The Honor Magic 8 Pro Is My First Big Phone Disappointment of 2026

I will begin off with this shot above of a road in Edinburgh. At first look, it is high-quality — the picture has a good publicity (albeit with overly brightened shadows) and correct colours. It is truly one of many higher photographs I’ve taken with the cellphone. 

However a more in-depth look reveals that issues begin to crumble. An disagreeable hazy halo surrounds the tower block, together with digital artifacts, the place the cellphone is clearly attempting to each scale back picture noise whereas additionally growing the sharpness. 

Punch into the iPhone’s picture, and it is clear that Apple is processing the small print much less. There’s virtually no fuzzy halo across the tower and no artifacts from noise discount or sharpening. The small print on the brickwork look higher too. 

Switching to the Honor’s ultrawide digital camera would not assist issues, with extra haloing across the tower and particulars which have a bizarre oil portray impact because of the digital sharpening. 

Once more, this picture above seems high-quality. It has a stable publicity and a colour stability that I truly suppose seems fairly good. 

However once more I see proof of heavy-handed digital processing, with the sky trying virtually lower out in opposition to the sides of the buildings. If it seems like I am nitpicking, it is as a result of I’m. This cellphone is pricey, and an elite price ticket ought to include elite efficiency.

Lets take a look at some extra examples? After all!

The small print on this sundown scene truly do not look as overcooked as within the earlier photos, however the Magic 8 Professional has brightened the shadows a lot that it is misplaced plenty of the good temper and drama that was current within the second. 

It is not that the digital camera cannot take a very good shot — the {hardware} is greater than succesful. Have a look at this instance. The JPEG above has suffered by the hands of the cellphone’s processing, with unnaturally brightened shadows, crunchy particulars and overly vibrant colours. 

And above is identical scene, taken as a DNG uncooked picture utilizing the cellphone’s Professional mode and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. I’ve maintained the good depth of the shadows, added virtually no further picture sharpening and stored the colours at a pure degree. I truly actually like this shot and it goes to point out that this cellphone is completely able to taking good images — it is the picture processing within the digital camera that is going too laborious. 

Working example, I took the shot above overlooking Edinburgh utilizing the three.7x telephoto lens. It is overly shiny — each within the highlights and within the shadows — whereas the noise discount and sharpening have resulted in crunchy particulars that look disagreeable, particularly when considered shut up.

But the DNG uncooked file above seems nice. I’ve barely touched this one because it did not want a lot. The drama of the sundown has been maintained with sturdy shadows and particulars that have not been destroyed by software program. 

Pushing the zoom to its 10x hybrid produced the decent-looking picture above of a lighthouse. However guess what.

That is proper, the Magic 8 Professional’s picture processing (left) has given it harsh, crunchy particulars that look disagreeable in comparison with the extra pure look of the iPhone 17 Professional’s picture (proper).

I did say I might taken some that I like, and certain, these images above are fairly first rate and never overly troubled by picture processing, in my view.

However at evening, the picture processing demon reveals its hand but once more. The picture above is overly saturated with particulars misplaced in some areas as a consequence of noise discount whereas different areas have been over sharpened. Possibly it is a one off?

Nope! The colours have been severely ramped up within the picture above whereas the noise discount and sharpening have once more had their enjoyable with the small print. 

This is how the iPhone 17 Professional dealt with the identical scene. It’s miles extra pure.

And this is a bizarre one — the software program smoothed out plenty of element on the buildings, giving them an unnatural easy look, however but there’s nonetheless an enormous quantity of picture noise within the sky and the darkish components of the river. 

It is not tremendous straightforward to see, but it surely’s even produced these odd sq. patches the place the colours have shifted, presumably an error in how the cellphone processes totally different components of the scene. 

The iPhone 17 Professional’s shot has higher dealing with of noise and better-looking particulars. I do favor the extra cyan tone of the sky within the Honor’s shot, however that is me actually greedy at straws in looking for some positives. 

And one other instance of the cellphone producing bizarre noise artifacts.

Nighttime outcomes from the ultrawide digital camera are roughly in-line with what I noticed from the iPhone. The Honor’s publicity is a little bit higher, however unsurprisingly, its particulars look far too digitally sharpened. 

And at 3.7x zoom, the Honor’s shot is barely brighter and better distinction than the iPhone 17 Professional’s, however sure, particulars do not look as pure. In all actually, although, neither cellphone has precisely excelled right here. 

Secure to say then that I am disenchanted with the Magic 8 Professional’s digital camera efficiency total. Like many cellphone producers, Honor is leaning more and more laborious into its software program processing to beat the restrictions of small smartphone digital camera sensors. However this cellphone is an ideal instance of issues going method too far. The DNG uncooked information I took present that the {hardware} is able to taking handsome photos with pure publicity and clear particulars. Those self same photos look, to my eye, actually terrible when the cellphone’s picture processing has had a go on them.

Pictures is, after all, a subjective matter, and what would possibly look good to at least one individual can look terrible to another person. So certain, perhaps you’re keen on hyper saturation and shadows which can be barely there. However among the larger issues — just like the picture noise in evening scenes or the blurring of particulars that needs to be clear — are goal indicators of dangerous picture processing. So, Honor, I am begging you immediately now: You’ve gotten a fantastic digital camera right here — please cease ruining it along with your software program. 

Honor Magic 8 Professional: Show and processor efficiency

Transferring on to one thing extra optimistic now, I do just like the cellphone’s 6.71-inch show. It is shiny and vibrant, which makes it simply seen below harsh outside sunshine and permits colourful YouTube movies to pop properly. It is pretty for gaming, too, due to its max 120Hz refresh fee that may dynamically shift to 1Hz to assist scale back the load in your battery. 

The cellphone is powered by Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, which places in among the finest scores we have ever seen on our benchmark exams for each processor efficiency and graphics processing. It feels extraordinarily zippy in on a regular basis use. Enjoying demanding 3D video games like Genshin Affect was no drawback in any respect, even after I cranked the settings to the max. 

Honor Magic 8 Professional: Software program and AI additions

The cellphone runs Android 16 at its core, over which Honor has slapped its personal Magic OS 10 interface. It features mainly like all model of Android, however you will see some additions thrown in, principally within the type of AI instruments, together with ones like Google’s Gemini we’d see on different Android gadgets.

The AI Pictures Agent means that you can use generative AI to upscale, recompose or take away objects from a picture or remodel it into just a few restricted types together with “Cartoon” or “Animation,” which I’d have assumed are the identical factor. Does it work? Properly, I will allow you to choose.

This is my authentic selfie taken with the cellphone.

And this is what the cellphone’s “Cartoon” AI instrument has executed to me. I do not even want to consider a sarcastic quip; it very a lot speaks for itself. 

Elsewhere, you may discover instruments like an AI settings agent, the place you may ask how you can do issues like dim your display screen brightness, and an AI Recollections instrument, which largely appears to be a repository for screenshots. You will even have Google’s AI instruments like Gemini Dwell, Gemini Superior and Circle to Search, the latter of which will be accessed by a devoted button on the aspect of the cellphone. The button, nevertheless, will also be programed to open and function the digital camera — very like Apple’s digital camera management button — and I discover it extra helpful in that type.

Honor has mentioned that the cellphone will obtain seven years of software program and safety help, which means this cellphone ought to nonetheless be good to make use of all through to 2033.

Honor Magic 8 Professional: Battery life and charging