HONOR Magic4 Pro Review

Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this February, the HONOR Magic4 Pro is a flagship smartphone built to compete against Samsung, Google, and Xiaomi.

The HONOR Magic4 Pro features a 6.81-inch OLED curved display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, triple rear cameras, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and a 4600mAh battery with 100W fast charging.

Specifications

Packaging

The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes in a HONOR-branded black cardboard box with the phone and accessories well protected in different compartments.

The box includes:

• HONOR Magic4 Pro
• HONOR SuperCharge Power Adaptor
• Type-C Cable
• TPU Protective cover
• SIM Eject Tool
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card
• TP protective film

Design

The HONOR Magic4 Pro is available only in two color options internationally– Black and Cyan. Our review model is the White variant. The phone is made of mix of metal and glass, it looks and feels premium. The glossy back panel shimmers depending on the lighting angle but also easily attracts fingerprint smudges.

Measuring 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.5 mm and with a weight of 215g and a 6.78-inch screen, this is a large phone; but the weight is well distributed. However, if you are looking for a smartphone that is comfortable to use with one hand, this is not the device for you.

On the front, is the 12MP selfie camera in the center which can also capture upto 4K@30fps video. On the right side of the phone are the volume up/down and power button. The under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is reliable and fast to recognize and unlock.

At the back, the circular camera which Honor calls the ‘Eye of Muse’,  is placed in the center and houses a 50MP wide camera, 50MP ultrawide camera, 64MP Periscope Telephoto, 3D Depth sensor, flicker sensor and single LED flash.

At the bottom are the stereo speakers and the USB Type-C 3.1 port for charging. The SIM tray is also located here and can use two SIM cards. Unfortunately, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack. There is no mention of Gorilla Glass to protect the phone’s display but the phone has an IP68 rating for protection from dust and water.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Display

The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes with a 6.83” 1312×2848 pixels OLED screen with support for up to 120Hz refresh rate which makes the overall experience smoother. The LTPO tech allows the display to scale responsiveness as low as 1Hz to save power.

The OLED display supports 1B colors, HDR10+ and offers a peak brightness of 1000 nits. Colors are vibrant with strong contrast and excellent viewing angles. The quad-curved screen – meaning the top and bottom edges are rounded too – along with its minimal bezels gives an immersive viewing experience and the brightness is good enough to be used outdoors.

Performance & Connectivity

The HONOR Magic4 Pro features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Adreno 730 GPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB built-in memory. The Snapdragon 8 Gen1 along with the Adreno 730 offers flagship performance with no visible delay or lags.

In terms of connectivity, the Magic4 Pro supports 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS and IR.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Camera

The HONOR Magic4 Pro has a triple camera setup with a 50MP wide camera, 50MP ultrawide camera, 64MP periscopic zoom, 3D Depth sensor, flicker sensor and single LED flash.

The 50MP main camera produce photos with excellent details and balanced colors. The second 50MP ultra-wide ultrawide produces good detailed shots with good color and contrast but somewhat lack in dynamic range. The third camera offers 64MP periscopic zoom with a  default 3.5x distance and then a further 10x. Anything beyond this produces soft, pixelated images but is acceptable enough.

In low light conditions, the main camera on the HONOR Magic4 Pro produced decently sharp images with good noise control and acceptable color accuracy. Performance drops sharply on the other two lenses and is not very usable in low light situations.

The 16MP selfie camera captures photos with acceptable contrast and good color but struggles with bright light sources.

Videos can be recorded in either 4K@60 on the rear camera and 4K@30 from the front. The video quality is decent but has some stabilization issues which could be later fixed in a software update.

HONOR Magic4 Pro OS

The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes with Magic UI 6.0 – a skinned version of Android 12. The phone comes with a handful of third-party apps preinstalled, all if which can be uninstalled. Besides the of the new UI design, the interface has not changed too much and is highly customizable. In terms of OS updates, Honor has only promised two years of Android version updates.

Battery & Audio

The phone comes with a 4600mAh battery, which can last a full day of use. As for charging, Magic4 Pro supports 100W speeds in both wired and wireless modes, making it the fastest wireless charging phone on the market right now. 100W charging takes the phone from 0 to 50% in about 15 minutes or 30-40 minutes to fully charge it.

In terms of audio, The Magic4 Pro has both top and bottom-firing speakers. The sound is loud and punchy enough to fill a small room. The microphones also offer very good audio quality during calls.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Verdict

The Magic4 Pro offers flagship performance, an excellent display, powerful set of cameras and blazing-fast charging. It uses everything we like about Huawei’s premium design, display and camera system but with support for Google Play Services.

However, if you are looking for a phone with a more mature software and longer OS support, there are better alternatives.