The Honor Global launch event at MWC Barcelona 2022 is over. With the recently announced Honor Magic 4 Pro, the high expectations were definitely met. The device has powerful cameras, unique AI functions and innovative security features. Read on if you want to know more about the new smartphone.
- The Honor Magic 4 Pro will be available from 1,099 euros, the Honor Magic 4 from 899 euros.
- The Pro model offers innovative camera features and 100 watt wireless fast charging.
- Both devices feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and will be available from Q2 2022.
Honor presented a total of four different devices, with the successor to the Honor Magic 3 Pro being the most eagerly awaited. Fans will be pleased that the presented Honor Magic 4 Pro follows a similar design philosophy as the previous model. The most impressive thing about the Honor Magic 4 Pro is of course the cameras. The three cameras, sitting in a cyclopean camera island in the middle of the device, promise an industry-leading photo experience, which is made possible by quite grandiose innovations in hardware and software – just like every smartphone in 2022.
Alongside this, the weaker standard version was unveiled, the Honor Magic 4, which is slightly cheaper at 899 euros. But the small model also makes significant concessions in terms of screen, cameras and wireless charging.
A new smartwatch and a pair of earphones were also introduced. The Honor Watch GS3 will come with a 1000 nits display and dual-band GNSS support. The TWS headphones Honor Earbuds 3 Pro have coaxial drivers and an integrated temperature sensor for body temperature measurements.
The Honor Magic 4 Pro & Honor Magic 4
Here is an overview of all the functions of the Magic 4 Pro / © Honor
There are three cameras on the back of the device: a 50 MP wide-angle camera, a 50 MP ultra wide-angle camera with 122° FOV and finally a 64 MP telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom, OIS and up to 100- x digital zoom. These powerful cameras are also supported by a direct time-of-flight (dToF) sensor to better capture moving objects and distances. There’s also a “flicker” sensor that adapts the frame rate of the recording to the light sources to reduce flickering in videos.
The Honor Magic 4 has the same 50 MP ultra-wide and wide-angle cameras, but the telephoto lens is limited to 8 megapixels.
The AI photo functions have also been improved. The two main cameras work together to capture better ultra-wide photos. Using AI, the images are combined in the middle for more clarity.
The 6.81-inch OLED display offers a variable refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz and a resolution of 2848 x 1312 pixels (460 PPI) with 100% DCI-P3 color space coverage at 1000 nits brightness. That means the display can effectively output 1.07 billion colors. On the software side, Honor has equipped the new devices with MEMC compensation, which brings conventional 30 FPS content to 60 FPS and is intended to ensure smoother object movements in all content.
The LTPO display packs a punch, but the brightness is on the lower end of the 2022 flagships. / © Honor
Coming back to the camera features: selfies were less of a focus, but Honor still equipped the Honor Magic 4 Pro with a 12 MP ultra wide-angle camera and a 3D depth camera. The normal version of the Magic 4, on the other hand, only has a 12 MP selfie shot with 100 degrees FOV.
Honor aimed squarely at the toughest photo competition: Apple’s latest iPhone 13! Honor showed several scenarios in which the Magic 4 Pro is said to be ahead. But of course all these claims have to be verified by reviews before we can declare a winner here. Honor has taken an obvious path, trying to beat Apple on all fronts, with a focus on color accuracy, which it claims is very close to that of DSLR cameras.
Honor emphasized that the videos recorded with the Honor Magic 4 Pro will have comparable frame-to-frame quality as regular photos, allowing you to quickly capture your favorite moments without sacrificing quality. In video mode, 4k60 with 10-bit color depth is possible.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a definite improvement. / © Honor
Honor has equipped the new devices with Android 12 as the operating system, on which the in-house Magic UI 6.0 software is based, which offers many advantages for games and battery life. One feature that also stood out was privacy calling, which uses AI processing to detect where your head is. Sound is only transmitted to you, so that your privacy is better protected from bystanders during conversations.
All of these AI capabilities are made possible, at least in part, by the new Snapdragon SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It is the SoC that comes closest to competing with Apple’s latest A15 Bionic, which is in the current iPhone. Also read our review of the iPhone 13.
In addition to the performance boost, the new SoC provides an additional layer of security with a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) deployed on top of Honor’s existing TEE. This means all your sensitive information like passwords, facial recognition scans and fingerprints are securely stored and run independently.
Impressively, both wired and wireless charging are at 100W. This is made possible by Honor’s proprietary SuperCharge platform, which can charge your device to 50 percent in 15 minutes. The Honor Magic 4 falls behind a bit here, with “only” 66 W wired SuperCharge.
What do you think of the new Honor devices? Can there only be the Honor Magic 4 Pro for you, or is the Honor Magic 4 enough for you? Let me know in the comments!