An earlier version of this Honor Magic 8 Pro article outlined a severe problem I found with significant purple fringing on images from the ultrawide camera. Honor identified the fringing as a fault with my first review unit and sent me new review samples to test. Having subsequently tested two additional Magic 8 Pro models, I can confidently say that this particular camera problem is not an issue on final retail handsets. But I do still have complaints about this phone's camera, and since it's a flagship handset with a high price, I definitely expected more.
The Magic 8 Pro is Honor's first major Android phone of 2026, and it's has some potent tech, including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, which delivered some of the best scores I've ever seen in our benchmark tests. I like the display, too. The Magic 8 Pro has features like 100W fast charging, various AI skills and a generous seven years of software and security support.
But I wasn't blown away by the phone's battery life despite its large capacity. Plus, the exceptionally heavy-handed image processing on the camera means that this phone falls down in two significant areas for me. At £1,099 in the UK, this phone needed to impress more than it does. Honor doesn't officially sell its phones in the US, but for reference, that price converts to roughly $1,480.
The camera is the big issue for me, so let's start there.
Honor Magic 8 Pro: Problematic camera
I've shot hundreds of photos across three models of the Honor Magic 8 Pro, and in all honesty, I haven't been able to take many images that I especially like. This wasn't helped by my first handset having early teething troubles, but even putting that aside, this phone camera did not live up to my expectations at all. All images shown here were taken using the replacement models which are the same units that people are able to buy in stores.
On paper, the camera hardware is solid: A 50-megapixel main camera leads the way, backed up by 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 200-megapixel telephoto with a lens that offers 3.7x optical zoom and 10x hybrid. But the hardware's not the problem -- it's Honor's software processing that's ruining the fun here.
Enlarge Image Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
I'll start off with this shot above of a street in Edinburgh. At first glance, it's fine -- the photo has a decent exposure (albeit with overly brightened shadows) and accurate colors. It's actually one of the better shots I've taken with the phone.
Enlarge Image Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera, detail crop. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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