I’ll hold my hand up and admit something that not all tech reviewers will. Smartphones are absolutely boring. I bought a new iPhone 16 Pro with my own money and have felt absolutely no desire to write about it. I watched the Samsung Galaxy S25 launch and didn’t have any emotional response whatsoever.
What does excite me is something new, offering customers in Ireland another choice. I’m reluctant to mention Huawei in this article, but that’s what Huawei used to be in the Irish market. A genuine alternative to Apple and Samsung smartphones. Now, we are getting both new Xiaomi and HONOR phones launching in the Irish market. And this excites me. I’ve been testing out the HONOR Magic 7 Pro for a few weeks since launch, and here’s what I think so far.
Disclaimer: HONOR hosted a launch event for the Magic 7 Pro in Slovenia and brought me to this event. Of course, I don’t let this influence my opinion, however it only feels right I disclose it.
HONOR Puts Artificial Intelligence at the Centre of the Magic 7 Pro
HONOR went through great lengths to promote AI at the centre of the Magic 7 Pro’s key offerings during the phone’s launch presentation. The key focus of AI’s power focused on what it could do for the camera. Personally, I think this was the wrong tactic. The Magic 7 Pro has an excellent camera without any of the AI-powered editing you get to add in. In fact, some of the AI-editing and AI-supported zoom features, create images which aren’t great.
But the Magic 7 Pro gives you access to some additional AI features which went completely undersold in my opinion. Take the HONOR Notes app for example. It’s absolutely incredible. I sat in a meeting last week and turned on the Notes app. I asked the app to transcribe the meeting for me, which it did with incredible accuracy. I then told the app what kind of meeting I was in, and it perfectly summarised the key talking points that were discussed that I should take away from the meeting.
This is AI at it’s very best in my opinion, and buying a phone like the Magic 7 Pro is (spoiler alert) not only giving you an excellent smartphone full of great rounded features and specs, but also giving you access to a wide suite of AI productivity tools that require no additional subscription.
I hear nearly every phone maker going on about AI changing your life. But honestly, this is the first time I’ve had a smartphone in my hand that’s capable of incredible AI-powered productivity.
Beyond the note-taking, the Magic 7 Pro offers the most impressive translation service I’ve ever seen in a smartphone. As someone with a German other half and years of failing to learn German, I have vast amounts of experience in trying translation apps. They all fail in one relatively simple area; real-time translation. Google Translate, DeepL and the rest all have specialist areas they succeed, but real-time translation is always the most useful thing they fail at. The HONOR Magic 7 Pro is incredible at this. I’ve used it to watch German TV shows with one headphone in as the phone takes in what’s on the TV and relays to me in English, with a slight delay. It’s not perfect, but it’s powerful.
If you were in the proper scenario of someone speaking to you who knows to take a small pause from time to time, there is no beating this phone for translation.
I’m completely aware that I’ve picked out two use-cases of the Magic 7 Pro being really strong which won’t apply to everyone. But these two features in particular were so strong that if they are scenarios you find yourself in on a semi-regular basis, it makes the Magic 7 Pro a very strong smartphone for your money.
But let’s look at the other, more broadly applicable, features that people are usually interested in.
The Magic 7 Pro Has an Excellent Camera – Sans AI
I fully understand that companies have to plaster AI all over their smartphones these days. It’s what investors want, but I refuse to believe that customers really care all that much about it. Fundamentally, I don’t believe customers really know why AI in a smartphone is going to do anything for them at all.
However, beyond the use cases above that I loved, HONOR as used AI in the Magic 7 Pro’s camera too. Which means I need to review two aspects of the camera system on this phone for you. First, the base camera itself and secondly what pictures look like after AI has had it’s machine learning way with them.
Foundationally and from a hardware point of view, the Magic 7 Pro has a remarkable camera system capable of providing excellent photography options for point and shoot holidaymakers, or more spec-interested mobile photographers.
