Verdict
The Honor Magic 5 Pro is a solid all - in - one package with feature that rivals some of the most pop smartphones at a much lower price , come in at just £ 949 with a banging 512 GB of computer storage onboard . It does n’t always hit the brand , but there ’s for certain a lot to care here .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Honor has well and really shaken up the flagship smartphone grocery store with the Honor Magic 5 Pro , a smartphone that ’s every bite as premium as the the like of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra without the link up price tag .
However , Honor does n’t have the same brand realization as Android manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus in the westerly marketplace , so the interrogative sentence is , is there enough here to influence unfamiliar Android fans ?
I ’ve spend the past few weeks using Honor ’s 2023 flagship , and I ’ve been agreeably surprise by the experience on crack , from the open camera hardware to the arresting display experience and even the software package , which has some authentically useful tweaks .
The best part ? It massively undercuts most of theflagship competition , coming in at an attractive £ 949 with a humongous 512 GB of storage . For context , the 512GBSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultracomes in at £ 1399/$1379 while theiPhone 15 Pro Maxcomes in at £ 1399/$1399 .
Design and display
If there is one word to describe Honor ’s Magic 5 Pro , it ’d be “ curvy ” .
The earphone is curvy in nearly every mother wit of the countersign , from the curved corners to the quad - curve display to the curved camera housing on the back that Honor read is inspired by the Gaudi Curve , a popular style of architecture . Does twist even sound like a word any more ? I ’m not indisputable .
It does , however , feel exceptionally nice in hand , peculiarly compare to boxier flagship like Samsung ’s top - end Galaxy S23 Ultra . The Gaudi Curve - inspired television camera housing is build straight into the bottom of the smartphone rather than using different material for an overall light look , in a standardized vein to the tv camera housing of theOppo Find X5 ProandXiaomi 13 Pro .
That camera bump , however , is hard to lose . It takes up around a third of the headphone ’s rear . In my experience during the review menses , it ’s the first affair mass mark – and not just friend , but shopkeepers when I ’ve used the phone for Google Pay . It ’s certainly noticeable , for better or worse , though I ’ve grown to quite like it .
It might be down to the fact that the spot and raised brim of the rear camera housing allow my finger to comfortably rest around its sharpness , helping allow for a more solid , robust grip when using the phone one - handed . It ’s like have a Pop Socket , though not quite as extreme .
It ’s available in two coloring material option , an understated Black finish and a slightly more attractive Meadow Green , with the latter being a personal favourite of mine . The immature looking glass rear is covered in a frosted finish that helps hide fingerprint , and it complements the matching metal band to further tote up to its premium face .
In meat , this is a beautiful sound that feels just as bounty in the hand as top - death options from Samsung , Xiaomi and Oppo , complete withGorilla Glass Victus 2andIP68 piddle resistance .
You ’ll obtain a power release , loudness controls and an IR blaster built into the top of the telephone to see to it tv set and other IR - enabled devices , as well as stereophonic speakers – though the latter are a little odd .
Rather than being front - veneer , the speaker grilles are notice on the top and bottom edges of the phone . That ’s okay for scrolling through TikTok , but when playing games in a horizontal vista proportion , your palms incline to repress the speakers . The deficiency of a front - face speaker also wee-wee the earpiece seem quieter than it is unless you really crank the volume .
That also extend to the telephone set ’s earpiece , which is n’t quite front - lining , so you have to adjust the slant of the phone to clear try the recipient – or , alternatively , you’re able to just put the call on speaker unit . It ’s much easy , though not as convenient in public spaces .
The save grace of God is built - inDTS :X Ultratuning which aims to improve the overall tone of audio both on speaker and when using headphones , with the latter in fussy providing a much more realistic spacial soundscape , though not quite to the same level asApple ’s AirPods .
The 6.81 - inchOLED displayis just as premium . It has a dynamic 120Hz refresh charge per unit , which can be reduced to as little as 1Hz to economise battery spirit via LTPO applied science . The display is also packed with picture element , clocking in with a resolution of 2848 x 1312 .
The size of the display might sound a littletoobig on paper , especially as I had complaint about usability with the similarly - sized Galaxy S23 Ultra , but the curved design of the skeletal system and presentation make it feel easier to employ one - handed . Sure , it ’s still plenty liberal , but it did n’t feel that it was unwieldy in use .
