Review Summary
Expert Rating
Honor’s comeback to the Indian smartphone market has been relatively low-key, with a limited number of launches. Despite this, the brand has delivered some compelling devices, the latest being the Honor 200 (review), which also earned the title of Best Camera Phone of 2024 – Mainstream (under Rs 40,000) at the Indian Gadget Awards 2024.
Recently, I got the chance to test Honor’s most expensive offering, the Honor Magic6 Pro and I can confidently say that this flagship deserves more attention for being truly fantastic in so many ways. Read on to find out what makes this smartphone so different than the rest.
Table of Contents
Verdict
The Honor Magic6 Pro checks nearly every box for what you’d want in a flagship. It boasts a stunning design, strong performance, excellent cameras, and impressive battery life. Its software, however, has some shortcomings as it can come across as a bit cluttered.
Design and display
| IP Rating | Weight | Thickness | |
| Honor Magic6 Pro | IP68 | 229 grams | 8.9mm |
| Vivo X100 Pro | IP68 | 221 grams | 9.5 mm |
| Xiaomi 14 Ultra | IP68 | 229 grams | 9.2 mm |
The Magic6 Pro is available in two colour variants, Epi Green and a standard Black colour. I received the Epi Green variant for review, and it is designed quite tastefully. The rear panel has a soft faux leather patterned finish that feels grippy and is resistant to fingerprints and smudges.
The camera island is quite large, which doesn’t feel particularly out of place since all new flagships seem to feature the same thing lately. There are three camera modules arranged in a triangle formation enclosed in a glossy rose gold-tinted metal that matches the frames of the device. The phone is IP68 rated, so you’re secure from the occasional splashes or even an accidental drop into the swimming pool.
| Display | Peak brightness | |
| Honor Magic6 Pro | 6.8-inch OLED | 5,000 nits |
| Vivo X100 Pro | 6.78-inch AMOLED | 3.000 nits |
| Xiaomi 14 Ultra | 6.73-inch AMOLED | 3,000 nits |
For display, Honor uses a curved 6.8-inch OLED panel with a 2,800 x 1,080p resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The panel goes up to 1,600 nits in high brightness mode and has a 5000 nits peak brightness level. The display comes with Dolby Vision support and has a rich colour space that makes visuals appear vibrant, and the stereo speakers are excellent. The display gets extremely bright outdoors, so the visibility isn’t impaired even under harsh lighting.
Biometric support is great too! There’s an optical fingerprint scanner and 3D face unlock. The fingerprint sensor does take a smidge longer to unlock compared to other flagships I’ve used and is positioned a little lower than what I’d like. The face unlock remained my go-to method for unlocking, and it is extremely quick. It even works in the dark, and that makes it very handy to use.
Cameras
The Honor Magic6 Pro’s camera island isn’t just for show, and the device packs a potent camera system. It includes a standard 50MP OIS primary camera, a 180MP telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide lens in the rear. For selfies, you get another 50MP shooter. After using this device, I can confidently say it’s one of the best cameras I’ve experienced in a long time, and what makes it special is how effortlessly it captures stunning shots.
In daylight, the Magic6 Pro’s primary camera delivers impressive results with sharp details, excellent dynamic range, and true-to-life colours. The ultrawide lens is pretty good too, offering great dynamic range, minimal distortion around the edges, and no noticeable noise. The telephoto lens is the star of the show. Images captured at up to 5x zoom are packed with details and rich colours. Beyond 5x, there’s a slight dip in detail and an increase in artificial processing, but the results are still decent and perfectly usable.
In low light, the Magic 6 Pro continues to perform exceptionally well. Images are detailed, colours remain accurate, and noise is kept to a minimum, making this phone a versatile and reliable shooter for all scenarios. The cameras can shoot up to 4K videos at 60 fps from the rear cameras and up to 4K at 30 fps on the front camera. The videos turn out slightly softer, but they look good, have vibrant colours, and the stabilisation is great.
The Honor Magic 6 Pro’s videos can sometimes be inconsistent in low-light environments, especially with the ultrawide and telephoto lenses. While the details remain sharp, the footage often appears darker.
Performance and software
The Honor Magic6 Pro comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, much like the other Android flagships of 2024. There’s only the 12GB+512GB variant available for purchase in India, although that’s not an issue since it’s a great configuration for all major use cases. The device performs as you’d expect of a flagship smartphone, with benchmark scores just a smidge behind other devices in its price bracket. With performance mode enabled, the benchmark numbers improve enough to match its other competitors.
The device runs on Android 14-based MagicOS 8.0 out of the box. The brand promises 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security patches, which is decent but lacking behind the likes of Google and Samsung offerings.
The software remains one of the few aspects that I’m not too fond of in this otherwise fabulous phone. There’s a fair amount of pre-installed apps, and the home page feels cluttered on the first boot. The home screen and preloaded apps can be easily removed and customised to your liking, thankfully, and the OS has a decent amount of features.
There’s Air gestures, smart sensing, which keeps the display active when your eyes are on it, and Magic Capsule, which pops up during background tasks like YouTube, music playback, or while charging. There’s also Magic Portal, which allows you to select and drag an item or image to be included in mail, search for it, or add notes about it. All in all, the software experience is good if you’re someone who values productivity-focused features. That said, rivals like OPPO, Google, and Samsung are leading the front with some pretty nifty Gen AI-backed productivity tools, which Honor has yet to introduce across its offerings.
| Pre-installed apps | Software support | |
| Honor Magic6 Pro | 48 | 4 years OS + 5 years security |
| Vivo X100 Pro | 49 | 3 years OS + 4 years security |
| Xiaomi 14 Ultra | 46 | 4 years OS + 5 years security |
Battery and charging
The Honor Magic6 Pro packs a large 5,600mAh battery with 80W wired and 66W wireless fast charging support. The phone’s battery life is one of its key aspects that makes it an excellent flagship since most high-end phones usually have a diminished battery life. The battery features a silicon-carbon composite anode, which is claimed to offer a higher energy density, enhancing overall performance and efficiency.
While its PCMark battery benchmark score might not seem that impressive, the Magic6 Pro easily lasts a full day, even with heavy usage, and has excellent standby performance. The charging speed is also quite swift, taking just 38 minutes to go from 20 to 100 percent capacity.
| Battery size | Charging time (20 to 100 percent) | |
| Honor Magic6 Pro | 5,600mAh | 38 minutes (80W) |
| Vivo X100 Pro | 5,400mAh | 35 minutes (120W) |
| Xiaomi 14 Ultra | 5,000mAh | 34 minutes (90W) |
Final verdict
The Honor Magic6 Pro is priced at Rs 89,999 in India and comes in a single 12GB+512GB variant. It offers excellent value for its price with strong performance, impressive battery life, and a top-tier camera system. The UI, however, feels a little cluttered and limiting at times, which can be a drawback for some users.
The device competes with the Vivo X100 Pro (review) and Xiaomi 14 Ultra (review). While the Vivo X100 Pro excels in camera performance, its UI has similar issues. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra delivers great cameras but tends to overheat during heavy tasks like gaming. Overall, the Honor Magic6 Pro is a strong contender for those prioritising performance and cameras.
Reasons to buy
- The Honor Magic 6 Pro offers an excellent multimedia experience.
- The phone’s cameras are extremely versatile.
- The Magic 6 Pro’s battery life will easily last an entire day for most users.
Reasons not to buy
- The phone’s OS feels cluttered.
- The phone’s low-light videos can often be inconsistent.
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