Here’s something worth knowing before comparing these two phones on specs alone: HONOR used to be Huawei. It operated as Huawei’s budget sub-brand for years before Huawei sold it off entirely in November 2020, largely to shield it from the US trade restrictions that had cut Huawei off from Google’s services and its usual chip suppliers.
As an independently owned company, HONOR could rebuild access to things Huawei no longer had, including, eventually, full Google Mobile Services.
That’s not just trivia. It’s the actual explanation for the single biggest difference between these two flagships, and understanding it makes the rest of this comparison make a lot more sense.
Same DNA, different fates: how the split shaped each phone’s identity
Before the split, camera excellence was already part of Huawei’s identity, and that focus intensified afterward. Cut off from some of the usual competitive levers, chip access being the most obvious one, Huawei doubled down on the one area it could still meaningfully out-engineer rivals: imaging hardware. The Pura 80 Ultra is the direct descendant of that strategy, a phone built with photography as the organizing principle rather than one feature among many.
HONOR, freed from that same set of restrictions, took the opposite bet. Without a reason to over-index on any single specialty, it built the Magic 8 Pro around being excellent everywhere, camera, performance, battery, software, none dominant, none neglected. Same corporate ancestry, genuinely different products, and the divergence traces directly back to that 2020 decision.
The Google Services gap, finally explained rather than just stated
This is where the historical context actually pays off. The Pura 80 Ultra still lacks native Google Mobile Services, no Play Store, no Gmail app, no Maps, because Huawei itself remains under the restrictions that prompted HONOR’s sale in the first place. HONOR, as a fully independent company since that split, offers complete Google ecosystem support on the Magic 8 Pro, the exact thing its former parent company cannot.
If your daily life runs on Google’s apps, this single historical fact, not a marketing decision, not a software preference, is what actually decides your answer. HONOR becomes the easier recommendation not because it tried harder, but because it’s no longer bound by the restrictions still shaping Huawei’s options.
Camera: the identity Huawei kept, and the balance HONOR chose instead
Huawei’s approach remains uncompromising on this front. Photos favor natural, restrained processing over aggressive brightening or saturation, tested directly against the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and the advanced telephoto system holds image quality at zoom ranges where most phones fall back on digital processing. Consistency across shooting conditions is the real strength, less chasing one perfect shot, more reliably good results every time.
HONOR’s camera philosophy reflects its post-split identity just as clearly: dependable rather than specialized. Photos tend to look brighter straight out of the camera, ready to post immediately rather than left for editing, a real and deliberate difference in processing philosophy, not a quality gap. For everyday photography, landscapes, family photos, food, social content, this satisfies most users without asking them to think about it.
Neither approach is wrong. One is the legacy of a company that bet everything on imaging when other options narrowed. The other is what a company builds when it doesn’t need to make that same bet.
Performance, briefly, because the split barely shows up here
Both phones handle daily use and demanding tasks without strain, tested independently, the Pura 80 Ultra against the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Nothing Phone (3), vivo X200 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max across AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark, the Magic 8 Pro against the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max on AnTuTu. Most buyers won’t feel a meaningful gap in normal use on either phone. This is the one category where their shared engineering heritage still shows more than their post-split divergence does.
Battery: both companies still know how to build one
Also close to a wash. The Pura 80 Ultra, tested in a drain comparison against six other flagships including the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Magic 8 Pro, tracked through a full day of real use, both comfortably last a full day with fast charging on both wired and wireless. Whatever else the 2020 split changed, it didn’t touch either company’s ability to build a battery that gets out of your way.
Price in Nigeria
As of June 2026, the HONOR Magic 8 Pro is available in Nigeria for around ₦1,600,000 – ₦2,220,786, depending on storage variant and where you buy.
| Retailer | Price Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jumia | ₦1,600,000 | Official store, warranty included |
Prices fluctuate with exchange rates and stock availability, so treat this as a guide rather than a fixed number, check the retailer’s page directly before buying.
If photography is the reason you’re spending flagship money, the Pura 80 Ultra represents the most direct, undiluted version of what made its lineage’s camera reputation in the first place, and Google’s absence is a real cost worth weighing against that. If you want a flagship that does everything well without asking you to adjust your daily habits around it, the Magic 8 Pro is what that same engineering pedigree looks like once freed from the constraints that shaped its former parent.
Neither phone is the wrong choice. They’re just two different answers to what became possible after one company’s history forced a split, and both answers turned out to be genuinely good ones.
