The HONOR Magic 7 Pro Banks On AI To Leapfrog The Best Camera Phones, But I Don’t Think It’s Enough

We’re only weeks into 2025, but it’s quickly feeling like we’re spoilt for choice for new flagship Android phones. I’ve spent a couple of weeks in the company of the new HONOR Magic 7 Pro, which aims to stand out from the growing crowd with a sumptuous combination of hardware and AI innovations.

What’s particularly interesting about HONOR’s latest flagship is that it runs on-device AI photography models. AI models have previously been confined to text and image generation, but running a model to enhance the photos you take is a pretty new and potentially exciting concept. And if you know me, you’ll know I’m eager to investigate anything related to the latest and greatest mobile camera tech. So, let’s see if the HONOR Magic 7 Pro can live up to its promise.

HONOR Magic 7 Pro camera test: Is this real life or just fantasy?

Let’s start with the camera and get into a bit of a deep dive, as this is where HONOR is billing most of the Magic 7 Pro’s latest and greatest features. If you want to scan for minor details, you can follow along with full-res images in this Google Drive folder.

Compared to its predecessor, the Magic 6 Pro — a phone I really liked, the HONOR Magic 7 Pro features revamped camera hardware. A larger 1/1.3-inch 50MP main camera boasts a self-adjusting f/1.4 to f/2.0 aperture to improve subject focus, while the 3x telephoto camera has been boosted to 200MP of resolution, with a larger 1.4-inch footprint and bright f/2.6 aperture. The 50MP selfie and ultrawide camera specs appear to be the same as the previous generation. It is a promising setup, but the heart of the Magic 7 Pro’s enhancements can be found in its three photography machine-learning models — its on-device Light and Shadow Portrait Large Model for portraits, Capture Enhancement Model for action, and the cloud-based Telephoto Enhancement Large Model. Of course, what matters most is the pictures you end up with, so let’s take a look at some samples.

In daylight, exposure and white balance are very impressive, although contrast and color saturation are a little heavy for my tastes, particularly in dimmer lighting conditions. HDR is perhaps the camera’s greatest strength, consistently balancing tricky foreground and background lighting to ensure superb exposure with robust color, no matter which lens you’re shooting with. Selfies and portraits really benefit here, with the Magic 7 Pro handing in realistic and pleasing skin tones with reasonably detailed but not overly sharp textures. However, HONOR’s HDR effect can overcook low-light scenes, vaporizing any sense of shadow depth in exchange for bright exposure. The ultrawide is definitely the weak link when the lights go down.

If you don’t like the default look, the Magic 7 Pro offers three color profiles for both portraits and regular shots, plus an assortment of filters to grade your snaps. There’s also pro, aperture control, light painting, and stage modes onboard — I had no trouble getting creative with the look of my photos. That said, I ended up leaning on HONOR’s overly warm Harcourt Color profile for portraits or just defaulting to the phone’s photo or aperture modes simply because the Harcourt Vibrant setting is too contrast-heavy for portraits. The portrait mode really needs something more neutral by default.

If I’m being super critical (which is my job, after all), details are a little soft from the 200MP telephoto camera, suggesting that the lens isn’t passing light sharply enough to the sensor to fully resolve that ludicrous resolution. Still, the result is good enough to provide a reasonable level of detail at 3x, 6x, and even out to around 12x in daylight. I love the versatility and look of the roughly 75mm focal length, making this my favorite lens to shoot with. As is usual, the ultrawide provides the least detail of the three lenses and struggles the most in low light, while the edges look smudged and a little warped, but no more than any other flagship ultrawide. There’s minimal aberration, at least, making this a solid ultrawide shooter overall. All three rear lenses are pretty great, and the 50MP selfie snapper earns a similar thumbs-up.

If you’re looking for a creative camera phone, the Magic 7 Pro is it.

The AI bits, on the other hand, are far more hit-and-miss. For example, I found the phone’s “Falcon Capture” capabilities, now using HONOR’s on-device Capture Enhancement Model, to be very impressive, as is the burst HDR functionality. They virtually always ensure that speedy little ones are sharp and in focus, something I’ve really struggled with on most other flagship phones — particularly with the Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s miserable shutter speed. On-device AI portrait enhancements are more so-so, especially when compared to the quite natural-looking Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Contrast levels are ramped up well beyond my tastes, giving the appearance of over-sharpness. Crop in closely, and you’ll often realize the algorithm has invented some new eyebrows or scrubbed out those wrinkles while upscaling to its 48MP output. Being generous, the look accentuates key features, but it doesn’t provide an exactly accurate portrayal of the subject matter, which raises a few philosophical questions about what we want a photo to really capture. Personally, as a photographer, I’d prefer something closer to reality. Its bokeh edge detection is better than the Pixel, so chalk that up as a win, but otherwise, I prefer the Pixel in the comparisons we took. Thankfully, the Magic 7 Pro doesn’t require you to flick the AI to produce fine-looking portraits, so consider it an optional extra to play with.

