Honor Magic8 Pro full review — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03[music]
2. 0:09[music]
3. 0:11>> The next generation of Honor flagship
4. 0:13has gone global, the Honor Magic 8 Pro.
5. 0:16This phone is in many ways similar to
6. 0:18the recent iPhones. So, is it the
7. 0:20Android alternative you've been waiting
8. 0:22for? I'm Will Go for GSMArena, and let's
9. 0:25find out in our Honor Magic 8 Pro
10. 0:27review.
11. 0:33The Magic 8 Pro is a high-end flagship
12. 0:35that brings some of the best Honor has
13. 0:37to offer.
14. 0:39And unlike a Huawei phone, with Honor
15. 0:41there are no limitations as far as
16. 0:42Google services go.
17. 0:44The Magic 8 Pro packs powerful cameras,
18. 0:47and this time around you get a camera
19. 0:48control button like on the iPhones.
20. 0:52And other notable features include a
21. 0:54huge battery, a cutting-edge chipset,
22. 0:56plenty of AI software features, and
23. 0:58powerful speakers.
24. 1:01Looks-wise, the Magic 8 Pro is quite
25. 1:03similar to the previous model. You have
26. 1:05a large round camera bump and a smooth
27. 1:07no-nonsense back panel.
28. 1:09But here, this panel is actually made of
29. 1:11fiber-reinforced plastic rather than
30. 1:13glass. The frame is made of aluminum.
31. 1:16And as before, you get advanced ingress
32. 1:18protection here. It's rated at
33. 1:20IP68/IP69K
34. 1:22against dust, water, and heated water
35. 1:25jets.
36. 1:26Something new on the table is that
37. 1:28hardware key I mentioned. It works as a
38. 1:30camera key, but it's called the AI
39. 1:32button. It has a mechanical click and
40. 1:34can sense pressure and even swipes.
41. 1:37Besides controlling the camera, this AI
42. 1:39key can be assigned to various AI
43. 1:40features available on the phone. You
44. 1:42can't assign other functions, though.
45. 1:45The display of the Magic 8 Pro is a
46. 1:466.71-in OLED with a high resolution and
47. 1:49a 120-Hz refresh rate. It's protected by
48. 1:52something Honor calls nanocrystal shield
49. 1:54glass, and it's slightly curved at the
50. 1:56edges.
51. 1:57You'll notice a pill-shaped cutout at
52. 1:59the top like you'd see on an iPhone. It
53. 2:01houses both cam and a 3D TOF sensor. The
54. 2:043D TOF sensor enables a face unlock,
55. 2:06which is much more secure than what you
56. 2:08typically get on an Android phone.
57. 2:10But unlike an iPhone, you can also
58. 2:12unlock the Magic 8 Pro with an
59. 2:13ultrasonic under-display fingerprint
60. 2:15reader, and it works [music] great.
61. 2:18Back to this display, it's quite sharp
62. 2:20and has razor-thin bezels. [music] Not
63. 2:22to mention it has support for the HDR
64. 2:24goodies you might want, like HDR10+ and
65. 2:26Dolby Vision playback.
66. 2:28And something unique and quite welcome
67. 2:30here is a suite of eye relief features
68. 2:32meant to ease a bit of the strain on
69. 2:34your eyeballs during those long
70. 2:35doom-scrolling sessions.
71. 2:37But when you do get a chance to step
72. 2:39outdoors, the display also has the
73. 2:41output to provide some solid sunlight
74. 2:42legibility. We measured over 1,800 nits
75. 2:45maximum in our brightness [music]
76. 2:46testing.
77. 2:47And this can go way higher when
78. 2:48measuring a smaller patch of the screen,
79. 2:50a blistering 5,200 nits.
80. 2:54The screen is quite smooth-looking
81. 2:55thanks to the high refresh rate, and
82. 2:57there's support for high frame rate
83. 2:58gaming here, too. And thanks to LTPO
84. 3:00tech, the refresh rate can dial down as
85. 3:02low as 1 Hz when idling to save energy.
