Honor Magic 9 Pro Max Debuts in China as OnePlus 16 Sets Oct. 12 Launch

The Magic 9 Pro Max is Honor's first flagship launch, aside from Robot Phone, since the company announced its collaboration with camera maker Arri. The Verge reported that the new camera island draws from the three-lens turret design first introduced in the 1937 Arriflex 35, including a knurled texture around the main lens. Arri contributed Arri LogC3 shooting, 14 preset Arri Look LUTs, access to Arri's wider library of official and third-party LUTs, and support for the APV 10-bit 4:2:2 codec.

The camera array includes a 200MP main camera with a 1/1.28-inch-type sensor, a 3.5x telephoto camera with the same 200MP resolution and a 1/1.4-inch sensor, and a 50MP ultrawide camera. The ultrawide lens does not support all Arri Cinema Mode features, according to The Verge. Honor also included a cinema-grade directional microphone. The square-format selfie camera can capture in landscape or portrait, similar to Apple's Center Stage. Android Authority reported that Honor worked extensively with Arri to tune image processing and its video pipeline, and that the Magic 9 Pro Max adds a 200MP ultra-night main camera to the 200MP telephoto camera seen on the Magic 8 Pro.

Honor says the wider camera island is more space-efficient, leaving room for the 8,800mAh battery, which has up to 40 percent silicon content. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. When The Verge asked Honor why it chose the Extreme version even though the Magic 9 Pro Max does not support the 8K60 or 4K240 video recording that the chip enables, Honor said it was 'about delivering a complete and consistent flagship experience, rather than pursuing a single benchmark result.' The Magic 9 series launches in China today, and Honor has confirmed an international launch is coming, though it has not said when.

OnePlus has spent recent weeks teasing the OnePlus 16. Android Authority reported that the phone will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor. The chipset has a GPU with Matrix Cores, a feature restricted to the Extreme processor. Qualcomm's chipset also supports 4K/240fps slow-motion capture, 8K/60fps video recording and the APV codec, but there is no word on whether the OnePlus 16 will offer any of those options. Android Authority said it would not bet on it, because the phone is positioned as a performance-focused device.

OnePlus also reiterated that the OnePlus 16 will have a 185Hz refresh rate, along with custom touch and Wi-Fi chips for improved gaming performance. The company previously revealed upgraded camera hardware compared with the OnePlus 15, including a 200MP 1/1.4-inch main camera, a 50MP 3x IMX882 telephoto camera and a 50MP ultrawide shooter. Buyers will also get an XPAN-style mode and a Master Mode.

The OnePlus 16 will go on sale in China, but fans in the United States and Europe will have to import it because OnePlus no longer operates in those markets, according to Android Authority. The phone may also be more expensive than the OnePlus 15 in its home market. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is rumored to be significantly more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and the RAM crisis has caused memory costs to skyrocket.