Honor Magic 7 Lite review: Mid-range smartphone with astonishing battery life

Telegraph

26-02-2025

Price: £399 at Argos
Our rating: 9 out of 10
Also available for: £399, Honor, £399 at Currys and £399 at Very
We like:
Best-in-class battery life
Tough as nails
Upgraded camera
We don't like:
Gaming performance is lacking
Outdated Snapdragon chipset
Design is so-so
What is the Honor Magic 7 Lite?
With its latest smartphone, mid-market challenger Honor has opted for two strengths that are all too often neglected by the usual handset brands. The new Honor Magic 7 Lite is both incredibly tough and the battery lasts a ridiculously long time, thanks to some clever silicon-carbon chemistry.
While the likes of Samsung and Apple pile on dozens of AI functions with every new release, only some of which consumers actually want, Honor has ensured that the Magic 7 Lite is as close to bulletproof as you can get without enlisting James Bond's Q Branch, while also benefitting from the largest-capacity battery on the market.
How we test smartphones
We test each new smartphone for at least a week in real-world situations, making calls, downloading data and running power-hungry and graphically demanding apps such as high-fidelity games and 4K video streams to push the phone to its limits. We're looking for a comfortable and appropriately laid-out design, a colour-accurate, bright screen and hardware (CPU, sensors and speakers) that can easily handle multiple functions.
We check the quality of the camera, including the lenses, the sensor and any zoom or low-light capabilities. We test all the features for enhancing and editing photographs, judging them by the end results and how easy they are to use.
We also consider all the other software, especially AI, that makes the handset stand out from its competitors and previous models. Finally, we test the phone's battery life by running it completely flat with continuous real-world use and timing how long it takes to fully recharge.
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Performance and battery life: 10/10
The Honor Magic 7 Lite's battery life is nothing short of stunning, thanks to a huge 6,600mAh capacity. This is the largest on offer anywhere today and bigger than the cells found inside expensive rivals. In practice, I found that I could comfortably last for far more than a day on a single charge, even with fairly heavy use. Honor says you can get up to 25.8 hours of continuous online video playback and while we didn't subject ourselves to that, it lasts impressively in real-world use.
It's all thanks to some clever chemistry, namely a silicon-carbon cell (an innovation introduced by Honor in 2023) which the company says can store more energy than normal lithium-ion batteries within the same space. There's decent fast charging as well (far better than last year's model) with a 66W charger. Likewise, if you let the phone drop to 2 per cent battery, an AI rescue mode keeps it going for up to 50 minutes of continuous calls.
Performance-wise, the Snapdragon Gen 6 chip here is adequate, rather than astonishing and the Adreno GPU is less impressive than modern flagships when running demanding 3D games.
Design and features: 9/10
The Magic 7 Lite's design could best be described as functional rather than fashionable. However, despite the massive 6.78-inch AMOLED screen, which comes complete with an in-glass fingerprint reader, the Magic 7 Lite is built to be thrown around. In fact, the company challenged reviewers to torture the phone by using it to crack nuts, scratching it with a bottle opener and putting it in the freezer.
Something particularly interesting is that the phone is still able to function at extreme temperatures (between -30°C and 55°C), thanks to a special safety coating which isolates the electrodes in extreme conditions. It's also GS Certified 5-Star for Drop Resistance, which is the highest rating available. Rounding out its toughness credentials is an IP67 dust and waterproofing rating and a higher level of scratch resistance than its predecessor, the Honor Magic 6 Lite.
Telegraph Recommended duly roughed up the phone in testing, as requested, dropping it onto tables and floors and even offering it a mini ski holiday in the freezer. I forgot about it for several hours and was astonished to see it still worked when it emerged out of the cold. Despite multiple drop tests, it also remained scratch-free.
Camera: 8/10
A smartphone's cameras tend to be where you notice the biggest difference between a 'flagship' handset that costs above four figures and mid-market entrants that come in a lot cheaper. The Magic 7 Lite outperforms its competitors in this price bracket, with a commendable 108MP camera, which now has optical image stabilisation (OIS), making it a cracking contender for shooting in low-light conditions.
The large OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 4,000nits maximum brightness helps immeasurably in practice, too, making image capture outdoors an absolute dream. The 108MP main sensor punches well above its weight, with decent OIS, while the ultrawide lens is slightly less impressive. Video-wise, the Magic 7 supports 4K shooting with 10x digital zoom and the 16MP selfie camera can capture footage in 1080p.
Photo software and image AI: 7/10
The Honor Magic 7 Lite isn't overloaded with functions and settings in the camera app, which is mostly nimble, easy to understand and simple to use making it a great choice for any camera novice. There are a couple of AI features dotted around in there, including an AI eraser mode built into the app, which works well enough at removing unwanted subjects and scenery. However, strangely, when asked to erase a bowl on my kitchen table, it instead replaced it with what appeared to be a large camping mug.
The Magic 7 Lite also has AI motion sensing, which makes it easier to capture fast-moving targets, as well as a motion photo mode. A couple of different portrait modes help with capturing striking portraits. There's Atmospheric Portrait, Environmental Portrait and Close-Up Portrait, which largely do what they say on the tin.
Other software and AI: 10/10
One (tiny) niggle with the Magic 7 Lite is that it offers the slightly older Android 14 operating system, but in practice, it makes little difference, buried beneath Honor's whizzy and easy-to-use MagicOS 8. This software skin is (relatively) low on unwanted apps, with only the occasional prompt to sign up to 'Honor Accounts'.
There are a couple of relatively fancy features buried in here, too, including Magic Capsule, which is a cousin to Apple's Dynamic Island with alerts displayed on-screen. Magic Portal, meanwhile, is similar to Google and Samsung's AI-enhanced search, with users able to drag areas of the screen over to the side to access AI-suggested functions. It's not enormously useful in practice, however, only working with certain apps and sometimes suggesting some rather weird actions. For instance, I dropped a picture I captured on the phone into Magic Portal and it offered directions to my house.
Technical specifications:
Telegraph verdict: 9/10
The battery life alone marks the Honor Magic 7 Lite out from other handsets in this price bracket and even smartphones situated in price brackets far above it. Not having to constantly worry about topping the phone up makes this an excellent choice on its own and decent drop resistance is a boon for feckless and clumsy phone users like me.
There's a lot of performance on offer, too, and the upgraded camera makes it a far better choice than last year's model. Hopefully, the battery longevity marks a path which other, more expensive smartphone makers will follow.
FAQs
Is the Honor Magic 7 Lite worth the price?
The Honor Magic 7 Lite is reasonable value, offering incredible battery life and durability as well as great camera performance for a low-end price.
Is the battery life of the Honor Magic 7 Lite good for daily use?
The Honor Magic 7 Lite's battery life is one of its biggest selling points, comfortably lasting a day of normal use in my testing. Honor says it will go for 25.8 hours of solid online video playback.
What is the screen refresh rate?
The Magic 7 Lite's 6.78-inch AMOLED screen is a beauty, with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz.
Is the Honor Magic 7 Lite suitable for gaming?
The Honor Magic 7 Lite will handle puzzle games and simple, lower-end mobile titles, but the processor is not ideal for high-fidelity 3D gaming with high frame rates.
What are the main drawbacks of the Honor Magic 7 Lite?
The last-generation processor means performance is not quite at flagship level, it's not ideal for high-end games and while the main camera is great, the ultrawide sensor struggled in testing.