Honor will be launching three phones in Beijing on 28th September. With 13 days to go, the specifications for all of them are out. There is no Magic 9 Pro according to the information out now. The lineup will include the Magic 9, the Magic 9 Pro Max, and a third model Honor calls the Magic 9 超能版, which comes out in English as Super Edition.
When we covered the 500mm clip-on lens Honor is selling alongside these phones on 11 September, reports from three days earlier claimed the Pro had been cut and the leaks contradicted each other. The Pro appears now to be completely cut.
Magic 9, Pro Max, Super Edition side by side
| Magic 9 | Magic 9 Pro Max | Magic 9 Super Edition | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 6.37in, 2664×1236, LTPS OLED, 120Hz | 6.8in, 2868×1320, LTPO OLED, 120Hz | 6.81in, 2788×1280, 120Hz |
| Chip | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 3nm | Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, 2nm | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 3nm |
| Main camera | 200MP, 1/1.4in, f/1.9 | 200MP, 1/1.28in, f/1.57 | 200MP |
| Ultrawide | 50MP, f/2.0 | 50MP, f/2.0 | 12MP |
| Telephoto | 200MP periscope, 1/1.56in, f/2.6, 3.5x | 200MP periscope, 1/1.4in, f/2.6 | 50MP, 3x |
| Front camera | 55MP, f/2.0, square | 55MP, f/2.0, square | 50MP |
| ARRI colour science | Yes | Yes | No |
| Battery | 8,000mAh | 8,800mAh | 11,000mAh |
| Wired charging | 80W | 100W | 80W |
| Wireless charging | 50W | 80W | 50W |
| Biometrics | 3D ultrasonic fingerprint | 3D ultrasonic fingerprint and 3D face | Not given |
| Water resistance | IP68/IP69/IP69K | IP68/IP69/IP69K | Not given |
| Storage, top variant | 16GB and 1TB | 16GB and 1TB | 16GB and 512GB |
| Notable | AI button, camera shutter button | Dual 1216 speakers, AI button, shutter button | Active cooling fan, 8.1mm, 227g |
ARRI, the German company that makes the Alexa cinema cameras used on most large film productions, is partnering with Honor for this series. Honor and ARRI jointly developed the colour processing on the Magic 9 and the Pro Max. The Super Edition does not get it.
Two use last year’s chip
The Pro Max will run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, built on a 2nm manufacturing process. The other two run last year’s 8 Elite Gen 5 on 3nm. Smaller numbers mean transistors packed closer together, so the chip does more work for the same power draw.
A Magic 9 Pro Max carrying model number WKL-AN20 ran through Geekbench on 15 September with two cores at 5.01GHz, three at 4.03GHz and three at 3.74GHz, scoring 3,448 single-core and 9,353 multi-core on Android 17.
The new battery is 40% silicon
Honor announced a new Qinghai Lake blade battery on 14th September with an energy density of 1000Wh/L and a silicon content of 40%, and says both figures are industry records. The Super Edition carries an 11,000mAh cell.
Silicon holds roughly ten times more lithium per gram than the graphite that phone batteries normally use. The problem is that it swells as it charges, by up to 300%, and a cell that swells that hard cracks itself apart after a few hundred cycles. Every manufacturer has been creeping the silicon percentage up a few points a year for that reason, which is why 40% is the difficult number here. For the person buying the phone it means the charger stays at home on a heavy day. Honor claims two days of use on one charge, and we will find out whether that holds when the phone ships.
The capacity itself is not new for Honor. The X80 Pro Max has shipped with 11,000mAh since June 2026 and starts at CNY 1,999, about KES 38,000, and it already tops our ranking of the biggest phone batteries on sale. What changes here is the company putting that cell in a phone with a flagship chip and an active cooling fan, at 8.1mm and 227g.
What is still missing
Honor has not given prices for any of the three. Leaked ranges run from CNY 4,999 to CNY 9,999 depending on which roundup you read, which is wide enough to be useless. The Magic 8 launched in October 2025 at CNY 4,499.
The Super Edition’s main camera is contested. Earlier English coverage from 11 September says 50MP. The refresh rate is contested the same way, at 120Hz in the Chinese sources and 165Hz in the English ones.
Honor’s flagships usually reach international shelves four to eight weeks after the Chinese launch, which would put the Magic 9 in Europe around November or December. Kenya is a longer wait than that. Honor sells here through authorised resellers who stock mostly X-series and mid-range phones, and the Magic line has never had a formal Kenyan launch.
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