Honor Magic 7 Pro camera review: All-encompassing AI joins solid hardware

Honor Magic 7 Pro camera review: All-encompassing AI joins solid hardwareA few years after expanding into Europe, Honor is hoping the flagship Magic 7 Pro will convince even more users to give the brand a try outside of ChinaWith advanced silicon-carbon battery tech, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and growing AI software, the Honor Magic 7 Pro might make a compelling case. The smartphone race outside of North America is often won by a device's camera system —

 just look at what brands like Vivo are doing — so if Honor wants to win, it'll need the Magic 7 Pro to deliver standout camera performance.I've spent the last few weeks pushing the Magic 7 Pro's "Falcon Camera" to its limits, snapping shots and taking videos across two continents. Honor sent me to Bled, Slovenia for the Magic 7 Pro global launch event, where I got to test this phone's camera while scaling the Slovenian Alps, visiting ski slops, and riding ATVs. Back home, I tried out the Magic 7 Pro camera system in the completely-different desert terrain of Phoenix, Arizona.

So, how does the Honor Magic 7 Pro camera perform? It's tricky, because the raw camera hardware is downright impressive. For instance, the telephoto camera has a large sensor size and a high megapixel count, increasing its versatility. The problem is that the Falcon camera's AI engine can be both overreaching and underwhelming at times, and some of Honor's claims — like the 100x AI Super Zoom — should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.All told, the Honor Magic 7 Pro does have some of the best camera systems available in a flagship. It's not quite at the level of Vivo handsets, but it's closer than ever. And for the second straight year, the Honor Magic flagship takes the best motion shots of any smartphone.Like most Android flagships, the Magic 7 Pro has a "pro" camera mode that lets you view and tweak just about every setting. However, the truth is that most users will take photos using the simple point-and-shoot method, and that's how I tested the Honor Magic 7 Pro as a result.

You'll immediately notice that opening the camera and snapping a photo is quicker than ever on an Honor phone, because the Magic 7 Pro finally supports double-clicking the power button to launch the camera from anywhere. This was shockingly not available on the Magic 6 Pro, and something my colleague Nicholas Sutrich pointed out in last year's camera review. Now that this has been corrected, it takes merely a second or two to take a picture with the Magic 7 Pro.

Most of the photos you'll take with this phone will be with the main camera. It uses a 50MP, f/1.4-2.0 wide lens with multi-directional phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and optical image stabilization (OIS). This appears to be mostly the same sensor as Honor used in the Magic 6 Pro.