HONOR Magic 6 Pro Hands-on Review: Closing the Gap

MWC 2024 is already kicking off with some major announcements expected from tech giants. Following the global launch of the Magic V2 foldable smartphone earlier in 2024, HONOR has now unveiled its latest flagship, the Magic 6 Pro. HONOR says it has improved the smartphone from the ground up, bringing improvements in photography, display, performance, and, of course, AI, given the year is 2024. I spent some time with the HONOR Magic 6 Pro, and here are my first impressions of the device.

Price and Availability

Magic 6 Pro starts at £1,099

The HONOR Magic 6 Pro is priced at £1,099 in the UK and comes in a single configuration with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. It’s available in two color options: Black and Epi Green. Although the company’s home country, China, has three extra color choices (purple, green, and white), only two are being released globally.

Open sales for the HONOR Magic 6 Pro begin March 8, 2024, but if you pre-order the device before the open sale, you can grab £250 off and a free complimentary launch bundle worth £359, which includes HONOR Earbuds X6, HONOR 100W SuperCharger and HONOR Pad 8.

HONOR Magic 6 Pro: Full Specifications

Design and Display

Magic 6 Pro offers one of the best in-hand feels among all 2024 flagships

Probably the first thing you’ll notice about the Magic 6 Pro is how comfortable it feels in your hand. HONOR has given the Magic 6 Pro a quad-curved front display with a complementing curved back and rounded corners, making it easy to hold — especially compared to phones like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which have sharper edges.

The eco-leather back also adds to the grip, which is helpful since the phone is a bit thick at 8.9mm and weighs 225 grams. The metal rails, which are golden on the Epi Green variant I have here, surround the device. Personally, I’m not a fan of this, especially considering how quickly the rails have scratched in just a few days. Additionally, I miss the case that used to come in the box, which HONOR no longer includes.

The most prominent feature of the back is the big camera model, housing the phone’s triple camera setup (but more on this later). In terms of build materials and durability, HONOR Magic 6 Pro is on-par with other flagships thanks to the IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. On the front, the smartphone features NanoCrystal Shield, providing ten times better protection than regular nanocrystal glass and added scratch resistance.

Talking about the display, you get a big 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED screen in the front with a resolution of 1280 x 2800 pixels. This display — curved on all four sides — supports up to 120Hz refresh rate and has a peak brightness of 1600 nits in high brightness mode. I wonder why flagship makers have stopped using curved displays — the Magic 6 Pro’s display feels fantastic to use, especially when using Android’s gestures. Outdoor visibility is excellent, and HONOR’s usual eye-protecting features, like 4320Hz PWM Dimming and Circadian Night Display, are also included.

Camera

Going head-to-head with Samsung

Coming to the cameras, HONOR is really proud of their new “Falcon Camera System” on the Magic 6 Pro. The main setup includes a 50MP primary camera with a variable aperture (f/1.4 and f/2.0) and OIS. Alongside, there’s a 50MP ultra-wide sensor with a 122-degree FoV and a 180MP Telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom, capable of up to 100x zoom — directly going head-to-head with Samsung, it seems.

From what I’ve seen in my brief time with the phone, the primary one performs just as expected. Photos are sharp and detailed, slightly on the warmer side, and colors are vivid and lively — just about what you expect from HONOR’s camera systems. However, the zoom camera feels a bit ‘overhyped’; anything beyond 8x or 10x results in a noisy image. Shots at 5x zoom, though, are sharp and detailed. I’m skeptical about the 100x claim, but I’ll reserve judgment for the full review.

HONOR is also touting sports photography with the Magic 6 Pro, claiming that its AI-assisted camera can capture clearer shots of moving subjects. I can confirm this to some extent; the phone managed to take clear shots of flowers even in windy conditions. Take a look at some early samples below:

Hardware and software

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Android 14, AI features: everything you could ask for

Inside the Magic 6 Pro, you’ll find Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The phone runs on MagicOS 8.0, based on Android 14 out of the box, with many AI-based features up its sleeves. The company is finally debuting its Magic Portal for global markets with MagicOS 8.0 to simplify tasks with AI.

One use case of the Magic Portal that HONOR showed was with Google Maps, wherein the user can just drag and drop text into the app, and the Maps will recognize addresses in messages and direct users to the location – although I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet; HONOR promises an update next month. Other AI features include text recognition in images and gesture recognition.

However, some minor annoyances in HONOR’s software, such as the absence of an app drawer and the inability to access app info directly from the launcher, are still there. Additionally, there are those pesky notifications about power-hungry apps, reminding you daily of which apps are draining your battery the most — once would be enough to get the message across.

Finally, coming to the battery, HONOR has really taken a leap here. The Magic V2 is the slimmest foldable thanks to its silicon-carbon battery, and the Magic 6 Pro now features a second-generation silicon-carbon battery. The Magic 6 Pro features a big 5600 mAh cell, and this battery has really impressed me during my short time with the device. And, as expected from HONOR, the phone supports both 80W fast wired charging and 66W wireless charging.

First Impressions

To (finally) wrap things off, if HONOR’s software can match the excellence of its hardware, we could have something truly remarkable on our hands. Sounds familiar? It’s what I mentioned when I went hands-on with the Magic V2 back in September 2023, but the software fell slightly short of expectations in the end. But if the software can truly complement the hardware this time, then Samsung, OPPO, Xiaomi, and other Android manufacturers should keep an eye on this.