Honor has just dropped a new smartphone in China, and it is clearly taking aim at the iPhone Air with the rather predictably named Magic8 Pro Air. While it is chasing that ultra-slim aesthetic, Honor has taken a slightly different path to Apple.
Instead of stripping things back to keep the weight down, they have managed to squeeze in a proper triple camera system, including a dedicated telephoto lens, and a massive 5,500mAh battery. It is a touch thicker than the iPhone, but for most users, that is likely a trade-off worth making for the extra utility.
It has a 6.31-inch LTPO AMOLED panel that can ramp up to a ridiculous 6,000 nits of peak local brightness. You are also getting a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, an ultrasonic fingerprint reader tucked under the glass, and a 50MP selfie camera at the top.
Under the bonnet, the device is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset, paired with up to 16GB of RAM and a whopping 1TB of storage. It is also running MagicOS 10, which is built on top of the latest Android 16.
Despite the beefy specs, the Magic8 Pro Air is still impressively thin at just 6.1mm and weighing 155 grams. It features a premium mix of aluminium and glass, and somehow Honor still found room for stereo speakers and a physical dual Nano SIM tray. If you have moved on to eSIM, that is supported as well, and the whole package is rated IP68 and IP69 for peace of mind against water and dust.
The camera setup on the back is housed in a distinct visor. You get a 50MP main sensor with optical image stabilisation, a 64MP periscope telephoto lens offering 3.2x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide that handles macro shots. Seeing a periscope lens in a phone this thin is particularly impressive. Powering everything is that 5,500mAh silicon-carbon battery, which supports snappy 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
As for the price, it starts at CNY4,999 (~RM2,906) for the 12/256GB and climbs to CNY5,999 (~RM3,487) if you want the 16/1TB version. It goes on sale in China from 23 January, though we are still waiting to hear if and when it might make its way to the global markets.