Honor has released a slew of new smartphones in Malaysia in a short period of time. Just in March 2024, the Magic 6 Pro was launched in Malaysia, and not even a year after that, the successor – the Honor Magic 7 Pro featured in this review – was introduced locally earlier this month.

Powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, the Magic 7 Pro is as fast as a flagship smartphone can be in today’s market. However, some aspects of the device don’t quite meet the standards set by other premium smartphones in this price point; notably in the camera and software departments.

Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the Magic 7 Pro is a solid flagship smartphone with some rather useful AI-powered features, including real-time translation in Bahasa Malaysia.

What It Is

Looking at the spec sheet of the Magic 7 Pro, it has the hardware of a proper flagship smartphone. From the fast Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset to the sophisticated triple camera system, it’s a capable device…on paper. I’ll talk more in-depth about the camera performance of the phone further down the review.

Besides that, I’d like to highlight the battery capacity of the Magic 7 Pro. Here in Malaysia, the phone has a larger 5,850mAh battery compared to other markets, which it comes with only a 5,270mAh cell. With that in mind, the Magic 7 Pro for our market offers excellent battery life, and throughout the review period, I always end the day without the battery ever going below 10%.

The Good Stuff

Since I’m talking about the battery life of the Magic 7 Pro already, let’s get to that first. On average, I can easily get four hours of screen on time…without the 5,850mAh battery falling beyond the 50% mark. Needless to say, this is impressive battery life, and on days where I forgot to charge the phone overnight, the 100W fast charging can quickly juice up the battery as I go through my morning routine.

Beyond battery life, it goes without saying the Magic 7 Pro is a fast, snappy device, thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Even at maxed out graphics settings, demanding games like Zenless Zone Zero can run at a stable 60fps on the phone. Naturally, I can seamlessly multitask with different apps too without missing a beat.

Sporting a 6.8-inch 2800 x 1280 OLED display, the Magic 7 Pro also has a pleasant screen to look at. Whether I’m gaming or streaming my favourite shows on Netflix, the punchy colours and deep, true blacks – winning characteristics of an OLED panel, basically – make for a pleasant viewing experience. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate lends to excellent motion clarity as well.

What about the AI features of the Magic 7 Pro? Well, it’s similar to what the Honor Magic V3 foldable phone offered. These include AI Eraser to remove unwanted subjects in a picture, the aforementioned AI Translate to do real-time translation, as well as Google’s very useful Circle to Search feature. However, it’s worth noting that these AI-centric features rely on internet connectivity instead of on-device processing.

Last but not least is the camera performance of the Magic 7 Pro. The phone’s triple camera system is made up of a 50MP dual-aperture (f/1.6 or f/2.0) primary sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 200MP telephoto shooter that can do 3x optical zoom. Collectively, the phone can take great-looking shots, though I find the 50MP main camera to perform the best of the three available lenses.

And that is a good segue to the next section.

The Bad Stuff

While the Magic 7 Pro’s camera system can capture visually appealing images, this mostly applies to the primary 50MP camera. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the 50MP ultra-wide and 200MP telephoto shooters are bad; it’s just that the image quality of the two sensors are not on par with the 50MP main camera in more challenging lighting conditions.

It also doesn’t help that the camera interface of the Magic 7 Pro isn’t as responsive as it should be. Every time I hit the shutter button, there’s a short delay before I can take another shot. Because of this, the camera app feels a tad too sluggish for my liking.

And then there’s MagicOS 9.0 on the Magic 7 Pro, which is filled with one too many bloatware. Granted, it’s relatively easy to uninstall all the random apps that come pre-installed with the phone, but it would’ve been even better if I didn’t have to do this in the first place. For a high-end device that starts at RM4,599, it’s not unreasonable to expect a more pleasant, fuss-free user experience.

Is It Worth It?

Despite its shortfalls in the camera and software departments, I’ll still happily recommend the Honor Magic 7 Pro. After all, it has fast performance courtesy of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, very, very impressive battery life, some useful AI features, and a largely good camera system that can still snap some great-looking shots.

Although the Magic 7 Pro’s RM4,599 starting price is slightly higher than its predecessor – the Magic 6 Pro retailed at RM4,499 when it was first launched in Malaysia – it still offers reasonably good value proposition for a Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphone. Even as more devices with similar chipsets hit the market, I reckon the Magic 7 Pro will remain one of the more affordable options.