HONOR announced the Magic 4 series back in February 2022, and now it's finally launching the premium Magic 4 Pro in the global markets with a price tag to match. HONOR was originally introduced as a sub-brand by HUAWEI to launch smartphones that were aimed at the affordable phone market. But, the company is no longer restricting itself to the budget market and is now dipping its toes into the flagship segment with the launch of the HONOR Magic 4 Pro in the UK, followed by the key regions in Europe.

Even though the Magic 4 Pro is HONOR's first-ever global flagship, the company is not cutting corners anywhere. Living up to its premium status, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. The smartphone comes with a minimum of 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. It runs on Magic UI 6.0 (based on Android 12), which offers a range of intelligent features that are optimized for smart life experiences.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro front

Source: HONOR

On the front, the smartphone comes with a 6.81-inch LTPO OLED panel that supports refresh rates up to 120Hz (which can go down all the way to 1Hz when not in use). The display has a peak brightness of 1,000 nits and comes with a 2,848 x 1,312 pixels resolution and 460 PPI. Like other flagship smartphones in this price range, there is support for HDR 10+ content as well.

The triple-camera system on the back is arguably the highlight of the Magic 4 Pro. This setup includes a 50MP primary camera, a 50MP ultra-wide with a 122-degree FoV, and a 64MP telephoto lens that supports up to 3.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom. There are two extra sensors, a flicker sensor and an 8x8 dTOF laser focusing sensor, on the back as well.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro back

Source: HONOR

All the three camera sensors of the Magic 4 Pro support Ultra-Fusion Computational Photography technology that allows the smartphone to produce high-definition images in stunning clarity, even when shot from afar. In addition, it also supports Dual Chain Computational Photography and Videography Algorithm, which allows the smartphone to capture truly high-quality images while shooting videos.

Another key highlight of the HONOR Magic 4 Pro is its battery. The smartphone comes with a 4,600 mAh cell, which isn't extraordinary. The thing that makes this battery stand out is the support for HONOR's proprietary SuperCharge technology. Thanks to this technology, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro supports 100W wired charging and 100W wireless charging. HONOR says the 100W fast charging should charge the smartphone from 0% to 100% in just about 30 minutes, whereas 100W wireless charging can provide a 50% charge in just 15 minutes.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro: Price and Release Date

HONOR Magic 4 series colors

HONOR Magic 4 series colors

Source: HONOR

HONOR Magic 4 Pro has been priced at £950/€1,100. Pre-orders for the Magic 4 Pro go live on 13 May 2022 in the UK. The smartphone will go on sale in the rest of Europe a little later. If you place an order before the 26th of this month, you will receive a special-pre-order bundle worth £324 free of cost. This special bundle includes the all-new HONOR Watch GS 3, a wireless charging dock, and some official cases. If you're in the UK, you can also take advantage of the Three UK offer, allowing you to get a cashback of up to £250.

PBI HONOR Magic 4 Pro
Honor Magic 4 Pro

HONOR Magic 4 Pro is the latest flagship smartphone from the company. It comes with all the high-end specs, including Snapdragon 8 Gen1, 50MP triple-camera, and 100W wired and wireless charging. Pre-order the HONOR Magic 4 Pro now and get Watch GS 3, 100W wireless charger, official cases, and more for £0!

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Specs

Category

HONOR Magic 4 Pro

Display

6.81-inch, Quad-curved LTPO OLED, 120Hz, 2,848 x 1,312 pixels

Processor

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

GPU

Adreno 730

Memory

8/12 GB (LPDDR5)

Storage

256/512 GB (UFS 3.1)

Expandable Storage

No

Rear Cameras

- Primary: 50MP, f/1.8, wide-angle
- Ultra-wide: 50MP, f/2.2, 122-degree FoV
- Periscope Telephoto: 64MP, f/3.5, 3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom
- 8x8 dTOF Laser Focusing System

Front Camera

12MP

Security

Pin, Pattern, Password, Under-display fingerprint sensor, Face unlock

Connectivity

5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2

Ports

USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, No Headphone Jack

Battery

4,600 mAh

Wired Charging

100W

Wireless Charging

100W

Water Resistance

IP68

Operating System

Magic UI 6 (Android 12)

Colors

Black, white, cyan, gold, orange (vegan leather)

Dimensions

163.6 x 74.7 x 9.15mm

Weight

215g

Price

£950/€1,100

How does HONOR Magic 4 Pro stack up against the competition?

