Honor Introduced Its Own "iPhone": It has Great Features and a Literally Ridiculous Price
- Attila Buyer
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Honor’s Magic 7 Pro is the likely candidate here—a flagship that’s flexing hard against Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup. It’s got a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, Qualcomm’s latest powerhouse, paired with 12GB of RAM (or up to 16GB in some configs), outmuscling the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 8GB in raw specs. The 6.8-inch LTPO OLED display runs at 120Hz with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits—brighter than the iPhone’s 2,000 nits—and throws in eye-friendly tech like 4320Hz PWM dimming. Cameras? A 50MP main (f/1.4-2.0), 50MP ultrawide, and a 200MP telephoto—Apple’s 48MP main and 12MP extras don’t hit those numbers, though iPhone’s software tuning is famously tight.
Battery life’s a beast too: 5,270mAh with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging, smoking the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s ~4,441mAh and 15W MagSafe. Add IP69 water resistance (a step up from Apple’s IP68) and a slim 8.8mm frame, and it’s a spec sheet that screams premium. Oh, and it’s running Android 15 with Honor’s MagicOS 8.0, complete with AI tricks like Deepfake Detection and Super Zoom—stuff Apple’s Siri isn’t touching yet.
The “Ridiculous” Price
Here’s where it gets wild. The Magic 7 Pro launched at £1,099.99 in the UK and €1,299 in Europe—roughly $1,340 USD. Compare that to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, starting at $1,199 for 256GB, and Honor’s price isn’t exactly “cheap.” But posts on X and reviews (like TechRadar’s January 2025 take) call it a steal for what you get—more RAM, bigger battery, faster charging, and a telephoto lens that doubles Apple’s megapixels. One X user snagged an Honor for under £200 (likely a mid-ranger like the Magic 7 Lite) and claimed it rivaled an iPhone, minus the camera polish—suggesting Honor’s pricing spans a crazy range.
“Ridiculous” could mean absurdly low for the features—or high for a brand still proving itself outside China. In China, it started at CNY 4,499 ($620) for 12GB/256GB, per Honor’s site, undercutting Apple’s CNY 9,999 ($1,380) for the iPhone 16 Pro Max by a mile. Globally, though, it’s closer to Apple’s turf, banking on specs to justify the tag. Posts on X lean both ways: some call Apple a “rip-off” next to Honor’s value, others scoff at Honor’s premium pitch when mid-range options like the Honor 200 Pro (launched 2024 at £699/$890) deliver 90% of the punch.
Features That Pop
Performance: Snapdragon 8 Elite benchmarks (Geekbench 6: ~3,200 single-core) edge out Apple’s A18 Pro (~3,000), per TechRadar. It’s a gaming and multitasking beast.
Battery: Two-day endurance in tests (The Verge, January 2025) vs. iPhone’s one-day-plus—Honor’s silicon-carbon tech packs more juice into less space.
Camera: That 200MP telephoto’s a zoom king—3x optical beats iPhone’s 5x in detail, though Apple’s color science still wins fans (Digital Trends).
Design: At 226g, it’s lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max (240g), with a luxury-watch-inspired camera bump that’s pure eye candy.
Shaping the Narrative
Honor’s not shy about aping Apple—its Magic Capsule mimics the iPhone’s Dynamic Island (a trick Honor claims it pioneered with 2019’s V20, per PhoneArena). CEO Zhao Ming’s even boasted of outdoing iOS (GSMArena, 2023), and MagicOS 8.0’s animations and control center feel iPhone-inspired, per X chatter. But it’s the price-to-feature ratio that’s got people talking. If “ridiculous” means “too good to be true,” Honor’s betting on overdelivering—£300 less than its Magic 6 Pro at launch (TechRadar)—to steal Apple’s thunder.
My Take
This “iPhone” from Honor’s a spec monster—on paper, it’s got Apple sweating. That price, though? In China, it’s a no-brainer; globally, it’s bold, maybe ballsy, but not quite the budget knockout some X posts hype. Still, for $1,340, you’re getting flagship guts that rival $1,600 phones—ridiculous value if you ditch brand loyalty. I’d say it’s less about copying the iPhone and more about outgunning it where Apple’s coasted (charging speed, battery size). You buying this as the iPhone killer, or just a flashy pretender?
