Honor Magic5 Pro review

Four cameras, two ToF 3D systems

The Honor Magic5 Pro has a three-camera setup on its back with a 50MP primary, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP telephoto cameras. Also around are an 8x8 dToF laser focusing system for autofocus and depth mapping, a single-LED flash, a flicker sensor, and a multi-spectrum color sensor (below the white cover next to the yellow LED flash).

The Magic5 Pro packs a 12MP front camera with another ToF system for autofocus and depth mapping.

The main camera uses a 50MP customized 1/1.12" sensor with 1.4µm pixels. It sits behind a bright 23mm f/1.6 stabilized (OIS) lens. Note that as it often happens, the camera app saves cropped images corresponding to 27mm equiv. focal length.

This primary camera is a massive upgrade in terms of light-gathering ability compared to the Magic4 Pro, which had a 1/1.56" sensor and an f/1.8 aperture. Even better, Honor enabled Optical Image Stabilization on the main camera (the Magic4 Pro skipped OIS).

The 50MP ultra wide-angle (122°) camera supports autofocus and has a 13mm lens with a brighter aperture - f/2.0 vs. f/2.2 on the Magic4 Pro's UW cam.

The third camera on the back also relies on a 50MP sensor, but it is coupled with a 90mm f/3.0 periscopic stabilized lens. This camera seems to be cropping a bit, too, as it saves images corresponding to 95mm equiv. focal length.

Here's an interesting note - this phone has two cameras capable of shooting macro images. The ultra-wide module can do it up close at about 2.5cm away, and the tele camera can do it at a distance of 30cm away. The Super Macro mode uses the UW camera for closeups.

The front camera relies on a 12MP sensor with a wide-angle 18mm f/2.4 lens. The focus is fixed.

Camera app

The camera app hasn't changed much by design. The UI is rather familiar. You can change between modes using the carousel type selector under the viewfinder, while additional modes can be found in the "More" sub-menu. On the viewfinder, you will find four zoom toggles - 0.6 for ultrawide, 1x for the main camera, 3.5x for the periscope camera and 10x for the hybrid zoom using the telephoto shooter.

The additional AI toggle at the top of the viewfinder provides scene optimization and suggests which camera to use depending on the scenario. Also, if you move close enough to a subject, the system automatically switches to the macro mode using the ultrawide camera.

Camera app

In portrait mode, there are only two toggles - 1x and 2x zoom. As you'd expect, the 2x zoom toggle means the software crops from the main camera, so the telephoto remains unusable in this mode.

There is a nicely proficient Pro mode available to all rear cameras with shutter speeds as low as 30sec. RAW shooting is available to all, too.

High-res mode is also available to all rear cameras.

Advanced settings

Photo quality

The main camera saves 12MP photos by default instead of 12.5MP, as many other 50MP imagers. That's because the camera app crops a tiny bit from the edges, and this accounts for the difference between the actual 23mm focal length and the 27mm one per the EXIF.

Anyway, these 12MP default photos are, without a doubt, some of the best you can get from a smartphone nowadays. The level of detail is impressively high, the sharpness is balanced, and there is no visible noise. Even better, the processing is quite mature, and every fine detail looks outstanding; even random detail is well-developed - something that's a challenge for smaller Quad-Bayer sensors.

The color rendition is accurate to real life, and we observed no mishaps with the white balance.

The contrast across all photo samples is high, while the dynamic range is good but not over the top - and that's the right way, in our opinion.

As we said - these are easily class-leading photos, on par with the best in class from the likes of Sony and Huawei.

Main camera, 12MP

One way to get a bit less processed photos is shooting in 50MP via the High-Res mode and then resizing those to 12MP. The 50MP photos are rather good, with enough detail and matching properties with the default output when it comes to colors, contrast and dynamic range. Noise is visible in some photos, but it's not getting in the way. You won't get more detail when shooting in 50MP and then downsizing to 12MP, but as we said, those would look a tad more natural. Still, given the balanced Honor processing, we find this unnecessary.

Main camera, 50MP

The ultrawide camera saves 12.5MP images by default, as it should be - this means there is no crop here. The ones we took with the Honor Magic5 Pro are great - the photos are incredibly wide, with a lot of resolved detail and, once again - nicely balanced sharpness and overall rendition. The corners are proficiently corrected, too.

There is no visible noise across the photos, the colors are once again lively and true to life, the contrast is good, even if a bit lower than what the main camera offers, and the dynamic range is notably wide.

Overall, solid performance from the ultrawide camera and, once again - flagship-worthy photos.

