A few years after expanding into Europe, Honor is hoping the flagship Magic 7 Pro will convince even more users to give the brand a try outside of China. With advanced silicon-carbon battery tech, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and growing AI software, the Honor Magic 7 Pro might make a compelling case. The smartphone race outside of North America is often won by a device’s camera system — just look at what brands like Vivo are doing — so if Honor wants to win, it’ll need the Magic 7 Pro to deliver standout camera performance.
I’ve spent the last few weeks pushing the Magic 7 Pro’s “Falcon Camera” to its limits, snapping shots and taking videos across two continents. Honor sent me to Bled, Slovenia for the Magic 7 Pro global launch event, where I got to test this phone’s camera while scaling the Slovenian Alps, visiting ski slops, and riding ATVs. Back home, I tried out the Magic 7 Pro camera system in the completely-different desert terrain of Phoenix, Arizona.
So, how does the Honor Magic 7 Pro camera perform? It’s tricky, because the raw camera hardware is downright impressive. For instance, the telephoto camera has a large sensor size and a high megapixel count, increasing its versatility. The problem is that the Falcon camera’s AI engine can be both overreaching and underwhelming at times, and some of Honor’s claims — like the 100x AI Super Zoom — should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.
All told, the Honor Magic 7 Pro does have some of the best camera systems available in a flagship. It’s not quite at the level of Vivo handsets, but it’s closer than ever. And for the second straight year, the Honor Magic flagship takes the best motion shots of any smartphone.
Main camera
Like most Android flagships, the Magic 7 Pro has a “pro” camera mode that lets you view and tweak just about every setting. However, the truth is that most users will take photos using the simple point-and-shoot method, and that’s how I tested the Honor Magic 7 Pro as a result.
You’ll immediately notice that opening the camera and snapping a photo is quicker than ever on an Honor phone, because the Magic 7 Pro finally supports double-clicking the power button to launch the camera from anywhere. This was shockingly not available on the Magic 6 Pro, and something my colleague Nicholas Sutrich pointed out in last year’s camera review. Now that this has been corrected, it takes merely a second or two to take a picture with the Magic 7 Pro.
Most of the photos you’ll take with this phone will be with the main camera. It uses a 50MP, f/1.4-2.0 wide lens with multi-directional phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and optical image stabilization (OIS). This appears to be mostly the same sensor as Honor used in the Magic 6 Pro.
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All modern flagship camera phones — from the Google Pixel 9 Pro to the iPhone 16 Pro to the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra — have large main camera sensors that can provide a great level of detail in shots. One thing that separates these phones, more than detail, is their ability to handle light and color.
I’ve really enjoyed how the Honor Magic 7 Pro has performed in this aspect. I’ve tested the latest Pixel phones to produce photos with poor color accuracy and overaggressive computational photography. By comparison, the Honor imaging engine performs closer to that of Apple’s or Samsung’s, and that’s a good thing. The colors captured in the photos above felt representative of what I was seeing with my own eyes.
Even on a sunny day, the main sensor was able to capture the moment without losing detail or color accuracy due to overexposure. These shots represent the best of what the Honor Falcon camera can do — it performs excellently during the daytime with limited to no AI processing needed.
I also want to mention that the best AI features, at least where photos are concerned, may not involve computational photography at all. The third image in the gallery above is of a Slovenian plaque, one that is significantly deteriorated and written in a language I can’t natively read. After snapping the picture with the Magic 7 Pro, I was able to use Circle to Search to translate the text and make sense of it — even without having the full text. To me, this is a much better use of AI than changing the physical attributes of a photo.
Telephoto & ultrawide camera
Once a shortcoming for Honor, the Magic 7 Pro’s telephoto camera is now a selling point for the device. Last year, the Magic 6 Pro had a telephoto lens that could only do 2.5x optical zoom, which paled in comparison to the 10x optical zoom of the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the 5x optical zoom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, the Honor Magic 7 Pro’s telephoto camera can deliver optical-quality zoom at 6x, which is right in line with the top Android zoom lenses.
The way Honor achieves this is a little outside the box, but in my testing, it works. The brand is using a 200MP, f/2.6 periscope telephoto lens with a 1/1.4-inch sensor size and native 3x optical zoom. Compared to last year, the Magic 7 Pro has greater optical zoom capabilities and a higher megapixel count. More importantly, the large sensor size and high megapixel count means the image can be cropped in software without a loss in quality — this is how Honor can deliver 6x zoom in “optical quality.”
This unique telephoto sensor also enables the Magic 7 Pro’s zoom lens to be used for portrait mode, which is neat. In the image gallery below, you’ll see how the Magic 7 Pro performs across 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, and 6x zoom levels. Based on the results, it’s clear this phone can indeed deliver optical-level zoom at both 3x and 6x lengths.
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The first photo in that set was taken at 0.5x with the Magic 7 Pro’s ultrawide camera, which is a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with a 122-degree field of view. I personally find myself using ultrawide cameras the least out of modern phone lenses, and this one performs about as expected. It captures a wider frame while not losing too much detail and should be a feasible alternative to the old-school panorama.
Beyond the standard zoom distances (0.5x-6x), the Magic 7 Pro is claimed to shoot up to 100x using a mix of digital zoom and AI enhancements. The feature is called “AI Super Zoom,” and while cool, I wouldn’t count on it. For starters, only zoom shots up to 30x can be processed on-device, while AI Super Zoom (up to 100x) requires a cellular connection for processing. This might be a deterrent for you or be outside your comfort level.
