A number of years after increasing into Europe, Honor is hoping the flagship Magic 7 Professional will persuade much more customers to provide the model a attempt exterior of China. With superior silicon-carbon battery tech, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and rising AI software program, the Honor Magic 7 Professional would possibly make a compelling case. The smartphone race exterior of North America is commonly gained by a tool’s digicam system — simply take a look at what manufacturers like Vivo are doing — so if Honor needs to win, it will need the Magic 7 Professional to ship standout digicam efficiency.
I’ve spent the previous few weeks pushing the Magic 7 Professional’s “Falcon Digital camera” to its limits, snapping pictures and taking movies throughout two continents. Honor despatched me to Bled, Slovenia for the Magic 7 Professional world launch occasion, the place I bought to check this cellphone’s digicam whereas scaling the Slovenian Alps, visiting ski slops, and driving ATVs. Again residence, I attempted out the Magic 7 Professional digicam system within the completely-different desert terrain of Phoenix, Arizona.
So, how does the Honor Magic 7 Professional digicam carry out? It is tough, as a result of the uncooked digicam {hardware} is downright spectacular. As an illustration, the telephoto digicam has a big sensor measurement and a excessive megapixel rely, growing its versatility. The issue is that the Falcon digicam’s AI engine will be each overreaching and underwhelming at instances, and a few of Honor’s claims — just like the 100x AI Tremendous Zoom — ought to be taken with various grains of salt.
All informed, the Honor Magic 7 Professional does have a few of the finest digicam programs obtainable in a flagship. It is not fairly on the stage of Vivo handsets, nevertheless it’s nearer than ever. And for the second straight 12 months, the Honor Magic flagship takes the very best movement pictures of any smartphone.
Essential digicam
Like most Android flagships, the Magic 7 Professional has a “professional” digicam mode that permits you to view and tweak nearly each setting. Nonetheless, the reality is that the majority customers will take photographs utilizing the easy point-and-shoot technique, and that is how I examined the Honor Magic 7 Professional because of this.
You will instantly discover that opening the digicam and snapping a photograph is faster than ever on an Honor cellphone, as a result of the Magic 7 Professional lastly helps double-clicking the ability button to launch the digicam from anyplace. This was shockingly not obtainable on the Magic 6 Professional, and one thing my colleague Nicholas Sutrich identified in final 12 months’s digicam evaluate. Now that this has been corrected, it takes merely a second or two to take an image with the Magic 7 Professional.
A lot of the photographs you may take with this cellphone will likely be with the principle digicam. It makes use of a 50MP, f/1.4-2.0 vast lens with multi-directional section detection autofocus (PDAF) and optical picture stabilization (OIS). This seems to be largely the identical sensor as Honor used within the Magic 6 Professional.
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All trendy flagship digicam telephones — from the Google Pixel 9 Professional to the iPhone 16 Professional to the Galaxy S24 Extremely and Galaxy S25 Extremely — have massive principal digicam sensors that may present an awesome stage of element in pictures. One factor that separates these telephones, greater than element, is their capability to deal with mild and shade.
I’ve actually loved how the Honor Magic 7 Professional has carried out on this facet. I’ve examined the most recent Pixel telephones to supply photographs with poor shade accuracy and overaggressive computational images. By comparability, the Honor imaging engine performs nearer to that of Apple’s or Samsung’s, and that is factor. The colours captured within the photographs above felt consultant of what I used to be seeing with my very own eyes.
Even on a sunny day, the principle sensor was in a position to seize the second with out dropping element or shade accuracy attributable to overexposure. These pictures signify the very best of what the Honor Falcon digicam can do — it performs excellently through the daytime with restricted to no AI processing wanted.
I additionally need to point out that the very best AI options, a minimum of the place photographs are involved, might not contain computational images in any respect. The third picture within the gallery above is of a Slovenian plaque, one that’s considerably deteriorated and written in a language I can not natively learn. After snapping the image with the Magic 7 Professional, I used to be ready to make use of Circle to Search to translate the textual content and make sense of it — even with out having the complete textual content. To me, this can be a significantly better use of AI than altering the bodily attributes of a photograph.
