The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate has been revealed in China, but how does it compare to the already capable Honor Magic 6 Pro?
While the two smartphones sport the same key high-end spec, the Magic 6 Ultimate looks to differentiate itself with the inclusion of particularly high-end tech like LiDAR and satellite connectivity. The catch? It’s only available in China right now, and it’s unclear whether it’ll make it to other regions anytime soon.
While we haven’t gone hands-on with the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate, we have spent plenty of time with the near-identical Honor Magic 6 Pro. With that in mind, here’s how the two compare.
The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate has a different look
Similar to what we’ve seen from Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series, where the Ultra sports a rather unique look, the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate looks quite a bit different from the Magic 6 Pro – if you’re looking at the rear of the device, that is.
The Honor Magic 6 Pro sports a fairly large circular camera bump on the rear, complete with a textured pattern and a shiny aluminium frame that makes it look more squircle than circle, and comes in either a glass or vegan leather back. The former is avaialble in black, while the latter is available in an appealing shade of green.
On the other hand, the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate sports a much more square camera bump on the rear, complete with metallic lines extending from the top-left and bottom-right of the bump to give it a unique look.
Unlike the Magic 6 Pro, it’s available exclusively in vegan leather, be it Ink Rock Black or an attractive pink/purple hue dubbed Sky Purple by Honor.
The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate has upgraded display protection
Though the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate sports the same high-end 6.8-inch AMOLED screen, complete with the same 5000nits max brightness, there is a difference between the two – screen protection.
The Honor Magic 6 Pro comes with Honor’s second-gen nanocrystalline JuRhino screen tech, and given that our sample has yet to get a single scratch, it seems pretty tough.
However, the Magic 6 Ultimate takes things up a notch with Honor’s newer (and slightly oddly named) Honor King Kong Rhinoceros glass.
According to Honor, the screen tech offers ten times the scratch and fall resistance of previous iterations of Honor’s protective glass. It also passed the Swiss SGS multi-scenario gold standard with a five-star rating, which makes it pretty tough, even compared to the already durable Magic 6 Pro.
The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate has LIDAR camera tech
The Honor Magic 6 Pro and Magic 6 Ultimate share the same core camera offering – and it’s an absolute cracker.
It’s fronted by a 50MP primary camera with a large 1/1.3-inch sensor and a variable aperture that gives you the option of shooting in f/1.4 or f/2.0, though it’s the periscope that’s more interesting.
It has the largest periscope sensor around, at 1/1.49 inches, and coupled with a whopping 180MP resolution, it is capable of impressive zoom photography that we felt could compete with the zoom prowess of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. A 50MP 122-degree ultrawide with AF rounds out the trio.
The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate kicks things up a gear with its focus technology, boasting support for LiDAR in place of the Magic 6 Pro’s Laser AF.
Honor says the sensor has 1200 laser focus points and supports 60fps high-speed tracking. This allows for omnidirectional motion capture and fast and accurate autofocus, which should benefit Honor’s rapid Falcon Shot tech in particular.
The Honor Magic 6 Ultimate offers satellite connectivity – in China
Another key area where the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate differs from the Magic 6 Pro is connectivity, and satellite connectivity in particular – as long as you’re in China, that is.
The Magic 6 Ultimate can connect to China’s Tiantong satellite and, with support for real-time voice calls and two-way text messages, it sounds more capable than what you’ll find on an iPhone 15.
Honor claims that its self-developed satellite antenna boosts performance by 11% compared to competing mobile satellite systems, and when combined with the Honor C1+ chipset, the connection should be fast without drawing much power.
Both phones are otherwise near-identical
Aside from the aforementioned differences, the Magic 6 Ultimate and Magic 6 Pro are practically identical.
They sport the same high-end 6.8-inch AMOLED display and all the eye-protecting features that come with it, along with the same capable triple camera system, same 5600mAh silicon-ion battery, same charging speeds, same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, sa- okay, you probably get the point by now.
Here’s a breakdown of the Honor Magic 6 Pro’s spec to give you an idea of the kind of experience on offer:
