Devoted Button, AI Brokers, And On-Display screen Actions

Synthetic intelligence has been the focal point of new Android smartphone releases for just a few years, with flagship gadgets routinely introducing new AI options constructed with the assistance of Google’s Gemini and different AI instruments. 2026 won’t be any totally different. On Thursday, Chinese smartphone vendor Honor launched the worldwide model of the Honor Magic 8 Pro smartphone, which comes with a number of AI options on board, together with a devoted AI button and an AI Pictures Agent.

Relating to specs, the Magic 8 Professional contains a 6.71-inch OLED panel that helps 1-120Hz adaptive refresh fee and HDR peak brightness of 6,000 nits. Powering the handset is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which different distributors will use of their flagships this yr. The handset introduces the {industry}’s first GPU-NPU heterogeneous AI know-how that ought to flip low-resolution recreation content material into high-resolution and improve body charges. The Magic 8 Professional contains a 6,270 mAh silicon-carbon battery, which is barely smaller than the Chinese language model (7,200 mAh). The battery helps 100W wired and 80W wi-fi charging. The digicam {hardware} features a 200-megapixel Extremely Night time telephoto lens (1/1.4-inch sensor, large f/2.6 aperture, OIS, and three.7x optical zoom), a 50-megapixel Extremely Night time digicam (f/1.6 aperture, OIS), and a 50-megapixel Extremely-Huge digicam (122°, 2.5 cm HD macro images).

The Magic 8 Professional’s {hardware} is anticipated from a 2026 flagship Android telephone. However it’s the AI options which will make an actual distinction, assuming consumers need much more AI capabilities of their gadgets.

The AiMAGE Digital camera System delivers “unprecedented readability, stability, and inventive management,” in response to Honor. The AI Adaptive Stabilization Mannequin is a software meant to enhance the standard of zoomed-in photographs, decreasing the necessity for exterior stabilization equipment. Honor calls it an “industry-leading” know-how. The digicam additionally makes use of a big AI mannequin to enhance the standard of portrait images, together with improved bokeh results. Low-light images, together with zoomed and portrait photographs, additionally profit from Honor’s AI system.

The brand new Magic Colour software is the {industry}’s first AI-powered coloration engine, in response to the seller. It makes use of deep studying algorithms to extract as much as 16.77 million colours from pictures. The characteristic can be utilized to use specific filters and tones and recreate particular cinematic kinds. The AI Pictures Agent, which can roll out by way of a software program replace, will let customers use voice to carry out picture edits, together with AI Eraser, AI Outpainting, AI Colour, and AI Cutout. The brand new AI Button positioned on the facet of the handset will launch the Digital camera app immediately with a double-press. The button may be custom-made to entry the AI Pictures Agent and different AI options.

Honor mixes Google’s Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo 3 fashions, with its personal AI fashions to energy a number of AI options. For instance, Honor AI can be utilized to regulate settings and purposes. Lengthy-pressing the AI Button triggers an AI Display screen Options characteristic that may perceive what’s on the display screen is and recommend actions. The AI Settings Agent lets customers handle telephone settings by way of voice and textual content. The AI Deepfake Detection and AI Voice Cloning Detection instruments ought to supply safety in opposition to malicious assaults concentrating on real-time communication. Honor claims the options will detect face-swap and voice-clone assaults, but it surely’s unclear how effectively the security options will work.

The Magic 8 Professional additionally introduces the brand new MagicOS 10 Android working system, which contains a clear design similar to Apple’s Liquid Glass consumer interface launched final yr by way of the iOS 26 replace. The working system lets customers regulate transparency ranges and select between clear and conventional app icons. Honor additionally defined throughout a press briefing that BGR attended that the Magic 8 Professional will work with Apple gadgets, supporting notification sharing with iPhones and the Apple Watch, and drag-and-drop for sharing photographs to Macs. A switch software will enable iPhone customers to switch their knowledge to the Magic 8 Professional with ease.

Launched within the U.Ok., the Magic 8 Professional begins at £1,099.99 and is obtainable in Dawn Gold, Sky Cyan, and Black. Patrons will get a three-month trial of the Google AI Pro subscription, which prices $19.99/month. A Porsche Design model of the handset is not out there for buy. The handset cannot be bought within the U.S. on the time of this writing. consumers might need to search for it in worldwide markets, the place Honor will promote its 2026 flagship.