AI is everywhere… and it’s in the Honor (stylised as HONOR) Magic7 Pro smartphone.
At first take, I hadn’t been positively “looking for” AI services on my smartphone and at no point was I say thinking, well, my phone is good, but I wish it had more AI on board.But the encroaching impact of AI is everywhere and it is all-pervading, so it was probably an inevitability and just a matter of time.
TheHONOR Magic7 Pro was lauched in Europe (and EMEA) recently and getting to test one out was interesting.
Let’s just go offbeat (pun actually intended) and not immediately mention this device’s onboard AI services, its hardware performance or its enhanced display… instead, we stuck on the radio. This phone is loud and has deep bass and high treble qualities that would rival any “stereo” system that we might have been proud of back in the 1980s (we’re that old, sorry). Really, it’s quite unusually loud and clear.
The sound actually comes from an integrated ultra-large sound cavity and spatial audio that is enhanced by a bass enhancement algorithm.
100x zoom
Anyway, to the device itself, the Honor Magic7 Pro is around £1,099.99 in the UK, so it’s a premium device and what really strikes anyone first picking it up is the 100x zoom. Okay admittedly, you need to “steady” yourself if you take a picture at that zoom ration, but it does work and it’s quite clear even at extreme zoom mode.
The HONOR Magic7 Pro comes with the Google Gemini app pre-installed, so there’s AI in big does up front.
The outer blue finish (the device comes in Lunar Shadow Grey, Breeze Blue and Black) is extremely nice, quite what “breeze” blue is could be anyone’s guess, but it looks very slick and the fact that the four camera lenses on the back are mounted into a circle makes them look like they are in fact one large regular lens that you might find on a single lens reflex camera (they might be what Honor intended, who knows?) when you’re taking pictures.
“We are excited to introduce our latest flagship lineup, the HONOR Magic 7 series, which seamlessly integrates both on-device and cloud AI capabilities to deliver a more intuitive, intelligent, and secure user experience,” said George Zhao, CEO of HONOR. “We have adopted a range of innovative approaches to reinvent the smartphone from the fundamental operating system and hardware level, bringing true intelligence to the device.”
Honor is always very effusive when talking about its own operating system and theMagicOS 9.0 is full of enough Honor DNA to make it quite distinct from other Android phones we’ve used recently. It’s got more nuances and is (arguably) more powerful than the OS running on competitor brands (we don’t need to mention another well-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer), so its different swipe actions do take a little getting used to.
Honor Magic Portal
With the enhanced capabilities on Magic Portal2, users can circle desired objects within the screen and enable instant text and image comprehension and access wanted app services instantly. The Magic Portal supports an array of applications encompassing social media, entertainment, travel, productivity and shopping. With improved semantic understanding of landmarks and movie IPs, the Magic Portal can now direct users to entertainment applications when needed.
To safeguard users against potential deepfake scams and ensure online security, the Honor Magic7 series stand as the industry’s first commercial device that integrates the on-device AI Deepfake Detection technology,” states the company.
The deepfake detection system uses algorithms to identify manipulated content through analysing pixel-level synthetic imperfections, border compositing artifacts, inter-frame continuity and other things that you may never have heard of… it’s complicated stuff, but it could protect you from potential deepfake scams during video calls.
More AI services
Just when you thought that was all the AI done, the Magic7 series features other AI functionalities such as AI translation and HONOR Notes. With AI Translation, the device Magic7 series offers instant translation for up to 13 languages. Honor Notes supports the AI Summary feature that can quickly analyze the content of users’ notes and provide a content abstract while AI Minutes enables users to distill essential insights from lengthy meeting transcripts.
Then there’s Google Gemini’s overlay, which offers quick access to Google AI assistance and context-aware help with what’s on the screen. With Gemini extensions users can find and take action from information from the Google apps and services like Maps, and YouTube.
The HONOR Magic7 Pro is equipped with the company’s AI Falcon Camera System. This has a 50 megapixel “super dynamic” main camera that works well in various lighting conditions, thanks to its sensor and f/1.4 adjustable aperture lens.
The 200 megapixel telephoto camera is also good for nightscapes as it features a 1/1.4″ telephoto sensor with a f/2.6 aperture. This enhancement ensures outstanding clarity and exceptional light intake.
AI image engine
The AI Honor Image Engine is of particular interest. It’s a mobile imaging system with hybrid (device-cloud) AI large models, providing users with a sophisticated and intelligent photography experience with elevated imaging capabilities. The AI camera function is great, but results can be strange i.e. if you take a selfie it might colour in beard hairs that you don’t have – this is because it will rely on the large image model knowledge it has to detail a man’s beard in the way “most” beards grow. But hey. Worse things happen.
The HD Super Burst allows users to freeze high-speed action sequences with precision at 10 frames per second. The 5850 / 5270mAh4 silicon-carbon battery means the Honor Magic7 series supports fast recharging with 100W wired and wireless super charge. The company say this enables a full charge in just 33 minutes, which is pretty much what we experienced here.The LiDAR Matrix Autofocus System featuring 1200 Points LiDAR Matrix, enhances focusing accuracy, speed and tracking range and there’s a dual electromagnetic focus actuator, which sounds almost too complicated to explain, but does increase the focus power increases significantly.
The device is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform 6 and is equipped with the Qualcomm Oryon CPU and Qualcomm Adreno GPU. If you’re a gamer (and I am), then this means you can enjoy PC-level graphics and nearly full-frame gameplay, so an add-on snap-on controller is a good idea.
The Honor Magic7 Pro is apparently ten times more drop-resistant than normal glass and certified for dust and water-resistant capabilities, but it’s really quite pretty (and pricey) so please don’t drop it if you have one.