Telephoto & ultrawide digicam
As soon as a shortcoming for Honor, the Magic 7 Professional’s telephoto digicam is now a promoting level for the system. Final 12 months, the Magic 6 Professional had a telephoto lens that might solely do 2.5x optical zoom, which paled compared to the 10x optical zoom of the Galaxy S23 Extremely or the 5x optical zoom of the iPhone 15 Professional Max. Now, the Honor Magic 7 Professional’s telephoto digicam can ship optical-quality zoom at 6x, which is true in keeping with the highest Android zoom lenses.
The best way Honor achieves this can be a little exterior the field, however in my testing, it really works. The model is utilizing a 200MP, f/2.6 periscope telephoto lens with a 1/1.4-inch sensor measurement and native 3x optical zoom. In comparison with final 12 months, the Magic 7 Professional has better optical zoom capabilities and a better megapixel rely. Extra importantly, the massive sensor measurement and excessive megapixel rely means the picture will be cropped in software program with out a loss in high quality — that is how Honor can ship 6x zoom in “optical high quality.”
This distinctive telephoto sensor additionally permits the Magic 7 Professional’s zoom lens for use for portrait mode, which is neat. Within the picture gallery beneath, you may see how the Magic 7 Professional performs throughout 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, and 6x zoom ranges. Primarily based on the outcomes, it is clear this cellphone can certainly ship optical-level zoom at each 3x and 6x lengths.
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The primary picture in that set was taken at 0.5x with the Magic 7 Professional’s ultrawide digicam, which is a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with a 122-degree subject of view. I personally discover myself utilizing ultrawide cameras the least out of contemporary cellphone lenses, and this one performs about as anticipated. It captures a wider body whereas not dropping an excessive amount of element and ought to be a possible different to the old-school panorama.
Past the usual zoom distances (0.5x-6x), the Magic 7 Professional is claimed to shoot as much as 100x utilizing a mixture of digital zoom and AI enhancements. The characteristic is known as “AI Tremendous Zoom,” and whereas cool, I would not rely on it. For starters, solely zoom pictures as much as 30x will be processed on-device, whereas AI Tremendous Zoom (as much as 100x) requires a mobile connection for processing. This is likely to be a deterrent for you or be exterior your consolation stage.
Even when AI Tremendous Zoom is out there, it’s kind of sluggish, and you’ll solely do it instantly after you’re taking the shot. It would be good if you happen to may achieve this after the very fact, form of like how Google’s Video Enhance works for Pixels. Furthermore, outcomes will be blended at finest, as you may see beneath.
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The primary set of photographs within the gallery above may give you an concept of the best-case state of affairs for AI Tremendous Zoom. The unique picture is blurry, grainy, and it is laborious to make out the main points. In the meantime, the AI Tremendous Zoom model seems quite a bit sharper, even when it’s kind of too sharp to be a pure picture.
Then again, the second set of photographs can signify a few of the worst-case eventualities. With AI Tremendous Zoom, all of the detailed and sharp cuts within the snow had been fully lined up by broad-stroking AI enhancement. The primary-aid emblem on the snowmobile was misplaced to the enhancement as effectively. It is clear that, after a number of checks, AI Tremendous Zoom could also be simply as prone to make a photograph worse with a watercolor-like picture void of element.
General, I assumed native pictures from the ultrawide and telephoto lens regarded sharp, however AI Tremendous Zoom wasn’t fairly pretty much as good as marketed.
Low-light & movement seize
It is time to give the Honor Magic 7 Professional its flowers: that is the very best motion-capture digicam cellphone I’ve ever examined. At a time when the final Samsung Galaxy S24 sequence had critical movement blur points, and the iPhone 16 Professional sequence has extra movement blur than any iPhone in current reminiscence, the Magic 7 Professional could not be extra completely different. It snaps clear photographs of topics in movement constantly, whether or not you are utilizing the common digicam mode or one specialised for movement.
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As you may see within the pictures above, whether or not I used to be capturing a darting pet, a gentle Gondola raise, or a skier, the Magic 7 Professional delivered a transparent shot. Should you hate movement blur, that is the digicam cellphone for you.
