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REVIEW: HONOR Magic6 Pro features superb cameras and battery life

Article (news)

Arthur Fuentes

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA - The HONOR Magic6 Pro is the brand’s latest flagship, and the company proudly says that it packs the best cameras in any smartphone right now. After taking it on a month-long trip to Europe, I can definitely say that HONOR has backed up that boast with a very impressive performance.</p><p>When you are taking a four-week trip to Europe, you want to make sure that you have the best camera possible. On a very costly and possibly once-in-a-lifetime trip like this, you don’t want to come home carrying back mediocre photos of ancient Rome’s Colosseum, Venice’s canals and or the view from Switzerland’s Stanserhorn,</p><p>The Magic6 Pro did not disappoint. In all honesty, it even exceeded my expectations. Aside from having fantastic cameras, this phone’s battery was in a league of its own.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174247604HONOR MAGIC6 PRO SCHONBRUNN.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Vienna&#x27;s Schonbrunn Palace and the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Vienna&#x27;s Schonbrunn Palace and the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><div><strong>SPECS AND DESIGN</strong></div><p>But first the specs: Like other flagships today, the Magic6 Pro uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It can grab an extra 8GB of RAM from the storage if you are doing really intense tasks like heavy gaming.</p><p>Just like many other flagships, it features a 6.8-inch display. The OLED screen’s resolution is 2800 x 1280 with a refresh rate of 120Hz, which means crisp text and icons, and smooth animation.</p><p>But unlike other flagships, HONOR says the Magic6 Pro’s screen can pump out 5,000 nits of peak brightness. Notably, it is also almost double the claimed 2,600 nits of peak brightness of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.</p><p>There’s a caveat though–HONOR says “all screen” brightness peaks at 1,600 nits. So only certain parts of the screen, possibly the parts most in need of illumination, get 5,000 nits. But in real world use, I found the screen plenty bright even in direct sunlight.  </p><p>Its display has another neat trick called PWM dimming, where the screen flashes  at 4320Hz. This is great for low light situations such as night-time reading, as it reduces eye strain. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174348545HONOR MAGIC6 PRO CAMERA.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The HONOR Magic6 Pro features 3 main cameras. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">The HONOR Magic6 Pro features 3 main cameras. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>While other phone makers have been shifting to the flat screen aesthetic, HONOR has stuck with its curved screen design for the Magic6 Pro. It may not be to everyone’s liking, but this design allows for really thin bezels. However, it also means that the phone’s 6.8-inch screen looks smaller when placed next to flat phones that also have a 6.8-inch screen.</p><p>But there is no doubting the premium looks of this phone. Our review unit came in the black colorway, with a matte glass finish on the back that does a pretty good of repelling smudges from fingers. It also comes in the Epi Green and Cloud Purple colorways with a ‘leather’ back. </p><div><strong>CAMERAS AND BATTERY</strong></div><p>If I had to pick two standout features of this phone, they would be the cameras and the battery.</p><p>The Magic6 Pro features three cameras at the back: a 50-megapixel main camera with a variable aperture of f/1.4 to 2.0 with optical image stabilization; a </p><p>50 MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.0; and a monster 180 MP telephoto camera with 2.5x optical zoom, f/2.6 that also comes with optical stabilization. </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174862967portrait schonbrunn.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria hot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">The gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria hot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>It can also do a very good 5x zoom by using the sensor’s extra pixels to apply a crop factor without losing much in quality.</p><p>The main camera system can shoot stabilized HDR video at 4K at 24/30/60fps.</p><p>Up front is a generous 50 MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture that also functions as a depth and biometrics sensor, and shoots stabilized 4K video at 30fps.</p><p>Last but definitely not least, this phone features a 5,600 mAh battery and 80-watt fast charging. That is larger than even the already monster gaming-focused ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro which has 5,500 mAh and 65W fast charging.  </p><p>The standout cameras and battery really came in handy when me and my wife traveled through ten countries in Europe in just 26 days.</p><div><strong>EUROPE</strong></div><p>You can’t run out of superlatives when discussing the performance of this phone’s cameras. When it was launched earlier this year, the venerable <a href="https://www.dxomark.com/honor-magic6-pro-camera-test/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dxomark</a> ranked it as having the best cameras in the ultra-premium class, besting even the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Google Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174674268colosseum bikes.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The Colosseum in Rome shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">The Colosseum in Rome shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174704866st peters.