This time, I dissected the HONOR Magic6 Pro - a standout in almost every way

This year, however, the picture turned in their favor. When the HONOR Magic6 Pro was first announced, I knew immediately that we would all have to pay attention to its arrival. Not only have they tightened up all their strategies, I finally get the feeling that they are ready to take Huawei's position and slowly start to climb up against Samsung as well.

HONOR Magic6 Pro price in Slovenia?

• HONOR Magic6 Pro 12/512GB: €1299

Only two colors are available: black and green.

HONOR Magic6 Pro - the more I look at it, the more I like it

I admit that at first this design, which they called Falcon, did not suit me. The camera frame is huge, which is a result of the larger sensors, just like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, and easily gets in the way during everyday use, but the phone has grown on me. I used it for 14 days and after a good week I woke up one morning and said to myself that the phone doesn't look bad at all. I've loved it ever since, although I would have liked it even more in the green version. Last year's Magic5 Pro looks a lot duller to me now by comparison.

There are no other design elements. In this regard, HONOR was very reserved, or rather it focused all its efforts on the placement of the cameras. At the front, they stayed true to the curved screen and, like Xiaomi, resist the trend of completely flat screens. Straight or curved, regardless of which group of followers you belong to, in the end the most important thing is that the technology under the glass is at the required level, which is the case here.

What I can highlight is the 3D sensor in the front camera (similar to the Huawei Mate 50 Pro), which significantly improves facial recognition for unlocking the phone. It also works at night without blinding you, because the phone had to compensate with a higher brightness. While they hit the nail on the head with facial biometrics, they placed the fingerprint reader, which is naturally located under the screen, a little too low. You get used to it over time, but I would still recommend using the 3D sensor, which is a faster and safer choice.

The screen has a special NanoCrystal Shield protection, so you won't find Corning here, but I expect you shouldn't have any problems with scratches and bumps. It's also IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, but I wouldn't advise taking it into the shower or pool with you. This applies especially after a certain period of use, as the built-in seals lose their effectiveness with use. If you fall into the water, follow the instructions we recently prepared.

The speakers in the stereo setup are also surprisingly good. The volume is excellent by phone standards, there is no noticeable hissing at the highest volume and the bass is also quite solid. They also improved the vibration motor, which was always too intense for me in previous generations. If I had the phone in silent mode and in my pocket, I didn't feel the vibration. This year, I am glad that there are no such problems.

Not only is the display fantastic, it's also getting more eye-friendly every year

I remember last year when I was still happy when premium phones reached 1500 nits of brightness, which was enough for 90 % usage scenarios. HONOR Magic6 Pro has as much as 5,000 nits of maximum brightness, and I don't even know what to say about such brightness. Yes, it is not always available, it really only turns on when the phone thinks we really need it, for example when we are outside at noon and the strongest summer sun rays are beating down on us. You can wear even the darkest glasses on your head and you will see everything on the screen.

120-Hz refresh rate is standard and no manufacturer in this segment can afford anything less. The image density (453 ppi) could be a little better, but I doubt anyone will actually notice. The maximum resolution is 1280 x 2800, which I think is quite sufficient for a 6.8-inch screen. You could go higher, like the Sony phones do, but I really don't see the need to. It would look better on paper, but you'd lose precious % batteries.

I like more that they focused on PWM dimming, which affects whether we will have tired eyes after long use, especially in dark rooms (for example, before going to bed) or whether we will easily go to sleep. The PWM dimming frequency has been improved to as much as 4320 Hz, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has around 400 Hz for comparison. Who will feel it? Not everyone. Since this is imperceptible to the naked eye, those who have already noticed that they are sensitive to phone screens will really appreciate this technology.

The panel is, of course, OLED, and I have had no complaints about the quality of these panels for a long time. It can be seen that the manufacturers have several years of development behind them and rarely skimp on the screen. They also added LTPO technology, I noticed a minimum frequency of 10 Hz with the screen always on, which is good for the battery, but it doesn't drop all the way to 1 Hz, like for example on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Nothing critical, a bit of hair-splitting on my part.

Snapdragon 8 Gen3 is as good as all the others, but with a little less overheating

I always do the tests, but it is clear to everyone that there cannot be specific outliers with the same chip, a maximum of 5 %. I pay more attention to overheating or the consistency of performance, how long the phone is even able to maintain maximum performance. For example, with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, I didn't notice any noticeable drops, but I noticed quite high temperatures, too high for phone standards.

