Today, Honor has introduced its latest flagship smartphones, the Magic 9 series, in China. The 9 Pro Max stands out with an updated design, advanced camera features, and an impressive battery capacity.
This marks Honor’s first significant flagship release—excluding its Robot Phone—following its partnership with the renowned camera manufacturer, Arri. The design is notably influenced by Arri, particularly evident in the new camera island that borrows elements from the historical “three-lens turret” design first seen in the Arriflex 35 back in 1937, including a textured finish around the main lens.
Arri’s expertise has also enhanced the camera functionalities, enabling shooting in Arri LogC3 and including 14 preset Arri Look LUTs, along with access to a broader library of official and third-party LUTs and support for the APV 10-bit 4:2:2 codec. The camera setup features a 200-megapixel primary lens utilizing a 1/1.28-inch sensor, a 3.5x telephoto lens of the same resolution with a 1/1.4-inch sensor, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens, although the ultrawide doesn’t support all features of Arri’s Cinema Mode. Additionally, the phone includes a “cinema-grade” directional microphone which enhances video recording quality. For selfie enthusiasts, there’s a square-format front camera that can capture images in both landscape and portrait modes, similar to Apple’s Center Stage functionality.
Honor notes that the redesigned camera island allows for a more compact layout, making room for a massive 8,800mAh battery, now with 40 percent silicon material. The 9 Pro Max is driven by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor. When asked why the Extreme version was chosen, considering the device doesn’t support the 8K60 or 4K240 video recording features that the chip offers, Honor explained that the goal was to provide a well-rounded flagship experience rather than chasing a specific performance benchmark.
The Magic 9 series is officially launching in China today. Honor has announced plans for an international release, although specific details on the timing are yet to be revealed.
