OPPO Find X9 Pro vs Honor Magic 8 Pro | Which Flagship Phone Is Best?

So, clutched in my greasy fingers are two of the very best flagship smartphones right now. And while I may be northern, I didn't actually nick them. The Honor Magic 8 Pro and Oppo's Find X9 Pro both serve up incredible smartphone cameras, ridiculously good battery life, top-notch gaming performance, and enough obligatory AI shenanigans to choke a beluga. I've reviewed them both, and I love them both. But is one fundamentally better than the other? Well, here's a side-by-side Honor Magic 8 Pro versus Oppo Find X9 Pro comparison type situation so you can see which one might be best for you. And for more on the latest and greatest tech, please do poke subscribe, ding that little notifications bell. Cheers.

Design and Build Quality

So, here on my left, I've got the Honor Magic 8 Pro. On the right, the Oppo Find X9 Pro. And you can always tell the difference because the Honor has that great floating turd of a selfie cam orifice up top, kind of iPhone style. Besides that, there's not really much difference up front. The Honor is ever so slightly smaller than the OPPO at 6.71 inches versus 6.78 inches, but they're both big boys. Both proper chunksters as well. While the Oppo looks thicker than the Honor Magic 8 Pro, that's just an optical illusion as the Honor subtly slopes around the back end there.

As you can see, both sport a pretty sizable camera bump, which is a polite way of saying they're massive. I'm happy enough with that, though, because it means you've got a handy bit of finger shelf action if you are using either of these almighty blowers one-handed. Proper hefty buggers as well. Reasonably comfortable to clutch, especially the Honor with its slightly more rounded corners. And naturally, you've got metal frames on both. And then if we flip around to the rear end, it's a matte glass finish. And that's good news because it means they're quite resistant to smudgy, greasy, grimy, nastiness.

You can grab them in a couple of different colors as well. And both pretty durable, quite hardy. Although I haven't gone full JerryRig on these phones. They're certainly built to survive an ass-clenching drop or two. And you got full IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance on the pair. So they can both be fully submerged in liquid. No worries whatsoever. The Honor Magic 8 Pro is also IP69K rated, which means that it can tolerate a hot spurting of liquid. I'm racking the old brain to think of when that would come in particularly handy, but yeah, the mind boggles.

Biometrics and Software

Now, both the Honor Magic 8 Pro and the Oppo Find X9 Pro sport an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor for unlocking. This takes an accurate 3D representation of your print and tends to work flawlessly even if your mitts are a bit dry, moist, or even a wee bit mucky or greasy. Not even a cone of chips can foil these sensors. Now you do have a bit of face unlock action in backup which also works particularly well here on the Honor Magic 8 Pro thanks to the inclusion of that depth sensor.

And once you're in there, it's a tasty bit of Android 16 as you'd expect from flagship smartphones. And Honor is offering a generous 7 years of OS updates and 7 years of security patching as well. So definitely good for the long haul. Sadly, OPPO not quite as generous with its five guaranteed OS updates and six years of security patching. Although that'll still see you right through to like 2031, 2032. I mean, Jesus, if I make it that far, I'll certainly be very happy.

But while they're both running Android and they both appear to have a very similar setup in general, they are actually running different launchers. We've got a bit of Magic OS version 10 here on the Honor and Color OS version 16 here on the Oppo Find X9 Pro. A similar layout, but Color OS just feels that little bit smoother. It's basically slicker than an otter's wet bits. Now, you got similar features in general on both of these as well, including some excellent personalization options. Plenty of themes to play around with, although I do prefer the ones again here on Color OS. They're just a bit more dynamic, a bit more interesting. You got yourself fully customizable always-on displays. Really, again, like the seamless option here on Color OS, which is super slick.

