Honor Magic 9 Pro Max looks like an iPhone with a giant camera; September launch date confirmed

Ben Schoon | Sep 9 2026 - 9:30 am PT

Honor has officially shown off its next flagship, the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max, which has a pretty familiar-looking design, a massive camera powered by ARRI, and a release date that’s mere weeks away.

Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is a new entry to the company’s flagship lineup, arriving on top of the Pro that was at the top of the list in prior years – “Pro Max” is a whole trend this year, it seems.

There’s still a ton we don’t know about this new device, but it’s clear that the camera is right at the center of the conversation.

A huge camera lens on the back takes up over half of the phone’s width, with two other cameras flanking it. They all sit on an iPhone-like camera island with an accent color on the bottom half of the device – this is a very obvious case of “inspiration” drawn from Apple’s latest, though Honor argues the arrangement “draws inspiration from the design language of one of ARRI’s most iconic cinema cameras.” That’s presumably referring to the ARRIFlex 35, a nearly 100-year-old camera that had a triple camera on a rotating “turret,” but it’s anyone’s guess, really. It’s also a wild change of pace from last year’s Honor Magic 8, which didn’t look anything like an iPhone.

Advertisement - scroll for more content

Specs on the cameras and the phone as a whole aren’t official yet, but ARRI is a part of the processing pipeline, just like on Honor’s Robot Phone.

Hands-on: Honor’s Robot Phone is probably the coolest phone you still can’t buy

The signature color here is “Moss Green” and Honor says it will fully unveil the Magic 9 Pro Max on September 28. That’s only in China, though, with a global release presumably following later on.