Honor Magic 8 goes official with with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and a massive battery

Last year's Magic 7 series brought an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and 3D face recognition to Honor's flagships. The company has now launched its successor, the Honor Magic 8, alongside a more advanced Pro model. Among other flagship features, this device now also features a dedicated "AI button." Now, let's dive in this article, where I will cover everything about the standard Honor Magic8, including its expected price in Nepal, specifications, and so much more.

Honor Magic 8 Overview

Display and Design

The phone features a 6.58-inch 1.5K 8T LTPO flat OLED display. It hits a 120Hz refresh rate and a massive 6000 nits peak brightness. Honor protects the screen with its Giant Rhino Glass and includes 4320Hz PWM dimming for eye comfort. The body is 7.95mm thick, weighs 205g, and has a top-tier IP69K/69/68 rating. It also includes an IR blaster and a dedicated camera control button.

Performance 

At the heart of the Magic 8 series is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Qualcomm's current flagship chip. Honor’s flagship phones always pack top-end processors, and this one is arguably better than Apple’s A19 Pro and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500. It is paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. Honor equips it with its C1+ and E2 chips for improved connectivity and display performance.  Honor's key AI pitch is a "GPU-NPU Heterogeneous AI" system. This technology works by using the GPU and NPU together to upscale low-resolution, low-frame-rate gameplay to a higher resolution and FPS.

The phone also has a dedicated AI button. A double-press opens the camera, while a long-press launches Yoyo Video Call. But at the same time, Honor has also dropped Google Gemini entirely for its own AI ecosystem.

But this increasing AI hype could only be understood through the broader tech landscape. The current U.S. economic growth (and increasingly exterior to it) heavily relies on AI hype, with corporations making bold claims about AGI being "very close." But the truth is that most computer scientists working in research institutes flatly reject this. The concept of AGI remains incomprehensible partly because we still don't properly understand human intelligence itself. As the bubble starts popping, it is likely we might actually see a drop in AI hype.

Camera System

A triple camera system sits on the back. It consists of a 50MP OIS main sensor, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 64MP OV64B periscope telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. This differs from the Pro model, which uses a 200MP "Ultra Night Telephoto Camera" with a wider aperture for low-light photography. The entire camera system uses Honor's proprietary AI-based digital image stabilization to work alongside the physical OIS. The front camera uses a 50MP sensor for selfies. Additonally, the Magic 8 runs on MagicOS 10, based on Android 16.

• Also, read
• Honor X5c and X5c Plus are with 90Hz displays are launching soon in Nepal
• Honor teases a concept phone with a gimbal-mounted camera
• Honor Magic V5—the world's thinnest foldable phone—is here in Nepal

Battery and Audio

Similarly, the Magic 8 also features a massive 7,000mAh battery. It supports 90W wired charging and 80W wireless charging. The phone features dual speakers and uses an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor for security, just as before.

Honor Magic 8 Specifications

• Design, build: 7.95mm thickness, 205g, IP69K/69/68, Giant Rhino Glass
• Display: 6.58-inch 1.5K 8T LTPO OLED, 120Hz, 6000 nits, 4320Hz PWM
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
• Memory: LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.1 storage
• Software & UI: MagicOS 10
• Rear Camera: Triple - 50MP OIS Main, 50MP UW, 64MP Periscope Telephoto (3x)
• Front Camera: 50MP
• Security: Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor
• Connectivity: IR Blaster, USB 2.0

• Battery: 7000mAh with 90W wired, 80W wireless charging

Honor Magic 8 Price in Nepal and Availability

The Honor Magic8 is now available for pre-order in China. Sales begin on October 23. When it launches in Nepal, its price will likely start at no less than NPR 125,000.

• Meanwhile, check out our review of the Honor 400 Pro