A number of years after increasing into Europe, Honor is hoping the flagship Magic 7 Professional will persuade much more customers to present the model a strive outdoors of China. With superior silicon-carbon battery tech, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and rising AI software program, the Honor Magic 7 Professional may make a compelling case. The smartphone race outdoors of North America is usually received by a tool’s digital camera system — simply have a look at what manufacturers like Vivo are doing — so if Honor desires to win, it will need the Magic 7 Professional to ship standout digital camera efficiency.
I’ve spent the previous few weeks pushing the Magic 7 Professional’s “Falcon Digital camera” to its limits, snapping photographs and taking movies throughout two continents. Honor despatched me to Bled, Slovenia for the Magic 7 Professional international launch occasion, the place I bought to check this telephone’s digital camera whereas scaling the Slovenian Alps, visiting ski slops, and using ATVs. Again residence, I attempted out the Magic 7 Professional digital camera system within the completely-different desert terrain of Phoenix, Arizona.
So, how does the Honor Magic 7 Professional digital camera carry out? It is difficult, as a result of the uncooked digital camera {hardware} is downright spectacular. For example, the telephoto digital camera has a big sensor dimension and a excessive megapixel depend, growing its versatility. The issue is that the Falcon digital camera’s AI engine may be each overreaching and underwhelming at occasions, and a few of Honor’s claims — just like the 100x AI Tremendous Zoom — needs to be taken with quite a lot of grains of salt.
All informed, the Honor Magic 7 Professional does have among the greatest digital camera methods out there in a flagship. It isn’t fairly on the stage of Vivo handsets, however it’s nearer than ever. And for the second straight yr, the Honor Magic flagship takes the very best movement photographs of any smartphone.
Important digital camera
Like most Android flagships, the Magic 7 Professional has a “professional” digital camera mode that permits you to view and tweak nearly each setting. Nonetheless, the reality is that almost all customers will take images utilizing the straightforward point-and-shoot methodology, and that is how I examined the Honor Magic 7 Professional because of this.
You may instantly discover that opening the digital camera and snapping a photograph is faster than ever on an Honor telephone, as a result of the Magic 7 Professional lastly helps double-clicking the facility button to launch the digital camera from anyplace. This was shockingly not out there on the Magic 6 Professional, and one thing my colleague Nicholas Sutrich identified in final yr’s digital camera evaluate. Now that this has been corrected, it takes merely a second or two to take an image with the Magic 7 Professional.
Many of the images you will take with this telephone will likely be with the primary digital camera. It makes use of a 50MP, f/1.4-2.0 vast lens with multi-directional part detection autofocus (PDAF) and optical picture stabilization (OIS). This seems to be principally the identical sensor as Honor used within the Magic 6 Professional.
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All fashionable flagship digital camera telephones — from the Google Pixel 9 Professional to the iPhone 16 Professional to the Galaxy S24 Extremely and Galaxy S25 Extremely — have massive predominant digital camera sensors that may present an amazing stage of element in photographs. One factor that separates these telephones, greater than element, is their potential to deal with mild and shade.
I’ve actually loved how the Honor Magic 7 Professional has carried out on this side. I’ve examined the newest Pixel telephones to provide images with poor shade accuracy and overaggressive computational pictures. By comparability, the Honor imaging engine performs nearer to that of Apple’s or Samsung’s, and that is a superb factor. The colours captured within the images above felt consultant of what I used to be seeing with my very own eyes.
Even on a sunny day, the primary sensor was capable of seize the second with out dropping element or shade accuracy on account of overexposure. These photographs symbolize the very best of what the Honor Falcon digital camera can do — it performs excellently in the course of the daytime with restricted to no AI processing wanted.
I additionally need to point out that the very best AI options, not less than the place images are involved, might not contain computational pictures 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 am unable to 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 digital camera
As soon as a shortcoming for Honor, the Magic 7 Professional’s telephoto digital camera is now a promoting level for the gadget. Final yr, 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 digital camera can ship optical-quality zoom at 6x, which is correct consistent with the highest Android zoom lenses.
The best way Honor achieves this can be a little outdoors 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 dimension and native 3x optical zoom. In comparison with final yr, the Magic 7 Professional has higher optical zoom capabilities and a better megapixel depend. Extra importantly, the massive sensor dimension and excessive megapixel depend means the picture may 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 will see how the Magic 7 Professional performs throughout 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, and 6x zoom ranges. Based mostly on the outcomes, it is clear this telephone can certainly ship optical-level zoom at each 3x and 6x lengths.
