Honor Magic 6 Pro initial review: There's magic in the AIr

Honor had a strong start to 2024 with the global launch of the Magic V2 foldable, and the brand followed it up with the introduction of the Magic V2 RSR, a custom edition of the V2 made in collaboration with Porsche Design. While the brand is making inroads in this area, traditional phones are still where Honor sees its biggest potential, and at Mobile World Congress, it is showcasing its 2024 flagship: the Magic 6 Pro.

Last year's Magic 5 Pro solidified Honor's status in this segment, with the phone offering standout cameras, minimalist design, and excellent hardware. The Magic 6 Pro continues in much the same fashion, and if anything, the design is much more evocative this time around. You get the latest hardware, cameras that go up against the best devices available today, and a unique silicon-carbon battery that lasts longer than every other phone I tested in 2024.

The main issue I had with the Magic 5 Pro was the software, and Honor is making a few changes to MagicOS with this generation. The brand is leaning into AI in a big way, rolling out a system-wide feature dubbed Magic Portal that lets suggests contextual information as needed. I wasn't able to test the feature yet — that's why I'm calling this an initial review — but I'll update this post in two weeks after using all the AI-assisted software features the phone has to offer, and putting the camera through its paces.

But what you need to know right now is that the Magic 6 Pro holds its own against the best Android phones. The upgrades Honor is offering this year — particularly around the cameras — make it a fantastic choice if you don't want to go with Samsung.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Pricing and release date

Honor unveiled the Magic 6 and Magic 6 Pro in China on January 11, with a global launch on February 25 at Mobile World Congress. Honor is bringing the Magic 6 Pro to global markets, with the standard model limited to its home market.

The Magic 6 Pro is available in a single 12GB/512GB variant that is priced at £1,099/€1,299. Pre-orders go live on March 1, and the phone will go on sale starting March 8. I'm using the Chinese variant of the device with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and this particular model won't debut globally. In addition to the Magic 6 Pro, Honor is launching a Porsche Design version of the device that will be debuting later in March.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Design

Honor says the design of the Magic 6 Pro is inspired by luxury wearables, and the device certainly has a lot going for it. I'm using the Epi Green color variant, and it combines a vegan leather back with metal accents that looks stunning. The camera island has a unique "cushion" design that immediately grabs attention, and the gold accent around the island gives it a lot of character.

The three cameras are prominently highlighted within the housing, with the huge 180MP telephoto lens sitting up top. The back has a distinct ripple design that looks quite interesting and allows you to get a good grip on the device, and what's striking is that you get a similar ripple design located within the camera island as well.

The green hue along with the gold trim around the camera housing and the sides make the Magic 6 Pro very distinctive, and this is the model to get if you want a phone that will turn heads. If you're after something that isn't quite as attention-grabbing, Honor sells a black version of the device with a glass back.

Although the Magic 6 Pro is one of the tallest and heaviest phones around (229), it isn't unwieldy yo use in the least, and a lot of that has to do with the smooth curves at the front and back. The symmetrical curves along with rounded edges make a huge difference when it comes to holding the phone comfortably, and Honor nailed the weight distribution.

Some phones tend to be top-heavy — particularly if they have large camera modules, as is the case here — so Honor deserves credit for getting this right. The power and volume buttons are on the right, and they're ideally located. Like the rest of the field, the SIM tray is located at the bottom, and you get stereo sound with near-identical channels.

The phone also gets IP68 dust and water resistance, giving it the ability to withstand the elements just as well as the S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14. My only quibble on the design front is that the fingerprint sensor is located a bit lower than usual, and it makes accessing it awkward.

Other than that, Honor nailed the design brief with the Magic 6 Pro. Along with the OnePlus 12 and Find X7 Ultra, this is one of the best-looking devices of the year.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Display

Display tech is exciting again, and most 2024 flagships feature high-res panels that get insanely bright — at least with HDR content. Honor is also joining this bandwagon, with the Magic 6 Pro featuring a 6.8-inch OLED panel (2860x1200) with 120Hz refresh, Dolby Vision, and 5000 nits of brightness in HDR — 1000 more than the next-best option, the Find X7 Ultra.

