The Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera is the primary smartphone digital camera that has blown me away in years. I evaluate a variety of telephones and put all of them by way of rigorous digital camera checks, and Honor’s newest looks like an enormous breakthrough in so some ways.
On the forefront of the enhancements is the upgraded Falcon Digicam System, a flowery identify for a triple digital camera array powered by the neatest software program Honor has ever developed. It simply sits among the many best Android phones and recurrently produces glorious high quality pictures.
Whilst you might imagine the brand new 180MP telephoto digital camera is the centerpiece of the expertise, it is the upgraded AI capabilities of the digital camera that shine by way of past glorious imaging capabilities. Honor’s upgraded AI Movement Sensing Seize is so sensible it will take photos for you, and it is downright spectacular how nice these look, too.
Contemplating that flagships just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely still struggle to capture motion, it is refreshing to see an organization exit of its approach to ship a smartphone digital camera expertise that goes so above and past to resolve this drawback.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera: Movement seize
The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s capacity to seize movement is unmatched amongst telephones I’ve examined through the years. Sure, it even beats a Pixel.
Not solely does the cellphone excel in capturing crisp photographs of transferring pets and children, however the software program is clever sufficient to mechanically seize photographs when sure motion is detected.
Honor says it educated its AI algorithm with over eight million pictures containing transferring topics, enabling the digital camera’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 photographs of the Irish dancers on stage. All I did was open the digital camera app and level it on the stage, the AI algorithm did all the remainder of the work.
Automated picture seize would possibly sound like a gimmick till you end up in a state of affairs the place it is wanted.
Automated picture seize could sound like a foolish gimmick, however it works extremely properly in my testing. As a father or mother, generally it is exhausting to have two free arms, 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 if you happen to’d fairly seize your pictures by tapping the shutter, the Honor Magic 6 Professional will get it proper mainly each time. I ran my ordinary 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 incredible picture each single time.
The Pixel 8 Pro was the one different cellphone that carried out this persistently, and even then, the photographs from the Honor Magic 6 Professional all seemed higher than what Google’s greatest might seize.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera: Major digital camera
I’ve only a few critiques of the Magic 6 Professional digital camera expertise, however one is definitely the way in which to fast launch the digital camera. Most trendy Android telephones mean you can double-tap the ability button at any time — irrespective of if the display screen is on or off — to rapidly launch the digital camera.
The Honor Magic 6 Professional nonetheless makes use of the bizarre outdated 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 is not unlocked — you may both have to search out the digital camera shortcut or flip the display screen off with a view to activate the short launch characteristic. It is foolish.
Aside 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 digital camera to taking an image takes roughly 2 seconds. Autofocus works stupendously properly, and film high quality is phenomenal.
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It is tough to choose a winner between the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 8 Professional, and Honor Magic 6 Professional’s principal cameras. All three telephones ship glorious dynamic vary and fantastic element.
The three examples above present how every cellphone can commerce off with having the very best picture, relying on the state of affairs. Within the first instance, the Honor Magic 6 Professional has higher colour accuracy, distinction, and fantastic element. The second two examples favor the Galaxy S24 Extremely for fantastic element and the Pixel 8 Professional for colour accuracy.
Total, although, I discovered the Honor Magic 6 Professional’s photographs to look extremely pleasing. Most complaints had been situational, and I did not discover any specific sample of weak point within the a whole bunch of photographs I’ve captured over the previous few weeks.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera: Telephoto digital camera
Once I started this evaluate, I had a tough time imagining that the Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera might produce a high quality telephoto expertise past 5x, at greatest. That is as a result of the telephoto digital camera 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 Ultra supplies.
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 biggest telephoto sensor on any cellphone so far. Meaning 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 digital camera 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 completely different crop stage because of lens variations. All digital camera viewfinders had 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 picture in each manner.
The second instance of a Home Finch at 20x is not almost as minimize and dry, and I feel the end result will likely be down to non-public choice. The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s picture is considerably sharper, with crisp edges across the feathers and even some spectacular fantastic element with out noise.
However the Magic 6 Professional achieves this with AI-based approximation, as is most evident across the fowl’s eyes and beak. In the meantime, the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s picture appears extra like a photograph taken from a digital camera fairly than a mixture of images 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 appears like an apparent digital crop for the reason that digital camera is bodily restricted to a 2.5x optical zoom lens. Something past that could be a mixture of digital crops from the principle 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 digital camera: Low mild
For the reason that Magic 6 Professional makes use of AI so closely for its processing, low-light images 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 fantastic particulars are preserved due to the AI on the cellphone.
Honor additionally appears to crank up the saturation in decrease mild, making this neon-lit arcade a right away wow issue. This implies colours aren’t precisely represented however definitely “look good” to the human eye.
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Total, I desire the look of photographs from the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely in many of the photographs. The colours are each extra pure, and the fantastic particulars look extra sensible, despite the fact that extra noise is clear within the photographs.
The one shot the place I feel the Honor Magic 6 Professional wins is the principle digital camera picture, the place it pulled out extra fantastic element all through the picture. 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 photographs from every lens.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera: Entrance-facing digital camera
The Honor Magic 6 Professional’s 50MP front-facing sensor sounds nice on paper, however I discovered it tends to take semi-blurry photographs in all lighting circumstances. That is weird given the cellphone’s penchant for taking crisp photographs of objects in movement, however it appears the cellphone makes use of completely different processing strategies on the front-facing digital camera.
Not solely that, however portrait mode did not appear to work in any respect till I noticed 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, however it was a horrible choice that is going to confuse a variety of prospects.
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In comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, the Honor Magic 6’s front-facing photographs are a bit underwhelming. They are not dangerous however the odd movement blur after I was holding the digital camera nonetheless may be very unusual.
It is also a disgrace that bokeh is not enabled by default on the Magic 6 Professional. The cellphone takes fairly exemplary portrait mode photographs with this characteristic correctly enabled, and I merely can’t perceive why Honor would default to it being off when the expectation of portrait mode is to have it enabled.
Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera: Conclusion
The Honor Magic 6 Professional digital camera expertise is one which’ll recurrently impress, from glorious low mild images to crisp seize of transferring topics. The digital camera UI is not something revolutionary however it does not actually must be. I nonetheless desire the Google Pixel digital camera UI over different telephones however there’s nothing offensive right here.
The cellphone actually shines is in its AI processing skills, which turns out to be useful if you take an image otherwise you need 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 rapidly perceive how helpful such a characteristic may be.
Whereas the Pixel 8 Professional and Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely usually took higher photographs from their respective telephoto cameras, the Magic 6 Professional nonetheless did an outstanding job and sometimes delivered glorious photographs as much as 10x zoom. Past that, most photographs had been clearly digital crops and never notably good wanting.
Total, Honor has delivered a incredible digital camera and one I really feel assured utilizing it doesn’t matter what state of affairs I discover myself in.