The forthcoming Honor Magic 8 smartphone will come with a dedicated AI button, according to a recent leak.

Apple really seems to have fired the starting pistol on smartphones adding rather than subtracting hardware buttons in recent years. The just-announced iPhone 17 will feature a Camera Control and an Action Button on top of the usual power and volume keys – and it’s not the first Apple model to do so.

A recent leak over on Weibo claims that Honor is set to add a dedicated AI button to the Magic 8 series.

The post seemingly features a close-up image of the side of the Honor Magic 8, positioned side-by-side with Apple’s new flagship.

Interestingly, the tipster makes direct reference to recent comments made by Honor CEO James Li.

According to Li, the Honor Magic 8’s MagicOS 10 software will be (via machine translation) “equipped with the industry’s most advanced AI agent, enabling a wider range of automated execution scenarios and more human-like interactions”.

The original leaker seems to be putting two and two together here, and concluding that this new hardware button is going to be a gateway to all sorts of contextual AI tasks.

We just hope that Honor also makes the button customisable, as most of us aren’t quite as enthusiastic as the manufacturers are about the impending AI smartphone takeover. Some of us just want a shortcut to the Deliveroo app.

Honor vs Apple

Apple’s own iPhone 17 launch was conspicuously light on AI mentions, indicating that it continues to struggle with the ‘Apple Intelligence’ initiative that was carelessly announced – and then rescinded upon – at last year’s iPhone 16 launch.

The Honor Magic 8, by contrast, hasn’t even been unveiled yet, but the company’s CEO is already promising AI capable of “dynamically adjusting performance parameters and resource allocation based on user habits, allowing the hardware to unleash greater potential beyond its specifications.”

It seems all of this will centre on a dedicated AI button. We’re expecting to see the Honor Magic 8 series announced in mid-October, with global availability likely to commence from January, judging from the Honor Magic 7 rollout.