Obviously, the entire display doesn't go up to 5000 nits; it's just specific zones that are able to get that bright, and that too for a miniscule amount of time. What you'll appreciate more is 4320Hz PWM dimming; this is the highest on any phone yet, and it makes a huge difference if you're sensitive to PWM flickering.

The Magic 6 Pro has terrific colors out of the box, and you have the ability to adjust the colors between Normal and Vivid modes, and tweak color balance manually. There's a Natural Tone option that dynamically adjusts colors based on ambient lighting, and it works really well.

A big change is that the pill-sized cutout is now located in the center. Honor uses a TOF module in addition to the selfie camera, and it has teased AI-based eye-tracking coming to the device at some point — it showed off a video where the phone was able to remotely control a car with this feature enabled.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Performance

Honor hasn't left out anything on the hardware front, and the Magic 6 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 — just like all the other 2024 flagships. And like its rivals, it comes with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.

A key difference with MagicOS 8.0 is that it's much more smooth in daily use versus its predecessor, and this is clearly noticeable on the Magic 6 Pro. While I still have reservations with the software, I will note that the interface is fluid and devoid of any issues in daily use, and the phone handled demanding games without too much of an issue.

There weren't any slowdowns in regular use, and the device handled intensive games without too much of a hassle. The phone is prone to throttle to prevent overheating, but I still got consistent framerates most of the time in extended gaming sessions. In 3DMark's Solar Bay stability test, the device scored 67%, which is better than most of its immediate rivals. I didn't see the device crossing 42.6 degrees Celsius, so clearly Honor is being a bit conservative when it comes to thermal management.

Connectivity is on par with the rest of the field; the Magic 6 Pro has global 5G bands, and you get Wi-Fi 7 along with Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and dual-band GPS. It misses out on Bluetooth 5.4, but that isn't a huge omission, and for what it's worth, I didn't see any issues with Bluetooth connectivity.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Battery life

The Magic 6 Pro has one of the largest batteries of any 2024 phone. The 5600mAh battery lasts two days with medium use, and even with heavy use, I easily got a day and a half before needing to plug in the device. In PCMark's Work 3.0 battery life test, the phone managed 17 hours and five minutes — one of the highest of any device I tested this year.

Honor is using a silicon-carbon negative electrode, and this allows for better density; that's how the device is only marginally thicker than the S24 Ultra while packing a larger battery. It is also able to hold its charge better in extreme conditions, and while I don't know about testing in snow, I will be able to put it to good use in India's sweltering summers.

There's a lot to like on the charging front as well, with the phone offering 80W charging tech alongside 66W wireless charging and 5W wireless charging.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Cameras

Honor isn't messing around with the cameras this year, and the Magic 6 Pro has a 50MP main camera with a variable f/1.4-2.0 lens, 1/1.3-inch sensor, and OIS. That's joined by a 50MP f/2.0 wide-angle lens with a 122-degree FoV, and a massive 180MP f/2.6 telephoto lens with OIS that goes up to 2.5x optical zoom.

Honor is adding a ton of AI features to the imaging side of things, and the coolest feature is an AI Auto-Capture mode that automatically takes photos when the camera app is pointed at fast-moving objects, so if you're at a football game and don't want to miss the action by looking at your camera, this is a nifty addition. The mode works when someone's smiling, and even with pets. The phone does a particularly good job tracking motion, and it is on par with the Pixel 8 Pro in this regard.

There's an AI mode that comes in handy when taking photos, and it goes a great job with scene recognition, delivering the best colors in various settings. The camera interface itself is identical to what you get on other devices, with the modes arrayed in a grid at the bottom, and you get a dedicated button to toggle motion-sensing auto capture.