HONOR Magic6 Pro also had no drops, the performance curve was always symmetrical, and there was no alarming overheating. Of course, the phone is pleasantly warm to the touch at 45⁰C, but you won't get burned. But not everyone can reach this temperature. If you play Genshin Impact at the highest resolution, the temperature will be at least 5 degrees lower, even when playing Persona 5 on Switch I did not register higher than 37 degrees Celsius. Let me know if it overheats, because I'll be genuinely interested in what you've been up to.

The battery is another area of interest. Although they increased the capacity to 5600 mAh, the phone is still of moderate dimensions. Greater capacity and a more efficient chip are known for autonomy, which is also very good for the premium class. At the end of the day, when I really played with it and got to know it in the last weeks, I also had somewhere between 40-50 % left, which included playing demanding games (up to 45 min), surfing the web, reading comics, Youtube, Facebook and everything else we do every day to the phone.

I'm already happy with the battery if I have a good 30 % left at the end of the day, especially if fast charging is available. With Honor's magic six, I can always rest assured that the battery will last the whole day and even the next weekday. Charging is also extremely fast: 80 W via cable, 66 W wireless and also 5 W vice versa for charging smaller devices. My only complaint is that the charger is not included with the purchase. It's a shame that HONOR decided on this "sustainable" strategy, because the phone really ticks all the boxes for me in terms of performance.

Despite some improvements, Magic OS 8.0 is still "basic" and boring. There really isn't anything that he can say is "happening" to him. It's still a copy of Huawei's system, but the encouraging news is that artificial intelligence features are on the way that should spice up the system. We can already use some of them, such as OCR technology to recognize text from photos, similar to how we can do it with Google Lens, except that we can do it in the Gallery. Artificial intelligence is also present in calls, where it helps reduce sound leakage into the environment. A function is being prepared where, for example, you could enlarge the notification with your eyes and make a video out of images and text prompts, all with the help of a local language model, i.e. without an Internet connection. It sounds interesting, especially the creation of recordings, where I am most interested to see if the local language model will be able to create more than just basic recordings.

HONOR has committed to 4 Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches. Great, Samsung (and Google) does offer longer support, but it's the second best available on Android phones. The question is also how many of you intend to keep the phone for more than 4 years or continue to use it as a second phone after that. I'd say very little, although after all these years the phone will still be good enough to pass on to another family member.

HONOR Magic6 Pro – the master of photography

The main sensor is always the primary tool of any phone, but with the Magic6 Pro I was more interested in how the 180 MP telephoto camera performed. You don't see that number every day, especially on a telephoto camera. I'm really wondering if the pictures will actually be better. Summing up my experience with the 200MP main camera sensors I've tested so far, the answer would be "it depends".

And so it is with the HONOR Magic6 Pro. The telephoto delivers exceptional photos, even though it only has 2.5x optical zoom. I would like to see this improved in the future. Although the optics stop there and digital zoom takes over, the images are still very good up to somewhere around 5-7x. I would only use optics at night, otherwise the loss of sharpness and detail is immediately noticeable. However, Samsung has the advantage when it comes to zooms, and HONOR shows signs of closing in on it. But I also used the telephoto for macro, where it performed well, better than the dedicated macro photography function, which also happened to me with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

The main 50 MP sensor is very good. It is not 1-inch, as we can already find in a handful of phones, but even with a smaller size, it delivers exceptional photos and videos. Stabilization (OIS) is also perfectly focused, it also has a variable aperture (f/1.4-2.0), but I would like a slightly larger range. Sometimes the system doesn't know exactly how much to open/close the aperture, this might require some more calibration.

When it gets dark, the main camera remains superb. The quality of the sensor is immediately apparent in the detail it delivers. Light sources don't cause it problems, and professionals will have enough data to play around with Lightroom even more. It doesn't have 8K recording, which will only bother extremists, but it does have 10-bit video if that's important to you.

The front camera (50 MP) is also at a very high level, the quality drops as expected at night, but the camera is still usable.

HONOR Magic6 Pro will spice up this year's best lists

I think I've said it all. They have prepared an excellent phone, I can easily place it next to Samsung's and Xiaomi's Ultra, which will be the strongest competitors in Slovenia. However, HONOR has another advantage - the price is €200 lower, which could be an important factor for the consumer. At least for me, I can say that this is quite an important factor.

In short, the HONOR Magic6 Pro is undoubtedly the top 3 phone of this year. Which is not a guarantee of success. We must take into account that in Slovenia most phones are sold through operators and various subscription campaigns. Brand popularity plays a huge role in this. HONOR is not a newcomer, many people remember it from the days when Huawei ruled the telephony industry. But the question is whether since then they have built enough on their brand to become ingrained in the minds of Slovenian consumers. They have an excellent product, now it's just a matter of waiting whether customers will recognize this and buy HONOR instead of Xiaomi and Samsung.