HONOR recently announced its return to the Philippines. And one of the handsets the brand is launching in the country is the HONOR Magic4 Pro.
The Magic4 Pro is the brand’s latest flagship and it offers a great display, a powerful processor, and very capable cameras.
What’s more, expect the quality to be on point as Huawei DNA runs deep. You can see it from the phone’s design, all the way to HONOR’s Magic UI.
So, is this the phone for you? Find out in this review.
Design and Display
At first glance, the HONOR Magic4 Pro evokes a feeling of nostalgia, as it reminds me of Huawei flagships thanks to its sleek design, 2.5D curved-edged display, excellent build, and circular camera island at the back.
The similarities between Huawei flagships don’t end there. HONOR carried over the high-quality standards that Huawei is known for. The Magic4 Pro has an excellent build. It feels good in the hand with very solid construction. The phone is not waterproof, but the IP68 certification means it can survive dunked underwater at a depth of 1.5 m for 30 minutes.
The Magic4 Pro is a beautiful phone with a sleek frame and eye-catching design. It tastefully incorporates a clean aesthetic and a quad-curved display that adds an elegant tone.
The display measures 6.81-inches with an LTPO OLED panel sporting a 2848 x 1312 resolution, a pill-shaped cutout for the front camera, and an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner. It’s surrounded by thin bezels, which give it an impressive 93.5% screen-to-body ratio.
The OLED screen uses LTPO technology which allows it to switch refresh rates from 1Hz to 120Hz, adapting to what’s on the screen. It also supports 1920Hz PWM dimming technology and a DCI-P3 wide color gamut and is certified for HDR10+ and IMAX Enhanced.
For those not familiar with PWM dimming technology, it essentially reduces fluctuations in brightness and screen flicker. Some people with more sensitive eyes can detect flickering, especially on low frequencies, resulting in eye strain or mild headaches. A higher frequency means it’s less noticeable, which lessens the effect by a huge margin. HONOR’s high 1920Hz level is well beyond the 100Hz to 1000Hz that’s considered to be aggressive flickering.
Being an OLED, the display is bright with punchy colors and deep blacks. It’s great for watching videos and viewing media. It has good viewing angles and acceptable legibility under sunlight too. Under display settings, you also get extra features such as an eBook mode, Video Enhancer, and Frame Rate Booster.
When enabled, eBook mode turns all color schemes into grayscale/black and white. It presumably makes it easier to read eBooks when in this mode.
The Video Enhancer tries to render non-HDR content into HDR. It works on Netflix and YouTube. Your mileage may vary, but it does boost the colors on some videos. I prefer to leave it disabled.
The Frame Rate Booster, on the other hand, increases the frame fate of full-screen videos. Again, your mileage may vary here. It does have a negative effect on some dark-colored scenes.
At the back, the attention-grabbing circular camera island takes up a large space. It’s slightly raised, which is more than fine compared to other flagships within the same segment. If you use the included case, a lip protects it from touching a surface it’s placed on.
The 50MP main camera is at the center, surrounded by the 50MP ultra-wide and 64MP telephotos, alongside a flicker sensor, the dTOF Laser Focusing System, and the dual LED flash.
See also: POCO F4 5G review
At the top of the phone, you have the second speaker, a microphone, and an IR blaster. While at the bottom is the SIM tray, the main microphone, the USB-C port, and the main speaker.
Both the volume rocker and power button are on the right side, which I personally prefer. The buttons are easier to manipulate and within easy reach of my thumb or index finger. Plus, since I watch a lot of YouTube and Netflix, it’s more convenient when the phone’s on landscape orientation.
Performance and Battery
The HONOR Magic4 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It runs on Android 12-based Magic UI 6.0 with a host of quality-of-life features such as the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner, Face ID, and stereo speakers.
As expected with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the handset is very fast and snappy with no discernable issues that I noticed. It is, after all, one of the most powerful chipsets available right now, which means it won’t run into any problems playing games or running applications.