HONOR Magic 4 Pro is not cheap. At a price of £950, you can get flagships and premium devices from brands like Apple, OnePlus, Samsung, and even Google. While we'll recommend you to wait for our review of the HONOR Magic 4 Pro for a final verdict on the device. But until then, let's see how it compares to the other notable flagships in the market.

Display

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Display

Source: HONOR

Like all the other flagship devices in this price range, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro offers a great viewing experience. Its 6.81-inch OLED panel supports an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. This means the display's refresh rate can go down as low as 1Hz when it's not in use thus preserving the battery. In addition to offering high-refresh-rate, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro is the first smartphone to offer a PWM of 1920Hz. This technology minimizes the strain on the eyes and provides a comfortable viewing experience, even in low-light environments.

To make sure that everything looks smooth and bright, HONOR has added a dedicated display chipset to the Magic 4 Pro. This MEMC chipset upgrades all the SDR videos to HDR video in real-time and converts low frame-rate videos to a higher frame rate. While other flagship smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus and the iPhone 13 Pro, offer a 120Hz refresh rate, no other flagship smartphone offers a dedicated chipset to upgrade the video refresh rate. This gives the HONOR Magic 4 Pro a slight edge over the other flagships.

Camera

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Camera

Source: HONOR

Moving on to the camera, all the smartphones in this price range offer a great camera experience. Going against the likes of Samsung and Apple (and now OnePlus too) in this department, HONOR has decided to go with a triple-camera setup that contains a 50MP wide-angle camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 64MP periscope telephoto sensor that is capable of up to 3.5x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom.

What makes the Magic 4 Pro stand out in comparison to its competition is the array of sensors it carries on the back and the front. While the rear camera module comes with a dTOF sensor (that enables quick autofocus) and a flicker sensor (that reduces flickers while taking photos), the front-facing camera has a 3D depth camera next to it. While the other Android flagships make use of just the selfie camera for face unlock, the 3D depth sensor makes the face unlock feature even more secure.

The camera specifications of the HONOR Magic 4 Pro sound good on paper. Based on our past experience with HONOR flagships, we expect the Magic 4 Pro to perform excellently in the camera department. However, we would still recommend you to wait for our full review of the device to see how the camera fares in real life.

Performance

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Chipset SoC

Source: Qualcomm

Like every other Android flagship device in this segment, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro also comes with a powerful chipset. The Magic 4 Pro is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a 4nm node process-based octa-core chipset with one ARM Cortex-X2 core clocked at 3GHz, three ARM Cortex-A710 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, and four Cortex-A510 clocked at 1.8 MHz.

However, as we all have come to know, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has overheating issues. This is one of the reasons why many OEMs have had to throttle apps on their phones to keep the temperate low. To avoid such a situation, HONOR has added a special cooling system to the Magic 4 Pro that uses graphene, liquid cooling, and AI to dissipate the heat.

HONOR Magic 4 Pro Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Source: HONOR

In addition to using a powerful cooling system, the HONOR Magic 4 Pro also uses a dedicated GPU Turbo X chipset. This chipset allows the smartphone to retain high-quality visuals on-screen whilst lowering energy consumption simultaneously. Barring Apple's A15 Bionic chip-powered iPhone 13 models (which has become the gold standard of performance in smartphones), you'll probably get the same performance on the Magic 4 Pro as all the other Android flagships powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen1. The improved GPU and cooling system might give HONOR an edge, though.

Battery

HONOR MAGIC 4 Pro Charging

Source: HONOR

HONOR Magic 4 Pro beats all the other flagship smartphones, hands down, when it comes to the battery. Although the smartphone comes with a smaller battery of 4,600 mAh than the OnePlus 10 Pro's 5,000 mAh cell, HONOR has added support for its SuperCharge technology. This technology enables the HONOR Magic 4 Pro to support both 100W wired and 100W wireless charging.

While the OnePlus 10 Pro offers 80W fast charging, none of the other flagship smartphones, including the Pixel 6 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, or the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, come close in charging speeds. HONOR says the 100W wired charging can fill the smartphone from 0% to 100% in just about 30 minutes, whereas 100W wireless charging can provide a 50% charge in just 15 minutes.