I’ve been reviewing HONOR’s flagship phones for about four years now and this time around, I think they finally got it right with the Magic7 Pro. Its previous iterations, while still top-tier, have always had at least one or two bad things going for it that made me hesitant to recommend it to anyone looking to spend top-dollar on a flagship, but the new version adds up all the good things about its predecessors and got rid of a lot of their glaring flaws.
Specifications
The Magic7 Pro sports a nearly-identical display to its predecessor with a 6.8-inch 2800×1280 LTPO OLED panel that has a 120Hz refresh rate, an HDR peak brightness of 5,000 nits, and a global peak brightness of 1,600 nits. For protection, it comes with both IP68 and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance, while the screen gets its in-house “giant rhino glass” for drop resistance instead of something from a familiar brand like Corning.
Underneath the chassis, you will find the latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Powering the phone is a slightly larger 5,850mAh battery with support for faster 100W wired and 80W wireless charging. Additionally, the company has finally brought back the ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner, which hasn’t been seen in the Magic series since the Magic4 Pro.
On the photography side, the Magic7 Pro gets the same 50MP main sensor with OIS and variable aperture as well as a 50MP ultra-wide lens with autofocus. What’s new is the upgraded 200MP telephoto lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom. Up front, there is the familiar pill-shaped setup with a 50MP selfie shooter with autofocus and 3D depth sensor for facial unlocking. The regular Pro models get a laser autofocus module on the back while the Porsche-inspire RSR version gets LiDAR autofocus.
For software, it ships with MagicOS 9 based on Android 15 as well as Google’s Gemini assistance and Circle To Search feature built in. Connectivity-wise, it supports 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC.
Looks & Functionality
The Magic7 Pro is a little bit on the chunky side of smartphones these days; not by a lot, but it does feel just a smidge thicker than some of its peers. Part of this can be attributed to the new display design. For the first time since the Magic2, HONOR’s flagship got rid of the curved sides in favour of a flat screen. It’s not completely flat though as it’s a “quad-curved” display where it’s slightly raised, meaning that all four sides of the screen have a subtle curve, but for the most part, I would put this under the flat category.
Design aside, the screen is practically the same as last year’s with an unchanged size, refresh rate, and brightness rating. Obviously, it’s a bright display overall, but I’m still a bit disappointed that they couldn’t crank up the global peak brightness since that’s what really matters for outdoor visibility. As you’ll see in the “competition” segment of my review below, practically all of HONOR’s flagship competitors offer a brighter screen.
Personally, the most exciting part of the Magic7 Pro is the return of the ultrasonic scanner. You wouldn’t think it would be a notable factor, but as someone who constantly suffers from fingertips that are either way too sweaty or way too dry, it can make a world of difference. It’s a lot more reliable with fewer errors and it’s just lightning fast. I basically just have to quickly tap the sensor to unlock my phone and I don’t even feel the need to use the 3D facial scanner.
The camera island is also “familiar” with its gigantic size that stabilises the phone when using it on a table and even props it up a bit so you can scroll on the phone at an angle without lifting it — I’m sure this wasn’t intentional but it’s a fun bonus. Speaking of bonuses, it does still have an infrared blaster, so if you’re one of those people who likes to use their phone to control their home appliances, good news for you.
On the software side, while there are some new tools like the deepfake detection for video calls, the staple features that I actually use on the daily remain the same, namely the Smart Folder and Magic Capsule features. Although I am starting to use Google’s Circle To Search more now, so I appreciate the integration.
Performance & Battery
As with any flagship phone, it goes without saying that the everyday performance of the Magic7 Pro will be stellar with flawless multitasking and practically zero lag. However, this may not be the best choice if you’re a heavy gamer.
I put it through the usual synthetic benchmark apps like 3DMark and Geekbench. On the latter, it did manage to outperform its predecessor in terms of the GPU and CPU scores. Notably, I wasn’t able to get a score for 3DMark’s extreme stress test because the phone kept shutting down the app due to overheating, so the Magic7 Pro may not be the best at handling continuous heavy loads.
On the battery side of things, the small increase in the cell capacity does result in an improved battery life. I was never able to finish off the battery in a single day and with conservative usage, I could stretch it out to nearly two full days, although I wouldn’t recommend doing so. It managed to last 24 hours on the YouTube streaming endurance stress test, a full five hours longer than the Magic6 Pro.
Camera
The main camera of the Magic7 Pro is exactly the same as last year’s, so unsurprisingly, we get the same result. Photos come out crisp and colourful, but sometimes, the processing goes a bit too far and the sharpness seems unnatural. For the most part, though, it’s really easy to capture satisfying pictures with this phone.
What is different is the telephoto lens, which gets a higher resolution and better zoom, resulting in improved images with less noise, especially with close up shots. The phone makes macro photography incredibly fun and easy to do, although the focus can be a bit finicky if your subject isn’t completely still.
Depending on the subject, you can zoom it quite a bit without losing much detail and with big, faraway signboards, you can actually still make out the words past 30x. Night shots are still a bit of a hit or miss, with blooming still being a major issue, but it does take in a lot of light to the point where some photos actually look brighter than they do in real life.
Camera Samples
Competition
vivo X200 Pro
The vivo X200 Pro uses a MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset instead of one from Qualcomm, but it is a flagship processor nonetheless. Priced at RM4,699 for a 16GB+512GB configuration, it costs a whopping RM500 less than the Magic7 Pro for the same amount of RAM and storage, along with a 6.78-inch 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display with a local peak brightness of 1,800 nits and an HDR peak brightness of 4,500 nits.
It features a Zeiss-branded setup with a larger 50MP sensor with OIS, a 200MP telephoto lens with OIS and 3.7x optical zoom, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 32MP selfie snapper. Powering it is a nominally larger 6,000mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 30W wireless charging. Like the new HONOR phone, the 200 Pro also comes with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.
realme GT7 Pro
The realme GT7 Pro is a Snapdragon 8 Elite contender priced at RM3,699 for 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It’s fitted with a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and higher HDR and global peak brightness ratings of 6,500 and 2,000 nits respectively. Under the display, it gets an ultrasonic sensor.
For the optics, it has a smaller 50MP sensor compared to the Magic7 Pro, along with a 50MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, an 8MP ultra-wide lens without autofocus, and 16MP front shooter. Backing it is a hefty 6,500mAh battery with support for 120W wired charging, but no wireless charging.
iQOO 13
The iQOO 13 is another Snapdragon 8 Elite competitor that costs RM3,600 for a 16GB+512GB configuration. It’s packed with a 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a global peak brightness of 1,800 nits, and an HDR peak brightness of 4,500 nits. Of course, it also offers an ultrasonic under-display scanner.
Photography-wise, it uses a 50MP primary shooter with OIS, a 50MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 32MP front camera. It is backed by a big 6,150mAh battery with support for 120W wired charging and no wireless charging.
Conclusion
HONOR has made some much-needed improvements to the Magic7 Pro, making it worthy if you’re thinking of upgrading from an older Magic smartphone and wanting to stick with the brand. That being said, it costs quite a lot more than its competitors for not that much in terms of benefits.
If you put the value proposition aside, I do think it’s one of the best smartphones currently available on the market. However, two major Android brands are about to release their flagships here in a couple of months, so HONOR may not have snatched the crown just yet.
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