I’ll admit it and say I’m more the former, non-nerdy spec-heavy point and shoot type. Here, the Magic 7 Pro was absolutely incredible. I loved the colours it captured for me and overall the sharp details it captured across the range of lenses. My iPhone’s hardware does tend to let it down on taking the most simple shots, while the Magic 7 Pro let me capture more of the “wow” I was seeing in person around Lake Bled in Slovenia.
But it was impossible not to get interested by what else the hardware was capable of doing. The Magic 7 Pro features a variable aperture system on the phone’s 50 MP wide camera allowing for a physical aperture of f/1.4–f/2. You can physically see a mechanical cover moving on the rear camera as the setting changes.
As smartphone photographers reach for phones in a range of lighting conditions, this is a key feature. Behind able to open or close the lens enhances your ability to dynamically adapt to different lighting conditions, particularly when paired with its large 1/1.3″ sensor. A wider f/1.4 aperture allows more light in, significantly improving low-light performance and creating a natural bokeh effect thanks to the sensor’s 1.2µm pixel size.
In brighter conditions, switching to f/2.0 reduces light intake, helping to prevent overexposure and ensuring sharper details and better dynamic range. This flexibility is especially useful for landscape shots and group photos, where a deeper depth of field is preferred.
You can let the phone control the best settings, if you are like me, or head into “Pro Mode” and take complete control of the settings on the Magic 7 Pro if you really know what you’re at.
Ultimately, unlike smartphones that rely on AI-based software processing to simulate these effects, the hardware-based aperture control delivers more natural and optically superior results.
The selfie camera also delivers satisfying shots. I accidently wore some amazingly contrasting colours while testing out the camera in Slovenia with the Magic 7 Pro’s selfie camera rig showing great depth of field and detail.
Overall, I loved the shots I was taking with the Magic 7 Pro’s fundamental hardware, but what are all these AI features HONOR is keen to sell?
Hit and Miss AI-Photography From The Magic 7 Pro
As I’ve mentioned, HONOR went through pains to sell the idea of it’s AI-powered photography abilities. I was initially extremely impressed with the “in-house” demos of the Magic 7 Pro’s AI-supported up-to-100x zoom.
This option kicks in once you zoom past the 30x threshold on the phones camera. Here, I was at the far side of the room taking a picture of a plant. The Magic 7 Pro took both a simple shot using the phone’s hardware, but also an AI-supported shot.
The AI-shot recognised what the phone was capturing, compared it to millions of other plants in the AI’s models and amended the image to create the much sharper image you see on the top. This example wow’d me if I’m honest. And the feature would continue to have moments of “wow” in the wild. However, it was interlaced with moments where the zoom just appeared artificial and looking overly AI-generated.
On our travels up the snowy mountains of Bled, Slovenia, we met a cat that demonstrates what I mean. I’m almost certain you’ll see this cat in countless other reviews and YouTube videos.
At a glance, the AI-supported shot seems ok. But closer inspection shows lots of artefacts, unnatural lines and the general vibe that AI-generated images give off.
Another extreme test of the phones 100x zoom was from a vantage point in Bled looking down upon the famous Lake Bled itself featuring the Church of the Assumption on Bled Island.
First of all, I have to put this shot into context with the distance I’m shooting from and I’m sure, for many, this demonstrates that the Magic 7 Pro is capable of usable shots from great distances, whether that is AI-supported or not.
This is where I stood when I took the following photo of a church. Yep, that church on that tiny little island. So I could argue that on the one hand, it’s incredible that a smartphone could take a usable image at all.
Without any AI, the original bottom image is respectable. But at a glance, the AI-supported image is sharper with better colour and definition. However, when you closely inspect the image you see the windows completely change and even the cross goes missing from the church steeple.
Overall, the AI features left me asking myself when does the photo you shot stop being the photo you shot, and start being a new creation altogether thanks to AI. But it also left me asking myself if this image is simply more usable because of AI.
