The Honor Magic 5 Lite was launched earlier this year at MWC alongside the Honor Magic 5 Pro and Honor Magic VS. The Magic 5 lite has been positioned as a more affordable alternative in that mid-range market costing £329.
First Impressions
The phone offers a stylish design with a curved display and don’t forget the impressive battery life of 5,100mAh and 40W fast charging!
The Honor Magic 5 Lite like the Honor Magic 4 Pro we recently reviewed comes with a 120Hz OLED display and spin the phone to the rear you have a triple camera set-up that consists of a 64MP main lens paired with a 2MP macro camera and 5MP ultrawide shutter. However, it’s not all good news the performance of this phone using a snapdragon 695 processor is fairly average and the camera does an ok job.
The phone runs on Andriod 12 paired with Honor Magic UL 6.1 to provide a decent user experience, not the best but not even close to being the worst. When you consider the price point it’s very close to that of the OnePlus Nord CE 5G which sits currently at £299 or the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro which currently costs £319 so you can see the competition this phone has to compete with.
Design
The phone is not bulky at all the slim design measures 162 x74 x7.9mm and weighs in at 175g. The rear of the device comes with a glass mirror finish which as you might expect loves to collect fingerprints. In terms of the colour options you can purchase 1 of 3 colour options:
- Midnight Black
- Titanium Silver
- Emerald Green
In this review, we have been sent the emerald green option. Moving to the rear of the device the major talking point is the camera set up it comes in a unique design called the star wheel triple camera system with each lens located in compass points around the wheel to make a very slick design. The main lens is located east on the wheel with the Ultrawide shutter on the west, the Macro lens up north and the LED flash located south of the ring design. The design makes it a real centrepiece in design.
Spin the phone back to the front and you have a 16MP selfie camera positioned along the top bezel. The front of the phone also comes with an optical fingerprint sensor that sits under the display and the phone also supports face unlocking and both methods are very responsive.
As we move around the sides of this phone you will see the standard power and volume buttons and at the base of this phone is a USB-C charging port and a dual sim card tray which unfortunately provides no room for a microSD card.
Display
As is becoming the norm now Honor puts a lot of focus on the display the Honor Magic 5 lite is no exception. You are provided with a 6.67-inch OLED panel that comes with a 2,400 x 1,080 resolution and an impressive 120Hz refresh rate. This allowed day-to-day use of the phone so easy to do.
Jumping back to the OLED panel the level of contrast is as close to perfect as you can get at this price point and the phone comes with a peak brightness of 518cd/m² which allows use in direct sunlight. We found the brightness of the phone to be quite vibrant, especially when using the vivid colour setting its excellent for when you get that time to watch the latest Amazon Prime or Netflix smash. If you want a more normal look that is a natural setting that offers a more accurate reproduction.
Performance
The Honor Magic 5 lite is powered using an Octa-Core 2.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset. This chipset can also be found in the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro which will explain the similar price point. As mentioned earlier the phone comes with a 120Hz refresh rate allowing you to use multiple apps and surf the net all at once and there was no lag or at any point could this phone not handle what I was doing. In addition to the Snapdragon 695 chipset it’s paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage, the only downside is you can’t use a microSD card so you only have that 128GB to play with.
In terms of software, the phone runs on Android 12 with Honor Magic UI 6.1 operating system on top.
This is not as clean as if it was just Google and can be a little much when it comes to menus there is a range of pre-installed apps but this does not cause too much of an issue.
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Honor Magic 5 Lite
Battery Life
The Star of the show is the battery life it’s massive!
The Honor Magic 5 lite comes with a 5,100mAh battery capacity In testing this phone just never wanted to run out of battery. The phone has smart resolution mode which is the standard mode and this gave you up to 32 hours before tapping out. If you switched this mode off but kept the refresh rate to 120Hz it will still give you a full day before the battery needs charging. Therefore this phone comes with some impressive stamina.
