Honor Magic7 Pro phone review: Uncovering its true value through deepfake detection

Note: This review was first published on 21 January 2025.

Emboldened Honor

The arrival of the Honor Magic7 Pro means many things, especially for the Singapore market.

It’s one of the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphones to grace our shores officially (Redmagic 10 Pro was a touch earlier, but that’s targeted at Android mobile gamers). Along with the MediaTek-backed OPPO Find X8 Pro, we’re kicking off the 2025 Android flagship comparison to a heated start.

At S$1,399 (512GB storage + 12GB RAM), the Honor Magic7 Pro has the same starting price as its predecessor (review here). More software perks have been added since then, even if you don’t care for Qualcomm’s powerful 2025 processor.

TL;DR version:



Honor Magic7 Pro is an easy choice if you want a relatively affordable 2025 flagship phone with Snapdragon within, but its unique deepfake detection feature and odd flaws may not be for everyone.



Find it at Lazada, Shopee, Challenger, Gain City, and Harvey Norman, as well as at authorised retailers.

Honor’s Android 15 phone runs on MagicOS 9.0, which is said to contain Magic Portal 2.0. This revamped context-based side panel promises to deliver on its claim of knowing the correct apps to recommend when you make selections or copy text. We’ll test it again since the first version wasn’t as impressive as we hoped. That’s on top of its brand of AI Deepfake Detection in video calls, AI translation, summarisation, photo-editing tools, plus pre-loaded Google Gemini access (and even the latest version).

That means the Honor Magic7 Pro has also become an alternative to other AI-first phones in Singapore, such as Samsung’s Galaxy AI, Google’s Pixel AI, and OPPO’s AI (covered here and here). We’ll briefly explore each feature to see how Honor’s version compares to the competition.

In the hard specs arena, worthy call-outs are the Magic7 Pro’s 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED panel, its 5,850mAh battery with 100W wired and 80W wireless charging, its IP68 + IP69 rating for water and dust resistance, and triple rear camera system that touts a 200MP telephoto shooter. All that is on top of many fringe features like NanoCrystal Shield glass, Dual-SIM compatibility, and more. 

With the upgraded AI and bold marketing approaches (asking customers to put a deposit down before the pre-order launch), Honor seems eager to leverage its growing brand after seeing some success with its previous phones. It’s only been 19+ months since they returned to the Singapore market with the midrange Honor X9a 5G, making it a relatively quick rise into Singaporean consciousness (again). That's also why we've opened up a Honor User Group forum section for focussed discussions on their phones and services.

Does Honor Magic7 Pro have what it takes to make Android users choose it over the myriad flagship AI alternatives out there? Let’s find out.

Disclaimer: The Honor Magic7 Pro review unit we received from Honor came with a “Not For Sale” sticker appended to the rear of the phone and its packaging label. We’d like to caution readers that there’s a tiny likelihood our review experience may differ from your experience with your retail unit.

Faultless design, loud bass

There isn’t much to say about the IP68 + IP69-rated Honor Magic7 Pro’s design. It handles like most flagship Chinese Android handsets, favouring its glass sandwich design and big, blocky rear camera housing, just like its predecessors. 

While users typically buy black, grey, or white handsets, we must say that the Breeze Blue colourway is pleasant because of its pastel tones coated in a silk-like, shimmery finish. The aluminium sides are colour-matched, too, which helps convey its high-end standing.

The rear is slightly prone to fingerprint smudges, but they can be easily removed. While the lock/power button shares the same shape as its volume rockers seated above, the latter is much longer, so you can still press it correctly without looking at your phone.

Its 6.8-inch LTPO OLED panel, with a resolution of 2,800 x 1,280 pixels and a peak brightness of 5,000 nits, is suitable for use even under direct sunlight. What we like more, however, is the 1-120Hz refresh rate, which can be fine-tuned in three ways: Dynamic (the phone decides between 1-120Hz), Standard (1-60Hz to save power), and High (locked at 120Hz for eye-melting visuals). We preferred Dynamic since we don’t need the phone to output 120Hz when it idles.

The “large-amplitude” deal speakers built into the Magic7 Pro are true to their advertising. They offer strong and loud volume that can rival some portable speakers with a bass to match. However, they offer blunt-sounding trebles, giving songs a muffled and bloated profile. Our default audio expectations aren’t high anyway, because we typically prefer true wireless earbuds for more serious listening. 

However, the audio output's downside is the speakers’ top-and-bottom placement. When holding the phone with two hands in landscape mode, your palms will cover them, which can be annoying for mobile gamers playing MLBB, Honkai Star Rail, or PUBG Mobile in the comfort of their bedrooms. It's debatable because in general use (portrait orientation), this speaker placement won't pose a problem, and more so if you're going to connect to an audio output via speakers or your headphones.

MagicOS 9.0

Honor’s operating interface, MagicOS 9.0, is a reskinned Android 15 OS that slightly resembles Huawei’s UI (it’s most evident in the Settings app) and Xiaomi’s new HyperOS 2 interface (in the dropdown notification centre).

