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HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Big Performance with Big Cameras
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HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Big Performance with Big Cameras

by June 7, 2022
Overview
Highlights

The HONOR Magic4 Pro is a new flagship phone that launched in 2022, with a huge camera and beautiful build. Is it worth your money? Let's find out.

Warranty

1-year

Price

RM3,999

Positives

+ Dynamic 120hz refresh rate
+ Display reproduces vivid colours
+ Camera photos are amazingly detailed
+ Full HD video when watching on fullscreen
+ Can handle gaming pretty well and smooth
+ IP68

Negatives

- Glossy finish makes it slippery and a fingerprint magnet
- Magic UI 6 surprisingly lacks its own custom personalization options
- Screen curvature is a bit too steep for gestures
- Can't see details at the side of the screen due to the curved screen
- Temperature is a bit uncomfortable on heavy usage
- Two Android updates and security patches

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Appearance
8.0
Efficiency
6.5
Features
7.0
Materials
9.0
Performance
8.0
Portability
7.0
User Experience
6.0
Value
6.0
Bottom Line

While it is still a solid phone, the HONOR Magic4 Pro does have its fair share of drawbacks so it's best for you to be aware of it before biting the bullet on this one.

7.2
Pokde Rating
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Unboxing the HONOR Magic4 Pro

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Box & Phone

The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes in a sleek black box that is like any other smartphone box. It is thicker than some phone boxes and that is because there is a charger included in this one.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Box Content

Inside the box, you can find the following items:

  • USB to USB-C cable
  • 100W charger
  • Phone casing
  • SIM ejector tool
  • The HONOR Magic4 Pro smartphone

Specifications

Processor Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Octa-core
1x 2.995GHz Cortex-X2 + 3x 2.496GHz Cortex-A710 + 4x 1.785GHz Cortex-A510
4nm
GPU Adreno 730
RAM 8GB
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.2
USB Type-C 3.1
A-GPS, Glonass, BDS, Galileo
NFC
5G
Storage 256GB UFS 3.1
Display 6.81″ LTPO OLED
HDR10+
Up to 120Hz Smart Refresh Rate
Rear Camera 50MP f/1.8 wide-angle camera, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF
50MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, 122˚ FOV, AF
64MP f/3.5 periscope telephoto, 3.5x optical zoom, PDAF
3D Depth Camera
Selfie Camera 12MP f/2.4 wide-angle selfie cam
3D Depth Camera
Battery 4600mAh
Wired HONOR SuperCharge 100W
Wireless HONOR SuperCharge 100W
Reverse Wireless Charging
OS Magic UI 6.0
Android 12
Ingress Protection IP68
Dimensions 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.15 mm, 215g
Colours Cyan, Gold, Black

Performance

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review - Big Performance with Big Cameras 24

Unfortunately, the HONOR Magic4 Pro could not run Antutu v9. However, starting off with Geekbench 5, the HONOR Magic4 Pro falls behind the Xiaomi 12 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus even though they have the same CPU. The results might be due to thermal throttling.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review

The HONOR Magic4 Pro would run as expected as seen in the 3DMark. However, there are some notable differences with other devices that run the same chip such as the Xiaomi 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review - Big Performance with Big Cameras 25

According to PCMark, the HONOR Magic4 Pro falls behind the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Despite having the latest flagship chipset, the device has a significant difference compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11 which features a previous-gen flagship chipset.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review - Big Performance with Big Cameras 26

For the battery life of the HONOR Magic4 Pro, the device could last up to 533 minutes on a 60Hz refresh rate. Furthermore, the phone could last up to 512 and 507 minutes on 90Hz and 120Hz respectively. Therefore, you should not fret as the difference between the refresh rates does not have a major impact. On an overall level, the battery life is pretty average.

As for the HONOR Magic4 Pro’s charging speed. The device supports both wired and wireless charging with wired charging being more reliable and faster than the latter. It takes about 30 minutes on wired charging to charge fully from 20% whereas wireless charging takes about 40 minutes to charge until 100%.

Camera

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Camera UI

This is the native camera UI on HONOR Magic4 Pro. The UI is straightforward and there is a Pro feature for achieving more detailed photo settings. One special mode of the camera is the additional Movie features where you can film in different modes such as Classic, Sunsplash, and more.

The Magic4 Pro comes with a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide camera, and a 64MP periscopic zoom. The camera performance is rather smooth in general. However, when rapidly taking photos in a short span of time, the software would get a little laggy. The filming on the phone in both Video and Movie mode is interesting as there are different filters to mess around with for different feels.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review_5

From Left to Right: Camera Zoom at 1x; Camera Zoom at 10x; Camera Zoom at 20x

The photos are amazingly detailed in 1x even though it’s been zoomed in and compressed multiple times. However, in 20x to 100x, details of the photos start to degrade. The Night mode of the camera works like a charm but when zooming in on the photo, the details immediately softened, making the photo muddier.

The Good

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review_5

The HONOR Magic4 Pro has a 6.81″ LTPO OLED HDR10+ curved display with up to 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. The display reproduces rich and vivid colours that are pleasing to the eyes. When watching videos such as Youtube or Netflix, you can have a really enjoyable experience with its WQHD+ display.

The phone can also handle gaming pretty well with no throttling or lagging even after hours of playing, likely due to some game optimizations in the background. The phone screen is covered with aluminosilicate glass which feels really strong and protective. Furthermore, the phone also has an IP68 rating whereby dust and water would not damage it.

The Bad

As much as the build of the HONOR Magic4 Pro feels solid, the glossy finish makes it rather slippery and is a fingerprint magnet. Furthermore, the screen curvature is too steep for some gestures as my fingers keep slipping off the edge. Sometimes I won’t be able to see some details that are at the side of the screen as it is curved away from my line of sight. After lengthy use of the camera, the temperature of the phone would get uncomfortably hot.

Initially, the lack of screen transition effect makes the UI feels weird however when looking into the developer option, the animation got turned off. After some time the transition would be switched off again and I have to repeat the same steps again. This may be due to a software bug and hopefully, it gets fixed in future updates.

Magic UI 6 surprisingly lacks its own custom personalization options and forces the user to customize the phone only through their Theme Store.

Not only that, the company announced that the phone would only receive two Android updates and two years of security patches in the future, which pales in comparison to some of their competitors.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review – Back Camera

The back camera is unnerving as it is really huge. Having the phone without a cover would not be stable and it requires you to actually get a cover to compensate for the stability of the phone on a flat surface. Sometimes taking photos would catch someone off guard as the huge round multi-camera setup just seems off-putting.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review

HONOR Magic4 Pro Review – Front Camera

The front camera is a pill-shaped camera that actually takes up quite a bit of space on the top of the screen. I would honestly prefer a notch or punch-hole camera as it does not get in my way while gaming or watching any videos on fullscreen.

HONOR Magic4 Pro Verdict

The HONOR Magic4 Pro is priced at RM3,999 which is what you would expect from a typical flagship nowadays. While it is still a solid phone, it does have its fair share of drawbacks so it’s best for you to be aware of it before biting the bullet on this one.

At the end of our HONOR Magic4 Pro review, I award this phone with a Bronze Pokdeward.

Pokde-Bronze

Big thanks to HONOR Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.

About The Author
Charlotte Wu
Once upon a time, a farmer obtained some beans in exchange for a cow. The beans became me. My love for eggs is very strong.

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