It also boasts advanced characteristic like 2160Hz PMW blur that Honor say should make the glint less obvious and , as such , cause less eye strain when used in the evening – specially combine with Eye Comfort , which importantly reduce the amount of blue light .
Interestingly , the mid - rangeHonor 90and its 3840Hz PMW dimming have outdo this feature , but I doubt the difference will be noticeable for most people .
Regardless , Honor take that its showing technical school can meliorate melatonin concentration by up to 20 % , providing around 30 transactions of extra rest on average . I am very wary about such groundless claim , and it ’s almost impossible to quantify without consecrated sleep laboratory testing , but I will note that I have been sleeping pretty well these past few weeks .
Elsewhere , you could look onward to an imposingly bright display at 1300 nit and a advance 1800 nit when watching HDR mental object , and with a dedicated display chipset , the phone can upscale SDR capacity to HDR , and HDR content toHDR10 + .
That ’s a roundabout way of saying that the show is magnificently detailed , vibrant with deep black and gumptious coloring material no matter if you ’re scrolling through social medium or watching a movie on Netflix , and it ’s bright enough that I ’ve had no emergence using the sound even in verbatim sunshine on a smart April afternoon .
The default vibrant gloss setting may be a bit much for some taste sensation , but you’re able to easy enough sew the colour pallet in the background app .
Cameras
Honor looks to be break all - in with the Magic 5 Pro ’s photographic camera setup , comprised of a treble 50MP television camera offering split between a main lens , an ultrawide lens and a telephotograph lens system with a 3.5x optical rapid growth , though the latter can go all the up to 100x with a periscope digital zoom .
Of of course , it ’s the main 50MP genus Lens where thing are most interesting with an f/1.6 aperture that delivers a lifelike bokeh in photos and allows for more loose seizure , especially when combine with a 1/1.12 in sensor . It ’s not quite as big as the 1 - in detector of theVivo X90 Proand Xiaomi 13 Pro , but it ’s still fairly turgid for a smartphone .
In fact , Honor claim that it ’s 35 % larger than the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max , resulting in 13 % and 24 % undecomposed Light Within intake respectively .
While that ’s hard to measure , I have been imprint with the Magic 5 Pro ’s low-spirited - light performance , supervise to suck in as much usable light to becharm something more true to living than artificially brightened scenes generate by some alternatives . Just be sure to start the dedicated Night mode , as trope captured on the stock Photo mode are n’t quite as impressive .
It ’s not quite at the grade of the Vivo X90 Pro in complete dark , but it cede gracious balanced shot with some environmental light – like a lamp or a streetlight – available . Things can look a little bit soft in places when zooming in , but they ’re more than fair to middling at a surface level .
As low-cal levels improve , the performance only capture good , capturing detailed , vibrant shots in most environments without issue , down to finer item like blades of grass and the pelt of a German Shepherd called Luna . The Black of Luna ’s face do look a petty darker and crushed compare to genuine life , though that ’s an issue you ’ll discover on most smartphone snappers capturing in JPEG .
I have , however , find that the images can appear a little on the cool side with a notable blue hint in some shots . It ’s nothing that ca n’t be fixed with a immediate edit , but it ’s not ideal . Images can also look a trivial too oversaturated with the AI style enabled , peculiarly the greens of grass and the blues of the sky .
Where the main Chrysophrys auratus really excels is in the speed of capture , specifically when Honor ’s Flacon Capture and AI Motion smell out technical school are at play . The mode , available with the hydrant of a button in the Camera app , take almost - instant images of tight - motivate subjects with very trivial blur – that ’s the idea anyway .
It ’s not quite as flawless in literal - earth utilization , with the phone ’s automatic seizure sometimes drop the instant by a split second , but I ’ve managed to capture perfectly crisp shots of Luna running full speed for her ball – and she ’s reasonably bloody fast . This mood is ideal not only for wiener but child and much any other tight - moving field of study , from cyclists to elevator car . You ’ll need a flake of patience but the results are often worth the effort .