I’m more disappointed in the telephoto enhancement option, as this is supposed to use more powerful cloud computing capabilities for shots above 30x. I wasn’t expecting much for 30x or greater shots from a 3x lens, but the results come back as little more than mushy upscale. Hardly worth wasting the data bandwidth on. My results all ended up looking pretty much like bad first-generation generative AI images, a stark downgrade from the camera’s other capabilities, though admittedly not the worst long-range zoom results I’ve seen in my time.

Even something as humdrum as the moon lacks crater detail, which is rather embarrassing when phones have had discrete “moon enhancement modes” for years. In all the pictures I took with the setting enabled, you’re essentially trading off an improvement in edge sharpness for smushed texture detail and the odd AI hallucination (there are extra branches and buildings in the above landscape scene). I suppose this feature is better than having nothing, and it’s a novel use of AI technology, but thankfully, HONOR’s Gallery app lets you keep the original picture, which I often prefer despite the noise and lack of detail at 30x.

Overall, I’m a bit disappointed in HONOR’s AI photography features. While running on-device is an accomplishment, most of the results are too heavy-handed, leaving you with pictures that have clearly been aggressively changed but seldom for the better. I’d prefer subtler tweaks that accentuate the solid bedrock of photography quality we know HONOR is capable of. Thankfully, these features are optional, so don’t detract from a camera setup that otherwise performs very admirably — but it just goes to show that AI isn’t always better.

The AI features don’t stop at the shutter; HONOR boasts AI-backed editing, eraser, styles, and detail enhancer features that you may be familiar with some other handsets. My experience with these are equally mixed. AI Eraser, for instance, is sometimes intent on replacing unwanted objects with other unwanted objects rather than outright removing them. HONOR isn’t the only one offering mixed results here, of course, and other times it’s easily the equal of Google or Samsung. There’s also AI Instant Movie that can piece together snaps with music and transitions to share. The speed at which it picks out a template is impressive, but the “AI” magic doesn’t always nail the theme.

Thankfully, video hasn’t been touched by the AI boogeyman. 4K 60fps recording is available on all three lenses. The primary and telephoto provide robust HDR capabilities, but the ultrawide is a bit weaker here and suffers from more noise in the shadows and poorer detail. However, all three offer solid image stabilization when panning or moving quickly. Creativity options are bountiful here, too, with the same range of filters as the camera and beautification options, as well as slow-motion, dual-video, and movie modes with bokeh and LUT control. Plenty for videographers to sink their teeth into.

AI all the things

Of course, a 2025 launch wouldn’t be complete without AI in areas beyond the camera, but the HONOR Magic 7 Pro is really taking the proverbial cake. HONOR augments its photography features with Google’s Circle to Search and Gemini, ensuring feature parity with most other recent Android flagships, including Google’s Pixel series.

HONOR also includes increasingly common AI Translation, Transcription, and Note capabilities, allowing the phone to function as a real-time interpreter for 13 different languages, summarize recordings complete with speaker tags, and quickly organize and reformat your notes. These are all neat tools; however, being hit with “server busy” notifications before the phone is even out isn’t reassuring, and summaries occasionally hallucinate extra information. The Magic 7 Pro also debuts AI Deepfake Detection for video calls, which uses frame-by-frame analysis to flag up when you might be chatting to a hoax avatar. I’ll have to take HONOR’s word for it that this works, as it’ll arrive in a February update. In any case, this is all good stuff that certainly keeps the Magic 7 Pro feeling current on the AI front.

If you think AI is the future, the Magic 7 Pro has it in spades.

However, the praise quickly transitions into “just for the sake of it” elsewhere. There’s AI HDR display to upscale SDR content (contrast enhancement is nothing new) and AI eye comfort that tracks your schedule (again, blue light and flicker reduction aren’t new either). Perhaps HONOR is doing things a bit differently under the hood, but there is nothing I could see that would warrant an AI sticker slapped on these tools. Magic OS 9.0 also offers “AI suggestions” on the home screen and quick settings menu, which includes suggesting I might want to use the torch app at midday or toggle my data off, even when the quick setting toggle is right below it anyway. As a result, the quick settings shade wastes far too much space, only allowing access to just eight toggles rather than twelve or more on other phones. Once again, AI gets in the way.

Magic OS’s Magic Capsule apes Apple’s Dynamic Island to enable quick access to settings while recording audio, playing back media, or setting a timer. It’s useful, I suppose, but I’m not sure a regular notification wouldn’t suffice. Not to mention that just three apps are a tragically small amount, making for a more limited experience than OnePlus’ Live Alerts that did something clever with the Dynamic Island-style setup. There’s also an Apple-esque 3D avatar creator that can stare back at you from your lock screen, if you care for such technological horrors.

It’s not all complaints; I quite like the Magic Portal feature, which was oddly disabled by default, and I don’t recall a prompt to ever enable it. Circling text or images with a knuckle opens up a sidebar with suggested apps, allowing you to quickly share content with other apps. While the gesture is clunky, I quite like this as a shortcut over awkwardly highlighting text or long-pressing to share. HONOR’s Magic Ring also allows you to share files, notifications, and more with support laptops, so there are added extras for those who are deeper into HONOR’s ecosystem than me.

