everyday use.
The eagle-eyed among you might notice that the Magic 7 Pro boasts the exact same screen specification as the Honor Magic 6 Pro, but there are a few new features on hand that help to separate it from its predecessor.
That includes AI Super Dynamic Vivid Technology that boosts detail in low-res videos by 29% and AI HDR Display that boosts dynamic range by 230%, though how much this is noticeable in everyday use is up for debate.
Honor has long focused on eye health with its flagship range, and that continues with the Magic 7 Pro. As well as all the features present on previous flagships, like 4320Hz PWM dimming and Defocus Eyecare, the Magic 7 Pro features a new circular polarised display that simulates natural light fluctuations to help reduce eye fatigue when using the device.
Of course, it’s hard to quantify the effectiveness of the technology, but I can’t say I’ve had much in the way of eye strain over the past few weeks.
Most importantly, the Magic 7 Pro delivers a great everyday screen experience; it’s bright, detailed, vivid and super smooth with that LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, making it an absolute joy to flick through apps like Bluesky and catch up on 90 Day Fiancé on Discovery Plus.
Cameras
- Tripe camera setup, despite offering four lenses
- Highest resolution telephoto camera around
- AI Super Zoom is controversial
A quick glance of the Magic 7 Pro’s camera module suggests that there are four lenses to play with, up from the three on offer from the Magic 6 Pro, but that’s not quite the case. Honor has seemingly done what budget phone manufacturers do and added a junk depth sensor to the rear to increase the count because, of course, more means better.
Rather, what you’re actually getting is a very similar triple lens setup to the Magic 6 Pro, with the exact same 50MP main and ultrawide lenses as last year’s flagship, along with a boosted 200MP telephoto lens.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I was impressed with the main camera last year and that remains the case this time around, rarely failing to deliver a crisp, well-exposed shot with accurate colours – though I’m not a huge fan of the artificial sun flare apparent in shots, with no way to turn it off in the settings app.
That’s also true of low-light photography, with the phone able to take in more light than I could see with the naked eye to deliver impressive results.
It’s a similar story with the ultrawide, even when it comes to low-light performance – and you can’t say that about many ultrawide lenses. It also doubles up as a pretty capable macro lens, though that remains a bit of a niche usecase.
It’s arguably the telephoto lens that’s the most interesting of the bunch, boasting not only the highest resolution telephoto lens on the market but the biggest sensor, at 1/1.4-inch, allowing for improved light intake and, as such, better low-light performance.
It doesn’t perform quite as well as the main sensor, of course, but there is a marked improvement in dark conditions compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
More importantly, the 3x sensor can use those extra megapixels to boost its digital zoom performance with solid results at the 6x and even 10x mark. You can push it further, with decent detail all the way up to around the 30x mark, thanks to that pixel-packed sensor.
One of Honor’s big camera gambits for 2025 is AI Super Zoom, which kicks in on photos taken at between 30x and 100x to boost the overall quality of the image. However, unlike competing AI enhancement tech, the Magic 7 Pro uses Honor’s proprietary Telephoto LM to generate a completely new image based on the photo you took.
Honor says this cloud-based AI feature is mainly intended for landscape shots, rather than buildings, people and the like, but there’s nothing on the phone that tells consumers this, and, in the majority of the shots I’ve taken over the past few weeks, there’s only a small handful that I’d say are passable.
The vast majority of generated images are quite obviously created by an AI with odd details as you start looking more closely – so much so that I’m confident that Instagram, Facebook and the like would flag the photo as AI-generated if shared online. It also randomly adds or removes elements from your original photo, adding to the ‘fake’ nature of the results.
There’s a question about whether this is even considered a photo if your original is only used as a basis for AI-generated images. I feel like this is a step too far with camera AI smarts, though the good news is that it can be disabled if you’re of a similar opinion.
Other shooting features, like Honor’s HD Super Burst, work far better, allowing me to capture some very detailed action shots on my recent trip to the slopes on Mount Vogel in Slovenia. I’m also a fan of the Studio Harcourt-powered Portrait mode, which works up to 6x on the Magic 7 Pro, with a variety of styles to jazz up your shots.
When it comes to video, expect the same offering as the Magic 6 Pro, with 4K@60fps video and up to 1080p@240fps when shooting in slow-mo. 8K would’ve been a nice addition to bolster its video offering, but it’s not needed when the vast majority of us don’t own an 8K TV to appreciate that extra detail.
Performance
- Snapdragon 8 Elite power
- Rapid everyday performance
- Impressive audio chops
It shouldn’t come as much surprise that Honor’s flagship smartphone comes with the new top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite, which brings huge improvements to both performance and power efficiency to the tune of roughly 40% and 45% respectively compared to last year’s 8 Gen 3 chip.
With that said, the Magic 7 Pro absolutely flies in everyday performance regardless of what you throw at it; social media, streaming video, and even high-end gaming all work flawlessly on the device – though it can get hot when you really push the chipset’s capabilities in games like Genshin Impact, especially over extended periods of play.
The only time you’ll find yourself waiting with the Magic 7 Pro is if you use the cloud-powered AI Super Zoom, which takes around 10 seconds to upload, be processed and be downloaded back to your device depending on your internet connection. Most other AI features run on-device for near-instant response times – but more on that in a bit.
That’s all pretty much borne out in benchmark testing too, with the Honor Magic 7 Pro comfortably more powerful than last year’s Honor Magic 6 Pro and even the iPhone 16 Pro Max in many tests, though it does fall slightly behind the OnePlus 13 – which is odd considering they share the same processor.
There’s also a healthy 512GB of storage available as standard, which should be plenty of space for most consumers.
