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00:06So very first smartphone video of 2026 and I got to do this really cool comparison of some of the
00:11very best Android flagships of course a candy bar style. I was just out in Vegas for CES and got
00:17to
00:17compare the brand new Honor Magic 8 Pro. This technically came out earlier last year. It wasn't
00:22the international version which this one is. You can see that both smartphones don't actually sit
00:26flush so they have little stands to sit on the table against obviously the Samsung S25 Ultra.
00:33This one's kind of the bread and butter for Android kind of the benchmark against all other devices.
00:37The comparison was mainly around the camera which I got to ride in a sweet little helicopter ride.
00:41More on that in a second but to the actual comparison let's look at the actual design
00:46first. So like I mentioned both candy bar style both super premium in the materials that they use.
00:51The S25 Ultra it's more squarish in the design and actually how you feel it.
00:56The edging around all sides of the phone is quite sharp. It's a very distinct like feel in your hand
01:00and that's the same thing for the top. Very rectangular whereas the Honor Magic 8 Pro a bit
01:05more rounded. It kind of flows a bit easier across the hand. Really depends if you rock a case on
01:10it.
01:11Like I said both are made out of premium materials. I don't think you can go wrong with either.
01:15They have almost the exact same footprint. The S25 Ultra slightly taller and that slight size difference
01:20also carries on over to the display. So 6.9 inches for the Samsung versus 6.71 for the Honor
01:26Magic 8 Pro.
01:27Very similar in terms of I guess like display tech. Over on the Honor it's 120 hertz LTPO display tech
01:33whereas it's pretty similar over on Samsung. AMOLED it's their naming scheme for it. Also 120 hertz.
01:38I will say that the resolution is slightly better on the Samsung but that's also because it has a
01:43slightly larger display. You honestly won't notice the difference. But the biggest thing here is how bright
01:48these screens get. Especially in Vegas direct sunlight. It was super harsh. 6,000 peak nit brightness
01:54over on the Honor versus only 2,600 on the Samsung. It's like the first thing that you notice when
01:59you
02:00stare at the devices. How much brighter even when I'm indoors and how much more vibrant the Honor looks.
02:04And lastly the IP rating which I know is important to some people. On the S25 Ultra it's just IP68
02:09and on the Honor it really depends which model you get. I know that the backings are different on some
02:14of
02:14them or the finishes. It goes all the way up to IP69K which is one of the highest for a
02:19smartphone.
02:20In addition to that the Honor display also has some extra tech behind it. They call it the Honor
02:23iComfort display. It's got PWM dimming. It's polarized. It has a circadian night option. There's
02:29even motion sickness tech built in. So say for example when you drive obviously the passenger you'd
02:34like to use your phone. You tend to get sick when you use your smartphone obviously because of the
02:38motion. That could potentially help out with that. Something that I'd love to test out more.
02:42But just extra little display tech features that are built in which is always nice. One thing
02:46though that I do have to give Samsung big props for is the anti-reflective screen which I feel
02:50so many other smartphones try to do. I feel Samsung is one of the best. We're here in direct um
02:55I was
02:56gonna say sunlight. Direct studio light and you can see how much less the sun or I guess this giant
03:01softbox actually reflects. But even though I'm gonna kind of uh show the brightness on this. So we're at
03:11at full. For the Honor look how much brighter the Honor display looks. Very similar wallpapers. You
03:17can even tell that within video. The difference is literally night and day. So for display gotta give
03:23Honor the point for that. So the last thing for the display is you'll see the little cutout for the
03:27cameras. We have I'd say like what the traditional little hole punch cutout for the Samsung. 12 megapixels.
03:33We've seen it before for a couple years. I think it could get a nice little upgrade. Over on the
03:37Honor we
03:37have a 50 megapixel front shooter as well as a three depth camera. So I'll let you be the judge
03:42for the selfies. And now we're actually going to cut to the best part of this video where I got
03:47to
03:47compare the cameras.
04:15Successful landing. You know one of the coolest things even though I've done this a couple times
04:19never gets old of how cool this place looks. Incredible. If you guys haven't done the Grand
04:25Canyon before get it on the list. Hope I was able to capture some of it. But when you look
04:31at the actual
04:31say specs of the camera you saw some of the footage. 50 megapixels for the main on the Honor Magic
04:368 Pro
04:37versus 200 megapixels on the Samsung. And that's like a true instance of where numbers don't really
04:43tell the full truth. But on the flip side you've got the 200 megapixel telephoto which is kind of like
04:47their star on the Honor versus only 50 megapixels on the telephoto. How often do you actually use that?
04:54Honestly when you're in places like this you want to get that zoom in. You want to see some detail.
04:58And it's able to do that with the industry's most stable CIPA level which is at 5.5. It
05:03essentially gives people the ability to take better zoom photos with less shakiness. So without
05:08a tripod or without a gimbal. Or if you wait till night time which when we get back to Vegas
05:12we'll
05:12take a ton of night shots you'll see those big differences. But honestly even from the main cameras
05:16both look really really good. Really crispy. Being in the tight little helicopter I found that the ultra
05:21wide on the Honor was actually a little bit wider which gave you obviously a better field of view.
05:26You can see more especially in tight spaces. The color reproduction and the clarity were really good.
05:31This is even one of the rare times where you get to use the entire zoom range on both.
05:34Like check out that really sweet view from ultra wide. Okay 10x zoom.
05:42Look at that bokeh in the back. That smile. And just like that uh I mean we're here for 10
05:48minutes
05:48on the ground. Here back off into the air.
