Honor had an exceptional year in 2025, making it difficult to identify any failures among its lineup due to smart upgrades and appealing offers.
Here’s a closer look at Honor’s achievements.
Winner: Honor Pad X9a and MagicPad 3
Honor launched several impressive tablets in 2025, notably the affordable Pad X9a and flagship MagicPad 3, which established their dominance in markets like Malaysia, where Honor became the leading tablet manufacturer!
Both tablets started strong with competitive specifications and were further propelled by frequent promotions.
Winner: Honor 400 and 400 Pro
The Honor 400 and 400 Pro quickly became fan favorites, featuring durable, elegant designs (with the Pro rated IP69), a large 200MP main camera, and substantial batteries equipped with fast charging capabilities.
Honor 400 5G
| 256GB 8GB RAM | $ 505.00 | € 334.67 |
| 512GB 8GB RAM | $ 499.00 | $ 336.40 |
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Notably, the battery sizes varied. The Chinese models of the Honor 400 and 400 Pro featured an impressive 7,200mAh battery, whereas the rest of the world (excluding Europe) received a smaller 6,000mAh variant. European markets were even less fortunate, with only a 5,300mAh battery available. Thus, while the Honor 400 series was a significant win, Europe emerged as a loser in this scenario.
Honor 400 Pro 5G
| 512GB 12GB RAM | $ 799.00 | $ 503.50 |
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Winner: Honor 500 and 500 Pro
The Honor 500 series, introduced in China, builds on the success of its predecessor. Both the Honor 500 and Honor 500 Pro maintain a proven formula — a 200MP main camera, powerful Snapdragon chipsets, and even larger batteries! Now featuring 8,000mAh cells with 80W charging, these devices deliver impressive performance.
Additionally, they sport a sleek design reminiscent of the iPhone Air. It remains to be seen if these devices will hit the global market with their impressive battery capacities intact.
Winner: Honor Magic V5
Since its launch, Honor's book-style foldable Magic V series has garnered attention, particularly with the successful Magic V3. The latest Magic V5 builds on that success with an enhanced design, weighing only 222 grams and measuring just under 9 millimeters when folded, making it feel like a conventional smartphone.
Honor has successfully integrated a 5,820mAh battery and an improved camera system, addressing user requests from the Magic V3. The promise of seven years of software support is an added bonus.
| 512GB 16GB RAM | $ 1,649.00 | $ 151.16 |
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Loser: Honor Magic V Flip 2
Despite its attractive design, superb screens, solid 5,500mAh battery with rapid charging, and excellent camera performance, the Magic V Flip 2 has not performed as expected.
Its exclusive availability in China and the use of an outdated chipset have hampered its potential against competitors like the widely available Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Motorola Razr 60 Ultra.
Winner: Honor Magic8 Lite
The Honor Magic8 Lite is poised to become a popular midrange option in early 2026 due to its enhancements over the already strong Magic7 Lite, featuring a larger battery, a newer SoC, and excellent durability with an IP68/IP69K rating.
Winner: Honor Magic8 Pro
Launched on Honor's home ground in October, the Honor Magic8 Pro is set for a global release in early 2026. It undoubtedly secures a spot among the winners of 2025.
Having tested the device, we found it to be a robust flagship with impressive camera specifications, a large battery, and the latest chipset. Notably, it is the sleekest flagship cameraphone we've encountered this year, being lighter and narrower than prominent competitors while maintaining a significantly smaller camera module, despite housing the essential 200MP telephoto camera.