Meanwhile, the Magic UI 6.0, again, pulls on nostalgia. It’s modeled after Huawei’s EMUI back when it was part of the company, so if you’ve used a Huawei phone before, then you’ll feel right at home here. The OS is clean and polished with a pleasant design from the menus down to the icons.
Here are the benchmark scores for those who want to see them.
- AnTuTu – 734,226
CPU – 137,366
GPU – 346,804
MEM – 118,397
UX – 131,659 - Geekbench 5 – 897 (Single-core); 3121 (Mult-core)
- 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme – 2,581
The ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock are both really fast, especially the latter which I found to be similar in speed to the vivo X80 Pro’s fingerprint scanner (which is to say, it’s really fast).
See also: vivo X80 Pro review: First class cameras, powerful performance
A good pair of stereo speakers is one of the features that I personally look for when it comes to smartphones. And I am happy to report that the ones on the Magic4 Pro sound good. It’s loud and clear. Like most phone speakers though, mids and lows are not as pronounced.
Battery
The Magic4 Pro has a 4500mAh battery and supports 100W SuperCharge fast charging. With moderate usage of a mix of web browsing, social media, YouTube and Netflix streaming, and some calls, the handset lasted almost a day and a half. Still, you’d be safer if you charge in the morning before heading out, so technically it’s like a day.
With the included 100W charger, it took almost 35 minutes to top up the Magic4 Pro to 100%, which is very excellent by any standard.
Camera Performance
The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes with a triple camera setup with a 50MP main, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 64MP telephoto camera. It’s aided by a couple of sensors, namely the dToF sensor for depth mapping, a laser autofocus sensor, and an anti-flicker sensor that helps lessen screen flicker while recording videos.
The 50MP main camera is backed by a Sony IMX766 sensor, which appears to lack optical stabilization. Meanwhile, the 50MP ultra-wide camera has a 122-degree field of view. The 64MP telephoto camera has a 3.5x optical zoom and up to 10x zoom achieved via cropping the 64MP image.
The image quality in daylight is really good. Photos are sharp with excellent colors, a wide dynamic range, and good details.
Even when zooming in, colors and dynamic range are on point. There is a slight loss in sharpness when zoomed 10x (it is a crop after all), but I am very confident that it would still look great on Instagram and other social media platforms.
Low-light shots are also good. Dynamic range and colors are flagship-worthy, as are the details. Sharpness is above average, but more than enough to impress on Instagram.
For selfies, the Magic4 Pro has a 12MP camera. It sits on a pill-shaped cutout because it’s supported by a dToF sensor for depth. Selfie pictures are good with a lot of detail and the colors look accurate. Sharpness is decent as well.
Final Thoughts
As the HONOR’s first flagship phone to mark its return in the Philippines, I’d say the HONOR Magic4 Pro is a great device for this milestone.
As an Android flagship, the phone checks a lot of boxes — it looks and feels good, it has a great display, a more-than-decent set of cameras, and excellent fast charging. Moreover, the Magic4 Pro retains much DNA from its former parent company Huawei, such as the excellent build quality and the clean UI.
Price and Availability
The HONOR Magic4 Pro is priced at Php 52,990. It is now available online on Lazada and in HONOR partner dealers nationwide.
HONOR Magic4 Pro specs
- Display: 6.81-inch LTPO OLED Display, 2848 x 1312, 120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate, 1920Hz PWM Dimming, 19.54:9 Aspect Ratio, DCI-P3 Wide Color Gamut, HDR10+, IMAX Enhanced Certified
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
- RAM/Storage: 8GB+256GB
- Rear Cameras: 50MP Main + 50MP Ultra-wide + 64MP Telephoto (3.5x Optical Zoom, OIS), Flicker Sensor, dTOF Laser Focusing System
- Front Camera: 12MP Front + TOF 3D Depth
- Network: 5G, 4G LTE, Dual SIM
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi ax Dual Band, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, IR Blaster
- Others: Ultrasonic In-display Fingerprint Scanner, Face ID, Stereo Speakers, IP68
- OS: Magic UI 6.0, Android 12
- Battery: 4500mAh battery, 100W SuperCharge Wired and Wireless Charging
