“Well, no way!” — I thought during the presentation of new HONOR products at the Mobile World Congress exhibition. It seems this one has
Table of contents
- What HONOR Magic 4 Pro Looks Like
- What's up with performance
- Display and features
- More cameras and sensors than usual
- What else is interesting
I doubt that at the sight of the iPhone 13, the ownerssmartphones of the previous generation were speechless. It is easier to do this from current prices, but not from the amount of implemented technical innovations. The next Samsung models this year also did not show an impressive breakthrough. Realme has clearly made a hit in the "affordable flagship" class, but still it's not the elite of the mobile market. However, for this we love them: someone should make products with a reasonable price-quality ratio? But what about those who want to see powerful progress in smartphones year after year, get a new user experience to a large extent, and mentally substitute “amazing” for all components of the product?
Judging by the presentation of HONOR in Barcelona, all thisrelevant for the new flagship HONOR Magic 4 Pro. In 2021, after gaining independence (and, more importantly, access to Google services), they got a solid average HONOR 50. Good, but without the wow effect. Now they have finally turned around in full force and entered the European market with an impressive flagship, its more affordable version, as well as a couple of noteworthy accessories, another smart watch and TWS headphones with body temperature measurement function. There is a feeling that with such products you can not even remember the original positioning of the brand (affordable smartphones for young people) and now HONOR will be considered one of the locomotives of technological progress in smartphone construction.
What HONOR Magic 4 Pro Looks Like
It is impossible to talk about design objectively.For example, I really like the edge-to-edge camera module on the Pixel 6 and the gray eco leather with bumps on the realme GT Master Edition. But round camera modules do not like much. I have no reasonable and logical explanations, just taste. However, if you objectively approach the issue, the design of the HONOR Magic 4 Pro should appeal to buyers. Front - spectacular, curved glass on four sides. Not a very convenient and practical solution, to be fair, but beautiful.
At the back, a huge block of cameras is located in the centerbody and is symmetrical. All together it creates the impression of a thoughtful design that was really worked on. I also really liked the choice of colors. There is a black and, as OnePlus says, a hard-to-manufacture white case. That is, a real classic, and not tired in recent years, dark gray and silver. There will also be available a stylish light blue, a favorite in China, golden and a catchy version with red eco-leather.
What's up with performance
Of course, HONOR for Magic4 Pro has chosen the mostpowerful components, but are they the best? The smartphone is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, received 8 GB of RAM and a fast 256 GB drive. Software optimization technologies have also been added to support hardware: Turbo Engine acceleration, FPS increase due to HONOR OS Turbo X and Super Rendering based on artificial intelligence to improve graphics in games. It sounds cool in words, but in practice it needs to be checked.
The eighth generation of Snapdragon processors hasthere is every chance that we will be remembered as the most problematic flagship chip in history due to problems with overheating and a dramatic drop in performance under long load. In 2021, there was a feeling that some sub-flagships on the lower versions of Qualcomm or the top MediaTek are able to provide a better user experience, for example, for hardcore mobile gamers, than some Snapdragon 888 smartphones. Especially when you take into account that the problems with overheating and performance are very varied from manufacturer to manufacturer.
At the moment, there are units of smartphones withSnapdragon 8 Gen 1, but judging by Xiaomi 12 and Moto Edge X30, overheating problems have definitely not decreased. Users complain, Qualcomm denies. In the case of HONOR Magic 4 Pro, I would not advise you to panic ahead of time. Just like last year, everything will depend on the efforts made by the manufacturer to the issue of cooling. At the moment, there is reason to hope that the HONOR engineers should not have left this issue without attention.
Display and features
The HONOR Magic 4 Pro has an LTPO screen withfolded edges on four sides. The diagonal is 6.81 inches, the resolution is Full HD + (2848 × 1312 pixels). The maximum screen refresh rate is the usual 120 Hz for flagships, but the display technology has made it possible to implement dynamic changes from 1 to 120 Hz, depending on what is happening on the screen. The smartphone displays up to 1.07 billion colors, provides 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 space and supports HDR 10+ high dynamic range. The maximum brightness is declared at the level of 1000 cd / m2, and the color accuracy (delta E) is promised at 0.5. Such a small deviation is extremely rare in smartphones, it will be interesting to check what is stated in the case with an editorial colorimeter.
To control the brightness of the LTPO display, usepulse-width modulation (PWM), that is, pulsing the power supply to the display on and off. Low values can cause significant discomfort for flicker-sensitive users, especially at low brightness levels. In HONOR Magic 4 Pro, the problems were radically solved: they increased the value to a record among all smartphones on the market and received a parameter that significantly exceeds the capabilities of the human eye. Simply put, if your eyes start to hurt on other smartphones with AMOLED screens, this problem will not be with the new HONOR. The PWM frequency of the display is 1920 Hz, the previous record was 1448 Hz for the HUAWEI P50 Pro. The flagships of other manufacturers are many times behind, so the iPhone 13 (according to DxO) has this parameter at 480 Hz, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 has 245 Hz (Notebookcheck).
More cameras and sensors than usual
HONOR Magic4 Pro is equipped with a camera with three modules:50MP wide-angle sensor, 50MP 122° ultra-wide-angle lens module, and 64MP ultra-fusion telephoto lens. In addition, two auxiliary sensors are used to improve the quality of shooting. At the presentation, the camera module was called the "Eye of the Muse" and promised incredible shooting quality, detail and color accuracy. What line the smartphone will take in the DxO Mark rating and what will be the real impressions of its use - time will tell. At the moment, the declared features look interesting, although we are used to treating the ones shown from the stage with some skepticism.
The front camera is dual, has a resolution of 12Mp. The second sensor is not involved in shooting and is responsible for building a depth map for biometric unlocking. It is already clear that the system will be more reliable than using only a conventional camera, but it is not yet clear whether it will be possible to confirm payment transactions by a person.
What else is interesting
HONOR Magic 4 Pro comes with 4600 batterymAh with 100W charging, allowing you to get 50% of energy in just 15 minutes of plugging into a wall outlet. The smartphone runs Magic UI 6 on Android 12 (with Google services), is equipped with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC modules, stereo speakers, and a new Qualcomm ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint scanner with a larger area. Water protection is present, the IP 68 standard is declared. In addition, quite a lot of interesting software solutions are promised in the smartphone to improve the user experience, for example, AI conversion of ordinary videos to HDR. It will be more interesting to talk about everything after the actual use of the smartphone, and not based on the presentation data, so we will still try to wait for the HONOR Magic 4 Pro to appear in Russia. But when it will be and what ruble amount the declared 1099 euros will turn into is still a mystery.