Ultrawide camera, 12.5MP

You can shoot at 50MP with the ultrawide camera as well, but we see no reason why. The high-res photos are rather poor with low detail, and they look as if they were upscaled from the default ones.

Ultrawide camera, 50MP

There is a separate Super Macro mode, and it may also appear as a toggle on the viewfinder if the camera app or the AI (if enabled) decides you may need it. The Super Macro mode itself offers 1x and 2x zoom levels, but we suggest avoiding the 2x option if possible, as it is achieved by cropping and upscaling from the default 13mm view and will hurt the overall photo quality.

The closeup shots we took with the ultrawide camera are quite pleasing - their centers are detailed and sharp, with developed objects that will certainly show previously hard-to-see things. The dynamic range remains wide, and the contrast is good enough.

Ultrawide macro, 12.5MP

The 50MP zoom camera has two fixed modes on the viewfinder - the default 3.5x and 10x. You can, of course, select anything between 3.5x and 100x, because - why not?!

The 3.5x zoomed photos are very good - there is plenty of detail, great sharpness, wide dynamic range, accurate and lively colors, and the images are free of noise. Once again, the processing is balanced, and the pictures don't appear as overprocessed.

The 50MP sensor is probably a small one, as we've seen slightly more detailed images from other 3.5x cameras like the one on the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, and the resolved detail is probably the only thing that has a tiny room for improvement. But we are really nitpicking here as even as is, the 3.5x zoomed photos are rather awesome.

Zoom camera 3.5x, 12.5MP

Shooting in 50MP is possible with the telephoto camera as well, but the photos look as if they were upscaled from the default ones, so unless you want to avoid the camera processing altogether, we see no other reason to use this mode.

Zoom camera 3.5x, 50MP

The 10x zoomed photos are surprisingly impressive; they offer more detail and even closer magnification of what a crop from the 50MP mode would have done.

Sure, the 10x zoomed images are less detailed than the 3.5x ones, but they still offer enough to be considered kind of lossless. A simple digital zoom would have looked terrible at this level.

Anyway, the 10x samples offer previously unseen detail, and it's not overprocessed or over-sharpened, on the contrary - the rendition is pleasing. The colors are accurate and lively, there is no visible noise, and the dynamic range and contrast deserve some praise, too.

Zoom camera 10x, 12.5MP

The phone is advertised to be capable of up to 100x zoom, and we just couldn't miss the opportunity to take some 50x and 100x zoomed photos - these are the two fixed positions when you access the zoom bar. Those are quite poor when it comes to detail, but you can still make what's out there.

3.5x • 10x • 50x • 100x

3.5x • 10x • 50x • 100x

3.5x • 10x • 50x • 100x

The Portrait mode on the Magic5 Pro offers 1x and 2x (default) levels - both use the main camera, of course.

The 2x zoomed portraits are the default ones, and they are solid - the subject rendition and exposure are excellent, the separation is absolutely great, and the bokeh looks incredibly natural. Everything else is great, too, noise reduction, colors, and dynamic range.

The detail, on the other hand, is not as great as these were cropped from the main camera. It's not a pure digital zoom, but you can see the detail and the sharpness aren't on par with the regular photos below. Still, these will do fine for any occasion.

Portraits 2x, 12MP

The non-zoomed portraits are class-leading with plenty of detail and outstanding bokeh. We can also praise the balanced sharpness and natural subject rendition. The colors are accurate, there is no noise, and the dynamic range is excellent.

Portraits 1x, 12MP

Finally, let's talk about the selfie camera. There are three FoVs available for the 12MP selfie camera corresponding to 18mm, 21mm and 26mm in 35mm equivalent, or as the UI calls them - Wide, 0.8x and 1x. The camera always saves 12.5MP photos, and we suspect there might be a higher-resolution sensor inside, probably a 13MP one.

The 18mm selfies are outstanding and notably wide - the resolved detail is a lot and the sharpness is great, the subject looks natural, and it isn't over-processed. The photos are free of noise, the colors are accurate and pleasing, and the contrast is quite high, while the dynamic range stays above average.

Selfie camera 18mm, 12.5MP

The 21mm selfies match the quality of the 18mm ones, though there is a slight drop in the overall sharpness.

Selfie camera 21mm, 12.5MP

And the same goes for the 26mm selfies - they also match the quality of the widest mode, but the resolved detail and the sharpness are a tiny bit lower, probably due to the crop and upscaled involved.