AI Features and Gaming Mode

You've also got all the usual excellent features chucked on top of the regular Android fare, including a gaming mode to give you the edge in titles like Call of Duty Mobile and Wuthering Waves. And also, yes, no matter your choice, you'll get a barrel full of AI bollocks, whether you want it or not. This includes an actual physical dedicated AI key, which is slapped on the right edge and the Honor Magic 8 Pro down near the bottom. Whereas here on the OPPO Find X9 Pro, it's actually on the left edge up near the top, which I prefer because it's a bit more out the way. It's harder to accidentally push.

Although, having said that, Oppo has slapped a secondary physical button, a camera button down exactly where that AI key is in the Honor. Now, you can customize this button to do one of a small number of features. It's not quite as fully customizable as the iPhones, sadly. Here on the Honor, it mostly just does AI guff as was originally intended by Honor. Whereas Oppo is slightly more flexible, allowing you to, for instance, toggle the do not disturb, switch on the camera, start recording, etc. And on the Magic 8 Pro, you can also customize a double press as well as a long press of that key with basically the same options. And I also really like how Honor allows you to customize the force of the push as well, making it a firmer action if you prefer.

The main AI feature here on the Honor Magic 8 Pro is AI Memories, which is a counterpart to Mind Space on Color OS here on the Oppo Find X9 Pro. And in a nutshell, these both basically allow you to quickly and intelligently store away any pertinent information that you might need to fast access later. And of the pair, I certainly prefer Mind Space on the Oppo Find X9 Pro because it's just a lot smarter. It's got built-in Gemini support, for instance. So, you can quickly call up Gemini and say, "Where am I meeting my friend Kevin later today for lunch or whatever," and it'll trawl through all the Mind Space data it's collected and give you the information.

And of course, you got all the other usual AI gubbins on here, translations, transcribers, stuff that can write stuff for you. You got a couple of extra interesting bits here on the Honor Magic 8 Pro as well, including deep fake detection, which might tragically actually become quite useful in the near future when we're all getting calls from AI constructs pretending to be your mom. Of course, the easiest way of telling if it's your mama or not is just checking if she's got a queue of men in dressing gowns waiting behind her.

Storage and Connectivity

And thankfully both Honor and Oppo pretty generous with the storage as well, offering 512 gigs of the stuff, which is particularly merciful given that absolute beasts like Wuthering Waves are now hitting 50 gig download sizes. Got bugger all micro SD memory card support, of course, as you'd expect from flagships these days. But you got all the other features that you would expect, including a good bit of eSIM support on the both. The connectivity has been absolutely fine on this pair. And anyway, if you want to know more about Color OS, I've already done a full hands-on tips and tricks/review style guide thing for that. So, go check that out. Hoping to replicate that for Magic OS very shortly indeed.

Display and Audio

Now, as far as the displays go, not much difference between this pair at all. You've got a 6.71-inch OLED slapped on the Honor Magic 8 Pro versus the 6.78-inch panel on the OPPO. Again, OLED tech. Very similar resolution on this pair as well. So, nice crispy visuals despite the fact that they're quite spacious panels. Got full HDR10 and Dolby Vision support in streaming services like Netflix. Nice sharp contrast and pretty poppy colors as well, although fully customizable in the display settings. And bump the screen brightness up to maximum levels and they are absolutely eye-searing. You'll have bugger all problems seeing what is going on outdoors, even if you've got serious glare reflecting off these screens.

And a proper bit of PWM dimming if you are sensitive to OLED flicker as well. Although it is improved on the Honor Magic 8 Pro, it's 4320 hertz versus 2160 on the Oppo. In fact, the only real big difference between these panels is the fact that the Honor Magic 8 Pro, of course, has that floating selfie turd thing up top, which does intrude a fair bit on the action when you go full screen for your movies, your games, whatever.

And of course, you got a proper stereo speaker setup on this flagship pair as well. Both proper powerful when you bump them up to the maximum volume. Nice and loud. Though the audio has a bit more punch, bit more kick here on the Oppo Find X9 Pro. On the Honor Magic 8 Pro, bass is a little bit lacking. A subtle headphone jack of course on either of them, but the Bluetooth streaming absolutely flawless. Whether you're streaming to headphones in a busy crowded London central station or you know good bit of speaker action back home whatever.

