Honor launched its Magic 9 phones in China today, and the headline for the Pro Max model is simple: it has a big camera and a bigger battery. The company is also making a fuss about its new partnership with Arri, the film-camera maker.
The Arri Partnership
Honor’s first flagship launch since it announced its collaboration with Arri arrives with the new camera island drawing directly from the “three-lens turret” design first introduced in 1937’s Arriflex 35. The main lens comes with a knurled texture around it, a nod to the vintage film camera. That’s the look. Whether it changes how photos actually come out is not explained.
What Arri contributes to the hardware itself is a bit more concrete. The phone can shoot in Arri LogC3, which is a color-capture system used in professional cinematography. It also gets 14 preset Arri Look LUTs, access to Arri’s wider library of official and third-party LUTs, and support for the APV 10-bit 4:2:2 codec. These are real tools for color grading, though the source does not say what they do for the average user beyond listing them.
The Camera Specs
The cameras themselves break down like this:
- A 200-megapixel main lens with a 1/1.28-inch-type sensor
- A 3.5x telephoto lens with the same resolution and a 1/1.4-inch sensor
- A 50-megapixel ultrawide lens, which does not support all the Arri Cinema Mode features
There is also a “cinema-grade” directional microphone for video recording. The selfie camera is square, like Apple’s Center Stage feature, and captures in either landscape or portrait. None of this explains why a phone needs to borrow Arri’s name or look, except as marketing.
The Camera Island
Honor says the wider camera island is more space-efficient, which leaves room for the massive battery. The 8,800mAh cell now carries up to 40 percent silicon content. That is the technical detail that matters most to anyone who spends their day plugged in.
The headline is accurate: the Pro Max has a big camera and a bigger battery. Whether the camera is actually better is left to the user to judge.
The Chip Choice
The phone runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Honor was asked why it picked the Extreme version, given that the 9 Pro Max does not support the 8K60 or 4K240 video recording that chip enables. The answer was that it was “about delivering a complete and consistent flagship experience, rather than pursuing a single benchmark result.”
That is the company’s own explanation for why it picked the Extreme chip despite its missing features. It reads as a defense of a decision rather than a statement of value.
The Launch Order
The Magic 9 series launches in China today. Honor has confirmed that an international launch is coming, but has not said when.
What We Know
The Pro Max is a flagship device with a professional-looking camera, a massive battery, and a chip that cannot do two things the source lists as features. The Arri partnership is the story being told, but the actual product is a phone with a large camera and a large battery.
The Verdict
Honor is selling the Magic 9 Pro Max as a premium device, and the headline tells you exactly what it is: a phone with a big camera and a bigger battery. Whether that combination is enough to justify the price is a question the source does not answer.
The Arri branding is the most visible change, but the source does not explain what it changes for the user. The camera specs are listed, the battery capacity is stated, and the chip is named. None of that adds up to a reason to buy.
“About delivering a complete and consistent flagship experience, rather than pursuing a single benchmark result.”
Until Honor says when, the only thing that matters is what the phone actually does.
Source material: “Honor’s Magic 9 Pro Max has a big camera and a bigger battery,” The Verge.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.