Mid-range smartphones have seen dramatic improvements in recent times. Aside from looking and feeling more like premium devices, compromises to imaging, performance or displays were less noticeable only a few years ago. Nowadays, €399 will net you something with stabilised imaging, a flagship-style display, and a seamless and comprehensive AI suite. Something like Honor Magic 7 Lite, an exercise is knowing your market and putting the money right there.
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Many in the mid-range market are agile go-getters who take loads of images and video clips, from dawn to long into the night, to share online. Honor Magic 7 Lite can last for days and charge in a hurry. Its 108MP main lens and stabilised imaging system can shoot compelling photos and videos day and night.
Bold Visual Design
Honor Magic 7 Lite boasts a sleek and elegant aesthetic, characterised by its curved AMOLED display and symmetrical bezels. The large circular camera module on the rear dominates the device, offering a bold macro detail that evokes the focus wheel on traditional camera lenses. The frosted rear contrasts nicely with the glossy frame.
Our Titanium Purple review model is striking. The near-neon hue features a light frosted texture that catches and teases light. A solitary glossy and colourless ‘HONOR’ logo is seemingly etched into the lower rear. It’s a lovely muted detail that makes the logo almost sink in its surrounds.
The huge OLED display almost completely covers the front of the device thanks to the gentle fall-off curves. The minimal bezel and slim dimensions offer premium look when in use. The minimal detailing seen elsewhere allows the striking colourway, flowing curves and bold camera module to stand out. While Titanium Purple may not be for everyone, the understated Titanium Black
Premium Build Quality
Honor Magic 7 Lite also features reinforced corners and an IP67 rating, offering decent protection against dust and water splashes. One of the device’s most notable attributes is its exceptional drop resistance. Magic 7 Lite is drop-resistant up to two meters, which is a significant advantage for users prone to accidental mishaps.
Impressively, you get water, dust and drop resistance in a slim and light package. With a thickness of less than 8mm, the device’s slim profile, combined with its lightweight design of just 189 grams, ensures comfort during use. The elegant lateral curves of the Honor Magic 7 Lite further enhance its grip. Despite featuring a large 6.8-inch display, the device remains easy to hold and operate with one hand.
Affordable Reliable
Honor Magic 7 Lite is powered by a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 paired with 8GB of RAM. The setup offers strong everyday performance with smooth multitasking and app navigation. The 512GB of internal storage is a standout feature in this price range, providing ample space for apps, photos, and videos without the need for expandable storage.
Demanding tasks like high-end gaming or intensive photo editing are a little less fluid. Games with advanced 3D graphics may experience occasional frame drops, and the phone can heat up slightly during prolonged sessions. For casual gamers or users with moderate performance needs, though, Honor Magic 7 Lite is well beyond adequate.
Upmarket Display
Honor Magic 7 Lite’s display is a standout feature in its price range. It features a 6.78-inch OLED display at 2,700 x 1,224 resolution with 10-bit colour (1.07 billion colours). The display is bright and sharp. with rich and well-saturated colour, making it a pleasure to use for streaming videos, browsing photos, or gaming.
The 120Hz refresh rate is another highlight, ensuring smooth scrolling and an overall fluid user experience. The display’s peak brightness of 4,000 nits (High-Brightness Mode – HBM) ensures excellent outdoor legibility, even under direct sunlight.
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Honor Magic 7 Lite’s display is a standout feature in its price range. The display’s vibrancy, smoothness and HBM outdoor usability, in particular, wouldn’t be out of place in a premium device costing three times the price. Magic 7 Lite’s 10-bit colour and HDR only add to that flagship look.
OS Magic
Magic 7 Lite benefits greatly from MagicOS, the company’s own Android 14-based UI. Honor’s MagicOS 8 incorporates the company’s own AI suite well, and also allows easy access to Gemini and Google’s other AI features. Honor’s Magic Portal and Magic Text are implemented well on Magic 7 Lite, offering a simple but robust suite at an affordable €399.
Magic Portal captures images, links, and text, and dragging them to the right unveils a dynamic menu of AI assistant functions and user-selected favourite apps. Magic Text allows the AI to provide more information, translations, rephrasing, or summaries for any highlighted text. These features automatically suggest suitable actions based on the context, whether it’s a phone number, foreign language text, a form, or any highlighted alphanumeric data.
