Honor Magic5 Pro and Magic Vs Hands-On: Attack on Samsung?

With the Honor Magic5 Pro and Magic Vs, Honor has presented two new flagship smartphones for the German market. We have already been able to test the devices.

Honor Magic5 Pro: new flagship with three cameras

The Honor Magic5 Pro is a “classic” flagship smartphone with a large display and a variety of camera lenses. The design has changed very little compared to its predecessor, the Magic4 Pro. There’s the same “eye of the muse” on the back again, as well as the same 6.81-inch AMOLED display with dual front cameras on the front.

However, the display can now display a maximum of 1,800 nits of brightness instead of a maximum of 1,000 nits and regulate it more quickly. 120 Hertz LTPO support is also available again.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor gives the device another performance boost. It will also be interesting to see how well Honor has adapted the processor to its MagicOS software. In Germany there will only be one variant with 12 gigabytes of fast LPDDR5X RAM and 512 gigabytes of internal UFS 4.0 storage.

Note: Honor invited us to the MWC in Barcelona for the launch of its new smartphones and covered the travel expenses and one overnight stay. The company had no influence on the content of the article.

Honor Magic5 Pro: what can the “eye of the muse” do?

The cameras on the back of the Honor Magic5 Pro now all three have a resolution of 50 megapixels, unlike last year when the zoom had a resolution of 64 megapixels. However, the three to five times optical zoom and 100 times digital zoom are retained.

In addition, the manufacturer has installed a time-of-flight sensor, a color temperature sensor and a flicker sensor. On the front there is again a twelve megapixel wide-angle camera and a sensor for 3D face recognition.

The Honor Magic5 Pro has three cameras on the back (Image: BASIC thinking)

The battery of the Honor Magic5 Pro is rated at 5100 mAh and can be recharged with a cable with 66 watts. This is possible wirelessly with 50 watts, which is a clear step backwards compared to the 100 watts wired and wireless of the predecessor.

The device runs MagicOS 7.1, based on Android 13, like the colleagues from “Android Authority“ report, the device will also get three major OS updates and five years of security patches.

The Honor Magic4 Pro attracts fingerprints much more than the Magic5 Pro (Image: BASIC thinking)

The Honor Magic5 Pro will be available in the colors black and green for an RRP of 1199 euros in the memory configuration mentioned (12 + 512 gigabytes) from April in Germany.

Honor Magic Vs: First real competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4

Foldable smartphones are now available from almost all major manufacturers, be it Xiaomi or OPPO, Vivo or Honor. Samsung was and has always been the best known in this area, as they made this segment popular and also dominate the global market alongside Motorola .

Honor are now the first in the global market to launch a competitor to the Galaxy Z Fold rather than the Galaxy Z Flip like many others.

In terms of price, the device in the 512 gigabyte version is even significantly cheaper than the RRP of the Galaxy Z Fold4 (1,599 euros versus 1,799 euros, or 1,919 euros with 512 gigabytes). So what can the device do? We were able to test it out a bit on site before it will probably be on the market in May or June.

The Honor Magic Vs has a 21:9 aspect ratio for the front display, making it easier to use. (Image: BASIC thinking)

When closed, the device has a 6.45-inch OLED display with a refresh rate of 90 Hertz and a resolution of Full HD Plus (1080 x 2560). The beauty of it compared to the Galaxy Z Fold4: the aspect ratio of 21:9 is significantly wider than 23.1:9, which is noticeably easier to use.

When unfolded, the device has a large 7.9-inch OLED display with a refresh rate of 90 Hertz. It’s visibly thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold4 and also closes flush with its fold.

The fold of the Magic V is flush, an advantage when carrying it in your pocket (Image: BASIC thinking)

How about the software?

The device runs MagicOS 7.1, based on Android 13. The Magic Vs also gets three major Android updates and five years of security updates. Software is one of the most important elements for a foldable smartphone and there were already some promising functions in the first hands-on.

Apps can be used side-by-side on the big screen, or in a small floating window. Unfortunately, at that time there was no app overview or taskbar like on the Galaxy Z Fold4, whether this will come at the launch remains open.

Multitasking is quite comfortable with the Magic Vs, but unfortunately there is no taskbar (Image: BASIC thinking)

Two cells are used as the battery, which reach a total of 5000 mAh. This can be refilled with a 66 watt fast charger. Unfortunately, the device does not have wireless charging.

The Honor Magic Vs has a 54-megapixel main camera, an eight-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens on the back. These are also not optimally integrated into the software.

There are no separate menus for the folded tripod mode or trigger gestures when taking a selfie. I can’t say much about the quality in the first hands-on. More on that in the test report as soon as the device comes onto the market in early summer.

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