With the “Eye of Muse” Honor is aiming for the throne of Samsung! At the MWC 2022 we had the opportunity to try out the new flagship of the former Huawei subsidiary and I will summarize my first impression in the hands-on.
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Per
- Exciting camera array with periscope zoom
- Focus on videos
- Crisp, bright display
- 100 watt quick charging
cons
- Back very prone to fat fingers
- “Eye of Muse” on the back very large
- Real expensive
Honor Magic 4 Pro: price and availability
Honor presented the Magic 4 Pro on February 28, 2022 as part of the MWC 2022. Honor made his fans’ mouths water, but we don’t know an exact release date yet. The new Magic 4 series is scheduled to start in summer 2022, and the prices are tough.
The Magic 4 Pro comes to the global market with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of internal memory for 1,099 euros. It remains to be seen whether the prices will change a little for the German release. For my hands-on, I keep an eye on the price tag of almost 1,100 euros and base my first impression on it.
Design & Display: “Eye of Muse”?
Honor wants to cause a stir with a camera arrangement on the back called “Eye of Muse”. The camera island is massive, circular and places the 64-megapixel periscope camera right in the middle. The smartphone measures 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.15 millimeters and according to the data sheet weighs exactly 215 grams. The design is determined by a 6.81-inch AMOLED display that repeats images at 120 Hertz.
The design is dominated by a huge disc on the back. / © NextPit
Pleases:
- Robustly screwed together
- “Eye of Muse” is a unique selling point regardless of taste
- IP68 certification
Dislike:
- Backs very susceptible to fingerprints
- Looks very “chinaesque” overall
- Fingers cover cameras very quickly
With a price of 1,100 euros, Honor is finally attacking manufacturers like Samsung and Apple. In comparison, Honor’s new premium smartphone doesn’t look quite as high-quality and as if it was made from one piece. Even if the processing quality is very high and the cell phone even achieves an IP68 certification, tapping on the back of the smartphone sounds quite dull.
Honor’s design language in 2022 is all about curves – the camera module called “Eye of Muse” on the back, for example, looks a bit like a crop circle and even the corners of the case are rounded. The display also merges a little into the sides of the case.
The 6.81-inch OLED display has a really good display-to-housing ratio. The display is a feast for the eyes anyway – you get an LTPO display that dynamically adjusts the refresh rate between 1 and 120 Hertz, thanks to 10-bit support it displays over a billion colors and is certified for HDR10+ with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits . The resolution is also super high at 1,312 x 2,848 pixels and a pixel density of 460 ppi.
By default, the Honor Magic 4 Pro lowers the resolution a little too much – because when I first looked at the smartphone, I was surprised why everything looked so blurry. That worries me a bit in terms of battery life.
Software: Android 12 with Magic UI 6 on board
Even though I wasn’t really able to deal with the Magic 4 Pro’s software much in hands-on, there were a few exciting points when it was announced. Fortunately, like the Honor 50, the cell phone is back on the market with Google services. In addition, Android 12 is already used, on which Honor puts its own Magic UI 6.
Honor also equips the new cell phone with a few AI magics. One of them is called privacy calling and is supposed to understand where your ear is on the phone. The sound should then be directed more specifically to your ears, which should minimize the so-called sound bleeding during calls.
Honor also wants to make full use of the hardware with a new AI optimization. Of course, we can only test how well the whole thing works once we have the smartphone in our editorial office.
Honor Magic 4 Pro: performance
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 works in the Honor Magic 4 Pro, which the manufacturer provides with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of internal memory. There are no alternative hardware configurations and you cannot expand the storage by purchasing a microSD card.
Pleases:
Dislike:
- Storage quite limited at 256 gigabytes
As expected, the Magic 4 Pro ran smoothly when trying it out at the trade fair. The test device only made one mistake – when zooming, the cell phone got stuck for almost 20 seconds and didn’t do anything anymore. It is quite possible that this is due to the model on display, which may not yet fully reflect the finished version of the cell phone.
The sensors on the back are placed in such a way that they are quickly covered. / © NextPit
Like most flagships in 2022, Honor relies on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – Qualcomm’s current top processor. The SoC is supported by 8 gigabytes of RAM and there is 256 gigabytes of internal memory for photos, videos and more. You cannot expand this with an alternative configuration or with a MicroSD card.
