Honor Magic 4 Pro review: It fits like an old glove

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Honor’s first flagship smartphone in the modern era has been launched in the UK, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and has all the goodies you’d expect from Google. With a 6.81-inch LTPO display and 164-megapixel camera power on the rear panel, the Magic 4 Pro represents the future of Honor, while still harping on the company’s time led by Huawei. Comfortable and familiar with a modern interior, does the Magic 4 Pro manage to move past the past and emerge as a competitor to the likes of OnePlus 10 Pro and Oppo’s Find X5 Pro?

Join us after the break to find out in our review Honor Magic 4 Pro.

design

Unlike other 2022 flagships, the Magic 4 Pro bucks the trend of featuring a taller aspect ratio, and thus feels a bit small in the hand. There are curved edges on each side of the display which will give you an argument depending on which side you are sitting on. You cannot fail to notice the huge circular camera housing on the rear panel that houses a trio of cameras, it is black and glossy and the case of the phone also grabs your attention.

Both the volume rocker and power button are on the right edge, with the SIM tray at the bottom of the phone and the USB-C charging port in between the speaker chamber. You won’t find an audio jack, but there’s another speaker chamber on the top edge that houses a microphone and IR blaster for the company.

we have cyan colorway review Which is shiny and, as you’d expect, something of a fingerprint magnet. The construction is reassuringly rock-solid to the touch, and while having an IP68 rating it’s important to note that Honor doesn’t mention that the display and rear panel have Gorilla Glass protection, so it’s best to slap a clear plastic case on ( is included) in the box) to the phone ASAP.

hardware

performance

At 6.81-inches it’s already a large display, and that feeling is only amplified by the 20:9 aspect ratio and unusual 2,848 x 1,312 resolution that falls somewhere in between QHD+ and FHD+. The refresh rate scales from 1-120Hz which helps with battery life, and for those who suffer from pulse width modulation (PWM) sensitivity, the Magic 4 Pro has a 1,920Hz flicker rate. The colors on the display are vibrant with good viewing angles.

The in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, and coupled with face unlocking, provides a sleek unlocking experience. The sound is good despite the two speakers on the top and bottom edges of the phone firing upwards instead. In terms of connectivity, the Magic 4 Pro supports Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, WiFi 6 and ultra-wideband as well as 5G networking.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, one cannot say that the Magic 4 Pro lacks in the performance department. It walks you through what you set out to do, and gamers will be happy to know that even demanding titles such as jenshin effect Plays well even at 60fps setting. We put the Magic 4 Pro through the usual array of benchmarking apps to give you an idea of ​​what it compared to its competitors, at least on paper.

battery

With an average battery of 4,600mAh, the Magic 4 Pro falls short of 400mAh on most modern flagships, but rest assured that it will last a day of normal use (3-4 hours of screen-on-time) without resorting to any power is able to achieve through- saving measures. right now. It needs to be connected to a charger while you sleep, though thanks to ultra-fast wired charging, you can leave it on until it’s time to shower and change for work. 100W fast charging will fully recharge the Magic 4 Pro in just 30 minutes and about 60% in 15 minutes, so you’ll never be in trouble if you forget to charge overnight.

Perhaps even more impressively, the Magic 4 Pro can charge wirelessly at a faster rate than Google’s Pixel or Samsung’s Galaxy phones can charge via a wired connection. how fast? What would you say if I were to say 100W wireless charging exists? Incredible, isn’t it? However, you’ll need to purchase a specific wireless charger (£70) to make use of the 100W wireless charging capability.

software

Important. Cosmic fly in ointment. While Magic UI 6.0 is built on Android 12, you’d be forgiven if you thought you were using EMUI 10, until the US ban on Huawei came into force. There are a bunch of pre-installed apps which can mostly be uninstalled and it feels a bit heavy compared to the UI of rival brands. It’s not bad, it feels a bit outdated after using ColorOS 12 on Oppo’s Find X5 Pro.

In 2022 we have become accustomed to having a lot of customization options on our phones that let us manually change the size and shape of app icons, menu accents to current wallpaper and notification options like edge lighting. These options aren’t present in Magic UI 6.0, but they do let you enlarge folders on the home screen, show custom images on the always-on-display, and there’s an eBooks option that turns the display into a grayscale screen so that the eBooks can be displayed on the screen. can be emulated. Reader experience.

Honor is promising just two years of software support and security patches for the Magic 4 Pro, which isn’t really enough for a flagship in 2022 that’s approaching the £1,000 mark. At the time of writing (June 14, 2022), review The unit is running on the April security patch, which was out of date at the time of the phone’s launch on May 11, which doesn’t bode well for the future.

camera

With 164-megapixel camera power, the Magic 4 Pro promises great things in the photography department and for the most part, it doesn’t disappoint. The 50MP main camera houses a large sensor that results in stunning imagery with vibrant colors and high dynamic range. The 50MP ultra-wide lens isn’t as adept, but it still outputs images with a high level of detail, though dynamic range and exposure levels are reduced, perhaps due to the slightly smaller sensor.

Last, and certainly not least, is the 64MP periscope lens which offers 3.5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, and 100x digital zoom. I can say right away that the 100x digital zoom is unusable, but the 3.5x optical zoom will give you high-detail images that almost match the main sensor’s color tuning.

When it comes to Night Mode, it’s clear that the main camera uses a lot of processing, resulting in smooth but fake-looking imagery. The other two cameras aren’t as noticeable when it comes to low-light photography, which is a shame.

The Magic 4 Pro is capable of recording 4k @60fps video, but as I have experienced on several occasions, it will stop recording at the fifteen minute mark.

The 12MP selfie camera takes excellent pictures with a good amount of detail in normal lighting conditions, though results fall short in less than ideal conditions.

worth it?

It’s great to see Honor return with a full-fledged flagship device, and the Magic 4 Pro certainly has a lot of attractive features. From ultra-fast 100W wired and wireless charging, powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, 50MP main camera that delivers great photos, and unique camera housing, Honor’s flagship is a sign that the brand is up once again. The good news for the smartphone industry is that the stable BKK has dominated the past few years since the Huawei ban, at least in Europe.

However, taking away the rose-tinted specs, it’s clear that Honor isn’t done and the Magic 4 Pro relies heavily on emotion and its past to actually equate to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, or here Even the OnePlus 10 Pro. And that’s okay because despite having a £949 price tag in the UK, Honor is adding a case, Earbuds 2 Lite, and Watch GS3 to the phone which adds value to the offer.

Overall, the Magic 4 Pro fits in the hand like an old glove, and while it’s comfortable and works you might not be able to stop yourself from looking at slimmer options.

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He’s been an Android fan since owning an HTC Hero, the Dell Streak being his first phablet. He currently carries a Realme GT Neo 2 in his pocket, a Lenovo Yoga Tab 11 in his backpack, and thinks nothing of losing the 17-inch laptop across the globe. When he’s not immersed in the world of Androids and gadgets, he’s an avid sports fan, and like all South Africans, he loves a good braai (BBQ).

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