Honor Magic 8 Pro: AI, an XXL battery and a risky rollback

Barely unveiled in China, the Honor Magic 8 Pro already presents itself as the brand’s standard-bearer for the months to come, with the ambition of propelling artificial intelligence to the heart of the mobile experience.

As usual, the Chinese firm adopts an eye-catching design, with a guaranteed very bright screen and a new customizable button dedicated to AI, giving access to Gemini or to intelligent storage automatically sorting files, like the Essential Key of the Nothing Phone (3). This approach initiates a generation of devices capable of learning and evolving according to their user.

An XXL battery to crush the competition

Honor doesn’t stop there, and once again puts the emphasis on autonomy. Its Magic 8 Pro has a 7200 mAh battery in its Chinese version, a capacity rarely seen on a premium smartphone. In Europe, this will be reduced to 6270 mAh for regulatory reasons, but remains well above current standards.

Associated with ultra-fast 120 W charging – up to 100 W wired with us and 80 W wireless – this configuration promises more than two days of use without constraints. The new processor Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 from Qualcomm also supports this endurance, guaranteeing smooth performance and optimized energy management with configurations of up to 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage.

An impressive telephoto lens… and a questionable choice

On the photo side, the Magic 8 Pro relies everything on a 200 megapixel periscopic telephoto lens, mounted on a large sensor capable of retaining details even when zooming from a distance. A rare feat in the mobile world, which could reposition Honor against the giants of the sector.

On the other hand, the main sensor could cool the heat. The manufacturer in fact abandons the variable aperture of its predecessor for a fixed aperture at f/1.6, less effective in low light. Nonetheless, Honor deploys a series of AI processing to compensate, promising sharp images even handheld. It remains to be seen whether the software can really make up for this hardware decline.

A smartphone built to last

Beyond photography, Honor wants to build an ecosystem centered on AI. The Magic 8 Pro inaugurates MagicOS 10, its interface based on Android 16, with up to seven years of updates announced.

Its arrival in our region is expected by the end of the year, at a price which should exceed the 1000 euros mark. It remains to be seen whether the all-AI will succeed in making people forget certain choices and convince demanding photo enthusiasts.

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