Can the Honor Magic9 Pro Max's 500mm Attachment Replace a Big Camera?

Honor is preparing a Photography Master Kit for the Magic9 Pro Max, featuring a pair of external telephoto converters.

In a Weibo post today, WHYLAB showed off the kit in a series of photos. The system includes two telephoto converters, the G200 and G500, along with additional accessories. The larger of the two, the G500, is said to offer an equivalent of 500mm. Honor will officially unveil the phones on September 28 in China.

The larger attachment is designated the G500. WHYLAB compared it to a giant cannon and asked if that's an exaggeration. It's reportedly suited for both concerts and bird photography. The phone's periscope telephoto lens is said to have an 85mm equivalent, and the G500 optically extends this by 5.88x, resulting in roughly 500mm. According to the manufacturer, the attachment clips around the camera module and extends the optics rather than simply cropping the image. This is a crucial difference compared to ordinary digital zoom.

That said, the design shows this isn't just a software-based zoom, but a genuine optical telephoto converter. It won't fit in your pocket, and in everyday use it will likely be more of a burden than a convenience. However, the G500's dimensions suggest it's intended as specialized accessory gear for situations where users genuinely need very long reach. This particular attachment also has the advantage of coming directly from Honor itself, rather than a third party.

The second piece of the kit comes across as more practical. According to WHYLAB, it's a significantly more portable piece: the G200 attachment, offering an equivalent of 200mm, which Honor describes as "thumb-sized." It measures 81mm and weighs 88 grams. Last year's kit for the Magic 8 Pro included an attachment with the same 200mm reach, but that one weighed 207 grams, more than many phones weigh on their own. The new version is thus more than half as light, making it far more realistic to actually carry around. The competition isn't sitting still either. Vivo, for instance, offers 200mm and 400mm attachments for its X300 Ultra model.

The Magic9 Pro Max itself is expected to feature two 200-megapixel cameras and an imaging system developed in collaboration with ARRI, particularly in color processing. The main sensor measures 1/1.28 inches with an aperture of f/1.57. The telephoto lens has a 1/1.4-inch sensor with an aperture of f/2.6. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip.

Neither the phone's price nor the kit's price is known yet, and according to the manufacturer, the kit will be optional. It's also worth noting that the stated 200mm and 500mm figures refer to the reach of the attachments themselves, not the native focal length of the phone's built-in cameras. Additionally, the actual image quality produced by the 500mm attachment cannot yet be verified.