Right now, I tend to see all of these huge zoom, AI-supported features as things you’re unlikely to use. If you’re a casual photographer, you’ll most likely just point and shoot things in regular range. If you like proper photography, the AI-support makes an unnatural image.
The good news is that you get to choose whether you want an AI-supported image, or just the image you took. As you can see above, I’m seeing both versions of the shots I took. So if the AI goes too wild, you can stick with your natural shot or vice versa if the AI nailed it.
The bottom line is that the HONOR Magic 7 Pro has a fantastic camera in terms of hardware, and it provides a great camera for most scenarios. The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have when you need it” rings true. But I wouldn’t recommend the camera on AI-features alone. Far from it. I would, however, recommend the camera as simply being a fantastic smartphone camera.
Magic 7 Pro is Great for Gaming
I’ve been getting into mobile gaming a lot lately. I bought myself a Gamesir G8, primarily to use with my iPad Pro 11-inch, which took some modding. But it fits the Magic 7 Pro perfectly, which meant I had to take it gaming with the likes of Genshin Impact and Real Racing 3.
HONOR is one of the first phones to launch in Ireland with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It makes sense as Qualcomm has positioned this as an AI-powerhouse with on-device AI features at the core. But the consensus in the tech world is that this chip also brings slight, but incremental gains, in the gaming department. I lean on the community here, given I simply haven’t had the chance to test enough phones in the space.
I found the Magic 7 Pro smooth for gaming, with a fantastic AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR Vivid support offering up sharp immersive gaming. One slight negative is the floating island which houses the phone’s two cameras. An unavoidable design choice, perhaps, but a bitter black pill to swallow in some games with lighter colour pallets. But let’s be honest, you’d have this on iPhone and several other phones, while also knowing your brain will eventually train it out.
Another nice gaming feature is the inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 support for those of you lucky enough to have this. A great feature for remote playing your PlayStation 5 or Xbox titles at home.
It’s difficult to test a phone in a relatively short period of time for a wide range of games when there are so many options out there. But from my experience, the Magic 7 Pro didn’t fall down anywhere, with excellent connectivity, processing power and battery power on hand to give a great mobile gaming experience.
I’m sure there are gamers out there who would look for more, but like the camera features, I consider myself to be somewhat of an average mobile gamer and the Magic 7 Pro ticked all boxes I could ask of it.
Design of the HONOR Magic 7 Pro
Out of habit, I tend to move the design of phones down in my reviews because there’s rarely anything of note here. I didn’t test the HONOR Magic 6 Pro, but from speaking with other reviewers at the launch, designwise, the Magic 7 Pro, visibly, isn’t a massive departure from last year’s phone.
This means my first impressions of the HONOR Magic 7 Pro, were my first impressions of an HONOR flagship device; full-stop. This was my second time testing an HONOR device after the HONOR 70 Lite.
The design is premium. That will mean everything to some people, and nothing to others. But for me, it’s crucial. When I pick up a flagship premium-priced phone, I expect to feel a solid but comfortably weighted and balanced smartphone. The Magic 7 Pro is a larger than average phone and I would say not for those of you with smaller hands.
But the rounded edges make it comfortable in the hand and most importantly, enjoyable to reach into your pocket and pull out at a moments notice to use, whether that be Googling something or taking a quick snap.
The round camera housing on the rear is, well, massive. Instead of trying to hide it all, HONOR has leaned into the housing and made it a feature of the phone. The sizable round casing of the camera gives the phone nice balance on a tabletop, hacking design much like Google did with the Pixel’s long camera bar design.
The phone’s robustness is a game of two halves. Most importantly, HONOR has built a device here that’s designed to survive more than a gentle hop off the ground. At the launch, HONOR’s team gave us various heights the phone would survive a drop from. I’ll admit, I don’t like hopping loaner phones off the ground. However, they did drive a quad over the Magic 7 Pro on a rocky road before my eyes, and it survived without a scratch.
