The brand Honor was always looked upon as Huawei’s little brother but in the last year that changed and they are now an independent company. We recently got to review the latest device the Honor 70 and even the Honor Pad 8 and now it’s the turn of the Honor Magic 4 Pro which was released back in February at MWC.

First Impressions

It can be said that the Honor Magic 4 Pro is the flagship device for Honor as its currently priced at £949.99 which is most definitely in the premium price market but can this device now with the Hauwei shackles firmly off compete with the likes of Samsung or Apple. 

Honor Magic 4 Pro review

Our initial findings are that it could for sure with a fantastic 6.81 inch OLED display, impressive charging speeds (100W wired or wireless charging), powerful camera front and back, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and competitive price tag it seems to tick all the boxes.

 

The Honor Magic 4 Pro only comes with one version in the UK and that is the 256GB storage with 8GB RAM version. This phone stands strong against the likes of an iPhone 13 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus.

Design

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has a very unique look and style it will without doubt stand out from the crowd. Starting at the rear of the device you have a glass-topped rear which is coated in a hyper-reflective tinted mirror finish. The star of the show when it comes to the rear is that camera module it’s a massive circle with ultra-wide, wide and depth sensors surrounding a telephoto lens.

Honor Magic 4 Pro review

Moving to the front there is also a camera module on the front of the phone as well but it also comes with Face ID which is normally found in an iPhone and this allows you to unlock your phone with ease and securely.  Do not like the Face ID option Honor also comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor so you have options when it comes to unlocking.

Honor Magic 4 Pro review

The phone overall is quite large coming in at 164 x 75 x 9.1mm and weighs 216g which is not the heaviest device on the market but is heavier than the OnePlus 10 Pro. Honor also provides you with protection against water or dust being IP68-rated. 

Finally, when you look around the edges of the phone it comes with stereo speakers at the base instead of a headphone jack. The stereo speakers are not bad in regards to the sound they come with crisp highs paired with rich lows to provide a bright and punchy sound that will please most users.

In terms of colour options, the UK only offers black and cyan models and in this review, we have been lucky to test the cyan version. However, both versions have that glass-topped finish that is a mecca for fingerprints so you will look for a case asap so the colour of the phone won’t matter too much. 

 

In terms of negatives the Honor Magic 4 Pro falls in one key factor it did not add protection to the screen in the shape of the popular Gorilla Gass meaning your phone is now at risk of damage to the screen so a case is vital. 

Display 

 

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is fronted by a large 6.81-inch OLED display with a 2,848 x1312 resolution. This resolution is somewhat of a game-changer as it falls in between the QHD+ and FHD+  options available on the market and this is paired with a 460ppi pixel density only normally seen in an iPhone 13 Pro. 

Honor Magic 4 Pro review

The Honor Magic 4 Pro also comes with a 120Hz refresh rate which is excellent for multitasking or gaming and you do not want any lag. The Magic 4 Pro also claims to have a 1,920Hz which is significantly higher compared to its rivals and is beneficial in reducing eye strain. 

 

The display is also quad-curved meaning all the edges are rounded which is a nice feature to have as the visuals are seen from the whole display. The phone also comes with LTPO tech that allows the phone to show that responsiveness to as low as 1Hz to save power. This phone also comes with a peak brightness of 1000 nits that you will not struggle to use regardless of the day. 

Under the Bonnet

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that is paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The phone also comes with the benefit of a face ID and fingerprint scanner and both work very well and were nice and responsive. Unfortunately, there are a few issues for example the full-screen notch handling means there is occasional flickering that looks a tad glitchy when video enhancements are active. 

Performance

When running the benchmarks on this phone it performs fairly well, for example, Geekbench 5 comes in at 979 single core and 3,311 for the multi-core which is close to something like a OnePlus 10 Pro. When using this phone as my everyday phone for the last two weeks I had no issues with this phone whatsoever. 

 

When using this phone for gaming or watching a good film you will find the phone performs very well but it does warm up after just about an hour of heavy use. If you’re a serious gamer you need to look elsewhere.

