The Revenant, Blade Runner 2049, both Dune films. If you have watched an Oscar contender in the last decade, there is a good chance it was shot on an ARRI camera. The German company has been building cinema gear since 1917, and its ALEXA cameras are what most big productions rent when the picture really matters.
Now the ARRI logo is printed on the back of a phone. The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max ships with an ARRI Cinema mode that records 4K at 60fps in ARRI LogC3 and ARRI Wide Gamut 3, plus a set of real ARRI color looks you can preview while you shoot. TechRadar went hands-on in Hollywood and came away impressed, if a little worried the tools are niche.
We dug into what LogC3 actually is, where the phone can be bought, and the detail most launch coverage skips: ARRI’s own flagship, the ALEXA 35, no longer uses LogC3 at all.
The phone in four numbers
The design tells you what Honor is going for. Instead of the big round camera island on last year’s Magic 8 Pro, the Magic 9 Pro Max uses a three-lens layout inspired by ARRI’s classic Arriflex film cameras: one large main lens with two smaller ones stacked beside it. A textured metal ring around the main camera even feels a bit like a focus ring. It is the first phone to wear an ARRI badge on the body and on the box.
Full specs
| Spec | Honor Magic 9 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.8-inch LTPO OLED, 1320 x 2868, 120Hz, 10,000 nits peak |
| Chip | Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, plus Honor Imaging Chip H1 |
| RAM and storage | 12GB/256GB up to 16GB/1TB |
| Main camera | 200MP, 1/1.28-inch, f/1.57, OIS with 3° gimbal-style stabilization |
| Telephoto | 200MP periscope, 1/1.4-inch, f/2.6, 3.5x optical, OIS |
| Ultra-wide | 50MP, f/2.0, 122° field of view |
| Selfie | 55MP multi-aspect, plus 3D depth sensor |
| Video | Up to 4K120; ARRI Cinema mode 4K60 LogC3, Wide Gamut 3, 10-bit |
| Battery | 8,800mAh silicon-carbon (Hong Kong model reportedly 8,000mAh) |
| Charging | 100W wired, 80W wireless, reverse charging |
| Durability | IP68 and IP69K |
| Size and weight | 161.6 x 77 x 8.6mm, 233g |
| Software | MagicOS 11 on Android 17, up to 7 major OS updates |
Sources: Honor, GSMArena, Daily Camera News, Huawei Central.
What ARRI Cinema mode actually gives you
Most “pro” video modes on phones are a few manual sliders and a flat color profile. ARRI Cinema mode goes further. Turning it on loads a separate camera interface that looks and behaves more like a cinema camera menu. You get shutter angle instead of shutter speed, exact white balance in Kelvin, ISO, focus peaking, frame lines for different aspect ratios, audio levels and lens selection, all on one screen.
The headline is the recording format. Footage is captured in ARRI LogC3, the log curve ARRI designed for its cinema cameras, in ARRI Wide Gamut 3 color. Daily Camera News reports the phone can write this as 10-bit 4:2:2 APV, a high-quality codec built for grading.
Straight out of the phone, log footage looks flat and almost gray. That is the point. It holds as much highlight and shadow detail as possible so a colorist, or you, can shape the final look later in an app like DaVinci Resolve.
The looks and LUTs
- 14 preloaded ARRI looks: two technical conversion looks plus 12 creative ones, many taken from ARRI’s professional Look Library. TechRadar’s favorites included ARRI-6311 for soft pastel tones and ARRI-9211, a day-for-night look.
- 87 ARRI Look Library profiles you can browse and download from ARRI.
- Third-party LUTs: import any compatible LUT, including the many free ones online.
- Live preview: see the graded look on screen while you record, while still keeping the flat log file for later.
The LogC3 detail nobody is talking about
ARRI has two current log standards. LogC3 is the one used by the ALEXA Mini, ALEXA LF, Mini LF and Amira, the cameras behind a huge share of film, TV and commercial work over the past decade. LogC4 arrived with the ALEXA 35 in 2022, because that camera’s new sensor captures about 17 stops of dynamic range, roughly 2.5 stops more than the generation before it, and LogC3 could not hold all of it.
