iPhone, what iPhone? Honor's also breaking barriers with its new flagship phone camera

Apple introduced variable aperture as the highlight feature of the new iPhone 18 Pro, underlining that the camera is still a hugely important part of a smartphone. You don't need to tell Honor that though, as it has started teasing its next flagship phone with some new camera features of its own.

Introducing the Magic 9 Pro Max, which is due to be officially launched on 28 September in China, Honor is leaning into its partnership with Arri – a veteran of the cinema industry. Its camera systems were used for films like The Revenant, 1917, Gravity, and more.

The pairing first came to light with the development of Honor's Robot Phone, but it seems that Arri's experience will also benefit the 2027 flagship phone too.

The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max was shown off at the Venice International Film Festival, with Arri branding on the back of the device in the camera array, while it has also been teased on Weibo.

Although the phone physically has adopted the rear segmentation that was ushered in for the iPhone 17 Pro, using a separate rear panel and huge camera island, the layout of the camera's lenses seems to have drawn inspiration from an old Arriflex camera.

The result is a massive round blob of camera sitting next to two other lenses. It's bold, but I have to say I kind of like it. Looking closer, it seems that much of that larger surround is just there to decorate the telephoto.

From the video on Weibo we learn a little more about Honor's accessories for this camera, with what looks like a clip on cover to support a larger telephoto extension – the sort of thing we've seen from Vivo with the X300 Ultra or the Oppo Find X9 Pro.

We know that the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max will have three cameras developed with Arri, and what it looks like. And we also know there will be a fetching green colour. That's about the end of the official information that we currently have.

So let's move onto speculation: the timing of the launch suggests that it will be equipped with Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon hardware, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 – or the rumoured "pro" version of the chip that might also appear.

That hardware is expected later in September and typically Chinese brands immediately announce new phones using it straight after launch.

A wider global launch is likely to follow, probably around February 2027.

An additional leak from Digital Chat Station suggests that the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max has an 8,800mAh battery, which is absolutely huge.

Elsewhere, a video of the new phone has also been shared, which appears to be official, showing the design a little more, while there seem to be plenty sharing the design online already, likely part of Honor's teaser campaign.

Included around the lenses of the camera, it's revealed that there's a 200-megapixel cam, with a 1/1.28in type sensor and 3 degrees of OIS, while it also says there will be a 200-megapixel, 1/1.4in sensor with 4 degrees OIS – it's not clear which cameras the details apply to, but it's likely to be the main and the telephoto.

All will be revealed on 28 September, but it looks like the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is going to be a serious phone. Especially for fans of photography.