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The primary photograph in that set was taken at 0.5x with the Magic 7 Professional’s ultrawide digital camera, which is a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with a 122-degree area of view. I personally discover myself utilizing ultrawide cameras the least out of recent telephone lenses, and this one performs about as anticipated. It captures a wider body whereas not dropping an excessive amount of element and needs 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 function is known as “AI Tremendous Zoom,” and whereas cool, I would not depend on it. For starters, solely zoom photographs as much as 30x may be processed on-device, whereas AI Tremendous Zoom (as much as 100x) requires a mobile connection for processing. This could be a deterrent for you or be outdoors your consolation stage.
Even when AI Tremendous Zoom is offered, it is a bit sluggish, and you’ll solely do it instantly after you are taking the shot. It would be good when you may achieve this after the very fact, form of like how Google’s Video Enhance works for Pixels. Furthermore, outcomes may be blended at greatest, as you may see beneath.
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The primary set of images within the gallery above may give you an concept of the best-case state of affairs for AI Tremendous Zoom. The unique photograph is blurry, grainy, and it is exhausting to make out the main points. In the meantime, the AI Tremendous Zoom model seems to be lots sharper, even when it is a bit too sharp to be a pure photograph.
However, the second set of images can symbolize among the worst-case situations. With AI Tremendous Zoom, all of the detailed and sharp cuts within the snow have 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 assessments, AI Tremendous Zoom could also be simply as prone to make a photograph worse with a watercolor-like picture void of element.
Total, I believed native photographs from the ultrawide and telephoto lens regarded sharp, however AI Tremendous Zoom wasn’t fairly nearly 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 digital camera telephone 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 totally different. It snaps clear images of topics in movement persistently, whether or not you are utilizing the common digital camera mode or one specialised for movement.
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As you may see within the photos above, whether or not I used to be capturing a darting pet, a gradual Gondola elevate, or a skier, the Magic 7 Professional delivered a transparent shot. In the event you hate movement blur, that is the digital camera telephone for you.
Honor has a number of taking pictures modes particularly for capturing movement. There’s AI Movement Sensing Seize, which was launched final yr and might take images for you when a topic strikes. New this yr is HD Tremendous Burst, which takes a burst of images 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 scenario. Honor deserves some credit score for not including a ton of sunshine to nighttime photographs on the Magic 7 Professional, to be clear. Each time I take night time photographs with an iPhone or Pixel and are available again to them a number of months later, it is exhausting to see that it actually was an evening from the synthetic brightness of the picture. With the Magic 7 Professional, photographs are darkish, however they are often too darkish at occasions.
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The excellent news is that the Magic 7 Professional digital camera adjusts rapidly to modifications in lighting; it could possibly modify publicity and lightweight steadiness inside a second or two after opening the digital camera app. In my testing, there wasn’t a lot of a distinction when utilizing night time mode versus normal mode. You may choose up on some variations, notably with brilliant mild sources — like a streetlamp or lighted signal.
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Within the comparisons above, you will see that night time mode tries to mute these brilliant mild sources. Nonetheless, I wasn’t fully thrilled with the outcomes — Honor’s processing appears to smoothen out the sunshine sources in a approach that is clearly unnatural. For that purpose, I usually most popular the unique shot over the night time shot.
Entrance-facing digital camera
I will be the primary to confess that I am not that large a person of the front-facing digital camera on smartphones. With that being stated, when you love selfies, video calls, or social media, the Magic 7 Professional’s entrance digital camera can do the job. It has a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with PDAF, which is greater than you’d sometimes see on a front-facing sensor. Honor additionally put a depth sensor beside the digital camera for biometrics, and this explains the pill-shaped cutout within the show.
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Selfies and portrait photographs turned out effectively, not solely capturing me but additionally among the particulars within the landscapes behind me. When utilizing portrait mode, bokeh continues to be turned off by default, so maintain that in thoughts when you get pleasure from background blur. It solely takes one faucet to show bokeh on, however you could possibly argue that is 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 telephone 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 normally a superb factor as a result of EIS is usually much less dependable and extra jarring than OIS. Regardless of utilizing EIS and solely 60fps, I believed 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 using it via the town of Bled. This might be exhausting 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 telephone’s EIS additionally could not stabilize sufficient to compensate for the engine vibrations, which is to be anticipated. Even with these circumstances, I believed this telephone carried out effectively, though the iPhone 16 Professional Max might be nonetheless the video king.
Conclusion
In the event you can look previous all of the AI noise, the Honor Magic 7 Professional has a digital camera 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 digital camera options, like AI Movement Sensing Seize and HD Tremendous Burst, which are genuinely nice. Nonetheless, I feel too lots of them, similar to AI Tremendous Zoom and even the over-aggressive night time mode, can take away from the Magic 7 Professional’s high quality digital camera {hardware}.
This telephone’s calling card is its potential to seize mainly any form of shot with zero movement blur. For many who are getting bored with 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.