This is exactly where I see a problem with the Honor Magic 4 Pro – because the internal memory fills up quickly, especially when recording videos. The fact that there will be a trend towards fixed 256 gigabyte memories in 2022 seems to me to be a real problem!
Camera: Triple camera and 10-bit videos
Honor’s Eye of Muse houses a 50-megapixel main camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera that also has 50 megapixels, and a periscope telephoto camera that makes it to 64-megapixels. The whole thing looks pretty decent on the data sheet – but I find the 10-bit LOG videos, which you can record with your smartphone, much more exciting.
Pleases:
Solid camera setup with no frills sensors
- Exciting video skills
Dislike:
- Scattered cameras quite vulnerable to being obscured
- Telephoto camera might be a bit faint at high resolution
- Again: Low memory for videos
The focus of the Honor Magic 4 Pro is on the built-in cameras, which the manufacturer places in a unique arrangement on the back. I probably don’t have to mention that the whole thing is called “Eye of Muse”. However, that there are two sensors of 50 megapixels and a periscope camera of 64 megapixels.
While the main camera and the ultra-wide-angle camera are quite bright with f/1.8 and f/2.2, the periscope camera falls short in this respect. Although Honor only offers a 3.5x zoom, which does not even necessarily require a periscope camera – see Samsung and the Galaxy S22 Ultra – the lens used only offers an aperture of f/3.5. In combination with the high resolution, I guess that the telephoto camera could make a lot of noise. And that’s just to present Samsung with a 100x digital zoom. Stupid! You can see how the image quality behaves in the gallery below. But since the exhibition halls are really dark, we shouldn’t judge the quality of them just yet.
However, I also find the arrangement of the cameras on the back unfavorable. Because of the huge camera hump, on which the lenses are evenly distributed, they are covered relatively quickly.
Last but not least, the Honor Magic 4 Pro supports an IMAX-certified video function that supports 4K at 60 frames per second and even 10-bit LOG recording. This gives you more options for color grading, how good the whole thing is in practice and whether there are actually LUT files for the smartphone remains to be seen.
Honor Magic 4 Pro: battery
As usual, there is little to say about the battery in the hands-on: There is a nominal value of 4,500 milliampere hours, which can be quickly recharged with 100 watts. With the right charger, it doesn’t even matter whether you charge with or without a cable – both charging technologies should be able to work with up to 100 watts.
How good the battery life is, of course, cannot yet be judged. But especially in connection with the large, high-resolution and smooth display, I see a long battery life as critical. According to the manufacturer, the 100 watts should also ensure charging times from 0 to 100% in 30 minutes. That’s decent, but still behind Xiaomi and the Xiaomi 11T Pro.
Final Verdict
So how did I like the Honor Magic 4 Pro hands-on?
Especially considering the price tag, I find the smartphone difficult. If the Magic 4 Pro actually comes onto the market for just under 1,100 euros, the cell phone will probably be too expensive for most users. Because Honor was the cheaper alternative to Huawei for a long time and despite the separation, this reputation still sticks to the company.
Maybe it’s my own experience with Honor, but the smartphone with its reflective back and fingerprint magnet effect doesn’t really feel that high quality. The hardware is solid, but quite weak with a maximum of 256 gigabytes of internal memory. Here I would have wished for an alternative with 512 gigabytes, especially for videos.
I also find the Eye of Muse difficult with its weak 64 megapixel telephoto camera. This only offers a 3.5x magnification and makes everything else digital, which usually doesn’t look very good. Honor would have had enough space to integrate two telephoto cameras, like Samsung, because the periscope lens isn’t really necessary with a 3.5x zoom.
My last point of criticism: With 4,500 mAh, the smartphone’s battery is quite weak if you keep an eye on the powerful display. We still have to test the phone, but I don’t have high hopes for a long battery life.
What do you think of the Magic 4 Pro? Is the cell phone something for you or do you understand my concerns, which run like a red thread through the data sheet? Let me know in the comments!
Honor Magic 4 Pro
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