What Happened
Honor has announced its new smartphone, the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max. The device was showcased with a media demonstration at ARRI's Los Angeles facility and features a dedicated ARRI Cinema mode developed in partnership with the legendary movie camera company ARRI, according to CNET.
The Details
The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max features a unibody metal design and two-tone back glass resembling an iPhone 18 Pro Max, and is available in moss green, shadow black, and glacier silver. It includes a 6.8-inch display, an 8,000-mAh battery supporting 100-watt wired charging and 80-watt wireless charging, and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor. The software side runs on Android 17 with Honor's MagicOS 11 overlay, alongside support for Apple's AirDrop via Quick Share.
The camera setup features a 200-megapixel wide camera, a 200-megapixel telephoto camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera (which does not support the ARRI Cinema mode), and a 55-megapixel front-facing camera with a square sensor enabling vertical selfies regardless of phone orientation. The ARRI Cinema mode utilizes the 200-megapixel wide and telephoto lenses, enabling video capture in a theatrical 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Users can access ARRI's Look Library and install LUT files to mimic professional cinema cameras like the ARRI Alexa.
Honor has not shared a price or release date for the Magic 9 Pro Max, and CNET reports that the phone will not be coming to the United States.
Background and Industry Trend
ARRI's physical cinema cameras typically cost between $65,000 and upwards of $95,000 new. Instead of a cheaper physical camera, ARRI is bringing its color technology directly to the smartphone's camera app. This partnership highlights a growing trend of utilizing smartphones in professional studio environments. For comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro Max was used to primarily shoot parts of the 2025 film 28 Years Later as a deliberate throwback to low-fi styles, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max is currently utilized in some baseball broadcasts.