The 50MP ultrawide lens complements the main photographic camera offering , not only matching the 50MP resolution for equally detailed trope but the colouring material profile too . Aside from the slant , it ’s hard to tell apart the remainder between shots taken with the main and ultrawide in well - unhorse conditions . The ultrawide does n’t suffer from much in the way of distortion at the edge either .
It ’s not quite as performative in low - light conditions with an f/2.0 aperture , however , lack the larger sensor postulate for seemly low-pitched - light performance .
The 3.5x telephoto genus Lens is equal to a 54 millimeter focal distance , making it the go - to lens for portrait photography . border spotting is accurate enough , right trace hairlines and even tackle glasses without issue , and the bokeh sum up to the overall look , though you wo n’t find any fancy portrait filters here like those from theiPhone 14 Proor Xiaomi 13 Pro .
The periscope aim of the 3.5x telephoto lens allows for digital zoom all the manner up to 100x , though outcome at this level are basically unuseable , lacking any actual kind of item , and there ’s no exceptional lunation capture mode like with other periscope lenses either .
Even at a much more manageable 10x you may see a illustrious loss in item , specially in all right details like grass and leave that can look more like expectant diffuse blob than individual strands .
A competitor to the 10x and 100x zoom of the Galaxy S23 Ultra , this is not .
tack the phone over and you ’ll find what looks like a dual camera setup , and appear at the 0.8x and 1x shoot modes in the Camera app further cement this musical theme , but only one of the selfie tv camera is in reality used for picture taking – the other is used for facial recognition , but more on that in a piece .
Quality is decent from the 12MP Chelydra serpentina , making it a go - to choice for quick selfies , though it lacks the HDR and autofocus of the rear tv camera so any serious photography should be limited to the rearward lenses .
picture carrying out is also decorous with the power to capture up to 4K@60fps , though capture should be limit to the principal lens withOIShelping smooth out uptight shot . You do have the option of shot using the telephotograph lens , though it ’s presently inconceivable to enter using the 50MP ultrawide , and I ’m not quite sure why …
Performance
At the ticker of the Honor Magic 5 Pro you ’ll get hold Qualcomm ’s late top - remnant chipset , theSnapdragon 8 Gen 2 , match with 12 GB of RAM and a humongous 512 GB of computer memory as standard . The latter is peculiarly impressive at the sub-£1000 price point considering 512 GB variants of other premium flagship like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra come in at over £ 1400/$1400 .
As you ’d gestate from the top - conclusion configuration , the Honor Magic 5 Pro had no issue keeping up with just about anything I could throw at it from in high spirits - closing AAA gaming with maximal graphic enable to scrolling through media - heavy apps like Twitter without nary a stutter . Apps open immediately , the120Hz refresh ratehelps things feel quick and responsive and image capture is instantaneous too .
That ’s no different from any other high - ending Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - fit out choice in 2023 , but it ’s skillful to see such gamy performance here – and without the sound get uncomfortably hot too .
That ’s backed up by bench mark , with the Honor Magic 5 Pro able-bodied to keep up with flagship like theOnePlus 11 , Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Vivo X90 Pro in both CPU and GPU trial .
Elsewhere you may look ahead to5G , Wi - Fi 6,Bluetooth 5.2,NFCand an in - display fingerprint scanner . However , Honor accept things a step further with advanced facial recognition similar to that ofApple ’s facial expression ID , using an IR scanner to scan your grimace to allow for admission to the phone , and like Apple ’s selection , it even works in total darkness .
It ’s so much more convenient than using the fingerprint scanner while being more secure than the vast majority of Androids that offer canonic camera - base facial authentication that can be fob with a pic or someone that count a mo like you . Here , you get both convenience and surety .
That Face ID - esque camera setup also let for the comprehension of abject - baron motion restraint that appropriate you to swipe up or down without touching the screen – ideal if , say , you ’re following a formula and have dirty hands but need to scroll down the Sir Frederick Handley Page . you’re able to also make a fist to take a screenshot .
Still , it ’s rather limited and it is n’t 100 % reliable with its gesture recognition , so I ’m not certain it ’ll be as popular as Honor envisions . It does , at least , utilize less power than theinfamous Soli sensorsused inGoogle ’s Pixel 4 .
