Honor Magic 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy A42
[ VERDICT ]
Winner: Honor Magic 8 Pro (94/100)
Honor Magic 8 Pro leads overall with a score of 94/100 compared to Samsung Galaxy A42 (43/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.
Why choose Honor Magic 8 Pro:
- + Higher Gaming score (97 vs 16)
- + Higher DeviceBenchmark Score score (94 vs 43)
- + Higher Performance score (99 vs 29)
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Normalized Lab Scores| Benchmark | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| DeviceBenchmark Score | 94.0 Excellent WINNER | 43.0 Poor |
| Gaming | 97.0 Excellent WINNER | 16.0 Poor |
| Performance | 99.0 Excellent WINNER | 29.0 Poor |
Detailed Technical Specifications
Battery
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Battery cycles | 1600 cycles | — |
| Battery type | Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) | Li-Po |
| Bypass charging | Yes | — |
| Capacity | 7200 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Fast charging | Yes (81% in 30 min) | Yes (27% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 0:40 hr | 2:01 hr |
| Gaming | 08:32 hr | 06:09 hr |
| Max charge power | 120 W | 15 W |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Standby | 116 hr | 132 hr |
| Watching video | 24:12 hr | 15:12 hr |
| Web browsing | 14:24 hr | 10:34 hr |
| Wireless charging | Yes (80 W) | No |
Benchmarks
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1207069 | 176341 |
| Compute Score (GPU) | 27643 | — |
| Data manipulation | 17118 | — |
| GPU | 1513881 | 68939 |
| Graphics score | 2979 | — |
| Graphics test | 22 FPS | — |
| Memory | 461553 | 73319 |
| Multi-core score | 10610 | 2044 |
| Photo editing | 40028 | — |
| Section 1 | 56 FPS | — |
| Section 2 | 46 FPS | — |
| Section 3 | 40 FPS | — |
| Single-core score | 3568 | 829 |
| Total score | 3966144 | 436298 |
| UX | 783641 | 117699 |
| Video editing | 8214 | — |
| Web score | 22533 | — |
| Writing score | 30415 | — |
Connectivity
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth features | LE | PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, HSP, HID, HFP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP |
| Bluetooth version | 6.0 | 5 |
| DisplayPort | Yes, DP 1.2 | — |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo |
| Hybrid slot | No | Yes |
| Infrared port | Yes | No |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 2 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| USB features | - Charging- USB-Storage mode- OTG | - Charging- USB-Storage mode- OTG |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band- Wi-Fi MiMO- Wi-Fi Direct- Wi-Fi Hotspot- Wi-Fi Display | - Dual Band- Wi-Fi Direct- Wi-Fi Hotspot- Wi-Fi Display |
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) | Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 b/g/n/ac) |
| eSIM support* | Yes | No |
| 2G network | — | GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900 |
| 3G network | — | WCDMA B1(2100), B2(1900), B4(AWS), B5(850), B8(900) |
| 4G network | — | LTE B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B17(700), B20(800), B28(700) |
| LTE Cat* | — | 18 |
Design and build
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | — |
| Colors | White, Black, Gold, Green | White, Black, Gray |
| Drop resistance | Very good (B) · 180 drops | — |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
| Frame material | Metal | Plastic |
| Height | 161.15 mm (6.34 inches) | 164.4 mm (6.47 inches) |
| Rear material | Glass | Plastic |
| Repairability | Good (3.41/5) | — |
| Thickness | 8.32 mm (0.33 inches) | 8.6 mm (0.34 inches) |
| Waterproof | IP69 | No |
| Weight | 219 g (7.72 oz) | 193 g (6.81 oz) |
| Width | 75 mm (2.95 inches) | 75.9 mm (2.99 inches) |
Display
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (1-120 Hz) | No |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 20:9 |
| Display features | - DCI-P3- Always-On Display- DC Dimming | - Always-On Display |
| HDR support | Yes, Dolby Vision | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1800 nits | 500 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 6000 nits | — |
| PPI | 458 ppi | 266 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Resolution | 1256 x 2808 pixels | 720 x 1600 pixels |
| Screen protection | Giant Rhino Glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 89.9% | 84.3% |
