HONOR Magic8 Pro: UAE's First 5.5G Smartphone With AI-Powered Night Photography

With its advanced and intuitive AI and huge battery capacity, HONOR's new flagship photos better, lasts longer, and thinks faster than anything else in your pocket

Published: Tue 16 Dec 2025, 1:30 PM

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The world collectively bought around 1.5 billion smartphones in 2025, according to most statistics, adding close to 6.5-7 billion already in use. In this ocean of mobiles, where a new model is introduced by some brand somewhere in the globe almost every week on average, how do you set yourself apart?

HONOR has the answer: Do not enter the market with a polite knock; instead kick down the door and plant your instrument on the table, where it will hold its own with its features and performance. The new HONOR Magic8 Pro does just that.

With its 7,100mAh battery, a camera that thinks it's a DSLR, and a new AI brain with, in all probability, a stratospheric IQ, the new Magic8 Pro is not just a smartphone. It's the kind of device that makes you question whether your current daily driver has been slacking off.

Between its new AI button, a camera that loves dramatic lighting as much as Instagram influencers do, and a battery that seems powered by magic, this phone is a tour de force of HONOR's prowess. Building on HONOR's previous successes – such as the Magic7 Pro and the brilliant Magic V5 folding phone - the features where the Magic8 Pro struts the hardest are the Ultra Night Telephoto camera, the battery and the AI that insists on raising every use you put this phone to, to the next level.

Another big feather in the Magic8 Pro's cap is that it is also the first 5.5G-ready smartphone in the UAE. For a country that is in the process of strengthening its position as a global leader in digital transformation, this marks a step forward and underscores HONOR's dedication to advancing next-generation connectivity and technological innovation.

But before we get further into the juicy bits, HONOR deserves applause for the refreshing physical feel of the Magic8 Pro. Its soft brushed metal sides ooze a premium sophistication, with refined, graceful and comfortable curves. It's as if HONOR took the“flat sides trend” the market is so obsessed with and said, yes cute idea, but let's make it actually ergonomic.

The phone comes in Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, and Black, with 12GB RAM, 512GB or 16GB RAM, 1TB storage, the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform processor in the UAE, and a battery that overshadows every other spec simply by existing. As does the AI feature, which is embodied in a button on the side that is another star of the show.

While the AI photo editing and effects features are brilliant, the real diva of the show is the camera setup, with its 200MP AI Ultra Night Telephoto. HONOR has consistently delivered beautiful shots even with its lower-priced phones, so the Magic8 Pro comes in swinging with some serious ammo. Whether you're shooting at 2x, 3.7x, or 10x, the results are crisp, clean, and shockingly consistent. Whether it is motion, portraits, zoomed-in architecture, or blurry-night-out-with-friends lighting, in every scenario the phone handled imaging with an ease that would make some premium cameras blush.

One standout moment is its performance during Blue Hour - that elusive time just before sunrise or just after sunset when the world becomes a soft, blue-toned dream. Most phones struggle with this; they either overexpose, wash out colours, or introduce noise. The Magic8 Pro, though, treats Blue Hour like its natural habitat. The colours are beautifully vibrant yet natural, the exposure spot on, and the details crisp.

But the secret sauce isn't just hardware - it's the AI engine behind the scenes. The telephoto lens now brings enhanced stability, better dynamic range, and smarter low-light corrections, all wrapped in processing that understands motion, mood, and even storytelling. The camera doesn't just capture photos; it wants to help you create little masterpieces without requiring any effort.

While enhanced clarity in long-distance and low-light scenarios is easily achieved thanks to the 200MP AI Ultra Night Telephoto camera, HONOR goes further in the Magic8 Pro with an upgraded AI Ultra Night Portrait mode engineered for precise colour accuracy and balanced exposure.

The device also introduces features such as the AI Magic Color and a new AI Editor, enabling refined colour optimisation and on-device creative adjustments. With these features, the Magic8 Pro sprinkles in charming new AI re-colouring modes with names like Romantic Blue, Golden Autumn, and Warm Sunset, perfect for making your photos look like they are taken by someone who National Geographic calls up for assignments.

And all of these demanding features are seamlessly underpinned by the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform – a processor that is equal to the task, delivering advanced processing efficiency, improved thermal performance and elevated responsiveness.

But such demanding performance requires energy, and this is a quality that can be limited by battery life. Which brings us to the showstopper: its battery. Here it is - the Magic8 Pro's mic-drop moment: 7,100mAh.

This is perhaps the largest battery ever put into a traditional flagship smartphone, and it is ironic how light the phone still feels. HONOR's silicon-carbon battery tech is doing fantastic things in terms of efficiency and density. Putting our test mule through its quite hectic and frenetic paces, comprising shooting, scrolling, streaming, messaging, et al, we were pleasantly surprised when on the morning of day-three we were still greeted by around 20 per cent battery remaining. It meant that two days of heavy use had been dealt with easily, with juice to spare. This is genuinely S-tier endurance. For those with battery anxiety, the Magic8 Pro is basically therapy.

Intuitive AI: At the click of a button

Let's be honest: when brands introduce“AI buttons”, half the time it's just another programmable key looking for attention. But not HONOR. Placed subtly on the right side, two-thirds the way down, the AI button is long, flush and multifunctional. Out of the box, a long press triggers video AI tools, while single or double taps can launch the AI Memories Centre, the camera, or grab a screenshot. And this last feature is where it shines.

Imagine scrolling Instagram. You see a Dubai hotel advertising a festive brunch that looks suspiciously like the brunch of your dreams. You tap the AI button - snap - the Magic8 Pro stores it instantly in the AI Memories hub. Later, you just search“brunch” and pull it up to know when and where to go. No digging through screenshots, no asking yourself whether you saved it or hallucinated it.

In fact, AI Search makes finding anything on the device incredibly simple. A quick, conversational prompt is enough to locate photos, files, messages, screenshots and more - without endless scrolling. HONOR's contextual AI storage feels almost telepathic. It's similar to Screenshot app in some other phones but packed into a system that seems to understand the chaos of modern information hoarding.

And the AI fairy dust doesn't stop at memories. Editing photos? Transforming motion pictures into slow-motion clips? Adding motion trails? Creating a stop-motion masterpiece out of your dog yawning? It's all achievable with two taps, zero learning curve.

The AI Settings Agent accepts commands through text or voice and is so intuitive that we felt it was interpreting our intent, and responding with both on-screen text and spoken feedback. Based on the request, it either performed the action directly or guided us to the appropriate page, setting or app to complete the task from HONOR Magic8 Pro is what happens when a smartphone company decides to stop playing catch-up and instead builds something bold, audacious and undeniably fun. Its camera system is a powerhouse, its battery borders on mythological, its AI features are helpful rather than gimmicky, and its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor handles all these demanding tasks with aplomb, which are all rare in 2025.

If you want a flagship that feels fresh, clever, and willing to spoil you with both hardware and thoughtful AI features, the Magic8 Pro doesn't just check the boxes. It draws new ones and checks them too.

Priced at Dh3,999 for the 12GB+512GB version and Dh4,699 for the 16GB+1TB, HONOR is also throwing in extras with the pre-launch orders, providing a free gift package worth of Dh2,297 that comprises HONOR VIP Care+ for 12 months to ensure damage protection for free; a free three-month trial of Google Ai Pro, and a HONOR Watch5 Ultra smartwatch.

In the final analysis, this is not only a great phone from HONOR, but also a creative, energetic and untiring companion for your everyday life.

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