Huawei was previously in the first places in the smartphone market, but the economic blocks imposed by the United States on some Chinese companies seriously affected the manufacturer and caused drag on its other brands, as was the case with Honor. Fortunately, Huawei has reinvented itself, creating its own version of Android, systems that compete with Google, but in the smartphone market it has been reduced to a meager presence, to what it was before.
In an effort to salvage part of the company, it sold Huawei Honor, which is now going its own brand and at its own pace, and we still see a lot of Huawei DNA in its devices. However, the new smartphoens announced at MWC 22 show that we’ve already found different sides of Huawei, and it’s a sign that from now on we’ll see more exclusive stuff from the brand.
The new Magic4 is just that, (some) changes, but with the power to take back what they’ve lost in the global market. And they are going in a good way, as they offer higher specs and more competitive prices than their competitors, i.e. when we compare the prices of their devices with Oppo and Samsung (since Xiaomi hasn’t released them yet). Xiaomi 12 globally, so we don’t know what the prices are).
Here are the two flagships of Honor 2022: Magic4 and Magic4 Pro. Starting with the design, we still see similarities with Huawei’s high-end smartphones, but in the cameras we already see some differences. It is true that the cameras keep the ring circular, but the locations of the sensors are actually different.
Both models have the same design and share the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, the same main cameras and 50MP ultrawide cameras, although the Pro version has an edge in all other categories, starting with the display.
The Magic4 Pro features a 6.81-inch OLED LTPO display that is rounded on all sides with a resolution of 1224 x 2664 pixels, an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, a 12MP front camera and a 3D depth sensor in a bead-shaped hole in the middle of the screen. The Magic 4 is a “paenas” with a 6.81-inch OLED with two folded sides of the screen and the same resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and 12MP selfie cameras in one central slot. Both panels can output up to 1,000 nits and have a dimming feature of 1920 Hz PWM.
Both Magic4 phones come with abnormally large camera circles dubbed “Eye of Muse”. You can count on a 50MP 1/1.56″ main sensor with 4 to 1 pixel grouping along with a 50MP 1/2.5″ ultrawide sensor for both phones. Telephoto units vary with the Pro getting a 1/2-inch 64MP periscope lens with 3.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom.
The regular model has an 8MP telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. The remaining two parts on both phones house the ToF and flicker sensors. Honor also brings AI Color and Movie Master with IMAX Enhanced 4K 10-bit video recording at 60 frames per second.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the processor for every Honor Magic4, and it has up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Honor also offers GPU Turbo X graphics acceleration. Honor Magic4 Pro has another great feature – it can charge up to 100W wired and wirelessly via Honor SuperCharge chargers.
Honor claims that a 30-minute wired charging cycle will fill the phone’s 4,600mAh battery in just 30 minutes, while a 15-minute wireless charging session will bring the phone to 50% battery. Excellent results.
Magic4 is limited to 66W speeds but has a slightly larger 4800mAh cell. The Magic4 Pro carries an IP68 rating, while the regular gets only IP54. The software interface on both phones features Magic UI 6.0, based on Android 12.
The Magic4 Pro comes in cyan, gold, white and black colors and has a glass back, while the orange color has a leather back. The base version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage will sell for 1099 euros. Honor Magic4 starts at 899 euros.
The Honor Magic4 series will be available from the second quarter of 2022, and we still don’t know if it will be available in Portugal.
“Coffee trailblazer. Social media ninja. Unapologetic web guru. Friendly music fan. Alcohol fanatic.”