I Tested the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Found a Huge Problem With the Camera
I discovered a catastrophic problem with this phone's cameras and it needs to be fixed fast.
I've found a big problem with the Honor Magic 8 Pro's camera that urgently needs addressing. I've taken hundreds of test photos in my weeks with the company's latest flagship phone, and while plenty of them are perfectly decent, many of the images I've taken with the ultrawide lens display horrendous image processing issues around the edges that ruin them completely.
I discovered the issue when I first got the phone late last year, and while it's had several significant software updates since then, the problems persist. So what's gone wrong? It's possible that I'm monumentally unlucky and happen to have been given a broken unit. If so, I fully expect the replacement models I'll be testing to be free of any issues. Or, maybe it's a more widespread problem and I'll see the same issues cropping up again. I personally think it's more likely to be an issue at the software level, and as such, it could be a simple fix for Honor to push out in the coming days and weeks.
I've spoken to Honor about this and, unsurprisingly, the company is keen to say that this isn't widespread, stating "Our internal investigation confirmed that the issue was limited to an isolated hardware anomaly in that specific early development sample. It doesn't reflect the hardware or software polish of the final retail units now launching in the European market." And sure, my test unit was an early non-EU version, but it is also the phone that the company did send me to review. Receiving early prerelease samples is common in the industry and while small hiccups can sometimes be expected, I rarely find such significant problems as this.
Honor is sending additional retail units for further testing and I hope that I'm able to confirm that this isn't an issue seen on all models. I was prepared to write a full review of this new flagship phone, but these camera issues are severe and raise more questions than answers. I will update this article with more information and my testing results as they become available.
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Even if it is an isolated incident, it's still disappointing to see such significant problems on a new phone, especially a flagship that costs £1,099 in the UK. Honor doesn't officially sell its phones in the US, but for reference, that price converts to roughly $1,480.
The phone does have some positives. I like its processor performance and display, for example, which I'll come on to later. But the camera issues I've seen mean I can't recommend buying this phone until it's clear whether they're limited to my review device or if they're issues common across all models.
Let's take a closer look at what's going on.
Honor Magic 8 Pro camera troubles
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera.
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Taken with the camera's standard zoom, the shot above is fine -- there's a decent amount of detail and the exposure is even overall.
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, ultrawide camera.
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But switch to the ultrawide mode and things go horribly wrong. There's a vibrant purple fringe around the edge that's full of image processing artifacts that ruin the shot.
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A detail crop of the problem image. I don't know what is going on here.
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It's not a subtle problem; it's a huge red flag that something is very wrong with this phone.
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Here is the same scene, taken with the iPhone 16 Pro's ultrawide camera.
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For reference, here's the iPhone 16 Pro's ultrawide shot. Notice the difference?
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, ultrawide camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, ultrawide camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, ultrawide camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, ultrawide camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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A cropped view of the above image. Those details have been destroyed.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
As you can see, it's not an isolated incident. It seems to be more apparent when there are areas of shadow in the edges. It makes me suspect that the phone is seeing these dark patches and trying -- and failing -- to brighten them and add detail back into the scene. It's not dissimilar to the early problems I found on Google's Pixel 8 Pro, which also struggled with shadow detail, suggesting to me that this is a software fault, rather than a mechanical problem with my unit.
It also doesn't seem to affect the ultrawide lens when recording video, which again suggests it's not a hardware issue as I'd expect to see the same problems from the lens in any mode. The downside of that is that it could theoretically affect all models of the Honor Magic 8 Pro. However, the big upside is that software problems can be easily remedied with over-the-air updates.
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
To be honest, I don't love the camera elsewhere, either. The image processing has gone overboard in this image, brightening the shadows and trying to rescue the highlights in the background excessively. It's resulted in an over-processed image that looks unnatural.
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Shot with the iPhone 16 Pro, main camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
The iPhone 16 Pro's attempt has allowed those shadows to remain what they are -- shadows -- and I vastly prefer this version as a result.
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Comparison of Honor Magic 8 Pro main camera (left) and ultrawide camera (right).
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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Comparison of Honor Magic 8 Pro main camera (left) and ultrawide camera (right).
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
I've also noticed that there can be significant color shifts when switching between the main and ultrawide lenses, which I would again prefer not to see on a camera phone of this price.
However, this could be attributed to the same software processing issues I've already discussed, so I'll have to leave my verdict on the camera for when I've done more testing.
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
On the upside, this shot of the Tennents brewery in Glasgow looks good.
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Shot with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, main camera.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
And I like the colors and tones in this sunset scene in Edinburgh. So it's not all bad -- it can take a decent photo sometimes. So what about the rest of the phone?
Honor Magic 8 Pro: Display, performance and battery life
I like the phone's 6.71-inch display, which is bright and vibrant. It's lovely for gaming, too, thanks to its max 120Hz refresh rate. It's powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, which puts in some of the best scores we've ever seen on our benchmark tests for both processor performance and graphics processing.
At least its display looks good.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
It certainly feels nippy in everyday use. Games like Genshin Impact, unsurprisingly, played smoothly at max graphics settings. The phone runs on a 6,270-mAh battery, which, while sizable, only gave average results on our battery drain tests. Battery performance sits alongside phones like the Galaxy S25 or Google Pixel 10, but it's a big step below the iPhone 17 Pro Max or OnePlus 15.
If it feels like I'm glossing over the rest of the phone somewhat, it's because I am. With the issues I've seen so far, it's possible that there may be other early teething troubles elsewhere, so I'm going to hold off giving any kind of definitive verdict on any part of the phone until I've tested more models and have a full appreciation of what the phone is really like to use.
Great processor performance, too.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
Honor Magic 8 Pro: Should you buy it?
Right now, I absolutely don't think you should. The issues I've seen with the camera are significant and badly need addressing. It could be that it's a simple software fix that can be rolled out in the coming weeks, or it might be an isolated incident that affects me and me alone. I'll be retesting on multiple devices and it could be that they're absolutely fine.
But unless you're desperate for a new phone today and you absolutely have to have an Honor phone, then I recommend waiting until we've got more clarity about how deep these problems lie.