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Summary

• With the Magic 7 Pro, Honor has built a flagship phone that competes with the best of the Android competition.
• From a hardware perspective, Honor has nailed almost every aspect of the Magic 7 Pro.
• Honor’s MagicOS software skin is feature rich, but it could use some additional refining.

For the past several years, much of the ongoing buzz in the US smartphone scene has been dominated by the likes of Samsung, Google, and Apple. Meanwhile, Honor, a Shenzhen, China-based tech company, is one of a number of overseas OEMs to be rapidly expanding its global handset presence.

With its latest flagship candy bar style phone, the Magic 7 Pro, Honor is betting big on a combination of high-end hardware, a feature-packed Android skin, and, of course, a set of AI-powered tools. I tested out the Magic 7 Pro to find out precisely what I’ve been missing out on as a North American resident, and to see whether the handset lives up to the hype surrounding it.

Price, availability, and specs

Through and through, the Honor Magic 7 Pro is a high-end Android smartphone. Along with the excellent OnePlus 13 and the newly-announced Galaxy S25 series, Honor’s latest handset is among the first to ship with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

The Magic 7 Pro is also one of the first mainstream mobile phones to arrive with IP69 water and dust resistance, which, as we’ve seen on the competing OnePlus 13, allows the device to withstand extreme temperatures and powerful jet sprays in multiple directions.

Honor has outfitted the Magic 7 Pro with an expansive 6.8-inch OLED display panel, which features a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, 5,000 nits of peak high dynamic range (HDR) brightness, and a crisp 2800 x 1280 pixel resolution.

The dimensions of the phone are about what you’d expect for a phone with such a large screen: they measure in at 6.41 x 3.04 x 0.35-inches (162.7 x 77.1 x 8.8 mm), and the unit weighs in at 7.87 oz (223 g). Besides the suspicious lack of Qi2 magnetic charging, Honor has packed just about every major hardware bell and whistle into the unit.

The handset’s rear camera array is also fittingly high-end, with a 200-megapixel 3x f/2.6 periscope lens, a 50-megapixel wide-angle shooter with a variable f/1.4-f/2.0 aperture, and a 50-megapixel f/2.0 ultra-wide sensor.

Honor has packed just about every major hardware bell and whistle into the unit.

Back in October of last year, Honor launched the Magic 7 Pro within its domestic market of China. As of January 15, the device is available globally, albeit not officially in the US or Canada.

With its base 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage configuration, the Magic 7 Pro is listed for a price of £1100 / €1,300, which is equivalent to roughly $1,340. At launch, the handset is available in lunar shadow grey, breeze blue, and black colorways.

If you’re in the North American market and are interested in picking up the Magic 7 Pro, it’s possible to do so via online Chinese e-commerce sites like
AliExpress
and
Giztop
.

What I liked about the Honor Magic 7 Pro

On the hardware side, the Magic 7 Pro is an impressive handset

It’s safe to say that with the Magic 7 Pro, Honor has nailed the exterior design side of the equation. The phone feels incredibly premium in the hand, with tight tolerances, tactile buttons, and a micro-textured rear glass panel that feels silky smooth.

I’m a fan of the overall design language here, which is mostly flat and understated, but not boringly so. The power button’s subtle pop of color reminds me of early Google Pixel handsets, and its symmetrical bezels are only slightly curved at the edges, which I prefer over the ‘waterfall’ or ‘edge’ design of some other devices.

Honor has nailed the exterior design side of the equation.

Even the camera hump, which protrudes prominently from the rear, is rather inoffensive in my opinion. I much prefer its appearance over the stovetop design of iPhone Pro models, and it (mostly) eliminates wobble when used on a flat surface.

The display is another strong point with the Magic 7 Pro — the panel is gorgeous to look at, and bright enough for use under direct sunlight. Honor bakes in a number of ‘Eye Comfort Display’ features intended to reduce eye fatigue, including 4,320Hz Ultra-high frequency PWM Dimming, myopic defocus stimulation, and Rheinland circularly polarized light display certification.

On the camera front, the Magic 7 Pro delivers solid results overall. Honor’s computational algorithms and choices in color science are, of course, subjective, but I found that both images and 4K 60fps videos came out clear and pleasant to look at.

I do wish Honor had kitted the device with a 5x zoom lens as opposed to a 3x one — I’ve grown fond of the additional flexibility offered in other flagship phones, which have an increased ability to punch in optically on far away subjects.

As for performance and endurance, the Magic 7 Pro is a delight. The handset’s relatively large 5,270mAh battery pack reliably lasts me an entire day and then some, and its 100W of wired and 80W of wireless charging capabilities blow most US phone charging speeds out of the water.

Getting into the phone is speedy thanks to the under-display, and the Snapdragon 8 elite chipset is blazing fast. When put through the Geekbench 6 benchmarking test, the phone scores a respectable 3,015 in single-core and 8,474 in multi-core.

What I didn’t like about the Honor Magic 7 Pro

Honor’s MagicOS software skin is in need of some refinement

While Honor jumps from strength to strength on the hardware and performance fronts, I find the company’s software experience to be less compelling. The Magic 7 Pro ships with MagicOS 9 running atop of Android 14, and the company promises five years of OS and security updates for the device.

The company’s homegrown Android skin is feature rich, but it lacks some of the UX refinements found in the Pixel’s interface design, or even that of Samsung’s One UI 7. In my testing, the gesture navigation system seems a bit less responsive than that of some other skins, and so I ended up switching to the tried-and-true 3-button system instead.

In my testing, the gesture navigation system seems a bit less responsive than that of some other skins.

I also wish Honor provided the option to enable Android’s native ‘merged’ notifications and quick settings panels UI, as opposed to the separate interfaces currently employed. It’s a small gripe in the grand scheme of things, but user choice is always the right way to go when it comes to these considerations.

Honor’s suite of artificial intelligence tools and features are pretty similar to those found in competing devices, right down to their somewhat dubious utility. While the Magic Text feature is useful for extracting on-screen words, I found the Magic Portal tool less useful.

This latter addition functions similar to Google’s Circle to Search, but it’s accessed via a knuckle gesture rather than a finger swipe. It works well enough for analyzing and contextually searching for content, but with Google’s AI suite already on deck, the whole of Honor AI feels a bit superfluous at the moment.

Should you buy the Honor Magic 7 Pro?

If you live outside of North America, then the Magic 7 Pro is a stellar choice

Honor has crafted an incredibly compelling smartphone in the Magic 7 Pro. The device’s hardware is stellar, its camera system is reasonably performant, and its processing power and battery life are both rock solid.

I’m less fond of the company’s MagicOS Android skin from a UX perspective, but the company’s commitment to updates and security patches is a big win. The various AI tools are rather hit or miss, and the lack of Qi2 charging magnets is a real shame, but the package is otherwise excellent.

The Honor Magic 7 Pro is a great choice that’s worthy of consideration.

If you happen to live outside the US, then the Honor Magic 7 Pro is a great choice that’s worthy of consideration. The device deserves to stand alongside the best flagship Android phones, and in some cases, it even manages to best the competition outright.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Honor.