a mobile phone powered by AI and with a great camera to make you forget about the iPhone

Honor presented the Magic6 Pro, its new flagship with a camera that stands out from the rest, at the end of February at the Mobile World Congress 2024, the technology fair held annually in Barcelona (Spain). A smartphone that has jumped on the artificial intelligence (AI) trendtechnology that combines with great design, performance and autonomy to carve out a place in the high range and try to forget the iPhone.

The Honor Magic6 Pro, which can be purchased in Spain at a price of 1,149 euros, comes with interesting changes compared to its predecessor, the Magic5 Pro. Its main attraction is its photographic section, which allows taking photographs of very high quality. In fact, their cameras are some of the best on the market. But this device offers much more, such as a design premiuma lot of power and great autonomy.

At EL ESPAÑOL – Omicrono we have kept the iPhone in a drawer to pass a few weeks with the Honor Magic6 Pro as the main phone. A smartphone powered with artificial intelligence, designed to get the most out of photography and includes a powerful technical sheet to offer a quality experience. In fact, during this time it has ensured that we do not miss the phone from the company with the bitten apple.

With artificial intelligence

The Chinese manufacturer has joined the artificial intelligence bandwagon with the Honor Magic6 Pro. In the future it will even allow you to use your eyes and the Honor Magic6 Pro to control a car. A phone that, thanks to MagicOS 8.0, the latest version of its Android-based operating system, has user experiences powered by AI with which the company intends to offer new ways to interact with smart devices, such as detecting text on images.

One of them is Magic Capsule, which thanks to eye tracking allows you to control and open apps, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple applications for maximum productivity and efficiency. Another AI feature that can already be used on the Honor Magic6 Pro is Magic Portal, which completely changes the way in which mobile phones and applications like WhatsApp are used. It is an application powered by artificial intelligence that understands the user’s intentions to present the services they need without having to ask for them.

All this to offer quick execution of tasks. To activate it, just go to the phone’s ‘Settings’ and click on ‘Services’. At that moment the ‘Magic Portal’ tab will appear. Once done, just by holding down a photo or text for a few seconds you can drag it to the sides of the screen to quickly open it in another application. For example, you can use an image received on WhatsApp to quickly post it on Instagram or, if it is a product, search for it to buy on eBay.

However, where you get the most out of it is with Google Maps. At least it is what we have used Magic Portal with the most. In that sense, it is enough for someone to tell you a place on WhatsApp, such as “we will meet at 2:00 p.m. at the La Vaguada Shopping Center.” By holding down that message for a few seconds, You can drag it to one of the sides of the screen to open Google Maps and the map app automatically offers you the route to follow to reach that destination.

[He probado el Honor MagicBook Pro 16, el portátil con IA que presume de unas especificaciones de infarto]

An AI that learns from the user’s personal intentions and preferences, to always offer the applications that person likes the most for the things they want to do. Which simplifies tasks in a single step, for example, eliminating the need to copy and paste an address to search for it with Google Maps. A feature that can currently be used with a few applicationssuch as WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Line, Gmail, Zoom, Teams, Google Maps, Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, eBay, Microsoft Edge or Firefox.

Design and performance

Coming to the design, the Honor Magic6 Pro has a similar appearance to its predecessor, but with different details. First of all, its back has a light green, velvety finish that offers good grip and feels pleasant in hand. The second thing that draws attention is the camera module, which has a large size and is centered at the top. An element that gives the phone a strong personality, although it also makes it heavy.

The Honor Magic6 Pro has a weight of 229 grams, and tends to fall upwards due to the weight of the camera module. The Chinese manufacturer’s flagship also comes with curved sides, both behind and on the screen; which offers a good grip of the device, even with one hand. The buttons to control the volume and to turn on the terminal are located on the right side; while in the lower frame there are the USB-C output, a pair of speakers and the SIM card slot.

A design that is especially careful and that gives the phone a look premium. The screen is another of the differentiating elements of the Honor Magic6 Pro. It is a 6.8-inch LTPO Eye Comfort panel with QHD+ resolutiona refresh rate of 120 Hz and PWM dimming of 4,320 Hz. A large screen that makes it difficult to use the smartphone with only one hand, since you cannot reach all parts of the panel with your fingers. It also has a silicon nitride coating on the nanocrystalline glass of the device for greater protection.

It even comes with a fairly high brightness level of 1,600 nits with peaks of up to 5,000 nits, allowing you to view any content without problems in bright conditions, such as outside on a sunny day. A panel with support for Dolby Vision that wastes very high image quality, sharpness and great color calibration both when watching content and playing video games. In fact, it’s one of the best we’ve tried. However, it has a ‘but’: it has curved sides, which give the terminal an elegant touch, but make it a little difficult when typing with the keyboard.

As for sound, its speakers offer a great level of volume and good quality. Performance is another point in favor of the Honor Magic6 Pro. The phone has inside a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that offers a lot of power; and it is accompanied by 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal memory, which allows you to install a wide variety of applications and have many photos, videos or documents saved. It also comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC and eSIM. A technical sheet that achieves a high experience when browsing social networks, watching a movie or playing important video games, such as Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. I mean, it’s quite a beast.

The Honor Magic6 Pro comes with a 5,600 mAh battery, which leaves great autonomy and is compatible with 80 W fast charging. Of course, the charger is not included in the box. In our tests, we have gone two days without having to pull the charger with average use, that is, using applications such as WhatsApp, Gmail, the different social networks and taking photos. A battery that takes just 40 minutes to fully charge. Regarding the operating system, the phone has MagicOS 8.0 based on Android, which offers high customization and is intuitive to use.

Excellent cameras

The photographic section is one of the strong points of the Honor Magic6 Pro and The quality of the photographs is top notch.. In fact, we are facing some of the best cameras that can be found in the sector, remembering the level that Huawei reached. In total it comes with four cameras, three rear and one front for 50 megapixel selfies. In its rear area are the 50 megapixel main lens with a custom HDR sensor, a 180 mp periscopic telephoto lens with 2.5x optical x and 100x digital zoom, and a 50 mp ultra wide angle lens.

As a result, the Honor Magic6 Pro’s cameras leave some very high quality photographs and outstanding definition, maintaining a good level of detail and sharpness, and processing that offers vivid and realistic colors. Versatile lenses that perform perfectly in any situation, such as portraits, night images, daytime, low light, zoom or Motion Sensing Capturewhich allows you to take photos of people moving or jumping with a high level of detail.

Thanks to this, the mobile can compete head to head with the high-end titans. It should be noted that Honor also includes some artificial intelligence features for the camera. One of them is the ability to create videos from images, which works well, although the results are just decent. Regarding video recording, the Honor Magic6 Pro allows you to record 4K at 60 fps, LOG format and the option to pre-record with filters (LUTs) so you don’t have to add them later.

I buy it?

The Honor Magic6 Pro is a great phone. The flagship of the Chinese manufacturer is a device premium which offers different artificial intelligence functions that make perform some tasks much easier and faster; where Magic Portal especially stands out, ideal for searching for products on the Internet, an address on Google Maps or an event on the calendar. An AI that combines a careful and elegant design with a powerful technical sheet.

A device that is especially attractive for its extraordinary performance and autonomy, but that conquers for its first-class cameras and that they have nothing to envy of their direct competitors. Although he smartphone It also has some ‘buts’ or things that we don’t like so much, such as its curved screen, the absence of a charger in the box – something common in high-end phones – and its price of 1,149 euros, which is somewhat high and not suitable for all pockets.