Honor Magic 8: In summary
- Four flagship-level smartphones expected
- 15 October launch confirmed
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will power the series
- Dedicated AI button
Chinese brand Honor has started entering the conversation as a flagship phone maker in recent years.
With phones like the Honor Magic 7 Pro and the Honor Magic V5, it has produced phones that are capable of standing toe to toe with anything from Samsung or Google. Indeed, they often feature specifications that go above and beyond their rivals in some way.
That’s why we’re fascinated by the prospect of the Honor Magic 8 series, which is set to be the company’s most extensive and downright impressive flagship range to date.
Here’s everything we’ve heard about the Honor Magic 8 smartphone series to date.
When will the Honor Magic 8 Series be released?
In summary
- Official announcement set for 15 October
- China release likely later in the month
- Global launch may not happen until early 2026
Honor has officially confirmed that the Honor Magic 8 smartphone series will be announced on 15 October.
Over on the company’s Weibo page, it announced (via machine translation): “The Honor Magic8 series and #MagicOS10# launch event is scheduled for October 15th!”
As for a likely release date, the Honor Magic 7 and Honor Magic 7 Pro were announced on 30 October 2024, with a China release following soon after on 8 November. We can probably expect a similarly swift turnaround with the Honor Magic 8, which could mean an initial rollout before the end of the month.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The regular Honor Magic 7 never made its way West, and the Honor Magic 7 Pro didn’t make its way to global markets until January of this year. We could be looking at early 2026 before we can go hands-on with either of these phones in the UK, and they’ll almost certainly never come to the US.
We’re expecting to see the Honor Magic 8 and Honor Magic 8 Pro unveiled initially at the 15 October China event, but we’re also expecting to see an ultra-flagship Honor Magic 8 Ultra and a compact Honor Magic 8 Mini joining at a later date, probably in 2026.
Sources: Honor | Digital Chat Station | Smart Pikachu
How much will the Honor Magic 8 Series cost?
The pricing of the Magic 8 series remains unconfirmed, but we can make educated predictions based on the previous generation.
The Magic 7 Pro launched at £1,099.99 in the UK, while the RSR Porsche Edition was priced at €1,799 (approx. £1,514.61). Given Honor’s push for premium flagship devices, it’s reasonable to expect the Magic 8 Pro to be priced similarly or slightly higher, potentially reaching £1,200 for the base model.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The standard Magic 8 could be priced closer to £900-£1,000, while any Porsche Design variant would likely exceed £1,500. If the rumoured Magic 8 Pro Mini model arrives, it might offer a more affordable alternative, possibly under £900.
What specs and features will the Honor Magic 8 Series have?
Here are some of the specs we’re expecting to see in the Honor Magic 8 series:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset
- 6.71-inch (Pro) or 6.78-inch OLED
- 200MP main sensor across the range
- 200MP telephoto in Pro model
- 120W (Pro) or 90W wired charging
- Dedicated AI button
- Sky Blue Gaze colour option
Honor offered a sneak peek at the design of the Honor Magic 8 at Qualcomm’s 2025 Snapdragon Summit in September. It seemed to showcase a subtle evolution of the Honor Magic 7 design, with even flatter surfaces, a new dedicated hardware button, and a fetching Sky Blue Gaze colour option.
The phone’s presence here also served as official confirmation that the Honor Magic 8 will run on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. Indeed, it’s already been benchmarked on Geekbench and AnTuTu. It also confirmed that on-device AI would play a major role in the Magic 8’s feature-set.
That aforementioned hardware button was showcased in a series of images that Honor shared with The Verge. This control element is clearly identified by the company as a dedicated AI button, despite its positioning in the same area as Apple’s Camera Control.
The Verge
Honor will also be announcing a new feature called Magic Color, which will use AI to carry across the colour palette from images and apply it to separate images and videos.
PhoneArena reports on a leak (though we can’t spot a source) that the standard Honor Magic 8 will come with a 6.78-inch OLED display, while the Honor Magic 8 Pro will ship with a slightly smaller 6.71-inch OLED.
The regular Magic 8 will apparently pack a 7000mAh battery and the Pro a 7200mAh cell – pretty huge in both cases. Charging will be 90W wired and no wireless charging for the Magic 8, and 120W wired, 80W wireless for the Pro.
Honor
Photography is a major aspect of Honor’s flagship phones, and some have predicted that all Magic 8 phones will come with 200Mp main sensors. Others say that the main cameras will only be 50Mp.
The Honor Magic 8 Pro is confirmed to feature a 200MP 85mm telephoto camera, at any rate. Company CMO Guo Rui has shared an image taken by this pin-sharp component.
The entire range could also feature Direct Time of Flight (dToF) sensors for improved depth mapping.
Sources: Honor | The Verge | Honor on Weibo (1) (2) | Digital Chat Station (1), (2) | PhoneArena
That’s everything we’ve heard about the Honor Magic 8 series so far, but we’ll update this piece with any new information when we receive it.