There was no trickery, and I do believe HONOR has built a phone here that, with the aid of a case, you don’t have to worry about it slipping out of your pocket onto a timber floor or the likes.
But you do have to get a case. I scratched up my Magic 7 Pro pretty badly. I think it may have been a case I had on my iPhone that was in the same pocket as the Magic 7 Pro. The case has a little steel nubbin (one of my fave technical terms) on it for fitting lenses. I appreciate this is a niche scenario to find yourself in, but the same scratches could easily be caused by the rivets on a pair of jeans. So I do have to recommend a case if you pick this phone up.
Alongside otherwise sturdy design, the Magic 7 Pro is IP69 rated and I’ve dumped it in the snow enough to say it’s not afraid of liquid. So beyond that little scratchy blip, the design of the Magic 7 Pro is top-notch.
And the Battery?
Well this is a big talking point that has vexed some people, but in my opinion, for all the wrong reasons. You see, HONOR launched the Magic 7 Pro in other markets, like China, ages ago. You have no idea how weird it is going to a launch you’re not allowed talk about for a phone that’s already on the market.
But I guess one of the reasons for this was the phone’s battery. It launched in China with a bigger battery than it did here in Europe. Now, am I bothered by that? No. Not in the slightest. But plenty of people online went to war over this.
The reason I’m left baffled by this is simply that the battery was great for me. I charged the device and easily got a full day, to day and a half out of it. This was testing it with a SIM in it, regular connections to either cellular or WiFi and using it to check emails, take photos and do the usual Googling. It even included some gaming and AI usage which would really dial up the on-board processor usage.
Overall, I have no qualms about the battery. But if you have read closely you’ll know I daily drive an iPhone 16 Pro, so this battery was always going to satisfy me!
It is worth noting that, at least in the box I got, there was no charging brick; just a cable. HONOR does promise some impressive charging specs but you’ll need to make sure you get a charger to match, ideally from HONOR itself.
The Goosed Verdict: HONOR Magic 7 Pro
I had hoped that the HONOR Magic 7 Pro could enter the Irish market and finally provide a massive competitor to Apple and Samsung. A few days after getting my hands on the Magic 7 Pro, I started to receive news of the new Samsung phones. I couldn’t really explain why, but I was much more excited about what the Magic 7 Pro had to offer.
I’ve always backed the underdogs because they provide much needed competition in the market. I also laughed to myself when the AI features that genuinely impressed me the most on the Magic 7 Pro were the ones I heard the least about in all the briefings. But it makes sense. Buying a smartphone is a personal decision, and after reading this I hope you have enough info to know whether or not the HONOR Magic 7 Pro makes sense for you.
The final piece in the puzzle could be the price, and the HONOR Magic 7 Pro is a considered purchase at €1299 SIM free from the likes of Harvey Norman from February 3rd. You will also be able to grab this phone on contract from Three later in February, with that up-front pricing TBC
Realistically, on paper and price tag, the Magic 7 Pro is up against the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, priced at €1489 and €1469 respectively.
Suddenly, that €1299 helps HONOR emerge as a real alternative to both Apple and Samsung, exactly as I had hoped it would. You need to leave some of the AI stuff to the side as being just OK, but I’m comfortable recommending as a fantastic phone with enough genuine foundational quality and x-factor bells and whistles to impress down the local.
I’ll close with a massive deal sweetener I’ve just spotted as I went to check the launch date with Harvey Norman. If you pre-order the HONOR Magic 7 Pro, which I have in my hand today and think is a great phone, you’ll also get the HONOR MagicPad 2 for free. That’s a tablet typically worth around €500 which will sync fantastically with your new HONOR phone too. I haven’t reviewed it personally, but if you’re also in the market for a tablet, it makes this a particularly good deal which I assume is only for pre-order customers.