When it’s time to charge the phone it allows for fast charging as it supports 40W fast charging. However, there is no fast charger included in the box so you will need to buy that separately. You could buy the official Honor Supercharger (costs £84.99) and when used with the Honor Magic 5 lite I got 25% from 30 minutes of charge.
CAMERA REVIEW BY JAMES ROBERTSON-MILLIGAN @LIFESIZEPHOTOGRAPHY
HDR, but what is HDR? in photography, HDR is simply highlighting the darkest to the lightest tones, the phone again handled this well with great results combining two contrasting colours.
Pro mode, so pro will just allow you to fettle with the camera settings, pro mode is the same as a DSLR camera but without the size of the camera in your hand or weight around your neck. The phone handled this indoor shot well albeit a little out of focus, it still captured all the tones and lighting really well.
Night mode, so Nightmode is what it says a good string image in dark settings, this is now standard on a lot of phones, however, this is no different from others, once you take the photo you have to hold the phone steady for around 3 seconds on the subject to get the best photo, so if it’s a moving target such as friends in a club or something or sitting around a campfire you may not get the best results but for the test photo the camera worked beautifully with a good crisp, clear and bold image
Auto, auto works really well, the camera captures great photos, letting in true light and just making the pictures come alive in all light situations, the balance of the 64mp really does bring the image alive.
Portrait, as you all know by now I love using portrait, I love the way you get that subtle blur in the background whilst the main focus of the image stays sharp and focused, however on this phone it just wasn’t there and couldn’t get it to happen.
Selfie, now we all love a selfie for our socials and on the Honor Magic 5 Lite you will love a selfie and so will all your friends using this camera!
Supermacro, I love shooting in macro on my DSLR it’s a way you can get up and close to a subject and get that real fine detail and real depth. Macro always works well in nature so I will always use flowers for Macro but you can use anything. How does Macro fair on this phone, it’s hit and miss, you get good colour and you can also get some fine detail, it’s not just this phone it’s most phones that it’s hit and miss on so don’t let this be a deal breaker!
Zoom, this phone for some reason has only 8 times Zoom, I’m not sure if that is to eliminate camera shake and still give you a good outcome from the image I do not know but just seems a bit odd that it is only 8 times zoom and not 10… but hey it’s not a problem, it still comes out okay.
So, in conclusion, how do I feel about the camera on the Honor.. well it’s outstanding I think Honor has really punched a hole in the market for their phones with the camera tech on this device.
I really think it will cause a stir among their competitors, but the end user will find this camera a delight and a joy to use, with the use of things such as editing tools built into the camera may be or go editor “Snapseed” free to download and no fee’s on google play store.
I really think you can make your photos come alive and wow your friends on social media. How do I rate this camera? 4.5 all day long. The only 3 things that would make this camera tech better are by having 4K but I am sure Honor has something on the pipeline for that, Honor to revisit portrait mode and look at other devices and how portrait works on other phones, and giving better zoom rather than an 8 times zoom.
Video Recording
This phone also allows for video recording and offers 1080p at 30fps which is average, especially considering the cost and stabilisation needs improvement so you may still see the odd bit of camera shake but otherwise the video footage is still decent enough.
Verdict
The Honor Magic 5 Lite is a well-rounded and affordable mid-range phone. The display and the refresh rate make this a fantastic phone at that price point.
It would have been nice to have been provided with a fast charger but the battery life is so good it will last for a very long time. Another issue with the phone is the lack of a microSD slot meaning you are stuck with 128GB of internal memory and if you are like my wife she will have used that up with pictures alone. I was also concerned the phone had a lack of IP rating meaning keep this phone away from the water.
Overall, The Honor Magic 5 Lite is a real showstopper in the looks department with its flagship look and feel. The display will please the user and the battery life is the star of the show it’s just a shame the camera is a little basic
Product Rating
Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Display: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Performance: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Battery Life: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Camera: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value For Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall ranking: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars – 4.6-star rating
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