Even when AI Super Zoom is available, it’s a bit slow, and you can only do it immediately after you take the shot. It’d be nice if you could do so after the fact, kind of like how Google’s Video Boost works for Pixels. Moreover, results can be mixed at best, as you can see below.
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The first set of photos in the gallery above can give you an idea of the best-case scenario for AI Super Zoom. The original photo is blurry, grainy, and it’s hard to make out the details. Meanwhile, the AI Super Zoom version looks a lot sharper, even if it’s a bit too sharp to be a natural photo.
On the other hand, the second set of photos can represent some of the worst-case scenarios. With AI Super Zoom, all the detailed and sharp cuts in the snow were completely covered up by broad-stroking AI enhancement. The first-aid logo on the snowmobile was lost to the enhancement as well. It’s clear that, after multiple tests, AI Super Zoom may be just as likely to make a photo worse with a watercolor-like image void of detail.
Overall, I thought native shots from the ultrawide and telephoto lens looked sharp, but AI Super Zoom wasn’t quite as good as advertised.
Low-light & motion capture
It’s time to give the Honor Magic 7 Pro its flowers: this is the best motion-capture camera phone I’ve ever tested. At a time when the last Samsung Galaxy S24 series had serious motion blur issues, and the iPhone 16 Pro series has more motion blur than any iPhone in recent memory, the Magic 7 Pro couldn’t be more different. It snaps clear photos of subjects in motion consistently, whether you’re using the regular camera mode or one specialized for motion.
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As you can see in the images above, whether I was capturing a darting pet, a steady Gondola lift, or a skier, the Magic 7 Pro delivered a clear shot. If you hate motion blur, this is the camera phone for you.
Honor has a few shooting modes specifically for capturing motion. There’s AI Motion Sensing Capture, which was introduced last year and can take photos for you when a subject moves. New this year is HD Super Burst, which takes a burst of photos and works great in motion. You can see HD Super Burst in action in the gallery below, and the results are impressive.
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Low-light performance is a bit shakier, depending on the situation. Honor deserves some credit for not adding a ton of light to night shots on the Magic 7 Pro, to be clear. Whenever I take night shots with an iPhone or Pixel and come back to them a few months later, it’s hard to see that it really was a night from the artificial brightness of the image. With the Magic 7 Pro, shots are dark, but they can be too dark at times.
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The good news is that the Magic 7 Pro camera adjusts quickly to changes in lighting; it can adjust exposure and light balance within a second or two after opening the camera app. In my testing, there wasn’t much of a difference when using night mode versus standard mode. You can pick up on some differences, particularly with bright light sources — like a streetlamp or lighted sign.
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In the comparisons above, you’ll see that night mode tries to mute these bright light sources. However, I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the results — Honor’s processing seems to smoothen out the light sources in a way that’s clearly unnatural. For that reason, I often preferred the original shot over the night shot.
Front-facing camera
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not that big a user of the front-facing camera on smartphones. With that being said, if you love selfies, video calls, or social media, the Magic 7 Pro’s front camera can do the job. It has a 50MP, f/2.0 sensor with PDAF, which is more than you’d typically see on a front-facing sensor. Honor also put a depth sensor beside the camera for biometrics, and this explains the pill-shaped cutout in the display.
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Selfies and portrait shots turned out well, not only capturing me but also some of the details in the landscapes behind me. When using portrait mode, bokeh is still turned off by default, so keep that in mind if you enjoy background blur. It only takes one tap to turn bokeh on, but you could argue that’s one more tap than it should take with portrait mode active.
Video
Considering the motion capture performance of the Magic 7 Pro, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this phone also handles video quite well. It officially supports 4K resolution at either 60 or 30fps, which isn’t industry-leading for a flagship but is still more than capable.
For video, the Honor Magic 7 Pro uses electronic image stabilization (EIS). This isn’t usually a good thing because EIS is often less reliable and more jarring than OIS. Despite using EIS and only 60fps, I thought the Magic 7 Pro recorded solid video, even while sledding down a small ski hill.
Watch On
Another challenging test involved mounting the Magic 7 Pro to the top of an ATV while riding it through the city of Bled. This would be hard for any smartphone to handle due to the rough terrain and engine vibrations coming from the ATV.
Watch On
The Magic 7 Pro didn’t perform perfectly — it struggled to focus on the landscape versus the mounting clamp partially in the frame. The phone’s EIS also couldn’t stabilize enough to compensate for the engine vibrations, which is to be expected. Even with these circumstances, I thought this phone performed well, although the iPhone 16 Pro Max is probably still the video king.
Conclusion
If you can look past all the AI noise, the Honor Magic 7 Pro has a camera system capable of hanging with the best of the bunch — even if it can’t usurp Vivo flagships just yet. There are some AI and camera features, like AI Motion Sensing Capture and HD Super Burst, that are genuinely great. However, I think too many of them, such as AI Super Zoom and even the over-aggressive night mode, can take away from the Magic 7 Pro’s quality camera hardware.
This phone’s calling card is its ability to capture basically any kind of shot with zero motion blur. For those who are getting tired of motion blur — and after spending time with the Galaxy S24 series and iPhone 16 Pro series, I am — the Honor Magic 7 Pro feels like a breath of fresh air.
