Honor Magic8 Pro Air review: A dream come true for many smartphone fans

The Magic8 Pro Air may not be the thinnest phone on the market, but in contrast to a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and Apple iPhone Air, lovers of light and handy smartphones have to make far fewer compromises with the Honor phone.

The cameras of the Magic8 Pro Air in particular are surprisingly good and in a different league compared to the Apple phone. The same applies to the battery and its ability to get the smartphone through the day. Here, Honor does an excellent job.

The sluggish USB port and the slight throttling of the Dimensity 9500 out of the box do not quite fit the otherwise uncompromising compact flagship concept. The limited availability, along with the resulting uncertainty over updates and warranty coverage, should also be taken into account before making a purchase via import.

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

      Motorola Signature       Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge       Apple iPhone Air       Honor Magic8 Pro Air       DIN A6 {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_358929’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_349372’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_349372’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_348483’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_348483’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_358927’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_358927’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_a6’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_a6’).checked = false;return false;” title=”hide all”>❌

The Magic8 Pro Air supports Wi-Fi 7, but in combination with our reference router, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, its data transmission rates when sending are fairly low. Reception also shows room for software optimization due to the fluctuations we observed.

The Honor smartphone supports all modern cellular standards and offers broad band coverage. Even the Chinese version should pose no problems in German-speaking markets.

The Magic8 Pro Air ships with Android 16 and Honor’s MagicOS 10 user interface. Despite being the Chinese version, the system language can be set to German.

The security patches are up to date. However, we were unable to determine exactly how long the Air, as a China-only model, will receive updates. The manufacturer will likely follow the policy of its Pro model, which is expected to receive support outside Europe for four years.

The Honor smartphone comes in outer packaging that appears to be plastic-free. The company does not provide any information on sustainability.

Image comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

Main cameraMain cameraLow LightWide angle

The 6.31-inch LTPO OLED display runs at up to 120 Hz and reaches a peak brightness of just under 1,700 cd/m² in our measurements. That puts it in line with the manufacturer’s claimed 1,800 nits in HBM mode. Honor also lists up to 6,000 nits as a peak value in PBM mode, which means the Magic8 Pro Air, like the Magic8 Pro, should become significantly brighter when displaying HDR content.

Thanks to high-frequency PWM dimming at 4,320 Hz, the OLED panel is comparatively easy on the eyes. However, the low base frequency of just 120 Hz means that discomfort cannot be ruled out for sensitive users.

Color reproduction in the Calman measurements is very accurate, and differences from the reference colors are not visible to the naked eye.

* … smaller is better

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

Screen flickering / PWM detected	120 Hz Amplitude: 12 %
The display backlight flickers at 120 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) . The frequency of 120 Hz is very low, so the flickering may cause eyestrain and headaches after extended use. In comparison: 52 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 7572 (minimum: 5 – maximum: 343500) Hz was measured.

Display Response Times

↔    Response Time Black to White
0.6 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.3 ms rise
	↘ 0.3 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 1 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (19.6 ms).
↔    Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey
0.8 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.4 ms rise
	↘ 0.4 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.13 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 3 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (30.7 ms).

Despite its thin and compact form factor, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 performs about as consistently in the stress tests as the larger flagship phones, and the Air model also fares very well in terms of absolute performance. However, Honor appears to throttle the high-end chipset slightly out of the box, as the Oppo Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro post higher scores in benchmark testing.

Even so, the Magic8 Pro Air feels very smooth in everyday use. The ARM Mali G1-Ultra GPU also promises plenty of graphics power for gaming. More than 60 fps in GFXBench’s 4K test is an impressive result for a compact flagship.

Compared with the “mini batteries” of its ultra-thin rivals, the Magic8 Pro Air’s 5,500 mAh battery is very generously sized. In our battery test, the compact Honor phone lasted for more than 20 hours.

* … smaller is better

(-) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 46 °C / 115 F, compared to the average of 33 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.
(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 48.6 °C / 119 F, compared to the average of 35.4 °C / 96 F, ranging from 21.9 to 247 °C for the class Smartphone.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 46.2 °C / 115 F, compared to the average of 34.1 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 24.9 °C / 77 F, compared to the device average of 33 °C / 91 F.

Battery Runtime

With the Magic8 Pro Air, Honor shows that compact, slim smartphones are possible without major compromises.

Total Sustainability Score: 51.5%

Transparency

The selection of devices to be reviewed is made by our editorial team. The test sample was provided to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or retailer for the purpose of this review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review. As an independent media company, Notebookcheck is not subjected to the authority of manufacturers, retailers or publishers.

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I have always been very passionately interested in mobile technologies, especially smartphones. Being a tech enthusiast means the half-life of my devices isn’t exactly long, and being the latest hardware is not enough to suffice as the manufacturer and operating system play a minor role – the most important aspect for me is that the device is state-of-the-art. After posting for Mobi Test I joined Notebookcheck in 2016, where I have been pursuing my enthusiasm for technology by reviewing the latest smartphone, tablet, and accessory trends.

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