86. 3:06The Magic 8 Pro's stereo speakers are a
87. 3:08bit unique. They have symmetrical
88. 3:09drivers and use the space inside the
89. 3:11phone to amplify the sound.
90. 3:14As a result, the Magic 8 Pro earned an
91. 3:16excellent score for loudness, and the
92. 3:17sound quality is outstanding with clean
93. 3:20vocals, lively treble, and
94. 3:21well-controlled bass. You can have a
95. 3:23listen for yourself through a comparison
96. 3:25tool linked below.
97. 3:27>> [music]
98. 3:27>> The global version of the Magic 8 Pro
99. 3:29comes with 512 gigs of storage on board.
100. 3:32The storage isn't expandable through
101. 3:33microSD card.
102. 3:35And the phone has an IR blaster you can
103. 3:37use to control appliances with.
104. 3:40>> [music]
105. 3:40>> The user interface of the Magic 8 Pro is
106. 3:42Honor's Magic OS 10 on top of Android
107. 3:4416. It's heavily customized and in some
108. 3:47ways similar to what you see on iOS.
109. 3:50For example, within the control panel,
110. 3:52you get a see-through bubble-like design
111. 3:54for the toggles.
112. 3:56Around the selfie cutout, you get icons
113. 3:57which can call up playing media and
114. 3:59running timers.
115. 4:02There are plenty of features unique to
116. 4:04Magic OS, like highly customizable large
117. 4:06folders for organizing your apps on the
118. 4:08home screen.
119. 4:10And there's the magic portal
120. 4:11functionality. Long press on an image or
121. 4:14some highlighted text, and a bar appears
122. 4:16on the side, which allows for things
123. 4:17like saving the item, searching for it,
124. 4:19or sharing it.
125. 4:22There are plenty of AI features as well.
126. 4:25Subtitles gives you real-time
127. 4:26transcription of videos and media.
128. 4:29There's the translate feature for
129. 4:30real-time translation of in-person
130. 4:32conversations.
131. 4:33And there's also a call translation
132. 4:35feature.
133. 4:37Memories is a scrapbook of sorts where
134. 4:39you can save screenshots and text.
135. 4:42And there's even a deepfake detection
136. 4:43feature for video calls, for what that's
137. 4:45worth.
138. 4:48Honor also provides an extensive suite
139. 4:50of photo editing features, including
140. 4:52object removal, upscaling, and
141. 4:53reframing.
142. 4:55And Honor has pledged 7 years of
143. 4:57software support for its new flagships,
144. 4:59like you'd get from competitors like
145. 5:00Samsung and Google.
146. 5:03Powering all of these features is the
147. 5:04latest top chipset from Qualcomm, a
148. 5:07Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This sets the
149. 5:09Magic 8 Pro on the same playing field as
150. 5:12the other flagships that are coming out
151. 5:13recently. In benchmarks, this phone is
152. 5:15on par with the best in terms of
153. 5:17performance. There's plenty of power for
154. 5:19smooth everyday use, intensive tasks,
155. 5:22and heavy gaming.
156. 5:25The thermal management of this phone is
157. 5:27actually highly dependent on if you're
158. 5:28using a performance mode or the balanced
159. 5:30mode in the battery settings.
160. 5:33If you're in performance mode, the phone
161. 5:34puts out high numbers for about 5
162. 5:36minutes before dropping off a cliff and
163. 5:38falling into a pattern of dips and
164. 5:40spikes.
165. 5:42In balanced mode, you can count on a lot
166. 5:43better stability, but as a trade-off,
167. 5:45the overall performance level is kept
168. 5:47lower than the maximum.
169. 5:50The Magic 8 Pro's battery capacity is
170. 5:52different depending on the market. This
171. 5:54here is a European model with a 6,270-mA
172. 5:58battery. The Chinese version is 7,200.
173. 6:02Still, even though it's not the
174. 6:03highest-spec version around, our Magic 8
175. 6:06Pro did an excellent job in our battery
176. 6:07life tests, earning an overall active
177. 6:09use score of about 19 hours. It's a huge
178. 6:12improvement over the previous model.
