In January this year, the Chinese manufacturer Honor released the Magic 6 and Magic 6 Pro. The launch might have been overwhelmed by hype for the Galaxy S24 series that launched a few days after that, but the Honor Magic 6 phones are genuinely some of my favorites from the year.
While it seemed like we might have had to wait until January 2025 before we were able to see the successors of those amazing devices, it seems Christmas will come early. The Honor Magic 7 series could launch as soon as October, which starts in a few days.
Honor’s Magic 7 Series Will Launch Three Months Earlier Than Expected
Honor chose January for the launch of its exceptional Magic 6 smartphones. I’m a big fan of both of those devices not just because they have exceptional specs, but because they also bring a design that stands out amongst a sea of smartphone designs that just don’t stimulate me anymore. I’ve been looking forward to seeing what the successive series might bring to the table and I don’t need to wait long for that.
Thanks to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, we now know that the Honor Magic 7 and Magic 7 Pro are going to arrive way ahead of schedule. Instead of January, the phones are going to come in October, which starts in less than a week.
At the moment, there’s not much insight into the specs that the upcoming devices will come toting, but we can reasonably expect the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (unless the company decides to switch over to MediaTek; an unlikely decision). The post also seems to hint at the company using an OmniVision sensor, likely a 50MP unit for its primary shooter. We also expect a 2K OLED display, at least on the Pro model.
AI Will Make An Appearance, Of Course
It should hardly be surprising, but we know that one element of the Honor Magic 7 launch that will be touched upon in great detail will be AI. Back at IFA Berlin this year, the company confirmed that the Magic 7 series would come with its AI Agent personal assistant. It is expected to be able to learn your habits and automate tasks on the fly, such as unsubscribing from services just by telling it to.
Honor Is Likely Pushing Up Its Release Schedule To Get Early Access To That New Qualcomm Chip
There has to be a good reason why a company would put out a smartphone three months earlier than it did that phone’s predecessor. I can only guess, but I honestly think it is because Honor wants to compete a lot better with the other manufacturers that will be releasing devices next.
Vivo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Oppo are each going to release phones next month, and the benefit of October for them will be very early access to the new flagship SoCs — whether the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (might be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite) or the MediaTek Dimensity 9400. The fact that OnePlus is also pushing up its expected release from December lends some credence to that.
