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As scheduled, Honor officially took the wraps off the Magic9 Pro Max in China today. The phone starts at 6,499 yuan, or about $970, and brings two 200MP cameras tuned with ARRI, a 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip, and an 8,800mAh battery with 100W wired charging.
Honor announced the phone at its Magic Grand Ceremony in Beijing alongside the Magic9 and Magic9 Super Edition.
Cameras built with ARRI
The Honor Magic9 Pro Max has a dual 200MP camera system developed with ARRI, with the main and telephoto cameras both using 200MP sensors. Honor pairs the camera hardware with its self-developed Honor Drive H1 imaging chip, which uses a 6nm process and delivers 18.8 TOPS/W energy efficiency. The chip also handles RAW-domain lossless noise reduction to retain more image detail during processing.
The main camera is a 200MP ARRI gimbal-level camera with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor, an f/1.57 aperture, and CIPA 8.0 image stabilization. It supports up to 3 degrees of gimbal-level stabilization to keep shots steady when the phone moves. Honor says the setup suits both people and landscape photography.
The second 200MP camera is an ARRI Ultra Night Telephoto lens with a 1/1.4-inch sensor and f/2.6 aperture. It also supports CIPA 8.0 stabilization and uses Honor’s AiMAGE sharpness engine. Along with its long-range shooting capabilities, the telephoto camera is designed to handle closer subjects as well.
The phone also has a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide camera and a 3D depth-sensing camera. The front camera is Android’s first square 55MP sensor that showed up in the hands-on video from earlier this month. You can shoot 1:1, 16:9, or 9:16 without rotating the phone.
ARRI video features
The ARRI partnership extends beyond the camera hardware. The Magic9 Pro Max supports an ARRI LogC3 video pipeline, giving users more flexibility when color-grading footage after recording. Honor says the system is tuned with ARRI to reproduce the softer highlights, shadows, and color transitions associated with film.
The phone also includes 87 official ARRI Looks, which can be applied to footage for different cinematic color treatments. There is also an ARRI Master Mode with presets such as Venice and Southern Fujian.
Another feature is ARRI Movie Live, which records video in a 2.39:1 cinematic aspect ratio. The phone continues recording for three seconds after the shutter is pressed, allowing users to capture a short sequence rather than a single frame.
Like most Chinese flagships these days, you also get external teleconverters support, and not one but two. The G500 works with the phone’s 85mm lens to provide a claimed 500mm equivalent focal length for long-distance photography. The G200 is a smaller option, weighing 88 grams with an 81mm focal length, which combines with the phone’s 85mm lens to produce a claimed 200mm equivalent.
Both accessories are sold separately. Honor is also offering a SmallRig professional video expansion kit designed for the Magic9 Pro Max, adding mounting and expansion interfaces for a more conventional video setup.
For video recording, Honor has added a directional microphone system that it describes as a cinematic-grade gun microphone. It combines a highly directional microphone with an omnidirectional microphone and can pick up sound from greater distances. Honor says its laboratory testing showed a 462% improvement in device-level noise reduction and a 158% increase in radio sensitivity compared with its reference microphone setup.
Display and build
The screen is a 6.8-inch OLED that Honor calls its Black Diamond display. It peaks at 10,000 nits, runs from 1Hz to 120Hz, and has 4320Hz PWM dimming. The panel also uses a 5,600-layer silicon nitride coating, which Honor says makes it 15 times more scratch-resistant and 25 times more drop-resistant than the glass used as its comparison baseline.
The body is all metal and carries IP68, IP69, and IP69K ratings. For unlocking, you get both 3D face recognition and a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. MagicOS adds a dedicated AI button, and Honor’s YOYO assistant can record video highlights with a single press.
Chip, battery, and charging
The Honor Magic9 Pro Max runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, a 2nm chip with a CPU clock speed of up to 5GHz. This lines up with the AnTuTu listing that appeared just before launch, where the phone scored over 5.5 million points.
Keeping everything running is an 8,600mAh battery. Honor says the cell has 40% silicon content and an energy density of 1000Wh/L. Charging runs at 100W wired and 80W wireless, and 50W wireless car charging works with compatible vehicles.
Pricing and configurations
The Honor Magic9 Pro Max comes in four storage options, matching what Honor listed when pre-orders opened:
- 12GB + 256GB: 6499 yuan (about $968)
- 12GB + 512GB: 6999 yuan (about $1,043)
- 16GB + 512GB: 7499 yuan (about $1,117)
- 16GB + 1TB: 8499 yuan (about $1,266)
- Master Photographer Package: 10999 yuan (about $1,639)
You can pick from Moss Green, Silver, and Shadow Black. The Honor Telephoto Converters G500 and G200, along with the SmallRig video expansion kit, are sold separately.
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