Like Honor 200, Magic 7 Lite offers a greater array of non-app specific applets, widgets, cards and buttons on top of the wide selection of app-specific options offered by Android 14.
The software is also lightweight, with minimal bloatware, which contributes to the phone’s overall responsiveness. On top of all of this, Magic OS just looks nice. It’s clean and minimal without being overly sparse. There is a wealth of easy customisation options, as well as a massive cache of theme packs to download.
All-Rounder Imaging
Magic 7 Lite leans heavily on its 108-megapixel main camera, which delivers sharp and detailed images in well-lit conditions. Colours are vibrant, and the dynamic range is respectable, making it suitable for casual photography. The main camera also performs well in low-light scenarios with the optical image stabilisation (OIS) allowing Magic 7 Lite to stitch longer exposures together with ease, and without a tripod.
The secondary lens, a 5-megapixel ultrawide, is not as capable as the main sensor. While it adds flexibility, it falls short in delivering the sharpness and vibrant colour of the primary lens. That said, it will do the job nicely for a quick group snap for social media.
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Honor Magic 7 Lite supports 4K video recording at 30fps, which is a welcome feature in this segment. Videos captured in good lighting are impressively smooth and detailed. The system uses OIS (and gyro-fed EIS that leverages the massive 108MP main sensor) reduce shake and jitter when capturing in motion.
Honor’s camera UI is user-friendly and offers a variety of modes, including Night Mode, Portrait Mode, and Pro Mode. These are all easy to navigate and make availing of their features simple.
Stamina King
HonorMagic 7 Lite is equipped with a massive 6,600mAh battery, one of the largest in its category. The efficient innards and this huge cell offer impressive stamina. Our moderate use could see Magic 7 Lite last almost three days. Power users, or those on a long-haul trip, should have no qualms about going the distance.
The phone supports 66W wired charging, allowing it to reach 80% in just 42 minutes and a full charge in about an hour. This achievement is remarkable on its own, but it’s even more so with a battery of this capacity. A quick five-minute recharge will give you six or so hours of stamina, which is a a huge bonus for active or busy types.
Like They Used To
The rugged design and massive stamina evoke the legendary 3310. However, there is more to the package than its drop resistance and runtime.
For €399, you also get a reliable chipset with ample storage, and a display comparable to premium devices. A strong main lens and OIS helps achieve impressive day and night shots as well as smooth video, both important factors for social media starlets and young entrepreneurs, both significant segments of the mid-range market.
Honor Magic 7 Lite Specifications
| Chipset: | Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 Mobile Platform CPU – Octa-core: 4xA78 at 2.2GHz + 4xA55 at 1.8GHz GPU – Adreno 710 |
| RAM: | 8GB |
| Storage: | 512GB |
| Display: | 6.78 inch diagonal, 2700×1224 pixels, OLED, 1.07billion colours, 120Hz, HDR, 4000 nits at peak, 19.85:9 |
| Camera: | – 108 MP, f/1.75, (wide), 1/1.67″, PDAF, OIS – 5 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide) Video: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, OIS |
| Selfie Cam: | Photo – 16MP (f/2.45) Video – 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| OS: | Android 14, MagicOS 8 |
| Battery: | Si-C, 6,600mAh |
| Water/Dust resistance: | IP67 resistant – up to 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes |
| Charging: | Wired: Up to 66W with Honor SuperCharge Wireless: 5W |
| Connectivity: | – Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct – Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD – GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS |
| Dimensions: | 162.8mm x 75.5mm x 7.98mm |
| Weight: | 189 grams |
| Colours: | Titanium Purple, Titanium Black |
Pricing and Availability
Honor Magic 7 Lite is available in Ireland now from €399 sim-free with Harvey Norman. Pick up Honor Magic 7 Lite at Harvey Norman and get a free pair of Honor Open Earbuds (worth €149.99, while stocks last).
You can also pick up Honor Magic 7 Lite on Tesco Mobile Ireland Prepay from €399. Or from Free on Tesco Mobile Ireland Prepay. Both Tesco Ireland offers come with free Honor Band 9 and Honor Buds X6.
