For reasons that make sense to Honor, the Chinese company is officially skipping a South African launch for one of the year’s biggest flagships — the Magic 8 Pro. It obviously feels the tech can speak for itself, and after getting a look at the thing, we can see why. It hasn’t landed in SA yet, with plans to be on shelves by 1 March 2026.
After Stuff called the previous Magic entry a “formidable flagship”, it’d be an understatement to say that it’s got a lot to live up to. We’ve got hopes that the company can deliver, and particularly defend its claims regarding the camera. Honor rarely disappoints in that department. As for appearances, the Magic 8 Pro looks a whole lot like its predecessor — massive camera island, and so on — but throws in an AI button on the right side.
It’s an honour, Magic 8 Pro
Up front, the Magic 8 Pro utilises a slightly smaller 6.71in display that uses an LTPO OLED panel (1,256 x 2,080). A 120Hz refresh rate, coupled with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 tucked under the hood, should make this a proper gamer. Dolby Vision support and 6,000 nits peak brightness round out the Magic 8 Pro’s screen.
South Africa won’t be privy to the Sky Cyan or, uh, Black colourways, nor the many, many RAM and storage configurations the overseas models do. Instead, we’ll scrape by with something called Sunrise Gold (ew) and 12GB physical memory and 512GB storage (we’ll take it). Infinitely more exciting is the 7,100mAh battery and 100W charging, which Honour is rightly proud of. Whether we’ll share the sentiment remains to be seen.
Read More: Get a first look at Honor’s upcoming Magic V6
That substantial camera island isn’t substantial for the fun of it. It houses a triple-camera setup under all that glass, led by a 50MP shooter. Joining it is another 50MP sensor that handles ultrawide shots, while a 200MP telephoto handles all the rest. Another 50MP lives on the front to tackle any selfies.
If any (or all) of that sounds agreeable, South Africans will have to cough up R28,000 for the privilege of taking Honor’s latest beauty home with ’em. Stuff is busy tangoing with the Honor Magic 8 Pro ahead of the device’s official release date of 1 March 2026.
