Verdict
The Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) is a solid productivity laptop , offering fast processing speeds , a great larboard selection and a good battery life . Its design is n’t so telling , break to stand up out from competition such as Apple and Huawei , while also being a little too chunky and laborious to vie with the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13 .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Honor MagicBook series used to symbolise jaw - dropping note value in the human race of laptop , but Honor seems to have changed maneuver for the raw 2022 model .
Instead of sticking in budget laptop district , Honor has become more challenging and improve the specs ( as well as increasing the price ) to take on agio portables such as theMacBook AirandDell XPS 13 .
It ’s a bold move from a company that had previously built up a big reputation for providing high-pitched value , but it does grant Honor to pack its laptop with high - close features such a H - Series Intel processor and 1440p screen resolution .
At the prison term of writing , the Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) is only available in France , Germany , China and Malaysia , but it should be shipping over to the UK in the near future .
Design
If you were to type the word ‘ laptop ’ into an AI image generator , you ’d belike get something that search very similar to the Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) .
It has a infinite Charles Grey atomic number 13 casing , with a thin pitch-black trim that surrounds the 14 - inch screen . When catch from afar , you could easily mistake this laptop for aMacBook AirorHuawei ’s MateBook .
With such generic expression , the MagicBook could be accused of lack its own distinctive personality , but it ’s unvoiced to complain too much about getting a solidly built portable at a sensible toll , undercut the likes of the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13 .
Honor is n’t attempting to design the public ’s slimmest laptop , with a perceptibly squatty physique ( 16.9 mm ) than the likes ofDell XPS 13 Plus(15.28 mm ) or MacBook Air M2 ( 11.3 mm ) , and yet it ’s still been very easy for me to dislocate into a cup of tea .
There ’s an upside to get a slimly chunkier build , as it take into account Honor to fit on a plethora of larboard , including USB - A , USB - C , HDMI and a headphone jack . That ’s one of the best embrasure selections I ’ve seen from an ultrabook in late years , and I personally love bear bequest ports to plug in an honest-to-goodness peripheral or USB stick without the need of a dongle .
But it ’s also important to note that the Honor MagicBook 14 is observably heavy than some of its rivals . weigh in at 1.58 kilo , it ’s a few hundred grams heavier than the Dell XPS 13 Plus ( 1.23 kg ) and MacBook Air ( 1.24 kg ) .
Does that make a giving divergence in practice ? I in person do n’t think so . I can still comfortably hold the laptop in one hired hand , and it does n’t cause any back strain when stow in a knapsack .
One of my biggest gripes with the olderMagicBook 14 ( 2020)was the placement of the webcam – it would pour down out of the keyboard and present video callers with an unflattering view up your nostrils . This has now been changed , with the webcam regress to its rightful situation in the top screen bezel . Hurray !
I ’ve got mixed touch sensation about the webcam ’s capture quality . There ’s not much visible pixelation , so you do n’t have to suffer grainy footage , but it shinny with depressed - light environments . Video lineament is quite low at 720p at 30fps too . All that say , this webcam is perfectly usable for picture meetups with friends and colleague .
I was disappointed by the speaker . The bulk can be dialled up to a high volume , but the audio sound screechy and unpleasant . I had a baffling time listen to Crawling by Linkin Park whenever Chester Bennington score those high notes . The speakers are located underneath the laptop computer , making it unluckily muffled against your desk . If you ’re listen to euphony or watch a movie , I strongly recommend assume a brace of headphones .
The keyboard follows the same design vogue as the rest of the laptop ; bland but practical . Fairly inscrutable key travel assure an pleasurable typewriting experience , and each paint is lumpy enough to assure you are n’t making typos on a frequent base . You also get a fingerprint sensor embedded into the power release , allowing for speedy and secure sign - Immigration and Naturalization Service .
The trackpad is faultless too , with antiphonal swiping and satisfyingly clicky wardrobe . You should n’t have to worry about punch in an international computer mouse .
Screen
The projection screen eyeglasses on the Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) laptop look impressive on paper . It has a 2160 x 1440 resolution , ensuring a observably sharper presentation than a standard Full HD jury . I was impressed with the level of detail on offer when watching gamey production boob tube appearance such as The Lord of the Rings : The Rings of Power .
But plunk a niggling deeper into the concealment specs , and I ca n’t help but finger underwhelmed . By using a tintometer , I was capable to determine the max 368 - nit brightness and 1639:1 line . There ’s nothing wrong with those figures , but I ’ve seen far honorable figures from laptop computer with OLED panels such as theDell XPS 13 OLEDandAsus Zenbook S 13 OLED .