Honor also separates itself from the competition in the audio department, offering not only the stereo support found on much of the competition but a dedicated subwoofer built into the phone.
Don’t expect high-end speaker levels of bass here, but music and podcasts don’t sound anywhere near as flat or tinny as they do on many other smartphones, with so much bass at times that the rear panel actually vibrates.
It’s also easily one of the loudest smartphones around, all without getting shrill when cranking the volume to max. I often used it to listen to music in the shower without complaint and actually had to turn it down on one occasion. You can’t say that about many smartphones, can you?
Software & AI
- Honor MagicOS 9 based on Android 15
- Plethora of new AI features
- Boosted five years of OS upgrades
The Magic 6 Pro ships with Honor’s latest MagicOS 9, a highly customised version of the Android 15 operating system with a plethora of UI tweaks, additional features and ecosystem connectivity that allows the phone to play well with Honor-branded laptops and tablets.
Android purists should steer clear then, but it’s one of the more polished Android skins available. It has clear iOS inspiration with Dynamic Island-esque Magic Capule functionality that displays media controls and the like within the screen’s notch, a split control centre and notification shade, and even its customisable lock screen design.
I genuinely enjoy the latter, offering a plethora of wallpapers, some including a customisable 3D avatar that performs different tasks throughout the day, while others let you create composite stylised wallpapers from photos on your phone. I just wish it had widget support like Samsung’s OneUI; that’d be the icing on the cake.
Honor has doubled down on its Magic Portal AI tech, allowing for new functionality including helping you find the name of movie clips you see online using Portal to Movie, and there’s new AI Deepfake detection in video calls, alerting you within three seconds if the person you’re talking to is trying to trick you.
The Notes app has also had an AI-focused upgrade including AI Format that formats notes into different styles, as well as AI transcript tech. The catch is that you need the phone unlocked for the audio to actually record – something I wasn’t aware of until after a 30-minute meeting. Oddly, the recording spans the entire 30 minutes, it’s just completely silent. Why Honor, why?!
Other additions include Google’s excellent Circle to Search, along with a ton of AI photo editing tools including an improved AI eraser, AI image expansion and AI enhancement tech, all available in the phone’s Gallery app.
I’m not going to say any of these features have completely changed the way I use the phone, but Circle to Search is a very handy addition indeed. The experience should continue to improve too, with a promised five years of OS upgrades and software updates for the flagship – though it still falls short of Google and Samsung’s seven-year promise.
Battery life
- 5270mAh silicon-carbon battery
- Can struggle to reach a full day’s use
- 100W wired and 80W wireless charging support
We’ve seen massive adoption of silicon-carbon technology in the smartphone industry over the past 12 months, but it was Honor that led the charge. It first introduced the tech on the Chinese variant of the Magic 5 Pro before coming to all markets with the 6 Pro, and that trend continues with the 7 Pro.
However, despite being in its third generation, the Honor Magic 7 Pro – rather inexplicably – falls behind other silicon carbon-enabled phones in the battery capacity department, clocking in at just 5270mAh compared to the 5910mAh from the Oppo Find X8 Pro and 6000mAh from the OnePlus 13.
Interestingly, it’s actually smaller than the 5,600mAh cell of the Honor Magic 6 Pro and way much smaller than the 6600mAh of the cheaper Magic 7 Lite, representing a bit of a downgrade in terms of battery life – and it has been pretty noticeable during my time with the phone.
It got me through an average day with around 20% left in the tank, but on days where I used the camera more often, it’d only provide around 4-5 hours of screen time before hitting the same 20% mark.
So while there’s potential for all-day use, it really does depend on what you’re up to.
Where the Magic 7 Pro redeems itself is in the charging department. It has 100W SuperCharge fast charging technology where most other silcion-carbon phones are capped at 80W, allowing for a full charge in 33 minutes according to Honor, and there’s 80W wireless charging to boot. The catch is that there isn’t a charger for either in the box.
It can also charge at up to 50W using a regular high-power USB-C charger, though when using Anker’s top-end Prime 250W charger to charge the device, I found that it capped out at around 25W for much of the charge.
Without an Honor-branded charger to hand, the phone managed 43% in 30 minutes with a full charge in 89 minutes – though expect much faster speeds if you do invest in an Honor fast charger.
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Should you buy it?
Buy if you want a phone with great cameras
Even if the cameras are similar to those of the Magic 6 Pro, the Magic 7 Pro captures impressively detailed images – especially telephoto shots.
Don’t buy if you want a phone that’ll keep on going
Despite using silicon-carbon battery tech, the Honor Magic 7 Pro has a smaller battery than both its predecessor and some of the early 2025 collection, and this is reflected in everyday use.
Final Thoughts
Honor continues its streak of excellent smartphones with the Honor Magic 7 Pro, offering a comfortably flagship experience in almost every area, including design, durability, screen tech, camera performance and power.
With that said, this is what many would consider an iterative upgrade with improved durability, a new processor, a slightly better telephoto camera and, rather awkwardly, a smaller battery than both the Magic 6 Pro and the 2025 flagship competition.
Instead, it relies mainly on new AI features to separate itself from its predecessor, and that’s a bit of a risk considering key new additions like Super Zoom AI aren’t all they’re cracked up to be in real-world use.
Still, the vast majority of consumers would be more than happy with the hardware and software on offer from the Honor Magic 7 Pro – just maybe not Magic 6 Pro owners.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
No, there’s no charger in the box.
Yes, it offers both IP68 and IP69-level protection against dust and water.
Honor has committed to five years of OS upgrades and security updates for the Magic 7 Pro.
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