| Size | 6.71 inches | 6.6 inches |
| Type | OLED | Super AMOLED |
| Contrast | — | ∞ Infinity |
| PWM | — | 242 Hz |
| RGB color space | — | 97.7% |
| Response time | — | 9.5 ms |
DxOMark main camera tests
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Bokeh | 165 | — |
| Samples | Photo samples of Honor Magic 8 Pro from DxOMark | — |
Main camera
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 4K video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 30FPS |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| Angle of widest lens | 122° | 123° |
| Aperture | f/1.6 | f/1.8 |
| Autofocus | Laser autofocus | Phase autofocus |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode- Pro mode- RAW support | - Bokeh mode- Pro mode |
| Flash | LED | LED |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 26 mm |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 8000 x 6000 |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP2) Telephoto: 200 MP3) Ultrawide: 50 MP | 1) Standard: 48 MP2) Ultrawide: 8 MP3) Macro: 5 MP4) Depth: 5 MP |
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 48 megapixels |
| Pixel size | 1.2 micron | 0.8 micron |
| Sensor | Omnivision OV50H | Samsung S5KGM2 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) | 1/2" (≈ 0.5 inch) |
| Slow motion | 240 FPS (1080p) | 480 FPS (720p) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Digital |
| Zoom | Optical, 3.7x | Digital |
Memory
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| Memory card | No | MicroSD |
| Memory clock | 5300 MHz | 1866 MHz |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR4X |
| RAM size | 12 GB | 4 GB |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.1 | UFS 2.1 |
| Memory card max size | — | Up to 512 GB |
Other
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | October 2025 | September 2020 |
| Bundled charger | Yes, 120 W | — |
| Category | Flagship | Mid-range |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $999 | $365 |
| Release date | October 2025 | November 2020 |
| Sensors | - Proximity sensor- Gyroscope- Accelerometer- Ambient light sensor- Compass- Face recognition sensor- Fingerprint | - Proximity sensor- Gyroscope- Accelerometer- Ambient light sensor- Compass- Fingerprint |
| SAR (body) | — | 1.33 W/kg |
| SAR (head) | — | 1.15 W/kg |
Performance
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance- 2 cores at 4.61 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime | - 6 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 570 Silver (Cortex-A55)- 2 cores at 2.2 GHz: Kryo 570 Gold (Cortex-A77) |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 6) | 8 (2 + 6) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G |
| FLOPS | ~3686.4 GFLOPS | ~409.6 GFLOPS |
| GPU clock | 1200 MHz | 800 MHz |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 256 |
| Graphics | Adreno 840 | Adreno 619 |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | 3 MB |
| Lithography process | 3 nanometers | 8 nanometers |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | Samsung |
| Max clock | 4610 MHz | 2200 MHz |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Hexagon 694 |
Recent User Tests
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Benchmark | — |
| 📘 2026-01-05(Aiden) | GeekBench CPU | — |
| 📘 2026-04-15(Nam Le) | GeekBench CPU | — |
| 📘 2026-06-25->Lyncos | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-07-07(carrrpernaxa) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-07-18(WatchingTV) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-07-19(WatchingTV) | AnTuTu | — |
Selfie camera
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | Yes | No |
| Megapixels | 50 megapixels | 20 megapixels |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS |
Software
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| OS updates | 7 years | 2 years |
| Operating system | Android 16 | Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) |
| ROM | MagicOS 10 | One UI 3.1 |
| Security updates | 7 years | 4 years |
| OS size | — | 20 GB |
Sound
| Specification | Honor Magic 8 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A42 |
|---|---|---|
| Dolby Atmos | No | Yes |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Headphone audio jack | No | Yes |
| Speakers | Stereo | Mono |
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