The colour insurance coverage is pretty infirm too , insure 87.2 % of sRGB , 61.6 % of Adobe RGB and 63.9 % of DCI - P3 . This means the screen is n’t accurate enough to present photos and video at a professional grade , so those who deal with color - sensible work will necessitate to look elsewhere .
Is it the honorable laptop display I ’ve see ? Absolutely not , but it ’s also far from being the worst . The high resolve means it ’s a undecomposed choice for telecasting cyclosis , but you ’ll get more vivacious colour and depth by picking up an OLED mannequin , which only costs a few hundred British pound more .
Honor has opted for a 3:2 prospect proportion for the screen , which makes it count a little more straight than the average laptop show . This makes the screen well suited to productiveness work , enabling more vertical visibility when see web pages or document . laptop computer with a 16:9 ( or even 16:10 ) have a wider screen better optimised for watch video . But if you ’re well-chosen to put up with chunky black bars , the MagicBook is still a dead good pick for cyclosis .
Performance
The Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) has an impressive specification sheet , compact a 12th Gen Intel Core C.P.U. ( the i5 - 12500H to be specific ) , as well as 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD . You even get the option for an RTX 2050 GPU for added in writing oink .
Let ’s focus on the processing performance first . accolade has opted for a high - performance mainframe for this laptop computer , ensuring a speedy performance that depletes the electric battery at a prompt rate than a U - Series or P - Series flavour .
As the benchmark results show above , the Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) tender an even quicker multi - core execution than laptop computer that will likely cost a couplet hundred quid more .
The Honor MagicBook 14 can not only voyage through basic day - to - day workload , but can also tackle more intense tasks without slowing down . Honor is offering an optional RTX 2050 GPU to boost the art carrying into action even further . That GPU may be outdated now , but it ’s a smart way to tender a graphics boost without see a spectacular rise in cost . My model regrettably miss a discrete GPU , so I ’m ineffective to put up benchmark shape for that role model .
award has even been able to use high - speed SSDs in the MagicBook 14 . Our bench mark trial show it to have read and write speeds of 6774MB/ and 4851MB / s. Those are honest consequence than the vast majority of laptops I ’ve reviewed , specially at this price decimal point . Such speed should secure zippy kick up time , as well as a breezy carrying into action when stretch up installed apps . It ’s also ready to hand when transferring with child single file , which is ideal for budding video editor .
Battery life
honour claims the 75Wh battery can last 15 hours of telecasting playback at a 1080p resolution .
It look like that figure is a little affirmative , as I only do to eke 15 hours out of the system ( with 150 - nit screen brightness ) , albeit at the mellow 1440p resolve . That ’s still a good result though , quiver the likes of the Dell XPS 13 OLED in the same trial .
I ’m also impressed that Honor has been able to achieve such a good battery life despite opt for a power - thirsty CPU . Usually Intel Core P - Series central processor deplete power at an accelerated rate .
That pronounce , I expect the model with the RTX 2050 to see a braggart drop in battery life history . It ’s not one of the most powerful GPUs available , so it should still see better stamina than a gambling laptop computer . Just do n’t be shocked if it struggles to hit the 10 - hr mark .
Should you buy it?
By pile a H - Series Intel Core C.P.U. , this is one of the most powerful laptop available at this monetary value .
Now we ’re begin to see OLED panels on ecumenical productivity laptop , it ’s difficult not to be underwhelmed by the LCD screen here .
Final Thoughts
The Honor MagicBook 14 ( 2022 ) see to be a fantastic productivity laptop that not only excels at day - to - day work load , but can even blitz through debut - level mental object creation too . It ’s an excellent alternative to theMacBook Airfor those who want to stick with Windows .
It ’s a ignominy that the design is a small bland , while also being noticeably chunkier and heavier than the vast absolute majority of laptops at this terms . And while the screen is absolutely fine , it blanch in comparing to the OLED models that are only a few hundred quid more expensive .
This is a not bad productiveness laptop that should assist you well in your studies or office staff work , but it just does n’t put up any of the tawdry features or styling to make it a more tempting option than aMacBook AirorDell XPS 13 Plus .
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Sustainability
commit Reviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help oneself protect our planet from harm in its business drill .
As part of this mission , whenever we review a product we send the party a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the equipment has on the surroundings .
We currently have n’t received answers to the questions on this product , but will update this page the moment we do . you’re able to see a detailed breakdown of the questions we need and why in oursustainability info page .
