Honor is one of the most interesting smartphone brands out there right now. Starting out life as a more affordable offshoot of Huawei, it has now cut many of those ties and become an ambitious manufacturer in its own right.
That’s paying off too, with data from Searchabull suggesting that Honor is enjoying increased momentum, while Honor itself says that new customers aren’t just coming from the Android pool, they’re switching from older iPhone models.
Value for money, increased exposure and packing a phone with everything seems to be paying off. The incredibly thin Honor Magic V5 certainly earned its stars, while the impressive performance of the Honor Magic 7 Pro stands it in good stead too.
I’ve got my hands on the Honor Magic 8 Pro, which is in the middle of a complicated launch process. The phone was announced as one of the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phones, before getting a global launch. That launch, however, hasn’t properly reached Europe (including the UK), so the price and availability haven’t been confirmed.
As usual, it won’t be launching in the US. Which is a real shame, with hands-on time already demonstrating that it has plenty of strings to its bow.
Chris Hall / Foundry
An update that’s all about battery
With the Magic 8 Pro in my hand, I can’t help feeling that it’s a little too similar to the Magic 7 Pro. It’s a hefty phone, with the Sunrise Gold and Sky Cyan colours having that swirling depth to the colour on the rear. The camera is still huge, just as it was on the Magic 7 Pro, while there’s the unsurprising addition of a customisable AI button on the side of the phone.
But much of the conversation about the 8 Pro is going to be around the battery. From the Chinese launch of the device, it’s known that there’s a 7100mAh battery, but that’s not the case for the global version, where it takes a dip to 6270mAh. I can already hear the ripples of disappointment, but let’s put that into context.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5000mAh capacity, while the Pixel 10 Pro XL‘s sits at 5200mAh – this is a huge battery for a phone, even at the flagship tier. Honor clearly loves big batteries, with the Magic 8 Lite featuring a 7,500mAh cell.
So, while the Magic 8 Pro doesn’t quite have the biggest battery that Honor offers, it’s still expansive. Honor also isn’t shy of fast charging, with 100W Honor SuperCharge support and 80W wireless – although you’ll need the right charger to get those speeds. I’ve not tested the actual stamina of the phone (and I’m not allowed to talk about performance yet), but I have very high hopes.
This is also the sort of thing that’s going to keep people interested in what Honor has to offer: the trend for slim phones (Motorola Edge 70, iPhone Air, Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge) seems to ignore a universal truth – everyone wants more battery, not less.
A conversation that’s all about the camera
Apart from the battery, the Honor Magic 8 Pro continues the conversation about the camera.
My biggest takeaway from the Magic 7 Pro was that the AI zoom was a little too happy to pull in generative replacements to give long-range photos that were far from real. You’ll have to wait for my final review before I can share exactly what the situation is with the Magic 8 Pro, but let’s take a look at the hardware for now.
The focus of the Magic 8 Pro remains the telephoto lens and performance in low light. Sure, all phones take a decent daylight shot, so it makes sense that Honor sticks to areas that are more difficult to master.
Chris Hall / Foundry
The camera hardware is impressive, but it was on the previous phone, too. There’s a 50Mp main camera, f/1.6, supported by a 50Mp ultrawide f/2.0 and a 200Mp telephoto. Honor is keen to push the telephoto as “Ultra Night Telephoto”, and now it offers a 3.7x optical zoom.
That’s a slight increase over the 3.0x optical zoom of the previous model – and that 0.7x difference isn’t to be sniffed at, because it takes you quite a bit closer to the action. It’s an f/2.6 camera, so offers long zoom (up to 100x digital) without limiting the light that gets to the sensor too much. My impressions from taking test shots when introduced to the phone are that this is an incredibly capable camera.
I found that the stabilisation was really effective and I snapped some great low-light photos. I can’t share those yet (and they weren’t taken on final software), but there’s enough here to continue that conversation about Honor throwing everything into the camera.
Chris Hall / Foundry
A few final details
The Honor Magic 8 Pro launches on Android 16 and – while not confirmed – I’d expect 7 years of software updates. That’s what the company announced for its flagship devices earlier in 2025.
The phone offers protection up to IP69K, which means it can withstand hot water jets for impressive protection.
Within Honor’s MagicOS 10 software skin, there are plenty of AI features, with a customisable button on the side to access them. You get Gemini and Circle to Search, as well as a collection of Honor-specific features, including in the camera, an AI Settings agent, an AI sidebar, an AI Photos agent and a whole lot more.
There’s still plenty more for me to explore before the device gets its full reveal in early January 2026. So far, the Honor Magic 8 Pro is looking like a solid smartphone – potentially, one of the best phones of 2026. I just wish I knew how much it’s going to cost.