Honor Magic 7 Professional overview: Taking issues to a complete new degree

Honor noticed heady positive factors in 2024 on the again of the Magic 6 Professional and Magic V3, and the model exhibits no indicators of slowing down this 12 months. After making its debut in China on the finish of final 12 months, the Magic 7 Professional is now making its option to world markets, and there is a lot to love with the machine. Honor is doubling down on AI integration, rolling out a slate of recent options that remodel how you utilize the telephone.

There is a new design as nicely, the newest Qualcomm {hardware}, a third-gen silicon-carbon battery, and upgraded cameras — together with a 200MP telephoto lens on the again. The software program has gotten a contemporary coat of paint as nicely, with the telephone working MagicOS 9.0 based mostly on Android 15.

With different Chinese language manufacturers elevating the bar for imaging due to the Vivo X200 Professional and Discover X8 Professional, I wished to see how Honor measures up. I used the Magic 7 Professional as my each day driver for simply over two weeks, and this is why I feel it is likely one of the finest telephones of 2025.

Honor Magic 7 Professional: Pricing and availability

Honor unveiled the Magic 7 Professional in China on October 30, and the telephone made its world debut at an occasion in Slovenia on January 15, 2025. It’s now on sale in world markets in a single 12GB/512GB variant, which prices £1,099 ($1,343) within the U.Ok. and €1,299 ($1,336) in different international locations in Europe.

Honor is incentivizing the launch within the U.Ok. by offering a £200 ($244) low cost and the 100W charger (which is not bundled this time), and rolling out a one-time alternative inside 180 days. That is extremely fascinating, and much like what OnePlus did with the OnePlus 13 in India. Primarily, if you happen to discover any {hardware} points inside six months of use, you may be eligible to get a brand new Magic 7 Professional as an alternative of sending it in for service.

Honor Magic 7 Professional: Design

Like each different telephone I used lately, the Magic 7 Professional has a design with flat sides. It is clear that each one producers are gravitating towards this design aesthetic, and I can see the rationale why; not having dual-curved edges means the glass panes are much less susceptible to breakage within the case of a tumble.

Though the edges are thicker, using beveled edges make holding and utilizing the telephone snug. That is in keeping with what OnePlus did on the OnePlus 13, and the Magic 7 Professional has an analogous in-hand really feel. Weight distribution is nice as nicely, and though you get an enormous digicam island on the again, the machine would not really feel unwieldy within the least.

I just like the modifications to the digicam island as nicely; the module is inlaid with metallic and has a squircle design, and it seems to be cleaner than final 12 months. The way in which the island merges seamlessly into the again is paying homage to the Discover X5 Professional, and the general impact is elegant.

The Magic 7 Professional is on the market in blue, black, and Lunar Shadow Gray colour variants, and the latter possibility is probably the most fascinating of the lot. I received the black mannequin, and it is not anyplace as fascinating — if you happen to’re eyeing the machine, I might suggesting selecting up the gray mannequin.

The again would not draw an excessive amount of consideration to itself (at the least on this colorway), and also you get a silky texture that ensures smudges do not present up. There’s enough width on the edges to carry the machine comfortably, and the ability button has a purple accent that provides it a bit of little bit of character.

One other constructive is the ultrasonic sensor; it’s positioned within the ideally suited place, and is quick to authenticate. Honor is an outlier amongst Android producers in that it makes use of a secondary digicam on the entrance, and that is used to allow 3D face unlock. Whereas all Android telephones have an analogous function, they are not as safe as biometrics; fortunately, that is not a problem on the Magic 7 Professional, and also you get two safe strategies to unlock the machine.

Much like different Chinese language telephones, the Magic 7 Professional will get IP68 and IP69 ingress safety, and it could face up to immersion in as much as 1.5 meters of water along with excessive stress water jets and scorching liquids as much as 80 levels Celsius. If something, the one quibble I’ve with the design is that the machine is heavy at 223g — the identical because the X200 Professional. Nonetheless, you get a smaller 5270mAh battery (X200 Professional has 6000mAh), and the telephone is chunkier at 8.8mm (versus 8.2mm).

Exterior of that, there are not any issues with the design. Along with the common mannequin, Honor is rolling out the Porsche Design variant of the machine, and just like the Magic 6 RSR, it has a hexagonal digicam island and is on the market in two fascinating colours. The remainder of the {hardware} is equivalent to the common mannequin, however you get just a few distinctive UI components, and I notably just like the Standby mode that is out there on the machine.

Honor Magic 7 Professional: Show

Honor is utilizing a similar-sized 6.8-inch AMOLED panel as final 12 months, and also you get the identical 5000-nit most brightness. That quantity is meaningless in real-world use because it’s solely restricted to pick zones when viewing HDR content material; fortunately, the telephone holds up fairly nicely even beneath harsh daylight, and it’s among the many brightest I examined — solely the Pixel 9 Professional XL received brighter in out of doors use.

Colours are vibrant and detailed, and distinction ranges are wonderful as nicely. The telephone goes as much as 120Hz, and like different flagships, you get dynamic refresh that scales it between 1Hz to 120Hz based mostly on the on-screen content material. The telephone has HDR integration, and there is a dynamic video mode that reinforces colours within the gallery, Instagram, and YouTube.

Like final 12 months, you get 4320Hz PWM dimming, and whereas different producers at the moment are doing the identical on their units, Honor leads the best way in terms of eye-care tech on its telephones. The Magic 7 Professional will get a collection of options on this regard, together with myopic defocus stimulation, round polarization, and pure tone. Briefly, the Magic 7 Professional has sufficient novel show tech that if you happen to’re frightened about eye fatigue or pressure, that is clearly the machine to get.

Whereas all of these options are nice, what I like probably the most is that there is a devoted e book mode that switches the panel to monochrome. I used this function extensively in legacy OxygenOS and MIUI builds, however it’s not out there in current variations of the skins, so it is nice to see Honor providing the function.

I had no points with the Magic 7 Professional in terms of enjoying movies or gaming, and the telephone has excellent built-in stereo sound. Honor says it elevated the sound cavity this time to create a way of depth, and that is noticeable in each day use.

Honor Magic 7 Professional: Efficiency

Honor went with Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8 Elite, and the worldwide mannequin is bought in a 12GB/512GB configuration. Ideally, Honor ought to have introduced the 16GB/512GB version exterior China, however that is not the case. Regardless, I did not see any points with reminiscence being the bottleneck within the two weeks I used the machine.

Much like different flagships I examined lately, the telephone completely flies in common use, and there are not any slowdowns in any way. The telephone handles demanding video games with out breaking a sweat, and if something, there is a sense that we’d like higher video games on Android to take full benefit of the ability out there this era.