ARRI-style AR movie camera colors on mobile: Honor Magic9 will offer 11 profiles, with official promo videos

Honor unveiled its main trump card before the launch of its new flagship series. The phones will get Honor Magic9 its main trump card. The phones will receive ARRI film mode, which Honor developed together with the German company ARRI, the legendary maker of film cameras. Instead of dealing with complicated settings, before recording you simply pick one of the color profiles, and with one tap you shoot a video that looks like a cinema shot.

ARRI film mode: 11 profiles and one tap

According to the Notebookcheck website, the mode will offer a 11-profile ARRI Look, for example ARRI-5210 Vibrant, ARRI-3411 Teal Orange, or ARRI-5121 Clear. You choose the profile before recording, and you can see its effect immediately on the display. What’s important is that these profiles don’t change exposure or focus. They adjust colors, contrast, and the overall mood of the shot—just like color grading in film post-production.

Honor has been working with ARRI officially since March 2026. According to the fine print in the official video, the ARRI film mode will be available on the Magic9 Pro Max model and on the base Magic9, which will get it via an OTA update. According to Honor, you can download the full set of ARRI Look profiles from its website.

Official video of the ARRI film mode

Honor posted a short video on its Chinese site for the new series, showing the individual profiles. There’s very little spoken content in it, so below the video we’ll briefly summarize what it’s all about.

The video is made up of short clips from everyday life, with each one shot using a different ARRI Look profile—for example, 5210 Vibrant, 90S, Nature, Film A, Retro, or High Contrast. The on-screen text and the music share a simple idea: each color conveys a different emotion; the film moves from the cinema hall to everyday moments, and each of us is the director of our own life. At the end, the video reminds you of the collaboration with ARRI, two 200 MP sensors, and the premiere date—September 28—in Beijing.

LogC3, false color, and a directional microphone for advanced users

For those who want to further edit the video, Honor adds professional tools. The mode can record in ARRI LogC3, meaning flat colors that preserve more image information for later color correction. There’s also focus peaking, which highlights in color the parts of the image that are in focus, and false color, which shows overexposed and underexposed areas.

The Magic9 Pro Max model also gets a directional shotgun microphone that Honor calls the first of its kind in the industry. Such a microphone mainly captures sound from where the camera is pointed, while reducing noise from the surroundings. Honor demonstrates it on its page using recordings of home pets.

Official teaser: Inspired by ARRIFLEX cameras

The second official video explains why the Magic9 camera module has exactly this shape. Honor was inspired by the rotating head with three lenses found on classic ARRIFLEX film cameras. The result is a system of three cameras, in which the Magic9 and Magic9 Pro Max models feature two 200 MP sensors—one in the main camera and the other in the telephoto lens.

The teaser goes back to 1937 and the classic ARRIFLEX film cameras, which, according to Honor, thanks to a rotating head with three lenses opened up half a century of professional film cameras. Today, Honor with ARRI brings this inspiration to a new “three-camera film system” from the Magic9 series. It aims to open the “big director’s eye” and put ARRI film creativity directly into your hands.

What else do we know about the Magic9 series

The official website also reveals other updates. The front camera features a 55 MP square sensor, so you don’t need to rotate your phone to landscape for selfies. Honor calls it its first of its kind among Android phones. Video processing will be handled by its own image chip Honor H1, which removes noise from video already in RAW data and, according to the manufacturer, improves the signal-to-noise ratio by 8 dB. Accessories will also be available for the camera, including a lens cover with a 500 mm focal length, which we covered in more detail in our article about the Magic9 series camera.

Magic9 Pro Max will get a new flagship chip from Snapdragon, and according to Notebookcheck, a battery with a capacity of 11,000 mAh. Earlier leaks mentioned 8,000 mAh, so we’ll wait until the premiere for the exact number. The series will come in four colors: black, white, olive green, and silver. The face of the campaign is Chinese actor Xiao Zhan. Complete specifications and prices will be announced at the premiere on September 28, 2026 at 14:30 Beijing time.

Good news for our readers: the global version of the Honor Magic9 series will be available on GShopper, exclusively for fans of China Planet. So you won’t have to deal with Chinese software without Slovak support and without Google services. We’ll update the price and sale date right after the official unveiling.

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