Performance

And on the subject of performance, well it's MediaTek Dimensity 9500 Ultra crammed inside of the Oppo Find X9 Pro that's going up against Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in the Honor Magic 8 Pro. So the everyday running of course absolutely flawless and gamers have plenty of power for playing absolute beasts like Wuthering Waves. That Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in the Honor Magic 8 Pro may benchmark a bit better than the Dimensity, but the Find X9 Pro is still happy enough if you want to game on Wuthering Waves for a couple of hours nonstop, even with those visuals boosted right up to the absolute maximum settings.

You've also got a proper dedicated bit of coolant tech thrust into both of these flagships. You'll find that if you are gaming for a good long period, well, you won't get any proper heat buildup. So, if you are a bit of a mobile gamer, either one will do the job very nicely indeed. And I already mentioned, of course, they both got a proper dedicated gaming mode, so you can quickly activate do not disturb and record the action, do whatever you fancy.

Battery Life and Charging

Now, on the battery front, the Magic 8 Pro sports a 6,270 milliamp cell versus the 7,500 milliamp of the Oppo Find X9 Pro. And I found when I was reviewing these handsets, I actually had my SIM in there using them as my full-time smartphone. That was good enough for two full days of action on just a single charge, as long as you don't go too mental. Otherwise, even the most demanding of users will comfortably make it through the longest and most arduous of days on a single charge as well with the screen on time into the double digits.

And of course, if you are a hardcore gamer, you might be more swayed by the Oppo Find X9 Pro, which serves up roughly 5 1/2 hours of Wuthering Waves action on those highest graphics settings. And that's compared with approximately 4 and 1/4 hours of the same Wuthering Waves action here on the Honor Magic 8 Pro. Now, Color OS also offers a bypass charging feature built into that gaming mode. So, if it is running low on juice, you can just plug it in, keep on gaming, and the battery won't charge at the same time just to help prevent overheating.

However, when it comes to charging, the Honor is undoubtedly the winner here. You've got support for 100-watt wired charging. So, as long as you've got a compatible adapter and everything, you can get that juiced up nice and nippy. Find X9 Pro certainly not a slouch with 80-watt wired charging. But that and the bigger battery means it does charge a bit slower. They've also got 80-watt wireless charging support on the Honor Magic 8 Pro versus 50W on the Find X9 Pro.

Camera Comparison

And so, my lovelies, let's conclude this wonderful bit of side-by-side smartphone comparison action with a squint at the old camera tech. Now, as I mentioned before here on the OPPO Find X9 Pro, you do have a dedicated camera key here on the right edge. Double tap of that at any point will load up the camera app. Here on the Honor Magic 8 Pro, you can customize that AI key so it can load up the camera tech either with a double press or a long press or even a short press if you want. Although, I certainly wouldn't recommend that as you'll be constantly accidentally opening the bloody camera app every time you yank this thing out your trousers or whatever.

You can then use this button to zoom in and out just by swiping the surface. You can use it to focus with a gentle push and then push it all the way in in order to take a shot. And this button works fine on both phones, but the button itself is actually quite far along that edge. So, not very comfortable to use if you're wielding the phone horizontally. Vertically, it works okay, but I still just find it more comfortable just using the onscreen buttons. It's not really solving anything.

But anyway, when it comes to the actual photography, both phones serve up a 50-megapixel main sensor and an almost identical size of sensor as well. One over 1.3-inch here on the Honor versus one over 1.28-inch on the Find X9 Pro. And I got to say, these flagships spuff out absolutely beautiful photos, even when faced with dodgy conditions, nasty contrast, face light, all kinds of guff. The Honor Magic 8 Pro and the Oppo Find X9 Pro absolutely smash it pretty much every time.

On default settings, the Find X9 Pro occasionally pumps out brighter photos, although the Magic often boosts the brightness for HDR scenarios, so darker elements are more clearly visible. And Honor's look also produces quite bold tones, similar to what an iPhone would spuff out. No real surprise as the filter is set to vibrant by default, but you got plenty of other options, including natural and authentic if you prefer to dial down the tones a bit. And of course, the Oppo also offers up a wide variety of different filters for different effects.