In term of software system , the Honor Magic 5 Pro ships withAndroid 13with Honor ’s MagicOS 7.1 skin applied on top – though it will be get an update to Android 14 sometime shortly . Still , it ’s not a pelt that ’ll take too long to get used to with minimal change to the heart and soul layout of the phone and its various features , though there are a few famous tweaks that improve the experience .
They include a different take on large folders with the ability to access up to eight apps without opening the leaflet , and the ability to sneak up on app icons on the nursing home screen to access shortcuts . The Phone app , for lesson , will display your favourites with a swipe .
The caution to the latter is that it ’s only available if you decide to expose all apps on your home screen , rather than using the app drawer , and I ’m not certain that ’s something many Android user will want to do . Still , it ’s a skillful touch that show up Honor is attempt to meaningfully raise the sum Android experience rather than commute it entirely .
you’re able to also look forward to three O upgrades and five years of security patches as per Honor ’s OS hope .
Battery life
Battery carrying out start the pack with a battery slightly large than what you ’ll find in most of theflagship Android competitionat 5,100mAh , which is a 7.8 % addition in capacity compared to last yr ’s flagship , though with the caveat that the total capacity is n’t available for quotidian utilisation – by nonpayment anyway .
Instead , 100mAh is reserved for the phone ’s ‘ Smart Battery Capacity ’ feature article that allow the telephone set to finish up charging just shy of its peak capacity to extend the assault and battery ’s lifespan , though you could decide to invalid the tech and utilise the total 5,100mAh battery capacity in the preferences app .
That say , even without that last 100mAh W. C. Handy , the Honor Magic 5 Pro has absolutely no issue lasting all day on a unmarried electric charge with a laboured commixture of texting , scroll , listening to music and gaming , with the speech sound usually getting to the end of a 16 - hour day with around 40 % commission lead .
On days with abstemious usage – like when function from home – that jump up to around 60 % on average , with no real takings lasting two daylight before needing a top - up with such casual use , though heavier use saw the battery run flat at around 6 pm on the 2d twenty-four hours .
That ’s backed up by bench mark examination too , with the Magic 5 Pro drain just 5 % of battery with half an hr of casual gaming and 8 % in an 60 minutes of HDR Netflix streaming .
Charging is n’t the fastest around at 66W , especially with such a enceinte capacity battery , and that ’s excogitate in testing . I found that though it ’d find 50 % charge in just 20 proceedings , a full charge conduct just shy of an hour – pretty slow compare to the 120W charging of the 5,000mAh Xiaomi 13 Pro that rescue a full charge in just 24 minutes . The quick 66W charger does come in the box , at least .
It also gasconade 50W wireless charging , though you ’ll demand Honor ’s Wireless SuperCharge base to take reward of such speedy charge capabilities .
Take a look at the below to see how the Honor Magic 5 Pro compares to the high-pitched - end competition :
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Should you buy it?
The Honor Magic 5 Pro ticks most boxes , from excellent performance to a high - closing display and long battery life sentence .
While the Magic 5 Pro is capable of 10x and 100x digital zoom , results are n’t as unspoiled as those from the Galaxy S23 Ultra .
Final Thoughts
The Honor Magic 5 Pro is an excellent all - in - one computer software with features that equal some of the most popular smartphones on the grocery store at a much low terms , coming in at just £ 949 with a whopping 512 GB of store onboard .
It ticktack most of the boxes for what a insurance premium smartphone should offer , including an attractive design , bright show , top - end carrying into action , all - 24-hour interval assault and battery life and capable tv camera , with extras like 2160Hz PMW dimming and AI - power Falcon Capture helping severalize it from the competition .
It does n’t always succeed – the 10x zoom is n’t quite as capable as that from Samsung’sGalaxy S23 Ultraand charging is n’t as tight as theXiaomi 13 Pro – but there ’s certainly a lot to wish about Honor ’s 2023 flagship .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile earpiece we retrospect thoroughly . We use industry - standard tryout to compare feature of speech properly and we use the phone as our main twist over the review period . We ’ll always tell you what we happen and we never , ever , take money to refresh a ware .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
The Magic 5 Pro offers full IP68 water resistance that should survive a dunk for up to 30 minutes in 1.5 metre of water .
Honor has give to three oculus sinister upgrades and five long time of security updates with the Magic 5 Pro .
