HONOR Magic 5 Professional hands-on: A sight to behold

After a sluggish breakaway, HONOR is firmly hanging out by itself, branching out from its preliminary Chinese language and mid-tier markets. Its second world flagship has simply arrived at Cellular World Congress 2023 — the HONOR Magic 5 Professional. Boasting powerhouse specs and extra formidable software program plans, might this be your subsequent flagship buy?

HONOR Magic 5 Professional: Design and specs

Constructing on final yr’s Magic 4 Professional, there’s an immediately acquainted feel and look with the Magic 5 Professional. The “Eye of Muse” round digicam housing stays the centerpiece of HONOR’s flagship design language. Full with a brand new Antoni Gaudí impressed glass curvature, it’s an attention-grabbing look, if not totally distinctive. The glass again regularly sloping as much as the digicam lens is fantastic. It’s, nonetheless, an entire fingerprint magnet. Colour-wise, it is available in Meadow Inexperienced or Black, although HONOR has additionally proven off gentle blue, vibrant orange, and light-weight purple colorways. We’re but to listen to about availability, nonetheless.

The Magic 5 Professional’s design additionally retains the intriguing “quad-curve” ergonomics. Which means an identical accentuated curves on the handset’s sides, each back and front, so there aren’t any sharp corners right here. HONOR says this makes the massive 6.81-inch show simpler to carry and use in a single hand. That’s actually true, however the trade-off is the sides of the show are considerably awkward to make use of. We all know a lot of you don’t take care of curved shows, so this can be a contentious design determination. I don’t thoughts it general; the telephone has an undeniably premium really feel in hand.

Talking of the show, we’re a 120Hz LTPO AMOLED panel right here, although we don’t know precisely how low the variable refresh price goes. The HONOR Magic 5 Professional additionally boasts 2,160Hz PWM dimming, 1,800-nits peak brightness for HDR content material, SDR-HDR upscaling and 30-60fps movement blur discount by way of a devoted show processor, and an ultra-low DeltaE 0.27 for coloration accuracy. In different phrases, this can be a decked-out show setup.

Different specs are equally flagship grade. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processing platform, 12GB RAM and 512GB storage, a big 5,100mAh cell for all-day battery life, an IP68 ranking, and 66W wired and 50W wi-fi charging. Nevertheless, HONOR minimize the charging energy ranges from the Magic 4 Professional, which launched with blistering 100W wired and wi-fi energy capabilities.

Nonetheless, this full-on flagship expertise rivals the most effective Android telephones, however will it have a price ticket to match? HONOR had not revealed pricing on the time of writing. We’ll replace this text once we know extra.

Pictures is the place flagship handsets could make a reputation for themselves. The digicam bundle boasts a triple 50MP sensor setup. There’s a big 1/1.12-inch f/1.6 major digicam, 122-degree f/2.0 ultrawide, and a 90mm (3.5x) telephoto zoom with an f/3.0 aperture. There’s a 12MP selfie snapper and 3D depth digicam on the entrance that lends itself to extra safety for face unlocking.

Once more, all very flagship-tier specs and a few notable upgrades over final yr. The primary sensor is bigger, so it ought to seize extra gentle, whereas the telephoto sensor has been upgraded to Sony’s IMX858. 4K 60fps HDR+ video seize help is right here as properly, although there’s nonetheless no excessive 8K decision that you simply’ll discover at some rival flagships. Nonetheless, for the intense videographer, the HONOR Magic 5 Professional helps 4K 60fps 10-bit log exporting.

It’s not simply {hardware} specs that caught our consideration; HONOR boasts a number of impressive-sound pictures software program capabilities too. First, Falcon Seize goals to enhance autofocus and shutter pace occasions, serving to seize fast-moving objects with diminished movement blur. In the meantime, Extremely-fusion optics mixed picture information from a number of lenses to boost high quality between optical zoom ranges. It sounds fairly a bit just like the Google Pixel 7’s super-res zoom capabilities. Then there’s SuperHDR, which captures extra brightness and coloration calibration frames to enhance dynamic vary in tough lighting situations.

We’ll must spend extra time with the HONOR Magic 5 Professional to see if all these options mix to supply a compelling smartphone pictures expertise. However it actually feels like there’s loads of potential right here, particularly as we have been moderately impressed with the earlier mannequin’s HDR and night time capabilities.

The Magic 5 Professional serves up Android 13 slathered in a wealthy MagicOS 7.1 coating. The pre-release model we noticed (however can’t actually discuss) nonetheless shares a considerably acquainted feel and look with the previous EMUI days. Animations and icons might have been tweaked, however the OS’s historical past continues to be plain to see when you dive into the options and menus. General, MagicOS 7.1 is completely practical, if not a bit of busy. I’m not satisfied that the tweaks and adjustments are all that helpful in comparison with say, OneUI or ColorOS. A much bigger break free from the previous type is required if HONOR is to face out on software program deserves.

As an alternative, HONOR is banking on extra low-level performance to set itself aside. There’s Magic Guard to boost privateness and safety, due to partnerships with Google on the OS degree and Qualcomm on the chip degree. Hyperlink Turbo X affords particular person slightly than shared Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas to extend throughput when utilizing each radios concurrently. In the meantime, the oddly named Magic Ring permits HONOR merchandise to attach simply and share duties seamlessly. That is all delicate stuff that may not be instantly considerable however affords one thing additional in sure circumstances.

HONOR has dedicated to 2 years of OS upgrades and 4 years of safety patches for the Magic 5 Professional. Whereas that is an enchancment over final yr, solely two future Android variations just isn’t a match for the flagship competitors. Google, OPPO, OnePlus, and Samsung all provide not less than an additional yr, if not two, of OS upgrades. That’s essential, as a result of Honor’s newest and best gained’t see any new core Android options after 2025.

HONOR has its sights firmly set on the premium tier of the market. A deal with pictures and cross-platform ecosystem options actually factors the Magic 5 Professional in the suitable route. Mixed with beautiful construct high quality, high-end efficiency, and highly effective charging capabilities, HONOR actually is aware of learn how to put a superb {hardware} bundle collectively. Even after a short hands-on, these are clearly the important thing causes to maintain the Magic 5 Professional in thoughts on your subsequent buy.

We’re much less satisfied with our early impression of the software program setup. Regardless of enhancements, the model stays behind the curve on replace commitments and continues to be struggling to maneuver on from its earlier relationship when it comes to significant options. Whereas nothing is obviously improper with the expertise, not less than in our brief time with the telephone, MagicOS is unlikely to gentle up your smartphone expertise both.

There’s stiff competitors for the Magic 5 Professional. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus ($999.99 at Samsung) and Apple iPhone 14 Professional ($999.99 at Best Buy) are robust choices to beat as a strong all-around buy at this value level. Equally, the extra inexpensive Google Pixel 7 Professional ($899 at Amazon) is all the time wager for these searching for top-class digicam options and a long-term funding. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that HONOR’s newest {hardware} bundle supplies loads to muse over.

In case you’re after one thing a bit of extra off the wall, the foldable HONOR Magic VS could be price a glance too, which additionally made its world launch at MWC.