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="St. Peter&#x27;s Basilica shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">St. Peter&#x27;s Basilica shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>When shooting something as large as the Colosseum, St. Peter’s Basilica, or Vatican City itself, pays to have a phone that can take ultrawide angle photos. The 0.5x zoom of the Magic6 Pro did an excellent job with that. Unlike the wide-angle cameras of other flagships which have 12MP sensors on their ultrawides, this phone is kitted with a 50MP sensor. </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174751126venice 2.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Venice, Italy shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174733007venice 1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Venice, Italy shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Venice, Italy shot with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>A good wide-angle lens is also needed when taking photos of Venice’s tightly packed streets and canals.  </p><p>Coupled with a very good camera AI, the Magic6 Pro always produced very good shots.</p><p>The telephoto zoom was another standout. If you want to shoot a subject with Switzerland’s Alpine mountains in the background, it’s best to use a telephoto lens so that the scene doesn’t look flat. </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174795987stanserhorn zoom 2.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="View from Stanserhorn in Lucerne, Switzerland. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">View from Stanserhorn in Lucerne, Switzerland. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174813086stanserhorn zoom.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="View from Stanserhorn in Lucerne, Switzerland. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">View from Stanserhorn in Lucerne, Switzerland. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>The Magic6 Pro’s 2.5x zoom was very good. Pushing it to 5x also showed very little loss of quality, despite this already being a digital zoom. You can use portrait mode and the 2.5x zoom for something that approaches DSLR quality.</p><p>Beyond 5x though, the results are what you’d expect of digital zooming. Still, it&#x27;s a camera in your pocket, and it beats lugging around a 240mm lens and a heavy DSLR.</p><p>The Magic6 Pro’s Portrait Mode also does a very good job of blurring the background.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722175214271portait brussels.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Portrait taken at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Portrait taken at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174900507portrait prague.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Portrait taken at Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle in the background in Prague, Czechia. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Portrait taken at Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle in the background in Prague, Czechia. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>Even at night, portrait shots look superb. Night Mode is also excellent as these shots of Prague and Amsterdam will show</p><p>.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722174922468amsterdam night.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Night shot of a canal in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Night shot of a canal in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>Selfies have also improved a lot from the previous-generation flagship. The HONOR Magic6 Pro has solved the &quot;white out&quot; problem with the Magic5 Pro, and selfie shots now have very good dynamic range. </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722175105888silfie prague.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Selfie at Charles Bridge in Prague, Czechia. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">Selfie at Charles Bridge in Prague, Czechia. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</span> </span></span></span></div><p>During the trip, I took almost 4,000 photos and over 100 video clips with the Magic6 Pro. Thanks to a generous 512GB of storage, I never needed to worry whether I was going to run out of space.</p><p>The Magic6 Pro also sets itself apart in terms of battery life. Aside from taking hundreds of photos each day, we also used the phone to navigate the cities we were visiting. Google Maps was almost always on, especially when we were walking an average of 10 kilometers per day in Rome. We also had to rely on Google Maps when we cycled around Rome and Amsterdam.</p><p>Navigation can drain a lot of power, but this was never an issue with the Magic6 Pro. After a whole day of navigating while biking around Amsterdam, coupled with taking a lot of photos, the phone still had around 20 percent of battery at the end of the day.  </p><p>With its class-leading cameras and battery life, the HONOR Magic6 Pro sells for P57,999. That might seem steep, but a popular brand sells its phone with similar specs for P92,990.</p><p>I guess the only thing that might be counted against the Magic6 Pro is its relative dearth of AI features when compared to a more popular Android phone that already has real-time translation of calls, transcription of recordings, among others.</p><p>But if having a superb camera and battery life are more important to you than AI-wizardry, then the Magic6 Pro is definitely worth a look.  </p>

<p>MANILA - The HONOR Magic6 Pro is the brand’s latest flagship, and the company proudly says that it packs the best cameras in any smartphone right now. After taking it on a month-long trip to Europe, I can definitely say that HONOR has backed up that boast with a very impressive performance.</p>

MANILA - The HONOR Magic6 Pro is the brand’s latest flagship, and the company proudly says that it packs the best cameras in any smartphone right now. After taking it on a month-long trip to Europe, I can definitely say that HONOR has backed up that boast with a very impressive performance.