Honor Magic 7 Pro review: Refined flagship

Honor’s Magic 7 Pro is a sophisticated one Flagship Android phone that combines the latest AI functions with state-of-the-art hardware. It excels wherever it counts. You get an incredibly versatile camera, impressive endurance, fast charging, silky-smooth performance and an excellent display. Several subtle but important improvements over its predecessor take this smartphone to the next level.

Chinese phone maker Honor has impressed me with its hardware lately compared to last year Magic 6 Pro to become incredibly slim Honor Magic V3. This year the software received more attention and some welcome polish. The extensive investment in AI is starting to mature, with features that feel more practical on the Magic 7 Pro than its predecessors. At £1,099 ($1,346), it’s an expensive flagship that unfortunately isn’t officially sold in the US. But UK and European buyers shouldn’t sleep on the Magic.

Subtle refinements

At first glance, the Magic 7 Pro looks similar to the 6 Pro, but I was pleased to find a flatter display and frame, making it far more comfortable to use and less prone to accidental touches than curved glass. Honor has toned down the camera module, although it’s still large enough to unbalance the phone a bit. While this phone felt great after that with the Pixel 9it is manageable to handle. I don’t like 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’s bright, smooth and sharp. By the numbers, it has a resolution of 2,800 x 1,200 pixels, a variable Refresh rate of up to 120 Hzand 1,600 nits of brightness (up to 5,000 nits for highlights). Videos look great on the 7 Pro, with Dolby Vision and HDR Vivid support, and the speakers are nice and loud and distortion-free. Honor has also included several features designed to reduce eye fatigue and strain, but these are difficult to quantify.

Photo: Simon Hill

The only minor annoyance I had was the large cutout for the selfie camera, but you quickly get used to that. That’s a trade-off I can accept for the convenience of secure facial unlocking – a rarity on Android phones, as it even works with banking apps.

With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12 GB of RAM, there’s plenty of power under the hood. As you would expect, the benchmark results are at the top and this phone can run it all. There’s also a very generous 512GB of fast storage, which is more than most phones offer at this price. The Honor Magic 7 Pro has one IP68 and IP69 It also features a power rating, meaning it can be submerged and can withstand water jets or steam.

If you look inside, you can see a significantly higher level of shine everywhere. Honor talks about the AI in the Magic 7 Pro, and we’ll go into the specific features, but it permeates the phone. AI has invaded the phone app to reduce background noise and make voices clearer, and there’s a privacy feature designed to prevent sound intrusion and prevent eavesdropping.