Honor has a number of capturing modes particularly for capturing movement. There’s AI Movement Sensing Seize, which was launched final 12 months and may take photographs for you when a topic strikes. New this 12 months is HD Tremendous Burst, which takes a burst of photographs and works nice in movement. You may see HD Tremendous Burst in motion within the gallery beneath, and the outcomes are spectacular.
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Low-light efficiency is a bit shakier, relying on the state of affairs. Honor deserves some credit score for not including a ton of sunshine to nighttime pictures on the Magic 7 Professional, to be clear. At any time when I take evening pictures with an iPhone or Pixel and are available again to them a number of months later, it is laborious to see that it actually was an evening from the factitious brightness of the picture. With the Magic 7 Professional, pictures are darkish, however they are often too darkish at instances.
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The excellent news is that the Magic 7 Professional digicam adjusts shortly to modifications in lighting; it could possibly alter publicity and lightweight stability inside a second or two after opening the digicam app. In my testing, there wasn’t a lot of a distinction when utilizing evening mode versus commonplace mode. You may decide up on some variations, significantly with shiny mild sources — like a streetlamp or lighted signal.
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Within the comparisons above, you may see that evening mode tries to mute these shiny mild sources. Nonetheless, I wasn’t solely thrilled with the outcomes — Honor’s processing appears to smoothen out the sunshine sources in a manner that is clearly unnatural. For that cause, I typically most popular the unique shot over the evening shot.
Entrance-facing digicam
I will be the primary to confess that I am not that large a person of the front-facing digicam on smartphones. With that being mentioned, if you happen to love selfies, video calls, or social media, the Magic 7 Professional’s entrance digicam can do the job. It has a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with PDAF, which is greater than you’d usually see on a front-facing sensor. Honor additionally put a depth sensor beside the digicam for biometrics, and this explains the pill-shaped cutout within the show.
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Selfies and portrait pictures turned out effectively, not solely capturing me but additionally a few of the particulars within the landscapes behind me. When utilizing portrait mode, bokeh continues to be turned off by default, so preserve that in thoughts if you happen to take pleasure in background blur. It solely takes one faucet to show bokeh on, however you can argue that is yet another faucet than it ought to take with portrait mode lively.
Video
Contemplating the movement seize efficiency of the Magic 7 Professional, it should not be a shock that this cellphone additionally handles video fairly effectively. It formally helps 4K decision at both 60 or 30fps, which is not industry-leading for a flagship however continues to be greater than succesful.
For video, the Honor Magic 7 Professional makes use of digital picture stabilization (EIS). This is not often factor as a result of EIS is commonly much less dependable and extra jarring than OIS. Regardless of utilizing EIS and solely 60fps, I assumed the Magic 7 Professional recorded stable video, even whereas sledding down a small ski hill.
One other difficult check concerned mounting the Magic 7 Professional to the highest of an ATV whereas driving it by means of town of Bled. This is able to be laborious for any smartphone to deal with because of the tough terrain and engine vibrations coming from the ATV.
The Magic 7 Professional did not carry out completely — it struggled to concentrate on the panorama versus the mounting clamp partially within the body. The cellphone’s EIS additionally could not stabilize sufficient to compensate for the engine vibrations, which is to be anticipated. Even with these circumstances, I assumed this cellphone carried out effectively, though the iPhone 16 Professional Max might be nonetheless the video king.
Conclusion
Should you can look previous all of the AI noise, the Honor Magic 7 Professional has a digicam system able to hanging with the very best of the bunch — even when it could possibly’t usurp Vivo flagships simply but. There are some AI and digicam options, like AI Movement Sensing Seize and HD Tremendous Burst, which are genuinely nice. Nonetheless, I believe too lots of them, corresponding to AI Tremendous Zoom and even the over-aggressive evening mode, can take away from the Magic 7 Professional’s high quality digicam {hardware}.
This cellphone’s calling card is its capability to seize mainly any form of shot with zero movement blur. For individuals who are getting uninterested in movement blur — and after spending time with the Galaxy S24 sequence and iPhone 16 Professional sequence, I’m — the Honor Magic 7 Professional looks like a breath of recent air.
