Honor just launched its flagship camera-focused smartphone, the Magic 6 Pro, at an event ahead of MWC 2024 in Barcelona. During the presentation, Honor described the Magic 6 Pro as the best phone for sports photography, it even coined a new term for it – "Sportography". But, linguistic silliness aside, this phone has the hardware to backup that claim.
The phone packs some serious hardware, there’s a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor and an adjustable aperture, a 50MP f/2 ultrawide and a 180MP f/2.6 5x telephoto with a 1/1.49-inch sensor. Yep, you read that right, not only is this the largest sensor size that I’ve seen in a smartphone telephoto camera, but it’s by far the highest resolution, too.
If you’ve ever tried shooting sports, then Honor’s claims should be starting to make sense. Larger sensors and wider apertures allow you to shoot at higher shutter speeds, resulting in sharp action shots that are free from motion blur. You’ll also know that longer focal lengths are what you need, especially if you’re stuck at the side of the pitch, and the reach of this 5x telephoto, combined with the digital crops you can get from such a high-res sensor, should deliver the goods.
It’s not all about the hardware, either. Honor has included some AI magic to help you get perfect action shots, in the form of a feature called Motion Sensing Capture. Enabling this feature lets the phone detect what you’re pointing it at, and when it sees sudden motion, like someone jumping, or even just a nice smile, it’ll automatically take a photo. It could be a godsend if you’re a little slow on the shutter button.
How does the Honor "Sportography" phone perform?
I got the chance to take the Honor Magic 6 Pro out for a spin after the launch event, and being in Barcelona, I knew exactly where I needed to go. The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) is the Mecca of street skateboarding, and if you head there at any time, you’re sure to find scores of kids practicing flip tricks on the smooth-tiled floor, or throwing themselves down the stairs when they’re feeling adventurous. What better place to test out the self-proclaimed king of sports photography?
Sure enough, it was packed with skaters, and I was immediately thankful for the reach of this 5x telephoto. Mainly because it meant I could stay well out of the way, avoiding rogue boards that might fly into my ankles.
I enabled the Motion Sensing Capture mode, but I also tapped the shutter button myself as I saw fit. In theory, you might not have to use it all, but MACBA is a chaotic place and with so much going on in the frame, I wasn’t too confident that the AI would know what I was looking for.
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I’m really pleased with the results. It was an overcast day, and the sun was setting, so there wasn’t an abundance of light to work with. Even still, the photos came out tack sharp, with barely a hint of motion blur.
I mainly shot on the 5x telephoto, but I also took a lot of photos with the 2.5x setting, which is a digital crop of the main sensor. Both focal lengths produced detailed images with very similar color renditions. There was very little lag on the shutter, too, even though I had things like auto HDR enabled, which can slow things down a little.
The AI Motion Sensing was a little hit-and-miss. It took some extra shots that I might not have, and it’s always nice to have more than you need when shooting action, but the timing wasn’t always to my liking. As I mentioned, though, the conditions weren’t ideal, there were always multiple subjects in frame and the phone was handheld. I suspect it’d work better on a tripod with a single subject.
It’s not just motion that this mode detects, it’ll also look out for things like smiles, and automatically capture shots of moments it thinks you might want. Amusingly, while I was lining up a shot of a skater, the phone automatically captured a picture of a dog as it glanced at the camera. Adorable!
Later, as I was walking back towards my hotel, I happened across some breakdancing street performers. It was very dark at this point, and although the dancers had set up some little LED floodlights, I would struggle to get blur-free shots with even my full-frame mirrorless set-up.
I decided to give the Magic 6 Pro a try anyway, and while there’s plenty of motion blur, the results are better than I expected. In some cases, the motion blur almost adds to the effect. The AI Motion Capture worked in these conditions, too, grabbing multiple shots that I otherwise would have missed.
My first impressions
While it might be too early to come up with any definitive conclusions about its capabilities – what I do know is that this phone is capable of taking some excellent action shots.
In fact, it seems to be impressive in most areas. The display is lovely and the phone feels great in the hand. That’s before we even get to the software, which is littered with cutting-edge AI goodies to aid in productivity. If you’re keen to find out more, keep an eye out for our full review in the coming weeks.
The phone was released in China last month, but it's now also available to pre-order in the UK and Europe, with units shipping on March 1.
For more check out our top picks for the best camera phone and best Android phone.