179. 6:14>> [music]
180. 6:15>> The global version of the Magic 8 Pro
181. 6:16has support for 100-W wired charging. Of
182. 6:19course, that won't come included in the
183. 6:20box, but we had one handy.
184. 6:23>> [music]
185. 6:24>> With it, we were able to charge the
186. 6:25phone from zero to full in 40 minutes.
187. 6:28And actually, when using a generic 100-W
188. 6:30power delivery charger, a full charge
189. 6:32was just as fast.
190. 6:34The phone supports wireless charging as
191. 6:35well, though to get the maximum speed,
192. 6:37you'll need to get Honor's own charging
193. 6:39pad.
194. 6:40The Magic 8 Pro has a triple camera
195. 6:42setup, which includes a 50-megapixel
196. 6:44main camera, a 200-megapixel 3.7x zoom,
197. 6:48and a 50-megapixel ultrawide.
198. 6:51You might remember that the previous
199. 6:52model had a variable aperture lens on
200. 6:54the main camera. Well, that's gone now,
201. 6:56but I'm not sure who's really going to
202. 6:57miss it.
203. 6:58>> [music]
204. 6:58>> What you do have is the aforementioned
205. 7:00camera control key. You can use it to
206. 7:02launch the cameras, zoom in and out,
207. 7:05focus, shoot,
208. 7:07>> [music]
209. 7:07>> and do burst shooting.
210. 7:10Daylight photos from the main camera are
211. 7:12great. Detail is generally excellent.
212. 7:15Exposures are on the bright side, but
213. 7:17not really in a bad way. Dynamic range
214. 7:19is nicely wide, and there's good
215. 7:21development at both ends of the tonal
216. 7:22range. Colors are plenty vibrant, as
217. 7:24well.
218. 7:26Human subjects are also rendered nicely
219. 7:28with good facial detail and lively skin
220. 7:30tones.
221. 7:31>> [music]
222. 7:31>> There's a hint of background blur that
223. 7:33might be enough for certain scenes.
224. 7:35And for more, you can always resort to
225. 7:36the portrait mode's added bokeh effect.
226. 7:40The main cam also holds up quite well
227. 7:42when you zoom into two times digitally.
228. 7:45These shots come out sharp with good
229. 7:47definition of detail.
230. 7:49In the dark, the Magic 8 Pro can shoot
231. 7:51in three sorts of modes. The default
232. 7:53photos use automatic night mode
233. 7:54processing when needed. Then there's the
234. 7:57dedicated night mode you can toggle on.
235. 7:59And there's an AI enhanced mode, which
236. 8:01uploads the shot to the cloud for
237. 8:03further processing.
238. 8:05The default photos come out excellent,
239. 8:07no AI needed. The main cam exposes well,
240. 8:10delivers well-developed shadows and
241. 8:11highlights, and has nice vibrant colors
242. 8:14without white balance issues at all.
243. 8:16Detail is very good, too.
244. 8:18Adding the AI enhancement on top doesn't
245. 8:20offer a lot of improvement. You do get
246. 8:23better definition in straight lines,
247. 8:25though some random textures may be
248. 8:26rendered into patterns, which is a step
249. 8:28away from reality.
250. 8:31Now, the telephoto cam and its 3.7x zoom
251. 8:34photos. These are very good, nicely
252. 8:36detailed with good rendition. Dynamic
253. 8:39range is wide, and colors are likable,
254. 8:41if not quite as vivid as those from the
255. 8:43main camera.
256. 8:46But for one reason or another, portraits
257. 8:48coming out of the telephoto camera at
258. 8:50its native zoom level aren't as sharp as
259. 8:52we'd like them to be.
260. 8:54Combining the telephoto cam with the
261. 8:56digital zoom will get you these 7.4x
262. 8:58zoom photos. The results are quite good.
263. 9:01Straight lines are nicely defined, and
264. 9:03even foliage looks pretty decent.
