Smartphone brand Honor is finally launching its first flagship smartphone called Magic3 to the global market free from its former parent company Huawei. The brand used to be Huawei’s budget smartphone division, which meant it was shackled with the same penalties and sanctions that ruined Huawei’s global ambitions. 

Honor’s woes are well documented and were tied directly to Huawei, but after the Chinese Juggernaut decided to sell the budget-focused brand, it’s no longer subject to restrictions that hobbled its former parent company. That means Honor can once again use the American software and services, which includes regaining access to Google Play and Google Play Services, a prerequisite for any global brand looking to sell their devices outside of China. 

The Magic 3 is actually not the first smartphone the company has launched independently, though it is the first flagship that is destined to arrive in global markets. And while the company has officially split from Huawei, the Magic3 still has an uncanny similarity to the Huawei Mate, not at all surprising given that the two did share the same DNA. Just like the Mate, the Magic3 also comes with an 89-degree waterfall display curve down both sides of the screen.

The Magic3 comes in three different variants: the Magic3, Magic3 Pro, and the Magic3 Pro+. All three come with a 6.67-inch, 2,272 x 1,344, always-on flexible OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+. They also share the same 4,600mAh battery. Even the front camera is the same across all variants: 13-megapixel f/2.4 wide camera with a 100-degree wide-angle lens. 

However, the rear camera is not the same for all variants. The regular Magic3 variant comes with a 50-megapixel f/1.9 lens with Sony’s IMX766 image sensor, a 64-megapixel f/2.2 monochrome camera, and a 13-megapixel 120-degree f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. The Pro variant comes with an additional 64-megapixel f/3.5 OIS telephoto camera with a 3.5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, and 100x digital zoom. Unsurprisingly the Pro+ comes with the best camera combination of the lot: a 50-megapixel, 1/1.28-inch IMX700 image sensor with an f/1.9 aperture lens OIS, 64-megapixel monochrome camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens, a 64-megapixel 126-degree f/2.4 ultra-wide camera, and the same telephoto lens. The Pro+ also has a TOF sensor and a color temperature sensor for more accurate imaging.

As for the processor, the Honor Magic3 Pro and Pro+ are equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ 5G SoC while the regular Magic 3 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. According to Honor, they designed various software engines to help squeeze better performance out of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ 5G SoC found in the Pro and Pro+. This resulted in a stable and fast 5G and gaming performance on the said models. 

Indeed, Honor is no longer the budget phone brand it used to be. It is now completely changing its brand structure. Magic series handsets will now dominate the high end line, while the numbered line (e.g., the Honor 50) will be in the middle, and the X-series will be at the low end of the lineup. 

Honor Magic3 Price

The Honor Magic3 smartphones are heading to Europe very soon. CEO George Zhao has already revealed the prices for the said market. The vanilla Magic3 is priced at €899 (Php 53,134) for the 8GB/256GB variant, while the Magic3 Pro is priced at  €1,099 (Php 65,008) for the 8GB/256GB variant. The Magic 3 Pro+ is priced at €1,499 (Php 88,661) for the 12GB/512GB variant.

Magic3 specs:

• 6.76 inches  (1344 x 2772 pixels) OLED
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage 
• Rear camera: 50 MP omnidirectional + 64 MP monochrome + 13 MP ultrawide
• 13MP front camera
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• Fingerprint scanner (under display/optical)
• USB Type C
• 5,000mAh battery
• Fast charging 66W

Magic3 Pro specs:

• 6.76 inches  (1344 x 2772 pixels) OLED
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage 
• Rear camera: 50 MP omnidirectional + 64 MP monochrome + 64 MP telephoto + 13 MP ultrawide
• 13MP front camera
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• Fingerprint scanner (under display/optical)
• USB Type C
• 4,600mAh battery
• Fast charging 66W

Magic3 Pro+ specs:

• 6.76 inches  (1344 x 2772 pixels) OLED
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+
• 12GB RAM
• 512GB storage 
• Rear camera: 50 MP omnidirectional + 64 MP monochrome + 64 MP telephoto + 64 MP ultrawide
• 13MP front camera
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• Fingerprint scanner (under display/optical)
• USB Type C
• 4,600mAh battery
• Fast charging 66W