HONOR Magic4 Pro Review: Mate by Another Name

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review: Mate by Another Name

Review Verdict: The HONOR Magic4 Pro has a lot to offer those in search of a flagship in the Philippines. The processing package has a lot of oomph and the cameras pack a punch as well but it is hard to ignore the fact that this device seems like a repackaged but upgraded device from the company’s lineage. There are a few bugs that need to be addressed by updates though.

Pros

  • Great overall Performance
  • Fantastic Shots for Every Situation
  • 100W Charging

Cons

  • Some Bugs and Glitches to Address
  • Curved Screen Prone to Accidental Touches

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review Philippines Specs

  • Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor
  • 8GB RAM
  • 256GB storage
  • 6.81-inch LTPO OLED display, 1312×2848 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+
  • 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with PDAF and Laser AF, 50-megapixel f/2.2 Ultra-wide-angle camera, 64-megapixel f/3.5 periscope camera with 3.5x optical zoom, PDAF, and OIS, ToF camera
  • 12-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera, 3D Depth Sensor
  • 4G, 5G
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, In-display fingerprint scanner
  • IP68 rating
  • 4600mAh battery
  • 100w charging (wired and wireless)
  • Android 12, MagicUI 6.0

 

HONOR is back in the Philippines once more and, with their return, they bring a smorgasbord of smartphones to appeal to every price segment. The HONOR Magic4 Pro is one of these devices and they’re hoping to make a big splash with this flagship but is it worth it?

Packaging and Contents

The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes in a black cardboard box that offers a sneak peek into the general design of the phone. Open that up and you’ll be greeted by the device itself. Our review unit came in the Cyan color variant. Aside from that, you’ll find the usual accessories which include: a clear case, USB-C charging cable, a 100W charging brick, a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, and the documentation.

Build Quality and Design

There’s no denying the lineage of HONOR with the design of the Magic4 Pro. It’s a silhouette that we’ve seen before with Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro albeit with new colorways to choose from. We all know that its curved design has garnered mixed reactions in the past. That hasn’t changed. While that does make the phone feel narrower and make it nestle in hand better. It does make it look a little dated compared to the devices that we’ve been seeing as of late that have veered away from this aesthetic a few years ago.

They call the overall design of the Magic4 Pro their “Eye of Muse” design; drawing the eye to the centerpiece of this device — its cameras.

They’ve given this phone a mirror finish that attracts fingerprints like crazy but also makes the device a little slippery; making the included case a necessity to use from the time you unbox the Magic4 Pro.

The good thing here though is that the phone does feel solid in the hand and it does have an IP68 rating, which has been helpful since it has been rainy as of late.

Display

The Magic4 Pro boasts a 6.81 LTPO OLED Display with a resolution of 1312×2848; giving it a great pixel density at 460ppi. While you are getting a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, the LTPO panel allows the screen to bump down its refresh rate when it isn’t needed to help conserve power. It’s also Widevine L1 certified for Netflix bingers out there and supports HDR playback as well.

Images and videos also look fantastic on the HONOR Magic4 Pro with vivid colors plus also offers the ability to turn SDR content into HDR content and bump up frame rate as well; although we aren’t the biggest fans of MEMC, the option is there should you want to use it. You’ve also got a fantastic set of speakers on this device but we did run into issues where the phone would sometimes have spotty audio. This was easily resolved by restarting the phone. Hopefully, this bug gets addressed with a software update.

Cameras

The HONOR Magic4 Pro has a solid set of shooters with a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 64-megapixel telephoto equipped with a periscope zoom that can take you all the way to 100x digitally.

The 50MP shooters perform solidly when there’s a lot of light out; giving us plenty of detail and a good amount of dynamic range. Each brand has its own spin on post-processing after you tap on the shutter button and this is another indication of the roots of HONOR.

The telephoto camera is a little hit or miss though as it often feels like it defaults to using digital zoom from the main camera instead of using the actual 64MP camera.

In low-light, you get excellent shots as well but the noise reduction from using Night Mode can leave some of the finer details looking a little soft but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue unless you really pixel peek as the overall images are feed-worthy.

HONOR is particularly proud of the video on the Magic4 Pro as they say it’s the first smartphone that will allow you to shoot 10-bit 4K 60 Log footage and, if you want that flat picture profile to tweak in post, that’s a great option to have. They do have several LUTs that you can use in movie mode though that will give your footage a unique cinematic look depending on what you’re going for.

The plain video does a fantastic job on its own though for those quick captures and it is plenty stable too. There were instances though where the UI would stutter while taking clips, which would also show up on the resulting footage as well.

Another area where HONOR might want to take a look at and fix with an update.

Performance and Battery Life

At the core of the HONOR, Magic4 Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That package provides more than enough power to get work done on the fly or when you need to blow off steam with some of the more demanding titles on the Google Play Store. Based on the benchmarks we ran though, it looks like we’re getting an underclocked version of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that sacrifices some raw computing power for a bit more stability.

While it does have enough oomph, the battery on the Magic4 Pro could have used a bit of a bump up. Its capacity sits at 4600mAh and, while that got us through the day, a slight bump up to 5000mAh would give users more leeway.

We averaged about 4 and half hours of screen-on time and our battery benchmark had this pegged at 9 hours and 24 minutes.

The HONOR Magic4 Pro also runs on Android 12 with MagicUI 6 and, from setup to everyday use, it does feel like a renamed version of EMUI. There we said it. This should make some users feel right at home but there are a number of pre-installed apps that you might want to get rid of to save on space.

Wrap-Up and Conclusion

The HONOR Magic4 Pro is a great way for the company to break the ice as they seek to mount a comeback to the Philippines. It’s a great offering that delivers on performance with its processing package and cameras. However, there are a few kinks that need to be ironed out to make the experience even better.

All in all, the Magic4 Pro is a fantastic reintroduction of the brand to the Philippine market and it does make us look forward to what they have in store for us in the future.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Price Philippines

The HONOR Magic4 Pro is priced at Php 52,990.

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