Honor Magic7 Pro Goes Head-to-Head With Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Honor Magic7 Pro Goes Head-to-Head With Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Honor Magic7 Pro Goes Head-to-Head With Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Honor launches the Magic7 Pro in Europe today, where the phone competes against flagships from Google, Oppo, and Samsung. Honor calls the phone “AI-powered” and says it arrives with Gemini and other tricks from Google preinstalled. The company hopes these software features, paired with a high-quality piece of hardware, will be enough to woo users across the continent away from the competition.


Top-Level Basics

The Magic7 Pro’s blueprint doesn’t stray too far from that of last year’s Magic6 Pro. It’s a high-quality metal-and-glass slab. Honor says the 6.8-inch screen is protected by its NanoCrystal Shield, which it claims is 10x more drop-resistant than normal glass. Honor doesn’t share the screen’s resolution but says it uses AI to help manage brightness, color temperature, and refresh rate. It uses circular polarization to mimic sunlight and help reduce eye strain.

Like most 2025 flagship phones, the Magic7 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which is paired with an undisclosed amount of RAM and storage. The Oryon CPU and Adreno GPU from Qualcomm ensure swift everyday performance and hefty graphics capabilities for high-tier gaming and advanced AI functionality.

Honor Magic7 Pro bottom edge

(Credit: Honor)

A large 5,270mAh battery is packed inside. Honor is sticking with a silicon-carbon battery (rather than lithium-ion) because it can recharge rapidly at a low temperature. The battery supports Honor’s proprietary SuperCharge at 100W wired and 80W wireless, which the company claims can fully recharge the battery in 33 minutes. A special Honor E2 chip helps balance power management and maintain battery health over the device’s lifespan.

Honor ensures the phone produces great sound with an ultra-large sound cavity and spatial audio that works with a new bass enhancement algorithm. Expect its stereo sound to be loud and rich.


AI-Assisted Photography

Honor has refined the Magic7 Pro’s camera components using AI processing tools and calls it the Honor AI Falcon Camera System. The result should be sharp photos and videos from the multi-camera module.

The main camera has a 50MP 1/1.3-inch sensor and an aperture of f/1.4. The telephoto camera has a high-resolution 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor with an aperture of f/2.6. Combining the optical zoom with digital cropping allows for AI Super Zoom between 30x to 100x to allow for far-off captures. The wide-angle camera also has a 50MP sensor, though Honor didn’t share the sensor size and aperture details.

Honor Magic7 Pro in blue with camera module

(Credit: Honor)

All the cameras can take advantage of the AI Honor Image Engine, which combines on-device and cloud-based processing against AI Large Models to create end results. Honor includes the Harcourt Portrait Modes to give users a range of creative tools for portraits with advanced lighting effects. Another function, HD Super Burst, fires off 10 frames per second with high shutter speeds to help freeze action shots.


Google Baked In

In addition to shipping with the Google Gemini app preinstalled, Honor has adopted many of Google’s existing high-level AI tools for the Magic7 Pro. For example, Circle to Search is on board, though Honor refers to it as Magic Portal. With it, users can select objects on their display for an image-based search. Honor says it can search social media, travel, productivity, and shopping sources to locate the most pertinent details.

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Honor Magic7 Pro in Black

(Credit: Honor)

AI Translation is available for quick two-way conversations between people speaking different languages. This feature, which is available in most current Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, supports translation between 13 languages at launch. Honor Notes can generate AI-based summaries to help people quickly grasp the meaning of notes or emails, and AI Minutes can quickly create bulleted summaries of meeting transcripts or training materials.

The phones ship with Honor’s MagicOS 9.0 user interface, which is built on top of Android 15. Honor doesn’t say how long it will support the Magic7 Pro with software and security updates.


Costs a Fine Farthing

The Honor Magic7 Pro is available in Black and Lunar Shadow Grey. It’s first available for preorder in the UK starting Jan. 15 at £1,099.99 at Amazon, Argos, Currys, O2, Three, and Vodafone. It’ll reach the Republic of Ireland unlocked starting in February, where it is priced at €1,299.99. Honor doesn’t say if or when it will be available across the rest of Europe—or the US, though we’re not holding our breath.

Though Honor has beat Samsung to market with the Magic7 Pro, the Korean company’s Galaxy Unpacked event is approaching swiftly. Scheduled for Jan. 22, we expect to see new Galaxy S25 smartphones (and maybe more). Samsung will surely be prepared to wow us with its own flagship devices.

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About Eric Zeman

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

Eric Zeman

I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I’ve been covering tech for more than 22 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop. 


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