While navigating an Android phone isn’t new, the critical thing is Honor’s AI additions. These are vastly improved from the questionable AI on the Honor Magic6 Pro.

Note: you can get MagicOS 9.0 on older Honor phones, so you’re just a firmware update away from most of these features.

Magic Portal is only slightly better 

The Magic Portal sidebar has been slightly improved. It now includes Knuckle Circle, which triggers many contextually relevant apps if you use your knuckle to circle the image or text on the screen. In our trials, circling a stoat in a TikTok video would make Magic Portal suggest searching for it online (via Google Images). Alternatively, we could save it as an image inside the Notes or Gallery app, or share it with people via social media or email.

Magic Portal works slightly better now. You get map-related apps in the sidebar when you copy an address or a building name, and online searches open up to YouTube and Google. The only inconsistency is highlighting dates and times, where you have to tap on the calendar icon next to the copied text (and it goes to the default Calendar app — Google Calendar and other calendar apps aren’t supported). 

While the AI-recommended apps are convenient, Knuckle Circle is hard to trigger consistently. This is most prevalent in content or apps where freeform scrolling is available, like video apps and Internet browser apps. You’d accidentally go to the next video or page instead of circling the thing you want. Perhaps Honor needs to work on its touchscreen detection, front camera recognition, and other sensors for the phone to trigger Knuckle Circle better.

Also, Knuckle Circle cannot recognise dates or offer calendar apps. Magic Portal supports only a limited number of apps, so it cannot pull up installed e-commerce ones like Shopee and Lazada when we circle things we want to try buying online. It seems like Honor has a long and painful road ahead to get its Magic Portal smarts right, but we don’t mind it much because its next AI feature is markedly better and novel.

Other AI features include AI Eraser and AI Cutout for photo editing, but we’re not going to explore them since you could always download Google Photos for Google’s version of those tools (which are really good).

Detect deepfake callers in your video calls

Honor has an AI Deepfake Detection feature for video calls conducted on WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger. It’s an anti-scam, opt-in feature you can enable inside the Settings app. 

When you start a video call, a pop-up notification appears at the top of the screen to ask the user if they would like the phone to “scan” their caller to do a verification. The resulting green mark is good news, while a red follow-up means that the Magic7 Pro user is likely on a call with a deepfake party. 

According to Honor, it only works on video calls, so we still lack an idiotproof option for AI deepfakes, which are seen in online videos that vulnerable people like to watch. We’re unsure if we know anyone who would pick up video calls from strangers, but never say never.

We (tried) to test the deepfake detection prowess as best as possible without special equipment or breaking impersonation laws. So, we tested whether it registers genuine faces correctly and whether it throws up false positives.

We’re happy to say it passes muster for our tried methods. It recognised my boss without a hitch, and the figurine near his desk was also correctly identified as a real object, not an AI deepfake. The latter was important since we wanted to know if the phone was merely looking for uncanny-looking people or if it was truly detecting software manipulation.

Imaging performance

Honor talked up Magic7 Pro’s triple rear camera system, with yet another upgrade to its telephoto shooter. Together, they are:

• 50MP man camera (f/1.4 to f/2.0 adjustable aperture, OIS)
• 50MP ultrawide camera (f/2.0 aperture, 122° field-of-view)
• 200MP telephoto camera (f/2.6, 3x optical zoom, 6x “seamless zoom”, 100x digital zoom)
• Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) radar for AutoFocus and OIS
• Multi-spectrum Colour Temperature sensor
• Flicker sensor

It’s called the AI Honor Falcon Camera system, with its AI Honor Image Engine in the background pulling in its hardware and AI processing chops to bring features such as AI Super Zoom (digitally enhanced zoom at high range), AI Enhance Portrait, All-Scenario AI Harcourt Portrait, AI Motion Sensing Capture, HD Super Burst, and Stage Mode. If we were to focus on specs alone, it doesn't seem like Honor has changed up its main or ultrawide camera hardware.

While Magic7 Pro’s camera optimisations are extensive, our concern is its basic photo-taking capabilities, so we’ll examine what each camera delivers.

The phone offers three filters, and you must pick one to shoot in. Below are Natural, Vibrant (its default) and Authentic, in that order. We went with Vibrant for the rest of the shots since that's the default setting offered by the Magic7 Pro.

Given that Magic7 Pro didn't change much of its main or ultrawide cameras, we expected the main, ultrawide, and 2x zoom shots to be largely consistent with its predecessor.

The 3x zoom shot is optical as it relies on its new 200MP telephoto shooter. You can tell that its light intake is not as high as that of its main camera (2x zoom), but it fares decently at getting sharpness down.

The 6x "seamless zoom" is really just an in-sensor centre crop of its 3x zoom, helping it maintain most of its quality at the cost of overall megapixel count.