Software 

The Honor Magic 4 Pro uses Android 12 but just like Realme, and Huawei. Honor pair Andriod 12 with the brand’s own operating system laid over the top and if you have been using Huawei phones you will see the Magic UI 6 is very similar. It comes with a number of pre-installed apps such as Honor Store and more well-known apps such as Netflix and TikTok. These pre-installed apps can all be removed if you wish. 

What Honor have that Huawei does not have is the integration with Google and it really does make a difference and feels just like a normal Android device with the likes of Google Chrome, and Google Maps to name a few. There is a slight concern this phone is promised 2 Andriod version updates to Andriod 14 after that comes out you might not be able to upgrade but this is not locked in stone. Considering how long most of us have had a phone for I think this will be fine. 

Battery Life

The Honor Magic 4 Pro comes with a 4600mAh battery that in testing should last most of the day but do not think you will get any more than that so it will require charging every day. While the battery won’t give you multiple-day use Honor has already thought of a way around that. 

 

The phone comes supports 100W speed for both wired and wireless which is unique and the fastest wireless charging phone currently on the market. We used the included wired charger and saw we got up to 60% in 15 minutes and up to 100% in less than 30 minutes. 

If you were to use the official Honor Supercharger (Costs £84.99) you will only be up to 81% from a flat battery at that 30min mark so a full charge will take about 40mins. It’s a lot of money for a wireless charger my advice stick to the wired charger. 

 

In testing, we used the phone all day with the high refresh rate setting and did moderate usage (4hrs) and you will get about a third of a tank left. Use the phone more intensively and you will need to charge the phone sooner. 

 

The negative with the charging is using a Qi-compatible charger the Magic 4 Pro might not charge or you will get stopped/start charging so just stick with the provided charger and you won’t have any issues. The other issue is the battery size don’t get me wrong 4,600mAh battery is not bad but when a lot of the rival phones at this price offer 5,000mAh that will give you longer periods of usage

