The Honor Magic7 Pro launched early in January as the first Android flagship smartphone in Malaysia in 2025. As you might expect, it has all the latest features and specifications for 2025 such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for fast performance and a slew of AI-based functions to make your daily tasks easier.
With a starting price of RM4599 for the 12GB+512GB memory variant, it's clear that this is not a cheap phone, so it needs to showcase a variety of very sophisticated features to justify the price. In fact, it needs to compete with several other flagship phones sold at a similar price. So is this the best phone in its category? Read this review to find out more.
Design – Pretty basic for a flagship phone
At first glance, the Magic7 Pro doesn't have an iconic or recognizable back design. The unit we received for review is Lunar Shadow Gray and has a fog-like pattern on the back. It has a matte surface that doesn't leave any fingerprints and a shiny HONOR logo.
While its design isn't iconic, that doesn't mean it doesn't have premium build quality. It feels solid in the hand when held, and if you're looking for a phone with advanced specs but a low-profile look, the Magic7 Pro is the phone for you.
HONOR Magic7 Pro in Lunar Shadow Gray
The relatively large and thick camera bump
Right: Power button with red accent
The sides are flat but still have a slight curve at the border
Apart from grey, it is also offered in light blue Breeze Blue and black. However, both of these colour options do not have any pattern on the back.
The camera bump is quite thick and large, as it houses three high-performance lenses to produce a photography experience befitting its flagship category. As for the side frame, it is flat with a slight curve at the corners.
Like most other HONOR phones, the Magic7 Pro is highly durable, with SGS 5-Star Drop Resistance Certification guaranteeing that it is impact and scratch-resistant. It's also rated IP68 and IP69 waterproof and dustproof, meaning you won't have to worry about dropping it in a pool or on the beach.
Magic7 Pro screen with pill-shaped cutout at the top to house the selfie camera and 3D sensor
On the front, it has a 6.8-inch screen with slightly curved sides and a pill-shaped hole that houses the front camera and 3D TOF sensor. We'll discuss more about the screen in the next section.
Tech specs and features – Flagship level in all respects
Here are the full specifications for HONOR Magic7 Pro.
- 6.8-inch LTPO OLED screen, 1280×2800 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 5000 nits peak brightness, HONOR NanoCrystal Shield glass
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
- 12GB or 16GB RAM
- 512GB or 1TB internal storage
- 50MP main camera with f/1.4-f/2.0 aperture + 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide camera + 200MP f/2.6 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom
- 50MP front camera + 3D sensor
- 5850mAh battery
- 100W fast charging, 80W wireless charging
- Stereo speakers with HONOR Surround Subwoofer
- USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 port
- Android 15 operating system with MagicOS 9.0
- Supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity
- Dimensions: 162.7 x 77.1 x 8.8mm | weight 223 grams
As you would expect from a flagship phone, the Magic7 Pro's screen delivers beautiful visuals, with rich colours on all sides to enhance viewing quality. Its thin physical bezels also help enhance immersion and the peak brightness of up to 5000 nits ensures the screen can be seen even under bright sunlight.
If there's one thing we didn't like, it would be the cutout at the top. This large pill-shaped cutout houses the front camera and 3D sensor for more secure face scanning. While we've gotten used to watching screens with small punch-holes, the larger cutout made it difficult to enjoy videos on the Magic7 Pro because of how distracting it is. Sure, the 3D sensor is useful for a more secure and faster face unlock. However, it's not a popular function (at least not for our reviewer), so it feels like a waste of space.
The pill-shaped cutout bothers us
As for the specifications, apart from the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that offers high performance, the Magic7 Pro has a relatively large RAM capacity (12GB or 16GB) and storage (512GB or 1TB). The latter is especially appreciated, as many apps and files take up more storage these days.
Another big improvement in this model is the battery capacity. Despite having the same thickness as last year's Magic6 Pro, the Magic7 Pro has a larger 5850mAh battery. On top of that, the phone supports 100W fast charging and 80W wireless charging.
As for audio, the Magic7 Pro delivered surprisingly high audio quality via its stereo speakers. It has a Premium Bass function that produces very powerful and clear sound. They're easily the best phone speakers for 2025 so far. However, the Premium Bass probably makes the speakers draw more power, so it will drain the battery faster.
The Premium Bass significantly improves audio quality
Aside from the improved specifications, the Magic7 Pro also features enhanced HONOR AI functions. One new feature is AI Deepfake Protection, which can detect if you are on a video call with someone using deepfake technology to impersonate your family or friends.
Unfortunately, we don't know how to make a video call with the deepfake function, so it's not a feature we can test. However, we saw a demonstration of AI Deepfake Detection by HONOR during the Magic7 Pro launch event and it can indeed detect if you're receiving a deepfake video call. Once it detects a deepfake video, it will display a notification prompting you to end the video call as soon as possible.
AI Deepfake Detection demo
The feature can't detect deepfake YouTube videos
It's worth remembering that AI Deepfake Detection can only detect deepfakes in video calls. This means that if you watch a deepfake video shared on WhatsApp, YouTube or any social media platform, the feature doesn't work. In other words, you still need to be careful and not rely too much on this function to detect fake videos.
The new Magic Portal was also made easier to use. You can now circle any image on the screen with your knuckles, and then drag the image to any of the apps listed on the right side of the screen. This lets you save the screen crop to the Gallery, search for the image in Google Images, share it on Facebook and more.
Magic Portal lets you highlight an image and quickly share it to an app
Performance – Faster, with more accurate AI
Here are the benchmark scores:
Geekbench benchmarks and comparison with other devices
3DMark benchmark - High performance but throttling over time
Like the other Snapdragon 8 Elite phones we've reviewed, the Magic7 Pro recorded high benchmark scores. This chipset far surpasses previous-generation chipsets, so you know its performance is guaranteed.
