Last week, HONOR confirmed that it had a new handset in the works. Despite launching its flagship Magic7 Pro not too long ago, HONOR is back with a new smartphone. This time, the phone in question is the result of a collaboration between HONOR and Porsche Design, resulting in the HONOR Magic7 RSR Porsche Design phone.
Building off a hit
If you’ve been following HONOR’s smartphone launches, then the new HONOR Magic7 RSR Porsche Design will seem similar to the company’s recently launched Magic7 Pro smartphone.
This includes the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. This means that users can look forward to a similar level of flagship performance. The battery in the phone hasn’t been changed either. The Magic7 RSR Porsche Design will retain the same 5,850mAh battery along with support for 100W wired charging and 80W wireless charging.
The cameras have also remained the same, which means that users can look forward to the same triple-camera setup. This consists of a 50MP f/1.4-2 main camera with a wide-angle lens, a 200MP f2/6 69mm periscope telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and last but not least, a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide lens.
Last but not least, the Magic7 RSR Porsche Design will use the same 6.8-inch 2800×1280 display with a 120Hz refresh rate, along with 5,000 nits of peak brightness. That being said, while on the surface it looks more or less the same, there are some slight and subtle changes.
For instance, the base amount of RAM is now 16GB. The Magic7 Pro only came with 12GB for the base model, and you’d have to upgrade to the 512GB/1TB storage option to get 16GB.
Another change is to the camera, in particular the periscope telephoto lens. The megapixels remain the same as the Magic7 Pro, but it now features the industry’s first 100x AI-powered super-telephoto camera. This will result in extremely clear images both at close and long ranges.
It also uses an industry-first dual electromagnetic focus motor that promises faster focusing speeds for high-speed photography.
For now, the HONOR Magic7 RSR Porsche Design is only available in China. It is priced at CNY7,999 (~$1,100) for 16GB RAM + 512GB storage. It jumps to CNY8,999 (~$1,230) for the 24GB RAM + 1TB storage model. The company hasn’t confirmed if there are plans to bring it to international markets.
Another Porsche Design collab
The new HONOR Magic7 RSR Porsche Design is not the HONOR’s first collaboration with the company. The company had previously worked with Porsche Design for other handsets like the Magic6 RSR and the Magic V2 RSR. The latest collaboration brings back a similar design language. Particularly to the back of the phone that features the Porsche-style flyline.
It is also not the first time Porsche Design has worked with handset makers. Back in 2011, the company collaborated with BlackBerry for the BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981. It has also collaborated with LaCie for a series of Porsche Design hard drives, as well as Microsoft, Intel, and Quanta for the Book One laptop.
Admittedly these collaborations feel more novel than anything. However, it is a nice shakeup and approach to design that most handset manufacturers would not have taken themselves. It also presents consumers with an alternate take on an existing device albeit with a brand-new, and potentially edgier, design.
