Honor has unveiled its latest Magic 5 and Magic 5 Pro at Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona. Replacing the Honor Magic 4 lineup, the Honor Magic 5 series boasts a superior display, faster cameras and a larger battery that has a higher density than before.
What’s new with the Honor Magic 5 Pro?
The Honor Magic 5 Pro is the company’s latest top-of-the-line smartphone offering. Upfront, it gets a 6.81″ 120Hz LTPO “quad-curved” OLED display which is similar to the Magic 4 Pro and it also pushes a higher than Full HD resolution of 2848×1312 pixels. New for 2023, Honor has upgraded the screen to deliver a peak HDR brightness of 1800 nits, which is higher than the Galaxy S23.
To reduce eye fatigue, the new display boasts an industry’s first 2160Hz Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) which significantly reduces flicker at low brightness. On top of that, the Magic 5 Pro also boasts a Circadian Night Display feature which dynamically changes the screen’s colour temperature that supposedly helps you get better sleep at night.
Powering the device is Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that’s mated with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Depending on the region, the device can be equipped with up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
For taking pictures, the Magic 5 Pro gets a triple-camera setup which consists of a 50MP f1/1.6 main shooter with a custom 1/1.2″ image sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens. The telephoto camera has 3.5x optical zoom and it can push digital zoom up to 100x. Both the main and telephoto cameras come with optical image stabilisation (OIS), and the device is also equipped with dToF Laser focusing sensor, a multi-spectrum colour temperature sensor and a flicker sensor.
While computational photography has been used massively to improve image quality, Honor is now using AI to speed up the process with its Falcon Capture algorithm. This allows users to capture night mode without the need of holding the phone still for a couple of seconds. As a result, you can capture the same night scene with increased brightness as quickly as taking a typical shot in normal photo mode.
The Magic Pro 5 also has a new AI Motion Sensing Capture which can help take the perfect action shot in greater detail without excessive motion blur. It uses AI to detect the highest point of jump and capture the frame in ultra high definition. Unlike Live Photo or burst mode, you will not be able to choose your preferred frame after an AI Motion sensing photo was taken. There’s also a possibility that the AI Motion Sensing won’t take a shot at all so you might might want to reconsider using this feature to capture a moment that can’t be repeated.
Similar to its predecessor, the Honor Magic 5 Pro gets a pill-shaped punch-hole on the top left corner of the screen which houses a 12MP front camera and a 3D depth camera. The flagship device is capable of recording 4K HDR 10+ videos at 60fps and it supports 10-bit Log 4K 60fps format.
Like what you would expect from a full-featured flagship, the Magic 5 Pro also comes with IP68-rated dust and resistance, stereo speakers as well as wireless charging. It also supports WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.2 as well as 5G.
Keeping the lights on is a larger 5,100mAh battery which is more than your average flagship smartphone and it supports 66W fast wired charging via USB-C. Interestingly, the charging speed seems to be a downgrade from the Magic 4 Pro which had 100W fast wired charging. In terms of battery, the Magic 5 Pro would likely last significantly longer as it gets 500mAh extra capacity than the Magic 4 Pro. Out of the box, it runs on Android 13 with MagicOS 7.1 skin on top.
Honor Magic 5 is a no-frills alternative
Besides the Honor Magic 5 Pro, the smartphone maker also has a standard Magic 5. It gets a smaller 6.71″ “quad-curved” 120Hz OLED display which also boasts a 2160Hz PWM and a peak HDR brightness of up to 1,600 nits.
Under the hood, it still gets a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and comes with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. However, the non-Pro device gets 256GB of slightly slower UFS 3.1 storage.
In the camera department, the Magic 5 is a notch below with a different triple-camera setup. It has a 54MP f/1.9 main camera that uses a 1/1.49″ sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 32MP telephoto camera that offers 2.5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. For selfies, the device comes with a 12MP front camera.
Similar to the Magic 5 Pro, the standard model still gets a generous 5,100mAh battery which supports 66W fast wired charging. However, it lacks wireless charging and IP68 dust and water resistance. In terms of connectivity, it also supports WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.2 and your usual 5G bands. Out of the box, it also runs on MagicOS 7.1 based on Android 13.
Honor Magic 5 is coming to Malaysia soon
The Honor Magic 5 series is coming to Malaysia but there’s no pricing and availability details yet. Since Malaysia is a key market, Honor Malaysia is expected to introduce the new flagship in early Q2 2023.
Here’s the Honor Magic 5 pricing in Europe:
- Honor Magic 5 – 8GB RAM + 256GB storage – EUR899 (about RM4,253)
- Honor Magic 5 Pro – 12GB RAM + 512GB storage – EUR1,199 (about RM5,672)
Take note that European pricing for smartphones is typically significantly higher than in Malaysia.