But how does it perform in everyday use? Obviously, no modern flagship chipset will have problems handling everyday tasks like texting, browsing social media and reading websites. It never stutters or freezes, unless there's a bug with the app or UI. You can switch between apps seamlessly with no issues, and play mobile games in high graphics settings for long hours.
We tested Genshin Impact with the phone and could enjoy the game on the highest graphics settings at 60fps. There weren't any noticeable frame drops after an hour, which is good news. In terms of temperature, the phone typically measured 40°C in Balanced mode, which is still acceptable and wouldn't bother us too much. In Game mode, the temperature was only 41°C.
In terms of battery life, it can comfortably last a day, even if you play games for long hours or take lots of photos. With Genshin Impact, a 30-minute session would drain around 10% of the battery, regardless of whether you were in Balanced or Game mode.
No problem playing Genshin Impact on the highest graphics
Game mode improves performance, but the phone will get warmer
With a charging rate as high as 100W, the Magic7 Pro has a very short charging time. Using the 100W charger, a full charge from 0% took around 40 minutes. It's great to see Honor still including a charger in the package when more and more other brands have started excluding them. At the least, you'll have a very fast charger for your other devices that will be useful for years.
Please note that to charge at 100W, you need to enable it manually by long pressing on the screen. In addition, the phone temperature when charging at 100W can be quite high. At up to 44°C, it's at a level we'd describe as hot, so avoid using the phone while it's charging. This is to keep the temperature manageable and not affect battery health.
Long-press to enable the 100W charging rate
2% to 97% in 37 minutes
The phone also has AI features in some apps like the HONOR Notes app. Like last year, Notes can transcribe and translate long audio recordings in multiple languages such as English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish and Malay. Kudos to Honor for not forgetting the Malay language, as other brands still do not support it.
In terms of transcription and translation quality, we found them to be 80% accurate. Most of the time, it can accurately produce text translations. But there are times when it doesn't, especially in Malay, so it's best to always do a post-translation check and make the necessary corrections.
The quality of the transcription is reliable, but not completely accurate
If you are recording audio of a long meeting with several individuals participating simultaneously, AI Minutes can produce accurate meeting minutes. It can also separate the voices of different individuals, so you can identify the person speaking. Unfortunately, the AI Minutes function doesn't work with Bahasa Malaysia.
Additionally, long texts can be summarised with AI Summary, or summarised into points in AI Format. The quality of the summaries was generally quite good, so you could avoid reading long articles if you dislike doing so. However, if you want to summarise a long article on a website, you need to save the article to Notes first. You do this by swiping down using three fingers, then go to the saved file and choose to create the AI summary of the article. Honestly, it would have been much better to get summaries directly in the web browser.
AI Summary in Malay and English
Enough about AI, let's move on to camera performance. As a flagship phone, the Magic7 Pro can produce very beautiful photos in both bright and dim situations. In photo mode, you are given three colour profile options, namely Natural, Vibrant and Authentic. The Authentic mode produces a visual feel that's the most different from real colours, as it produces an old film camera effect.
When taking portrait mode photos, you can use the Harcourt Studio colour composition function. First introduced in the Magic6 Pro, this colour composition looks just as good on the Magic7 Pro. This depends on the user's preference, of course, but we hope more brands will offer colour functions like this.
Main camera
Ultra-wide camera
3x zoom
Selfie in portrait mode
Night mode
Harcourt Portrait photos
For photos in Night Mode, the Magic7 Pro can produce excellent shots with little noise. However, the 'lines' from light reflections of light sources are still clearly visible and may ruin your photos.
An interesting new feature is HD Super Burst, which can quickly snap 10 photos per second. Just press the shutter button for a long time, and the phone will take multiple photos in rapid succession. You can take up to 100 photos in one burst.
In addition, there is an AI Super Zoom feature to improve the quality of zoomed images with AI processing. Even if you zoom in as far as 100x, this function can still save your images so that they don't look blurry. Honestly, the results show clear signs of AI processing. But at least you have the option to improve zoom photos.
1x zoom
6x zoom
50x zoom
100x zoom
Capture the most exciting moments with HD Super Burst
HD Super Burst can snap up to 10 photos per second
For video recording, you can record up to 4K resolution at 60fps for all rear and front cameras. The video quality looks fantastic, plus the video stabilisation is excellent. You'll have no problems taking smooth videos while walking.
The Magic7 Pro also has several photo editing functions that use AI. An example is the AI Eraser, which can erase any unwanted objects in a photo. This generative AI function fills in any empty space after the object is removed, with the results looking better than the generative AI on the Magic6 Pro. In addition, the AI Cutout function can remove the background neatly and quickly.
AI Eraser can erase the man in black neatly
AI Cutout can neatly cut out this burrito photo
According to the Honor website, the Magic7 Pro is also supposed to have an AI Outpainting feature. Allegedly, it expands the boundaries of images with generative AI technology. Unfortunately, the feature wasn't available as of the time of writing this review.
Conclusion – An excellent flagship for early 2025, if you don't mind the price
Clearly, the HONOR Magic7 Pro features advanced features that befit its status as the first flagship phone for 2025, especially with its fast performance and improvements in AI functions. However, the pill-shaped cutout on its screen could affect your viewing experience.
If you don't mind that, the Magic7 Pro is a solid flagship device. Suitable alternatives include the OPPO Find X8 Pro (RM4999) and vivo X200 Pro (RM4699) for advanced photography functions. However, neither phones have Honor-exclusive AI functions like AI Deepfake Detection.
So, what do you think of the Honor Magic7 Pro? Let us know in the comments on our Facebook page, and stay tuned to TechNave for more reviews like this.
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