And in low light, the Magic and the Find are even more impressive, capturing plenty of fine detail without fading those colors. You'll see very little in the way of noise. Again, the Magic tends to boost that brightness a wee bit. You will end up with a bit more finer detail versus the Find X9 Pro. And also, Honor's motion sensing capture feature means the Magic 8 Pro is slightly better for shooting photos of animated subjects compared with the Find X9 Pro, which still does a decent job as long as you switch on that action mode. And both can spuff out a quality portrait pick with Oppo proving slightly more reliable for those skin tones.

Zoom and Ultrawide

And both phones also boast a 200-meg telephoto shooter. It's got a larger one over 1.4-inch sensor on the Magic 8 Pro versus the one over 1.56-inch sensor on the Find. Now, this produces a 3.7 times optical zoom on the Magic compared with three times optical zoom on the Oppo. Both are great for getting closer to the action with a bit of obligatory AI sharpening on board of course when you do crop in a lot. Although, as usual, this just tends to smooth things over a bit. The Magic 8 Pro occasionally captures a little bit more detail at extreme zoom levels compared with the Oppo, while it also impresses more in softer light and generally in the evenings. And of course, if you want to take that zooming to the next level, Oppo does offer a teleconverter kit for the Find X9 Pro, which you'll see more of in my full review.

And last up, you also have a 50-meg ultrawide shooter on both. And both are pretty decent, even in quite low light, certainly as far as ultra-wide snappers go.

Video Recording

If you want to shoot some whole movie action, well, good news. You've got up to 4K resolution capture at up to 120 frames per second on both of these phones. Although only the main and the telephoto shooters can cope with that 120 frames per second action. If you want to bring the ultra-wide into play, you'll have to bump it down to 60 frames per second. You got full support for HDR recording as well, again at 4K 60 frames per second. It's actually Dolby Vision here on the Oppo Find X9 Pro. And that even supports 4K 120 frames per second shooting as well. Whereas the Honor Magic 8 Pro, you are limited to 4K at 60 frames per second if you switch on HDR.

And I found that certainly the 4K footage pumped out by both of these smartphones is absolutely ruddy marvelous. More than good enough for your standard home movie shenanigans. Got excellent stabilization and even in low light both perform really well. The audio pickup is slightly stronger I would say on the Oppo Find X9 Pro with the Magic audio tends to get a little bit muffled if you do stray a little bit further away from the phone.

And then last up around the front end of both of these flagships, you've got a 50-megapixel selfie shooter which can record you again up to 4K resolution at 30 or 60 frames per second. No bother at all with those HDR smarts as well. Everything tends to be a little bit brighter again here on the Honor Magic compared with the Oppo Find X9 Pro, but both perfectly great for, you know, a bit of vlogging or a bit of video chatting, whatever you want to get up to.

Verdict

And there you have it, my lovelies. That in a tasty wee nutshell is how the mighty Oppo Find X9 Pro stacks up against that fresh new Honor Magic 8 Pro. Undoubtedly two of my favorite flagship smartphones right now in early 2026. Now there's not much in it at all as you can see there. Both absolutely stellar bits of kit though for me personally the Oppo Find X9 Pro still has it. I just really vibe with Color OS. You know both are excellent for more demanding users especially gamers who will have an absolute blast no matter your choice. The camera tech is fantastic on this pair. Excellent display tech. Fantastic battery life. The works.

But anyway, that's what this pallid northern prong reckons. But what do you guys think? Are you tempted more by the Oppo Find X9 Pro or the Honor Magic 8 Pro? Definitely let us know in the comments below. Check out my full reviews for all you need to know. And please do poke subscribe, ding that notifications bell for more on the latest and greatest flagship tech. Plenty more on the horizon, including of course Samsung's Galaxy S26 series, etc. And have yourselves an absolutely wonderful rest of the week. Cheers, everybody. Love you.