Camera Review BY JAMES ROBERTSON-MILLIGAN @LIFESIZEPHOTOGRAPHY 

When the editor passed me the Honor Magic4 Pro, I was intrigued as when I got it out of the box the first thing I noticed was the overly large camera bezel on the back but what caught my eye was 100X stamped on it, further investigation showed it has a 100x zoom, I nearly spat my coffee out, a camera on a phone with a 100x zoom!!
A phone with a 100X zoom.. wow this is going to be epic! well, more on this later… So, what is this phone holding and punching in the camera department?
So it has a 50MP Wide camera, 50MP ultra-wide camera, a 64MP periscope telephoto camera 4K video recording and a 12MP selfie camera so with those specs on paper you would think it is going to be pretty spectacular when taking a snap.
Using the camera itself is effortless and locks onto your chosen subject with virtually no lag and no autofocus ins and outs until it’s got a lock on, the menu function is effortless and just glides silky smooth again with no lag as you select different functions. On this camera you don’t have a wide-angle tab like most on android, it’s just a simple slide down on the “photo” setting and will enter this easily and effortlessly.
You have two ways to access the camera from the lock screen, option one is to activate the lock screen by pressing the side button, then swipe up and then hit the camera button, which takes around 8 seconds in total, OR if you have used the camera and you are somewhere where you need quick access, don’t shut the camera down just lock the screen, hit the side button and within a second you’re in the camera mode and locked on for a photo now this is nifty and quick!
The Magic 4 Pro also have an extra function on this camera which left me scratching my head a little… You have “Appature” which is good because you can fettle around with how much light you wish to let in when taking a photo, plus you have “pro” mode where on other cameras you can do the same thing so not sure why two different camera modes for this but Aperture works well as a stand-alone.
Whilst I am talking about pro mode it has a 10x zoom and this works beautifully with no camera shake and a very crisp clear picture what makes this stand out is on other phones that I have tested in “PRO” mode you don’t get zoom but on here you do and it works!  So anyway, without further ado let’s have a look at the results from the camera.
Super Macro – I love macro I love the depth, colour and detail you get when getting up close to an image, and Super Macro on this handset is a massive thumbs up from me and hit the spot! The colour, the depth, the clarity, it’s there!
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Aperture – So aperture allows you to use the slider to allow how much light you want on a photo to darken or lighten the photo so ideal if you’re in a poorly lit setting or a very bright setting, on this photo I took it down 2 steps as I was in direct sunlight so to avoid getting lens flair (those little green dots) when you take a photo in direct light and again it worked well and a good result with excellent true tone colour and excellent detail.
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Photo Mode, what can I say about this apart from I think this is just amazing and in awe of the results! the colour, depth, crispness, the focus it’s just there it works it’s just amazing!
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Pro mode, Pro mode on this is okay I have never been sure as to why when a camera is this good needs pro, pro just allows you to fettle around on this phone it’s not needed, to be honest, the aperture and photo are more than enough.
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
The zoom on this works well too, it’s easy with no camera shake and just locks on, I found a photo of Murphy’s great-granddad that is on my wall so decided to use this as the subject.
Wide-angle-  I love wide angle, always have I love how you get so much detail in one single frame and again on here it works, it works well again with good light, good depth and good colour clarity.
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
Portrait-  I love the sharpness you get of a picture along with the subtle background blur, again this phone just hits the spot with light, Once again my trusty model decided he wanted to be in the action.
Selfie-  the all-important selfie, we all love a good picture for our socials and again this phone won’t let you down, your profile pictures will hit the spot time after time with the selfie on this phone ( I was just getting over covid so please don’t judge me).
Night mode, now normally night mode is hit and miss on phones sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. on this phone… it works and it works bloody well, the detail even the stars in the sky it all works it all comes out spectacular! night mode on this handset.
Honor Magic 4 Pro review
100 x zoom… well first off I’m impressed that a phone can have 100X zoom, but it’s difficult to work and the camera shake is awful once you do get a target and actually manage to get a picture it’s actually quite clean with no fuzz or blur, patience is key on this!!
High resolution – so this uses a higher ISO rating when taking a photo so you get amazing and rich colours when taking the photo, this works well and pictures come out clean and crisp, again I think this is just a “thing” and using just “photo” mode would be enough.
So, you have seen some everyday samples from this phone, with the use of Snapseed (free-to-download photo editor). This is the night shot that I took that I spent 5 mins editing and you can see the difference, Snapseed on this phone will really make your images stand out and your photos will really get noticed on socials using the camera on this phone. You would never stop taking photos and you will get a professional outcome and leave people in awe of your photos from this phone.
I think Honor has hit the nail on this handset and I just hope that in future models from Honor, the camera will just get better and better. This would defiantly be the handset of choice for me given the fact I do a lot of photography and phonetography the camera just works and its works very well with a great finish time after time.
Would I buy this phone, yes I would and can confidently say it’s up there with some of the bigger boys, they just need to redesign the bezel the cameras sit in that’s my only niggle. so for me, it is a thumbs up 5/5.

Video Recording

The Honor Magic 4 Pro can also be used for video and you can record up to 4K/ 60FPS on the rear camera and 4K/30FPS from the front. You can record video at night from the main rear lens and also a movie mode that offers more complex cinematic options in addition to Honor’s camera UI. This adds log capture and offers a 21:9 aspect ratio video capture in 4K resolution making some quality video footage.

Verdict

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is an excellent attempt from a brand that has recently stepped away from Huawei’s shadow.  The phone comes with a premium build, sleek design and excellent display. What you will also be pleased with is the fact now Honor is an independent brand it can be friends with Google and all the pleasure that brings to this phone.  

Battery life could be improved as it’s a little small and the stamina a little lower compared to its rivals. However, the use of 100W Wired and Wireless charging options adds to supporting a smaller battery.  The phone does very well but there is room for improvement but is a strong alternative to the high-end priced Apple or Samsung.  

Overall, buy this phone if you watch lots of videos as its screen provides a rich display that really puts this phone at the top of the pile. The phone’s camera also performs very well, especially the ultra-wide and periscope camera will also stand up strong compared to its rivals.  This phone is a fantastic option but the price tag of just shy of £1000 might put some people off. 

 

Product Rating: 

Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

Display: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

Performance: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Software: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Battery Life: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

Camera: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

Value for Money: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

 

Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0 stars – 4.2 Stars   

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