Honor’s Porsche Design Magic 6 RSR is the luxury smartphone for your mid-life crisis

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It’s a well-known cliché that men of a certain age turn to the excitement of a Porsche 911 when their youthful mojo begins to fade, and while not everyone can afford to splash the cash on a six-figure sports car, Honor’s newly released (and equally good-looking) Porsche Design smartphone could deliver comparable thrills for a fraction of the price.

Designed in collaboration with the eponymous design studio, the Porsche Design Honor Magic 6 RSR is essentially a souped-up version of the Honor Magic 6 Pro, and the second Porsche Design collaboration to emerge from Honor’s R&D labs after the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR (check out TechRadar’s TikTok channel for a look at that device).

Specs-wise, the Magic 6 RSR is almost the same phone as the Magic 6 Pro, but there are some key distinctions between the two. Both devices share an identical Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and 5,600mAh battery, but the 6.8-inch OLED display on the Magic 6 RSR is actually made up of two, stacked OLED panels, rather than one (which supposedly minimizes brightness degradation). The Magic 6 RSR also gets the same three rear cameras as the Magic 6 Pro, though the former benefits from a neat new LiDAR autofocus system, which makes it sound suitably futuristic.

Under the hood, the Magic 6 RSR’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is aided by a whopping 24GB of RAM and an even-more-whopping 1TB of storage (where its standard sibling ships with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage), which puts even the most specced-up versions of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max to shame (more on these phones later).

German engineering for your phone

The Magic 6 RSR comes in two colors: Frozen Berry and Agate Grey (Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)

The biggest differences between the Magic 6 RSR and the Magic 6 Pro, though, come on the design front. Being a Porsche Design phone, it’s no surprise that the rear panel of the Magic 6 RSR looks a lot sportier than its standard sibling; in truth, the Agate Grey model wouldn’t look out of place on Batman’s utility belt (the phone also ships in Frozen Berry: a pinkish color that doesn’t scream ‘Caped Crusader’ in quite the same way).

As on the Magic V2 foldable, Honor says this rear panel design is a nod to the iconic flyline of Porsche cars – this time the all-electric Porsche Taycan (mid-life crisis alert!) – and the Magic 6 RSR’s camera module has also been jazzed up with a neat-looking hexagonal module. I’m a big fan of the Magic 6 Pro’s unique design, but I have to admit that the raised contour on the Magic 6 RSR feels ever better in the hand.

On the front, the Magic 6 RSR boasts a thin layer of Honor’s super durable NanoCrystal Shield, which is made using silicon nitride. In other words, this phone’s display is a lot tougher than that of the standard Magic 6 Pro, which is handy given how expensive it is.

The Porsche Design Honor Magic 6 RSR ships in a premium leather box (Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)

And now for the price: the Porsche Design Honor Magic 6 RSR costs £1,599, and is available to buy from Honor’s website or Porsche Design directly. The phone is unlikely to ship in the US or Australia, but will go on-sale in other European regions soon.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “£1,599 for a phone? You must be joking!”. And sure, that’s a lot of money for a 6.8-inch pocket computer. But wait! The Magic 6 RSR is actually no more expensive than the 1TB variants of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (£1,549) and iPhone Pro Max (£1,599), and neither of those phones offer anywhere near as much RAM.

You also get a smart-looking, Porsche-branded leather case included in the box with the Magic 6 RSR, as well as Honor’s 100W SuperCharge fast charger. Neither Samsung nor Apple offer such luxuries with their respective latest flagships.

So, while I wouldn’t exactly describe the Magic 6 RSR as good value for money, it’s certainly not the worst-value proposition on the mobile market right now. It’s essentially an even better version of the best Honor phone, so if you’re looking to invest in a head-turning smartphone that makes you feel like you own a Porsche, the Honor Magic 6 RSR could be for you.

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