06:02Okay so back into the city. It's night time now finally. Where the Honor device I would say shines
06:07more than the Samsung is really at night photography. So if you're a fan of shooting a lot of like
06:12neon lights
06:13we're literally in the city that does it the best. This is where you can see a clear difference. That
06:17200 megapixel sensor on the telephoto especially coupled with some of the AI really helps get those
06:23crispy shots. Once again I'll leave a comparison of both. We're going to kind of like tour around.
06:28I think right now we're at uh the crystal shops. Some really cool like LED lighting all the way across.
06:34You'll see especially in the shadows it isn't as grainy. But once again as all the photography stuff I will
06:38let you guys
06:39um judge. So sadly back in the studio for the rest of the video but some pretty epic footage that
06:44we
06:44shot uh in that helicopter ride out in Vegas. I will say both of them performed very well. Out of
06:50body
06:50I will say that the stuff on the Honor just looked better. The camera tech is obviously better. I'll let
06:56you guys be the creative judge in the end. But once again props to Samsung you can still shoot in
07:01a form
07:01of log over on this. So if you want to really edit tweak your like color reproduction or color profiles
07:07in
07:07post maybe you have a bit more flexibility. In the end most people just like to use what they get
07:12out of the actual smartphone out of the actual body. It's easier less steps especially for stuff like
07:17social but I will let you guys uh once again be the judge in the end for actual day-to
07:22-day use. So they
07:23have very similar I guess like internals maybe just like slightly older for the Samsung. It is an older
07:29device. This will get its refresh coming like February early March of this year. This is rocking the
07:35older Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 4 versus the 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Honor. Both come base with 12
07:41gigs of RAM
07:41but we have 512 gig storage as the base storage option on the Honor. Sadly only 256 gigs on the
07:46Samsung. But the biggest difference that will actually affect your performance here is battery
07:52life. We have a huge 6270 silicon carbon battery over on the Honor versus only 5000 non-silicon carbon
08:00on the Samsung. That translates to several more hours of actual usage. Once again in Vegas when we
08:05were using them heavily recording a lot of video you're taxing the phone pretty heavily. We found
08:09that the battery drop off on the Samsung was way quicker and we never had to worry about charging it
08:14up extra. It's just more reliable having a bigger battery something that will last and especially in
08:20those pretty unique moments. Cruising in a helicopter the last thing that you want to do is ask for a
08:24power bank or trying to fumble around trying to juice up your phone. So usability wise that is one of
08:28the
08:28biggest differences here. In terms of like overall spec they're both obviously running the latest
08:33version of Android. Slightly different on both we've got different skins. We've got one UI 8 versus
08:38Magic OS 10 both of course running like I said the latest version of Android 16. They've gotten way
08:43better. Once again Honor has gotten rid of a lot of the bloatware. Samsung has always been that great
08:47benchmark. Still maybe not the same as like stock Android but they have both become way better over the
08:53years. Both completely usable in my opinion. And for the times that you actually do have to charge
08:58once again the Honor has better tech built into this. So it has a hundred watts wire charging and
09:0380 watts wireless charging. It's called Honor Supercharge. It's dope. It's quick. And once again
09:07compared to the Samsung only 45 wired and 25 wireless. So once again more than double. So next
09:14category somehow AI is always like a comparison category. Now the brands always try to say oh we've
09:19got so many new AI features. Yes they are both loaded with AI stuff. I've tested out and used a
09:25lot of the
09:25AI features before like AI SuperZoom. They've got Magic Portal. Great for multitasking. But one cool
09:30one that I remember seeing was the AI deep fake detection. So obviously deep fakes are becoming a
09:35huge issue. The fact that it can analyze something and let you know that a deep fake is happening.
09:39Some sort of scam. So that is super cool. Once again I don't really use AI that much so I'm
09:44not going to
09:44talk about it. If you do great. If you don't like most people they're there built in. It almost feels
09:49which
09:50obviously it is. The Honor is a newer phone. But it feels like not leaps ahead. But it feels like
09:55a gen and a half more than what the Samsung is. Especially when you consider the price. You know
10:00how expensive the Samsung is. Of course that will vary slightly by what region you're in. But they are
10:04similarly priced. And especially if you're in an area that can get an Honor phone. They technically
10:10don't sell them officially in Canada. But you can get them through other retailers online. You are looking
10:14at a very big difference in terms of actual performance. It'll be interesting what Samsung has to come
10:20out with their new S26 Ultra in a couple months. One extra I guess little bonus for the Samsung. It
10:27does have the Galaxy S Pen if you are a big stylus user. I feel like I've said that a
10:31lot for the
10:32Samsung. It has these extra little bonuses that you know make it a little bit better. But overall the
10:37big performance upgrades are coming to the Honor device. But let me know your thoughts down below.
10:42Which of these two flagships would you take? S25 Ultra or the Honor Magic 8 Pro? Hope you guys enjoyed
10:48my
10:48very first smartphone vid of the year. Tons more content. This was released obviously just at the
10:53tail end of CES. But we've had a ton of content. So would appreciate a sub as we try to
10:59hit that one
11:00milli mark. If we make it there, heck, I'll give you guys an Honor phone. I'm sure Honor will hook
11:05you
11:05up with a device. I've reviewed their smartphones for a while. Some of their Porsche smartphones which
11:09have been some of my faves honestly. Those collabs have always been sweet to look at. So I'm looking forward
11:14to the next like 2026 Porsche Honor Collab. Until then. Peace.
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