Honor Magic 8 Pro will get a separate button for AI and a new Snapdragon processor
By ForGeeks
The Honor Magic 8 Pro flagship will be unveiled in China on October 15. The smartphone will be one of the first on the market with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and will get a dedicated button for artificial intelligence.
New design and dedicated button
Honor has released official images of the Magic 8 Pro. Externally, the smartphone is close to last year’s Magic 7 Pro: the back panel retains the signature style, but is now designed without rounding. The blue hue of the case, reminiscent of last year’s lineup, has been retained as well.
The main difference — a new key on the side edge. It sits next to the volume buttons and fingerprint scanner. Honor has confirmed that this is not a camera-shutter, but specifically a button to work with artificial intelligence features. The company hasn’t revealed the full list of features yet, but it did introduce the Magic Color tool. This feature allows you to change the style of photos and videos by using the color palette of another image. Honor promises that Magic 8 Pro will come with other AI services as well.
Cameras and first specs details
On the back of the Magic 8 Pro is a circular camera unit. It has four lenses, but according to Honor, it’s three cameras and a ToF sensor for depth sensing. Detailed specs have yet to be revealed.
Honor CMO Guo Rui posted a test shot taken with the new module on Weibo: it’s a 200-megapixel camera with an 85mm focal length and f/2.6 aperture, so the Magic 8 Pro will get a more powerful telephoto lens compared to the Magic 7 Pro, which used a 72mm periscopic camera.
New Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor
The Honor Magic 8 series will be one of the first on the market to use the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip that Qualcomm unveiled today. This processor will underpin not only the Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro, but also the Honor MagicPad 3 Pro tablet.
The Honor Magic 8 series will be the first to use the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which Qualcomm unveiled today.
Besides Honor, Xiaomi has opted for the new chip. The company is preparing the Xiaomi 17 lineup, which will be fully unveiled next Thursday.
Honor is also preparing the Xiaomi 17 lineup, which will be fully unveiled next Thursday.
Release date and international launch
The Honor Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro are scheduled to be unveiled in China on October 15. The European release is expected in early 2025. As with past series, the Pro version will be an expensive flagship with a price tag of around €1000 (roughly $1200).
Besides the main models, Honor is working on Magic 8 Ultra and Magic 8 Mini versions. They’re not scheduled for release until 2026, indicating that the lineup will expand in the long term.