100x digital zoom, however, is heavily influenced by its AI and digital enhancements, as proven by the parking sign's text. We wouldn't consider this useable, especially when there's better 100x digital zoom performance (like Samsung's) out in the market.

We also tried its macro shooting, which claimed a 2.5cm focusing distance on its ultrawide angle camera. The lack of OIS on ultrawide made the shot nearly impossible since the results repeatedly turned out blurry (by our standards).

All in all, the cameras are serviceable for its flagship categorisation. They aren't the best money can buy, but it's still possible to take sharp photos in well-lit environments. 

Benchmark Performance

The Honor Magic7 Pro comes with highly anticipated Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, making it one of the first mainstream handsets to bring one of the most powerful phone processors of this year into Singaporean hands.

The only phone we have tried so far with a 2025 flagship chipset is the OPPO Find X8 Pro, so we’ll have to compare that and Honor’s predecessors to see how these phones hold up against its past and current competitors.

Putting it to the test

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark Performance remarks

As expected, we experienced overwhelming performance with the Snapdragon-backed Honor Magic7 Pro. It's also interesting to see how MediaTek is closing in on that gap with comparable GPU and multi-core CPU performance via the OPPO Find X8 Pro. If these benchmarks are to be believed, this year will be terrific for flagship phone enthusiasts and consumers.

The year-on-year improvements were also huge, emphasising how this generation of chipset upgrades will matter more, unlike the previous years where gains are relatively incremental. To say if the Magic7 Pro is well-optimised or not would depend on other SD8 Elite entrants coming later.

The phone was able to keep its temperature around 35°C during benchmarks, and also clocked in up to 205 FPS while running the 3DMark Wild Life test that utilises the processor's graphics engine. 

Battery Life

Our battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

With its 5,850mAh third-generation silicon carbon battery, Honor Magic7 Pro lasted a little more than 14 hours on PCMark’s battery test. That’s almost 1.5 hours more than its predecessor, which speaks to the new processor’s efficiency. 

For context, previous generations of flagship smartphones since 2020 would average 12 hours (720 minutes) of uptime, with poorer performers lasting slightly more than 10 hours (600 minutes).

Some battery optimisations are from the Honor E2 power chip and its proprietary power management system, and we believe these contributed to its excellent uptime. While its capacity is one of the highest on the chart, an extra 90 minutes with just 200mAh more has to come down to the extra effort by Honor.

The phone also offers 100W wired and 80W wireless Honor SuperCharge, which takes minutes to charge up to 50% and an hour to charge to 100%.

Conclusion

If the predecessor was a wonderful flagship-grade Android smartphone under S$1,500, then the Honor Magic7 Pro repeats that with better AI integration and an updated chipset - a huge leap from before. 

For the same price (S$1,399) and the same starting storage (512GB), it’s still a steal, especially when more expensive flagship phones start at 256GB at higher prices. While its premium competitors come with better polish, Magic7 Pro doesn’t skimp out on a fantastic experience with a high-quality display panel, stronger audio, and top-tier IP rating protections to match up on hygiene factors.

A really good alternative is the OPPO Find X8 Pro (S$1,649, also 512GB), which does everything the Honor Magic7 Pro can do but with better polish, better AI integration, imaging quality, battery life, and a less annoying camera housing design. You can see how Honor Magic7 Pro helps you save some cash if you don't mind a few niggling matters and prioritise core needs like a top-tier fast phone for 2025.

Of course, some flaws diminish its appeal. The audio balance is nearly nonexistent, and its Magic Portal (while improved) isn’t relatively as seamless as other AI integrations we’ve seen in competing Chinese, Korean, and US phones. More annoying is the diminished audio experience in landscape handheld mode, because of its speaker placement.

While its AI Deepfake Detection for video calls seemed helpful, we don’t think many users have a habit of picking up calls from strangers. They’d also sooner recognise when something feels off, even if the likeness of their friends, colleagues, and family were perfectly cloned. Plus, a noteworthy appointment holder is unlikely to call the average Joe to manipulate them unless one works in such an environment. We still maintain that the feature would be more helpful if it could detect deepfake videos to guard against online disinformation and misinformation.

Still, Honor will hold a special place in users' hearts who miss Huawei’s best handsets. The Magic7 Pro is the closest to being relevant in the Android world while offering its rivals' perks. It's also ideal for people who don't produce content yet consume it without restraint.

Honor Magic7 Pro is available in two variants: S$1,399 (512GB storage, 12GB RAM) and S$1,699 (1TB storage, 16GB RAM). It is also available in three colourways: Lunar Shadow Grey, Breeze Blue, and Black. You can find it at Lazada,Shopee, Challenger, Gain City, and Harvey Norman, as well as at authorised retailers.

Disclaimer: The Honor Magic7 Pro review unit we received from Honor came with a “Not For Sale” sticker appended to the rear of the phone and its packaging label. We’d like to caution readers that there’s a tiny likelihood our review experience may differ from your experience with your retail unit.