Selfie camera 26mm, 12.5MP

Low-light photo quality

The Honor Magic5 Pro promises excellent nighttime photography, and it surely delivers. There is also Night Mode available, a rather quick one, but it turns out the default shooting mode uses the same thing, and all photos from the default output and the Night Mode one are identical.

The photos from the main camera are well exposed, offer a ton of resolved detail, and there is little noise, if any. The dynamic range is thoroughly impressive, while the contrast hasn't suffered a bit. And the color rendition is outstanding, with realistic and punchy colors.

Main camera, 12MP

The low-light photos from the ultrawide camera and excellent, too, as far as ultrawide cameras go. They show surprisingly bright exposure, more than enough detail, and proficiently cleaned noise, and the colors are kept saturated and lively. These surely looked like they have been shot with the help of a Night Mode, but do we really care if they were shot fast?

Ultrawide camera, 12.5MP

The 3.5x zoomed photos are excellent, all things considered. They impressed us with the exposure and dynamic range, the colors are still great, and the noise is impressively low. Even better, the photos, while not the most detailed, are still sharp enough and are not only usable, but can be considered some of the best zoomed photos from a smartphone we've seen at night.

3.5x zoom camera, 12.5MP

The 10x zoomed photos are quite soft, and with low detail, here, the digital zoom is an easy tell, but they share the rest of the good qualities with the 3.5x zoomed ones, and when not used in full resolution, they would pass as great ones. Imagine that - 10x zoomed usable nighttime photos that are actually digitally zoomed from a 3.5x camera - it sure sounds like a great job from Honor.

10x zoom, 12.5MP

There is Super Moon mode, which requires 50X or so zoom. The results are not bad, all things considered.

Super Moon 50x • Super Moon 100x

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Honor Magic5 Pro. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Honor Magic5 Pro against the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The Honor Magic5 Pro records video up to 4K across all of its cameras. 4K60 is available only on the main and zoom cameras. The rest are limited to 4K30 video capturing, though the front one supports 1080p@60fps, too.

A baffling thing we noticed – all 4K video capturing modes are limited to 15 minutes, probably a limitation of the file size and file system. This would be quite a disappointing obstacle for video creators.

Stabilization is available across all cameras - the front and the ultrawide use EIS, the primary relies on OIS + EIS, while the telephoto seems to be using OIS only. You cannot opt out of video stabilization.

The 4K@30 clips have a bitrate of 39-40Mbps. Audio is always captured stereo with 250kbps bitrate and the sound is usually clean of wind and other disruptions and decently rich.

The 4K footage from the main camera is great - there is plenty of resolved detail and excellent sharpness. The colors are true to life, the contrast is high, and the dynamic range is just right. The video is clean of noise, and the processing seems quite proficient.

The 4K ultrawide clip is also superb - it is plenty wide, with enough detail, low noise, and accurate color rendition. The contrast is high, while the dynamic range is enough. We've seen somewhat sharper ultrawide videos from other flagships, but not by much.

The zoom camera has two magnification levels when capturing videos - 4x and 10x.

The ones shot at 4x are alright, with average resolved detail, but good colors, contrast, and dynamic range. We have seen notably sharper zoomed videos, the ones from the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, for example, so we were a bit disappointed by these soft zoomed videos.

The 10x zoomed footage is digitally zoomed, and it's plenty soft and unappealing.

The 4K selfie videos are very good, with enough resolved detail and good sharpness, low noise and overall balanced processing. The colors are pleasing and accurate, the contrast is great, and the dynamic range is enough for selfie purposes.

Let's look at some low-light footage now.

The 4K low-light videos from the main camera are of average quality - the detail is enough, the colors are good, and the videos will do for most common purposes. They are nothing impressive, though, as the noise reduction smears a lot of fine detail, and the dynamic range is low.

There is Night Mode Video available on the main camera, but it's captured at 1080p at 30fps. And it's quite remarkable, with outstanding exposure and dynamic range, plenty of detail, low noise and excellent colors.

The low-light ultrawide videos are usable - they are noisy, but that's probably why they offer a bit more detail than we expected. The colors remain good, and the dynamic range is enough.

The 4x zoomed videos are soft and dark, a bit noisy, too, but they are still usable.

And we can say the same about the 10x zoomed ones, though because of the digital zoom, they are, well, barely usable.

Finally, Honor does a great job at stabilizing the videos taken with the primary, ultrawide, and selfie cameras (already shown above).

Finally, here's the Honor Magic5 Pro in our video comparison database.

2160p: Honor Magic5 Pro against the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 Pro in our Video compare tool