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After 18 years of reviewing know-how, it’s fairly uncommon that smartphones can actually shock or excite me, however final 12 months marked an enormous second. I like small telephones and skinny telephones, which bucks the pattern of larger gadgets, and the iPhone Air and Galaxy S25 Edge each left me enamored once they had been introduced.
But neither turned my primary telephone for one key motive: compromises. Each telephones function appreciable compromises in comparison with their non-thin counterparts, particularly because the latter develop into more and more thinner with every era.
Meet the very best skinny telephone ever made: the Honor Magic 8 Professional Air. It’s so good, it’s my favourite telephone to make use of proper now.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
The Honor Magic 8 Professional Air is barely thicker than the Galaxy S25 Edge and the iPhone Air, however it is a worthwhile trade-off. The Magic 8 Professional Air measures 6.1mm skinny, in comparison with 5.6mm for the iPhone Air and 5.8mm for the Galaxy S25 Edge, however whereas it is 0.6mm thicker, you’ll be pleased about it.
Swipe to scroll horizontallyHonor Magic 8 Professional Air Specs
Specs
Honor Magic 8 Professional Air
Construct
150.5 x 71.9 x 6.1 mm
155 grams
Glass entrance + aluminum body
Show
6.31-inch LTPO OLED
1216 x 2640 pixels
4320Hz PWM, 120Hz refresh fee
Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR
1800 nits HBM/6,000 nits peak brightness
Chipset
MediaTek Dimensity 9500 SoC
Reminiscence/Storage
12GB RAM/256GB
12GB RAM/512GB
16GB RAM/512GB
16GB RAM/1TB
Most important Digital camera
50MP, f/1.6, 23mm, 1.2µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS
Ultrawide Digital camera
50MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 112° field-of-view
Telephoto Digital camera
64MP periscope telephoto, f/2.6, 74mm, 3.2x optical zoom, OIS
Selfie Digital camera
50MP, f/2.1, 21mm
Battery
5,500 mAh Silicon Carbon
Charging
80W wired charging
55W wi-fi charging
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, GPS, USB-C 2.0 OTG
Nano-SIM + eSIM
Colours
Black, White, Purple, Orange
Value
¥4,999 (~$717)
The explanation? A lot better cameras, a a lot bigger battery, and significantly sooner charging. The result’s the one skinny telephone that feels prefer it doesn’t actually compromise the flagship telephone expertise, particularly in comparison with the competitors.
It’s additionally price noting that Honor managed to do all of this in a physique that’s smaller than the competitors as nicely, which makes the Magic 8 Professional Air much more fulfilling to make use of.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
The Magic 8 Professional Air includes a vibrant 6.31-inch show, full with Dolby Imaginative and prescient and 6,000 nits peak brightness, and it resonates with me as a result of I like small telephones; that is rather more snug to make use of in a single hand than the 6.5-inch show on the iPhone Air (which is close to completely sized) and the 6.7-inch show within the Galaxy S25 Edge, which I discover a little bit too giant.
If Honor had picked a bigger show, it won’t have been as fulfilling for me, however there’s a robust probability they might have made it thinner as nicely. Regardless, that is among the many best-designed telephones I’ve utilized in years, and as we’ll see, it lastly addresses the important thing compromises of different skinny telephones. It additionally is available in 4 colours — Black, White, Purple, and Orange — and sure, I’m utilizing the now-very-familiar Orange variant that appears simply as fashionable as my iPhone 17 Professional.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
Battery and charging are key areas during which the Magic 8 Professional Air excels in comparison with the competitors, and concurrently solves the largest situation with different skinny telephones.
The iPhone Air includes a 3,149 mAh battery, with Apple additionally making a separate iPhone Air MagSafe battery pack that near doubles the capability. At round 7mm thick, this greater than doubles the iPhone Air’s general thickness to ~13mm when used collectively. In the meantime, the Galaxy S25 Edge includes a bigger 3,900 mAh battery with no official Qi2 battery pack.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
Compared, the Magic 8 Professional Air excels significantly, that includes a 5,500 mAh battery with help for 80W wired charging and 50W wi-fi charging. For context, that is bigger than the battery within the iPhone 17 Professional Max, the brand new Galaxy S26 Extremely, and even folding telephones just like the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It takes round 50 minutes to cost the Magic 8 Professional Air to full, which can also be sooner than each the iPhone Air and the Galaxy S25 Edge.
I used to be shocked by the battery measurement, after which much more shocked when it delivered the precise all-day battery life I’ve been ready for from a skinny telephone. Over the previous few weeks, the battery life has averaged round 5-6 hours of display screen time per day, which is greater than sufficient, however I’ve additionally had it go over seven hours when used totally on Wi-Fi. That is unimaginable, and easily put, the Magic 8 Professional Air is the primary skinny telephone to supply true flagship battery life.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
The digicam is one other space during which the Magic 8 Professional Air excels. The iPhone Air includes a single 48MP digicam, whereas the Galaxy S25 Edge includes a 200MP primary digicam and a 12MP ultrawide digicam. But each lack the complete vary of digicam options you’d discover in both firm’s flagship telephones, which is another excuse some clients could have opted in opposition to the skinny variants.
The Honor Magic 8 Professional Air doesn’t have such compromises.
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The Magic 8 Professional Air exhibits that skinny telephones can have nice cameras, due to a 50MP primary digicam with f/1.6 aperture, a 50MP ultrawide digicam, and a 64MP periscope telephoto digicam with 3.2x optical zoom.
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That is just about similar to the digicam system discovered within the new Honor Magic V6 folding telephone, however the Magic 8 Professional Air additionally has a significantly better 50MP selfie digicam.
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I’ve been ready for a skinny telephone that really delivers within the digicam division, and that is the primary telephone to not disappoint: the Honor Magic 8 Professional Air is the primary skinny telephone to truly ship a flagship digicam expertise, and it’s completely great to make use of in real-world utilization.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
Skinny telephones typically battle with cooling beneath heavy efficiency, however the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 processor contained in the Magic 8 Professional Air stays noticeably cooler than some other skinny telephone, even when utilizing on-device AI options.
Equally, Honor’s software program is well-optimized for each the shape issue and the shortage of thermal window, and the telephone has but to battle, crash, or lag in any method. Sure, it runs a Chinese language ROM, so you may’t set a special default launcher, however apart from that small level, Honor’s Magic UI is improbable and intuitive to make use of.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
There’s additionally full help for Google Apps, help for eSIMs — which is extraordinarily uncommon on Chinese language telephones — and even a SIM tray, which is lacking from the iPhone Air. This might simply launch globally with only a few tweaks to the UX.
The under-display fingerprint sensor works nicely, however I do want Honor had adopted a fingerprint sensor on the ability button as a substitute. And simply to show it’s actually a flagship, there’s additionally IP68 and IP69 mud and water resistance, with the latter proving to be a key differentiator that many non-thin telephones don’t even provide.
(Picture credit score: Nirave Gondhia)
The Magic 8 Professional Air is the very best skinny telephone ever made.
It is a huge assertion, and the caveat is that there aren’t that many. Having tried each skinny telephone — together with the Tecno, Huawei, and Motorola variations which might be restricted to China or elsewhere — one factor is obvious: the Magic 8 Professional Air is the very best skinny telephone ever made.
I’ll take it a step additional: it’s among the finest telephones ever made, skinny or in any other case. Honor has confirmed that skinny telephones might be made with out many compromises, and in doing so, it’s set a benchmark for different firms to observe. If a skinny telephone might be this good, what does it imply for non-thin telephones going ahead? Regardless, it is already considered one of my favourite Android telephones, and apart from the very best folding telephones, it is setting a benchmark that I am undecided the competitors will beat.
The one draw back to the Magic 8 Professional Air? It’s unique to China solely, at the very least proper now. It begins at ¥4,999 (~$717) for the 12/256GB model in China, with the highest variant costing ¥5,999 for 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It could be costlier in international markets, however there’s little doubt in my thoughts that Honor must carry this to international markets. It’s that good that each nation deserves to have the ability to purchase this.
