Honor Magic8 Pro review: A low-light camera powerhouse with smart AI tools

The new Honor Magic8 Pro is one of the best Android phones you can get if you want to take amazing photos. It features a 50MP main and ultra-wide camera, as well as a 200MP telephoto designed for night shots.

It takes amazing pictures and video, while also featuring AI editing and features to really make them pop. You can erase unsightly objects or passersby, make sure everyone has their eyes open, increase the resolution of photos, and more. You can also add effects to your video (such as a motion trail) to make them cooler – though I found these a little cliche.

But most of us will probably never use the AI features, since the Honor Magic8 Pro already takes amazing shots right out of the box. If you're into photography, you'll also love that it has AI features that can help you tweak the color of your photos to suit a mood, though this is best used with outdoor shots.

More importantly, it's the night pictures that really showcase its capabilities. Pitted against the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, the Honor Magic8 Pro's 10x zoom in low-light conditions stands out. There's more detail, less noise, and it looks generally clearer. This is compared to the Pro Max's 8x zoom, as you can see in the pictures below. 

While the phone does let you go up to 100x digital zoom, do note that AI is used to help enhance the image, and it won't look quite correct. If you stick to around 30x zoom, it won't look too bad.

SOFTWARE AND AI FEATURES

The Honor Magic8 Pro runs MagicOS 10, which is based on Android 16. The good news is that it's very easy to use, and if you plan to switch from an iPhone, you'll find it familiar. The not-so-good news is that it really borrows quite a bit from iOS, including the new Liquid Glass elements and the user interface for its AI button (which also appears to be inspired by the iPhone's Camera Control button). 

If you don't like the design, you can always change it through the Themes app, which has a wide variety of options to help you customise the look and feel of the phone. There are some really good ones to try, such as a cat-inspired one, but that's just my bias showing.

Most phones these days come packed with AI features, and the Honor Magic8 Pro is no different. It has a dedicated AI app, where you can access the AI Settings Agent, which lets you talk to the phone to control it. You can ask it to turn on and off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, adjust the screen brightness, turn on your personal hotspot, and more. It's easy to use, and beats having to dig around the menus when you want to quickly adjust something.

You can access something called AI Memories, which can generate summaries based on your content. Using the AI Photos Agent, you can transform or edit your pictures. The phone can also detect deepfakes during video calls. Then there’s AI Subtitles, which gives you real time subtitles and translations, though the latter isn't quite that good based on my testing.

Like many Android phones, the Honor Magic8 Pro comes with Google's AI assistant Gemini, so you can use it to write, brainstorm, or have a chat with it. 

DESIGN, DISPLAY, BATTERY LIFE AND PERFORMANCE

The Honor Magic8 Pro features a gorgeous 6.71-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. You get vibrant colours and deep blacks, and the slightly curved edges give it a premium feel. While it has a metal frame, the rear uses a fibre-reinforced plastic back that still looks and feels metallic.

The phone's rear camera takes up almost one-third of the back, with its round housing popping out quite a bit. It does make the phone quite stable when placed flat on the table, though. There's a nice balance and heft when holding the phone in your hand.

Battery life is amazing, with 12 hours in our benchmark tests, and will easily last a full day of use. That's thanks in part to its 7,100mAh battery, which is massive compared to its competitors, such as the Vivo X300 Pro (6,510mAh), the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (5,000mAh), or the Google Pixel 10 (4,970mAh). It's beat by the Oppo Find X9 Pro with its 7,500mAh battery, though.

As for the performance, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor delivers top notch performance, comparable to even the iPhone A19 chips. It will run most games at max graphics with no issues, and you'll have no issues doom scrolling on social media either with its 5G connectivity and Wi-Fi 7.

SHOULD YOU GET IT?

At S$1,499 (US$1,156) for the 512GB model in Gold, Cyan, or Black and S$1,699 for 1TB in Gold or Black, the competitively priced Honor Magic8 Pro is a great smartphone for photos and videos. While I'm not a fan of its default UI, that's easily changed as well. In short, you can't go wrong with this.