Honor’s magic 7 Pro is refined a flagship Android phone which combines the latest AI features with top-of-the-line hardware. It excels everywhere that matters. You get an incredibly versatile camera, impressive durability, fast charging, silky smooth performance and a great display. A few subtle but important improvements over its predecessor take this smartphone to the next level.
Chinese phone maker Honor has been impressing me with its hardware lately, since last year Magic 6 Pro to impossibly slim Honor Magic V3. This year, he paid more attention to the software with some welcome improvements. Its big investment in AI is starting to mature, with features that feel more practical in the Magic 7 Pro than in its predecessors. It’s an expensive flagship at £1,099 ($1,346) and unfortunately not officially sold in the US. But UK and European buyers shouldn’t sleep on the Magic.
Subtle improvements
At first glance, the Magic 7 Pro looks similar to the 6 Pro, but I was delighted to find a flatter screen and frame, making it much more comfortable to use and less prone to accidental touches than the curved glass. Honor has shrunk the camera module, although it’s still large enough to balance the phone a bit. Although this phone felt big after that using the Pixel 9he can deal with it. I’m not in love with the marble effect of my Lunar Shadow Gray review unit, but it’s more interesting than the plain blue or black alternatives.
The 6.8-inch screen is as good as any I’ve tested. It was bright, smooth and sharp. By the numbers, it has a resolution of 2800 x 1200 pixels, variable refresh rate up to 120 Hzand a brightness of 1600 nits (up to 5000 nits for highlights). Video looks great on the 7 Pro, with support for Dolby Vision and HDR Vivid, and the speakers are nice and loud without distortion. Honor has also included several features intended to reduce eye fatigue and strain, but these are difficult to quantify.
Photo: Simon Hill
The only minor irritation I had was the large cutout for the selfie camera, although you get used to it quickly. It’s a trade-off I can accept for the convenience of secure face unlock—a rarity on Android phones, as it even works with banking apps.
There’s plenty of power under the hood with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12GB of RAM. As you’d expect, the benchmark scores are top notch, and this phone can run anything. There’s also a very generous 512GB of fast storage, which is more than most phones offer at this price point. Honor Magic 7 Pro has IP68 and IP69 it’s also rated, which means it can be submerged and handled with a water jet or steam.
Delving inside, a far higher level of refinement is evident. Honor talks about AI in the Magic 7 Pro, and we’ll get into specific features, but it permeates the phone. AI has gone into the phone app to reduce background noise and make voices clearer, and there’s a privacy feature designed to prevent audio leaks and prevent eavesdropping.