Honor’s new Magic 6 Professional has simply launched at MWC 2024, and there’s one huge factor the corporate needs to attract your consideration to… the cameras.
There are 5 lenses in complete, cut up between the back and front, plus a number of different built-in sensors. The specs are mighty spectacular, with a 50Mp dynamic-aperture (f/1.4-f/2.0) essential digital camera, 180Mp telephoto (2.5x optical zoom, 100x digital) and 50Mp ultrawide with 122° discipline of view.
On the entrance, a 50Mp ultrawide lens is supported by a 3D Time of Flight (ToF) sensor, serving to to enhance its total depth notion and facial recognition.
And based mostly on first impressions, I can confidently say that these cameras are each bit nearly as good as they sound.
The principle digital camera constantly takes attractive images, rivaling the Google Pixel 8 Professional for point-and-shoot efficiency. Element, dynamic vary and publicity are all high notch, with a contrasty look making pictures look additional atmospheric.
In contrast to so many cellphone cameras, there’s no apparent drop-off in high quality when switching to the ultrawide lens. The additional discipline of view makes an actual distinction in panorama pictures, particularly the seashore ones I took.
Nonetheless, the 180Mp telephoto is probably the most versatile of all of them. Its variable aperture permits it to soak up extra mild when wanted, dramatically bettering the standard of low-light pictures.
However its essential profit on the Magic 6 Professional is depth of discipline adjustment, that means it’s able to some gorgeous portrait-style pictures. A number of the canine portraits I took had been gorgeous, with one of the best edge detection I’ve ever seen on a cellphone.
The telephoto lens has one different profit, a 2.5x optical zoom. The flexibility to crop in and preserve near-identical picture high quality actually shouldn’t be neglected, although the 100x digital zoom (as indicated on the again of the cellphone) has no sensible utility.
Selfies from the front-facing digital camera are additionally glorious, whether or not you need the background blur or not. Faces are well-lit and background publicity dealt with nicely, with edge detection additionally excellent right here.
Nonetheless, one function I’m not totally impressed with is AI Movement Sensing. It’s designed to maintain topics in focus even after they’re shifting round loads, however the canine images I took had been typically nonetheless blurry.
See a variety of my digital camera samples within the gallery beneath:
Video isn’t a precedence in the identical manner, although the Magic 6 Professional can seize footage at as much as 4K/60fps. However even the default 1080p/30fps mode seemed good, with optical picture stabilisation (OIS) serving to it to stay impressively clean.
It might probably’t fairly rival the iPhone 15 Professional and 15 Professional Max, the present gold normal for smartphone video, however the Magic 6 Professional is greater than serviceable.
In relation to stills, although, this cellphone is up there with the easiest. There’s no scarcity of competitors amongst digital camera telephones, with the iPhone 15 Professional, Pixel 8 Professional, Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, Vivo X100 Professional, Oppo Discover X7 Extremely and Xiaomi 14 Extremely all within the operating, however the Magic 6 Professional is actually up there.
It’s not all concerning the cameras, both. The Magic 6 Professional options Qualcomm’s newest and best Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which mixes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of inside storage.
The 6.8-inch curved OLED show seems attractive, particularly with a excessive 2.8K (2800×1280) decision and dynamic 1-120Hz refresh charge. Sturdiness is robust too, with an IP68 water and mud resistance score and drop certification.
Elsewhere, you get a big 5600mAh battery with help for 80W wired and 66W wi-fi charging, plus twin stereo audio system and under-display fingerprint sensor. It’s 229g however in all probability value it.
Nonetheless, there are two issues that may make or break the Magic 6 Professional. The primary is software program – Honor’s MagicOS 8.0 is predicated on Android 14, however gained’t be to everybody’s tastes. The opposite is worth, which hasn’t been revealed but however is probably going much like the £949/€1,199 Magic 5 Professional.
These two components may imply one other cellphone is a greater all-round match for you. However there’s no doubting the Honor Magic 6 Professional’s stellar digital camera credentials.
Be taught extra in our separate article on the Honor Magic 6 sequence.