265. 9:07And you can also take close-ups with the
266. 9:08zoom camera thanks to its short focusing
267. 9:11distance.
268. 9:12The results are okay, but not as sharp
269. 9:14as we've seen from competitors.
270. 9:17In low light, the telephoto camera
271. 9:18captures very good photos with excellent
272. 9:20detail in the better-lit areas.
273. 9:22Exposures are on point, and dynamic
274. 9:24range is great. And you get vibrant
275. 9:26colors and consistent white balance.
276. 9:30If you toggle on the AI enhancement, the
277. 9:32image is sharpened up nicely, and the
278. 9:34detail is improved. However, some things
279. 9:37like text may end up as gibberish.
280. 9:40The AI enhancement does even more magic
281. 9:42at higher levels of zoom, making clean
282. 9:44and sharp results even out of these
283. 9:46digitally zoomed shots.
284. 9:55convincing looking detail.
285. 9:58On to the ultra-wide cam and it takes
286. 9:59excellent daylight photos. Detail is
287. 10:02among the best for this sort of camera,
288. 10:04which is even more impressive
289. 10:05considering its extra wide field of
290. 10:06view. Dynamic range is generally very
291. 10:09good and we're also liking the colors.
292. 10:12There are no night time AI shenanigans
293. 10:14on the ultra-wide and its photos are
294. 10:16decent, but don't blow us away.
295. 10:18>> [music]
296. 10:18>> The detail is rather hazy and shadows
297. 10:20are soft.
298. 10:23Selfies come from the 50 megapixel
299. 10:25front-facing cam and they're just all
300. 10:27right. You'll find a random areas of
301. 10:29softness on faces for no real reason.
302. 10:32The sharper parts have an artificial
303. 10:33look to them and there's no auto focus
304. 10:35here.
305. 10:38The Magic 8 Pro can record videos in up
306. 10:39to 4K at 120 FPS with the main and
307. 10:42telephoto cameras, while the ultra-wide
308. 10:44and selfie cameras max out at 4K at 60
309. 10:46FPS. There's also log recording on the
310. 10:49main camera.
311. 10:50The electronic video stabilization is
312. 10:52good on all three cameras.
313. 10:55Overall, the Magic 8 Pro's video quality
314. 10:57is good, but not great. You have
315. 10:59excellent dynamic range and the colors
316. 11:02are quite saturated. What's bugging us
317. 11:04is the sharpness. On the main camera and
318. 11:06the ultra-wide, things are softer than
319. 11:07we'd like.
320. 11:09Though at least the telephoto appears to
321. 11:10be doing a little better in this regard.
322. 11:14At night, things go further south in
323. 11:16terms of detail. The main camera's
324. 11:18output looks good from afar with
325. 11:20excellent dynamic range and vivid
326. 11:21colors, but looking closer, you see that
327. 11:24the footage is softer than the
328. 11:25competition.
329. 11:26The ultra-wide is extra soft and noisy,
330. 11:29while the telephoto remains quite sharp,
331. 11:32but too grainy for our liking.
332. 11:34So, that's the Honor Magic 8 Pro. It's
333. 11:37got an excellent display and speakers,
334. 11:39great battery life and a bunch of AI
335. 11:41features, even for the cameras. And the
336. 11:433D face unlock and camera control key
337. 11:45are nice extras, which mirror what you
338. 11:47see on the iPhones. When it comes to the
339. 11:50cameras, the stills are quite
340. 11:51competitive, but we can't say the same
341. 11:53about the video recording and selfie
342. 11:54quality, which is strange coming from a
343. 11:56flagship camera phone. So, in the end,
344. 11:59the Magic 8 Pro is not the most
345. 12:00well-rounded camera-wise, but if that
346. 12:02doesn't bother you, then as a flagship,
347. 12:04it's worth considering.
348. 12:06Thanks for watching, guys. Here are some
349. 12:08alternative camera-centric phones, the
350. 12:10Oppo Find X9 Pro and the Vivo X300 Pro.
351. 12:14Let us know what you think down below
352. 12:16and I'll see you on the next one.