Introduction: The boundary between Hollywood studios and smartphone photography keeps getting thinner. Legendary German camera manufacturer ARRI has teamed up with Honor once again, and this time the collaboration goes well beyond a small experiment. After dipping its toes in the water with the Robot Phone, ARRI is now lending its name and expertise to Honor's next-generation flagship. The Honor Magic9 Pro Max is gearing up for its worldwide launch, and it has its sights set squarely on the crown of the best camera phone on the market.
The Honor Magic9 Pro Max has landed at our office, and even though the complete review is still some time away, we can walk you through the unboxing experience today. Our unit comes in the Moss Green finish, and the retail package includes a transparent silicone case with a matching green tint, a 100W fast charger, and a USB cable.
One disappointment: the bundled power brick relies on a USB-A connector rather than USB-C, which feels outdated in late 2026.
Design-wise, the Magic9 Pro Max marks a dramatic improvement over the model it replaces. The previous generation was rather forgettable — a glass rear panel, an ordinary circular camera module, and a dull dark grey finish on our review unit. The new model, by contrast, embraces a bold aesthetic clearly influenced by ARRI's professional cinema cameras.
The green paint job stands out as genuinely distinctive. Honor has built the phone around a single-piece metal frame, interrupted only by a glass section on the back that enables wireless charging. You'll also find two noteworthy hardware controls: a programmable AI Button positioned on the left edge, plus a dedicated camera key supporting both touch gestures and physical presses — echoing what Apple offers on its Pro iPhones.
The Magic9 Pro Max in hand
What truly distinguishes this device, though, is the imaging system on its rear. Honor has realized through recent experience that premium camera hardware alone isn't enough — it must be paired with software of the same caliber to shine. That's precisely the gap ARRI is here to fill, and its branding on the glass serves as a constant reminder of that partnership.
For anyone unfamiliar with the name, ARRI is the German manufacturer behind the legendary Alexa line of video cameras. These cameras have effectively become the gold standard for professional filmmaking across the globe.
The Magic9 Pro Max ships with ARRI's complete creative toolkit: the ARRI Image Science color pipeline, ARRI Looks, a dedicated ARRI LogC3 Curve, and ARRI's Wide Gamut 3 10-bit color — complete with full APV 4:2:2 chroma sampling, which is essentially a visually lossless format.
Special in-camera features
Capturing video in 10-bit log unlocks a far richer palette of colors to work with. You can grade your clips however you like, or take advantage of the 10,000+ LUTs compatible with ARRI's LogC3 Curve (for the uninitiated, a LUT — or Look-Up Table — translates incoming color values into different output values, adjusting contrast, saturation, color balance, and the overall mood of the footage). One particularly useful professional touch: you can preview a LUT live in the camera app while shooting log video, so instead of staring at a flat, washed-out preview, you see something close to the final graded look in real time.
Honor invited us to its exclusive Magic9 Pro Max launch event in Los Angeles, and we naturally used the opportunity to capture plenty of photos and videos. Below is an early selection for you to check out, with plenty more coming soon. These samples come from the phone's dual 200MP sensors, shot in both bright daylight and challenging low-light conditions. Take a look!
Honor Magic9 Pro Max main camera samples
Honor Magic9 Pro Max telephoto camera samples