Like all Android flavors, Magic OS 9.0 (based on Android 15) is zippy and flush with familiar options but has its unique pros and cons. It’s plenty customizable, supports the latest AI smarts, and includes brand-specific extras for those who are a bit deeper. That said, it’s overegged the AI stuff in places, and the sheer range of options can feel a bit eclectic. Thankfully, HONOR includes a tips app to help you find where most of the key features are located.

What about the rest of the phone?

HONOR’s recent flagships have been technological showcases, and the Magic 7 Pro is no different. You’ll find the latest and greatest in the form of an IP68/IP69 rating, snappy 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, IR facial unlock, and a stunning 6.8-inch 1-120Hz 8T LTPO AMOLED display. It also sports HONOR’s latest NanoCrystal Shield protective glass for 10x the drop resistance of normal glass, but it’s not clear how this compares to industry staple Gorilla Glass.

Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor flew through everything I threw at it, although the phone overheated during stress tests, which raises alarm bells for prolonged gaming sessions. The 8 Elite looks like a hot chip anyway, but this flagship is noticeably warmer than its predecessors under stress. Still, the phone is otherwise very competitive with the fastest smartphones around, besting the iPhone 16 Pro Max and keeping up with the OnePlus 13.

Thankfully, temperatures aren’t a problem when charging; 100W wired SuperCharge adapters will fill the phone in 32 minutes without exceeding 40°C. When you require a faster top-up regardless of temperature, you can press the lock screen’s “boost charge” option that takes the phone to full in a marginally faster 30 minutes, or you can use the brand’s 80W wireless charging accessories for a quick, no wires top up. If you are concerned about fast charging’s effects on battery health, HONOR includes Smart Charge, Safe Charge, and Smart Battery Capacity options that are all designed to extend battery longevity by following the rule of 80% and the like, and they are enabled by default.

Solid battery life and speedy yet cool charging? Yes, please.

You shouldn’t need to fast-charge the phone too often; the 5,850mAh silicon-carbon battery will easily last a full day of use and can just about stretch to two with lighter workloads. In my testing, it easily outlasted 2024 flagships, like the Galaxy S24 Ultra. My only quibble is that 4K video recording seems to drain the battery a lot faster than rivals, and the phone hasn’t extended its battery life all that much over its predecessor.

All in all, HONOR has done a superb job with the Magic 7 Pro’s hardware. I give it almost top marks, apart from the benchmark overheating concern.

HONOR Magic 7 Pro review verdict: Should you buy it?

Pulling everything together, I’m mixed on the HONOR Magic 7 Pro. The hardware package is brilliant; whether you’re snapping pics or powering through your work schedule, it is equal to any other. However, infusing AI into every nook and cranny undermines parts of the experience. The cameras are a prime example; the actual lenses produce mostly high-quality results, but the AI features are hit-and-miss. It’s great for motion capture but pretty rubbish at making long-distance snaps look better, and I don’t really care for the portrait enhancements.

AI’s problem is that it’s inconsistent; it might write you some sublime code but then fail to count the numbers of r’s in strawberry. The more you hinge a product on AI, the more likely it is that bad examples spring up, and they tend to stick in the mind longer than the hits. Of course, you can sidestep the bits that feel half-baked, and you’ll undoubtedly enjoy everything else the phone does so well. But really, HONOR should have a better eye for what meaningfully elevates the user experience and what’s not really flagship-grade. It sounds obvious, but not everything has to have AI crammed into it. The minor issues have ended up (perhaps unfairly) tainting what has otherwise been a pleasant two weeks with the Magic 7 Pro.

Whether you’ll love the Magic 7 Pro boils down to if you think AI is a help or a hindrance.

Unfortunately for HONOR, we’re spoilt for choice for brilliant smartphones right now, and the Magic 7 Pro’s £1,100/€1,300 asking price isn’t going to undercut them. The affordable OnePlus 13 ($899.99 at OnePlus) has smashed it out of the park for the first time in years, OPPO has returned to Western shores with the superb Find X8 Pro (£1099 at Amazon), and there’s the trusty Pixel 9 Pro XL ($1099 at Amazon) that hardly puts a foot wrong and is still the leader when it comes to AI tools that are actually helpful. And, of course, the Galaxy S25 series is just around the corner at this time of writing.

Any of these phones would be a solid pick for a top-tier flagship phone, and some beat HONOR when it comes to long-term update policy. The Magic 7 Pro is looking at a four-year OS and five-year security update pledge that should see most through the life of the phone, but that’s shy of Google and Samsung’s seven-year promise and even a smidgen behind OnePlus’ six years of security. Still, perhaps you’ll lean towards the Magic 7 Pro if you’ll make the most of the phone’s photography and video styles, the top-class spec sheet, and would get a kick out of the bountiful AI extras.