The Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam is the primary smartphone digicam that has blown me away in years. I evaluate loads of telephones and put all of them by means of rigorous digicam exams, and Honor’s newest seems like an enormous breakthrough in so some ways.
On the forefront of the enhancements is the upgraded Falcon Digicam System, a elaborate title for a triple digicam array powered by the neatest software program Honor has ever developed. It simply sits among the many finest Android telephones and frequently produces glorious high quality photographs.
When you might imagine the brand new 180MP telephoto digicam is the centerpiece of the expertise, it is the upgraded AI capabilities of the digicam that shine by means of past glorious imaging capabilities. Honor’s upgraded AI Movement Sensing Seize is so sensible it’s going to take images for you, and it is downright spectacular how nice these look, too.
Contemplating that flagships just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely nonetheless wrestle to seize movement, it is refreshing to see an organization exit of its solution to ship a smartphone digicam expertise that goes so above and past to unravel this downside.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Movement seize
The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s skill to seize movement is unmatched amongst telephones I’ve examined over time. Sure, it even beats a Pixel.
Not solely does the cellphone excel in capturing crisp images of shifting pets and children, however the software program is clever sufficient to routinely seize images when sure motion is detected.
Honor says it educated its AI algorithm with over eight million photographs containing shifting topics, enabling the digicam’s software program to grasp issues like facial expressions, human physique motion, leaping, and extra.
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To particularly take a look at out the automated motion seize capabilities, I took the cellphone to the native Celtic Fest and let it seize images of the Irish dancers on stage. All I did was open the digicam app and level it on the stage, the AI algorithm did all the remainder of the work.
Computerized picture seize would possibly sound like a gimmick till you end up in a state of affairs the place it is wanted.
Computerized picture seize could sound like a foolish gimmick, but it surely works extremely properly in my testing. As a mum or dad, typically it is onerous to have two free palms, a lot much less one. Having a cellphone that may seize the second by simply utilizing one hand is a stroke of genius.
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However even when you’d somewhat seize your photographs by tapping the shutter, the Honor Magic 6 Professional will get it proper mainly each time. I ran my standard movement take a look at involving my son leaping off our sofa onto a pile of stuffed animals. In opposition to 4 different telephones, the Magic 6 Professional captured an amazing picture each single time.
The Pixel 8 Professional was the one different cellphone that carried out this persistently, and even then, the images from the Honor Magic 6 Professional all appeared higher than what Google’s finest might seize.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Most important digicam
I’ve only a few critiques of the Magic 6 Professional digicam expertise, however one is actually the best way to fast launch the digicam. Most trendy Android telephones mean you can double-tap the facility button at any time — irrespective of if the display screen is on or off — to shortly launch the digicam.
The Honor Magic 6 Professional nonetheless makes use of the bizarre previous methodology of double-tapping the quantity down key, which solely works when the display screen is off. If the display screen is on in any respect — even when it isn’t unlocked — you will both have to seek out the digicam shortcut or flip the display screen off as a way to activate the fast launch characteristic. It is foolish.
Apart from that minor annoyance, the point-and-shoot capabilities of the Honor Magic 6 Professional are seldom matched by any trendy smartphone. From launching the digicam to taking an image takes roughly 2 seconds. Autofocus works stupendously properly, and film high quality is outstanding.
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It is troublesome to choose a winner between the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, Google Pixel 8 Professional, and Honor Magic 6 Professional’s predominant cameras. All three telephones ship glorious dynamic vary and superb element.
The three examples above present how every cellphone can commerce off with having the very best photograph, relying on the state of affairs. Within the first instance, the Honor Magic 6 Professional has higher shade accuracy, distinction, and superb element. The second two examples favor the Galaxy S24 Extremely for superb element and the Pixel 8 Professional for shade accuracy.
Total, although, I discovered the Honor Magic 6 Professional’s images to look extremely pleasing. Most complaints have been situational, and I did not discover any explicit sample of weak point within the a whole bunch of images I’ve captured over the previous few weeks.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Telephoto digicam
Once I started this evaluate, I had a tough time imagining that the Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam might produce a top quality telephoto expertise past 5x, at finest. That is as a result of the telephoto digicam is behind a measly 2.5x optical zoom lens, half of what is on a Pixel 8 Professional or Galaxy S24 Extremely and 1 / 4 of what the Galaxy S23 Extremely gives.
However the cellphone tries to make up for this deficit by utilizing a large 180-megapixel sensor behind the lens, full with AI processing. That 180MP sensor can also be bodily the most important telephoto sensor on any cellphone to this point. Which means it takes in additional mild and extra element than different telephoto sensors.