So the phone is not speaking ARRI’s newest language. Is that a problem? Mostly no, and in some ways it is the smarter choice:
- A phone sensor cannot fill LogC4 anyway. Even a big 1/1.28-inch sensor captures far less dynamic range than an ALEXA 35, so the extra room in LogC4 would mostly go unused.
- LogC3 has the deepest LUT ecosystem. Years of ALEXA Mini and LF productions mean there are thousands of LogC3 LUTs, and most grading tools handle it out of the box.
- It matches a lot of working cameras. If a crew is still shooting on ALEXA Mini or LF bodies, the phone’s footage drops into the same color pipeline as a B-camera or crash cam.
The one thing to watch: ARRI itself warns that LogC3 LUTs should not be used on LogC4 footage, and the reverse is also true. If you mix Magic 9 Pro Max clips with ALEXA 35 footage, you will need to convert one to the other’s color space first, not just share a LUT.
A phone vs an ALEXA 35: the money gap
Nobody is going to swap an ALEXA for a phone on a feature film. The sensor size, lens options, dynamic range and reliability are in a different universe. But that is not who Honor is selling to. The realistic buyers are YouTubers, wedding and event shooters, film students, and professional crews who want a pocket camera for previsualization, scouting or a quick extra angle that will cut with the main footage.
Honor is also selling the kit around it. There are G200 and G500 teleconverter lenses, a SmallRig cage with handles and cold-shoe mounts, and a directional microphone array. Honor is clearly chasing the same mobile-creator crowd that Vivo is courting with its 400mm Zeiss teleconverter for the X500 Pro Max.
Price and availability
| Market | Status | Price |
|---|---|---|
| China | On sale since Sep 28, 2026 | CNY 6,499 (12/256GB) to CNY 8,499 (16GB/1TB) |
| Hong Kong | Pre-orders open, sales from Nov 19 | HK$10,999 (12/512GB), HK$14,999 (16GB/1TB) |
| UK and Europe | January 2027 | Not announced |
| Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia | Rolling out | Varies by market |
| United States | No plans announced | Import only |
Sources: Honor, Android Central, Huawei Central, Unwire HK, GSMArena.
Early buyers in Hong Kong can pick a free G200 teleconverter kit, normally HK$1,599, as a launch gift. Honor’s UK store already has an early-bird sign-up page, but no price. Grey-market importers in Europe are listing the phone for roughly €900 to €1,040, usually without a local warranty.
American buyers are out of luck again. Honor has not named the US in any rollout plan, which follows a familiar pattern. Its Robot Phone, which shares the same ARRI workflow, has not left China at all. Importing is possible, but check band support with your carrier and expect no US warranty.
Tips if you plan to shoot in ARRI Cinema mode
- Expose for log, not for the screen. Use the live LUT preview to judge the look, but watch the highlights. Log footage is forgiving in the shadows and less so once highlights clip.
- Use a 180° shutter angle. At 24fps that means 1/48s. In bright light you will need an ND filter, which is where the SmallRig cage and filter adapters help.
- Plan for storage. 10-bit 4K log files are big. The top 1TB model, or recording to a fast external SSD over USB-C, will save a lot of mid-shoot deleting.
- Keep the original log clip. Even if you love the built-in look, the flat file gives you room to regrade later.
- Grade with matching LUTs. Start with ARRI’s own LogC3 to Rec.709 conversion before you add creative looks.
The bottom line
The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is one of the most serious attempts yet to put a cinema workflow inside a phone. Two 200MP cameras, strong stabilization and a genuine ARRI color pipeline make it a compelling tool for anyone who grades their footage or wants it to sit next to ARRI material.
Just go in with the right expectations. This is not an ALEXA in your pocket, and it records in ARRI’s previous log standard, not the one on its newest flagship. For most creators, that is a sensible trade. The bigger hurdle is getting one: Europe has to wait until January, and the US may not get it at all.
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