Image 1 of 4

The Magic 6 Pro takes truly magnificent photos in any situation, and the 50MP camera is among the best of any phone I used. This year has already served up lots of devices that raised the bar for imaging, and what Honor managed to achieve here is a sizeable accomplishment. The phone takes stellar shots in low-light conditions as well, and while it doesn't quite deliver Pixel-level consistency in this area, it is a far sight better than every other Chinese manufacturer.

While the phone doesn't go beyond 2.5x optically, it manages to deliver outstanding photos at 5x, and you get usable shots at up to 10x. It isn't on the same level as the S24 Ultra at 10x, but up to a 5x zoom factor, it holds its own against the best in this segment. I'll have much more to share about the camera in my full review, so stay tuned. 

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Software

As I'm using the Chinese model of the Magic 6 Pro, I'm not going to talk too much about the software. The device runs MagicOS 8.0 based on Android 14 out of the box, and it comes with the Play Store and other Google services pre-installed in global markets.

MagicOS 8.0 isn't too different to its predecessor in terms of visual design, and as a result the UI still looks a bit archaic. The new Control Center is identical to what you get on Xiaomi phones, with the notification pane split into two — one for toggles, and the other just to show incoming notifications.

Like I said above, the UI is fluid, and Honor is leveraging AI in a big way to differentiate the software. I'll share additional notes once I start using the global variant of the Magic 6 Pro, but for now, what you need to know is that the UI itself hasn't changed to any meaningful degree.

The Magic 6 Pro will get four years of Android OS updates along with five years of software patches, and that is in line with most of its rivals. Google and Samsung are still in the lead with their seven-year guarantee, but I don't see any Chinese brand meeting that goal — they're just not set up to deliver updates on that scale.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: The alternatives

Thanks to its focus on cameras and AI integration, Honor is setting its sights on the Galaxy S24 Ultra with the Magic 6 Pro. Samsung's flagship has a similar 6.8-inch screen but is wider, and the screen doesn't get as bright — or is as good with PWM sensitivity. The S24 Ultra has considerable camera upgrades, but the Magic 6 Pro ekes out a slender lead, and you get much better battery life than Samsung's offering.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a device to consider as well. It is launching globally next month, and if the Xiaomi 13 Ultra was any indication, it should have insane cameras. I'm waiting to see how it measures up to the Magic 6 Pro, and will include testing notes after pitting both devices against each other.

Honor Magic 6 Pro: Should you buy it?

I'm not ready to share final findings of the Magic 6 Pro just yet as the defining feature of the device — the AI-assisted Magic Portal — just went live this week, and the service integration isn't in place as of writing. I'll share more on that front in two weeks' time, but for now, I'm able to give my verdict on the hardware.

The Magic 6 Pro has one of the best designs of any 2024 phone, and the green color option in particular looks incredible. The gold accents make the phone look unmistakably premium, and the smooth curves at the front and back make it easy to hold and use.

The hardware is among the best around, and I have zero issues in this area — the phone has more than enough power to play the latest titles without breaking a sweat. The OLED panel also deserves a mention, because it may just be one of the best around — it has excellent brightness levels in outdoor use, great color fidelity, and is designed with PWM sensitivity in mind.

But it's the cameras where the Magic 6 Pro carves out a healthy lead against its Chinese rivals; it manages to take spectacular photos and videos in any situation, and it is second only to the Pixel 8 Pro in terms of consistency. If anything, the phone does a better job than Google's flagship in most scenarios, and I can't think of higher praise than that — Xiaomi needs to do something truly meaningful with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra to beat what Honor is doing this year.

Battery life is also the best of any phone I tested in 2024. Software continues to be the weakest point of the Magic 6 Pro, and Honor really needs to modernize the UI and break away from the EMUI influence that still lingers to this day. That said, MagicOS 8.0 definitely gets a lot of things right, and I'm excited to see if Magic Portal can live up to its potential in real-world use — that would make all the difference.

So if you're considering an upgrade and want a phone with outstanding cameras and all the other bits, the Magic 6 Pro may just be the phone to get this year.