Nonetheless, the outcomes are usually a combined bag at 5x and past. At instances, the digicam will blow you away when the topic is true. These two examples at 10x and 20x assist illustrate that completely:
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For notice, zooming in with every cellphone produces a barely totally different crop degree as a result of lens variations. All digicam viewfinders have been set to the identical zoom quantity for these examples.
The distinction intimately alone is astounding. The Honor Magic 6 Professional decimates the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely and Google Pixel 8 Professional in telephoto high quality within the first instance. Even the colour science is healthier on the Magic 6 Professional, providing up a considerably higher 10x photograph in each method.
The second instance of a Home Finch at 20x is not almost as reduce and dry, and I believe the outcome can be down to non-public choice. The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s photograph is considerably sharper, with crisp edges across the feathers and even some spectacular superb element with out noise.
However the Magic 6 Professional achieves this with AI-based approximation, as is most evident across the chook’s eyes and beak. In the meantime, the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s photograph seems to be extra like a photograph taken from a digicam somewhat than a mixture of pictures and AI.
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The examples above signify the telephoto picture high quality produced most frequently, proving that telephoto efficiency at 5x and past is worse on the Honor Magic 6 Professional than on the Google Pixel 8 Professional or Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely.
Every part seems to be like an apparent digital crop for the reason that digicam is bodily restricted to a 2.5x optical zoom lens. Something past that could be a mixture of digital crops from the primary sensor and a big telephoto sensor.
Total, telephoto efficiency was pretty disappointing until you stick near the two.5x zoom preset on the viewfinder.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Low mild
For the reason that Magic 6 Professional makes use of AI so closely for its processing, low-light pictures on the cellphone tends to be sensible. Captures from all three rear sensors are extremely clear, usually utilizing heavy denoise algorithms paired with AI element reconstruction. This produces footage that look “watercolored” when zooming in, but, most frequently the superb particulars are preserved because of the AI on the cellphone.
Honor additionally appears to crank up the saturation in decrease mild, making this neon-lit arcade a direct wow issue. This implies colours aren’t precisely represented however actually “look good” to the human eye.
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Total, I favor the look of images from the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely in a lot of the pictures. The colours are each extra pure, and the superb particulars look extra real looking, although extra noise is clear within the pictures.
The one shot the place I believe the Honor Magic 6 Professional wins is the primary digicam picture, the place it pulled out extra superb element all through the photograph. Bricks within the background have clear delineation and the textual content on the boards within the arcade are extra readable.
The Google Pixel 8 Professional continues to fall behind the opposite two, usually producing softer, much less enticing images from every lens.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Entrance-facing digicam
The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s 50MP front-facing sensor sounds nice on paper, however I discovered it tends to take semi-blurry images in all lighting circumstances. That is weird given the cellphone’s penchant for taking crisp images of objects in movement, but it surely appears the cellphone makes use of totally different processing strategies on the front-facing digicam.
Not solely that, however portrait mode did not appear to work in any respect till I spotted that “bokeh” is disabled by default. I do not know who at Honor thought it made sense to disable bokeh — a kind of catch-all time period for a extremely blurred background and crisp foreground within the smartphone world — by default, but it surely was a horrible resolution that is going to confuse loads of clients.
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In comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, the Honor Magic 6’s front-facing pictures are a bit underwhelming. They don’t seem to be unhealthy however the odd movement blur after I was holding the digicam nonetheless could be very unusual.
It is also a disgrace that bokeh is not enabled by default on the Magic 6 Professional. The cellphone takes somewhat exemplary portrait mode pictures with this characteristic correctly enabled, and I merely can not perceive why Honor would default to it being off when the expectation of portrait mode is to have it enabled.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam: Conclusion
The Honor Magic 6 Professional digicam expertise is one which’ll frequently impress, from glorious low mild pictures to crisp seize of shifting topics. The digicam UI is not something revolutionary but it surely would not actually must be. I nonetheless favor the Google Pixel digicam UI over different telephones however there’s nothing offensive right here.
The cellphone really shines is in its AI processing skills, which is useful if you take an image otherwise you wish to let the cellphone take an image for you. It appears like a gimmick at first, however dad and mom who usually discover one hand is occupied whereas the opposite is making an attempt to take footage will shortly perceive how helpful such a characteristic might be.
Whereas the Pixel 8 Professional and Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely usually took higher images from their respective telephoto cameras, the Magic 6 Professional nonetheless did an excellent job and sometimes delivered glorious images as much as 10x zoom. Past that, most pictures have been clearly digital crops and never significantly good wanting.
Total, Honor has delivered a incredible digicam and one I really feel assured utilizing it doesn’t matter what state of affairs I discover myself in.
