The Honor Magic 8 Professional Is My First Massive Cellphone Disappointment of 2026

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

However a better look exhibits that issues begin to collapse. An disagreeable hazy halo surrounds the tower block, together with digital artifacts, the place the telephone is clearly attempting to each cut back picture noise whereas additionally growing the sharpness. 

Punch into the iPhone’s picture, and it is clear that Apple is processing the main points much less. There’s nearly no fuzzy halo across the tower and no artifacts from noise discount or sharpening. The main points 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 as a result of digital sharpening. 

Once more, this picture above appears effective. It has a stable publicity and a colour steadiness that I really suppose appears fairly good. 

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

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

The main points on this sundown scene really do not look as overcooked as within the earlier pictures, however the Magic 8 Professional has brightened the shadows a lot that it is misplaced a variety 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 telephone’s processing, with unnaturally brightened shadows, crunchy particulars and overly vibrant colours. 

And above is similar scene, taken as a DNG uncooked picture utilizing the telephone’s Professional mode and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. I’ve maintained the good depth of the shadows, added nearly no additional picture sharpening and saved the colours at a pure degree. I really actually like this shot and it goes to point out that this telephone is completely able to taking good photographs — it is the picture processing within the digital camera that is going too onerous. 

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

But the DNG uncooked file above appears 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 would taken some that I like, and positive, these photographs above are fairly first rate and never overly troubled by picture processing, in my view.

However at evening, the picture processing demon exhibits its hand but once more. The picture above is overly saturated with particulars misplaced in some areas because of noise discount whereas different areas have been over sharpened. Perhaps 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 main points. 

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 a variety of element on the buildings, giving them an unnatural clean look, however but there’s nonetheless an enormous quantity of picture noise within the sky and the darkish elements 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 telephone processes completely different elements of the scene. 

The iPhone 17 Professional’s shot has higher dealing with of noise and better-looking particulars. I do want 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 telephone 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 telephone has precisely excelled right here. 

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

Images is, in fact, a subjective matter, and what would possibly look good to 1 individual can look terrible to another person. So positive, possibly you like hyper saturation and shadows which are 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 unhealthy picture processing. So, Honor, I am begging you straight now: You’ve gotten an awesome 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 constructive now, I do just like the telephone’s 6.71-inch show. It is brilliant and vibrant, which makes it simply seen underneath harsh out of doors sunshine and permits colourful YouTube movies to pop properly. It is beautiful for gaming, too, due to its max 120Hz refresh charge that may dynamically shift to 1Hz to assist cut back the load in your battery. 

The telephone 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. Taking part in demanding 3D video games like Genshin Influence 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 telephone runs Android 16 at its core, over which Honor has slapped its personal Magic OS 10 interface. It capabilities principally like all model of Android, however you can see some additions thrown in, largely within the type of AI instruments, together with ones like Google’s Gemini we’d see on different Android gadgets.

The AI Photographs Agent means that you can use generative AI to upscale, recompose or take away objects from a picture or remodel it into a couple of restricted types together with “Cartoon” or “Animation,” which I might have assumed are the identical factor. Does it work? Nicely, I will allow you to decide.

This is my authentic selfie taken with the telephone.

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

Elsewhere, you will discover instruments like an AI settings agent, the place you’ll be able to ask easy methods to do issues like dim your display brightness, and an AI Reminiscences device, which largely appears to be a repository for screenshots. You will even have Google’s AI instruments like Gemini Stay, Gemini Superior and Circle to Search, the latter of which will be accessed by a devoted button on the facet of the telephone. The button, nevertheless, may 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 stated that the telephone will obtain seven years of software program and safety assist, that means this telephone ought to nonetheless be good to make use of during to 2033.

Honor Magic 8 Professional: Battery life and charging