Honor brought many new products to the Mobile World Congress 2023 exhibition held from February 27th to March 2nd in Barcelona, Spain. The company introduced the flagship series of smartphones Magic5, which found a place for both the device with the best camera in the world and the mid-range model. The company also presented the world’s first smartphone with a foldable screen and advanced battery technology.
Magic5 Pro
Let’s start with Honor’s flagship Magic5 Pro smartphone. In this device, the Chinese manufacturer has embodied, if not all, many of its developments, combining in one device an advanced screen, an advanced camera system, as well as powerful filling and a fairly large battery.
The Magic5 Pro screen is based on a 6.81-inch OLED panel (LTPO) with a resolution of 2848 × 1312 pixels and a dynamic refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz. At the same time, the backlight frequency (PWM frequency) is dynamic and can reach an impressive value of 2160 Hz – this relieves the user’s eyes, which is confirmed by the TÜV Rheinland certificate. It is worth emphasizing the high-quality color rendering – Delta E ≈ 0.27, as well as the high screen brightness – up to 1300 cd / m2 under normal conditions and up to 1800 cd/m²2 when viewing HDR content.
In addition, the Magic5 Pro has a special screen chip that converts standard dynamic range (SDR) images into high range (HDR) images, and HDR images can be upgraded to HDR10+. In addition, this chip reduces the blurring of moving objects. According to DXoMark, the new Magic5 Pro has the best screen of any smartphone in the world.
But an even more important component of the Magic5 Pro is its triple rear camera – yet DXoMark experts even called it the best camera of any smartphone in the world. It contains three different sensors, each with a resolution of 50 megapixels. The main module is built around a large 1/1.12-inch image sensor and equipped with f/1.6 aperture optics. It is complemented by an f/2.0 wide-angle module with a viewing angle of 122° and a telephoto camera with a 90mm f/3.0 lens that offers a 3.5x optical zoom. In addition, this camera supports 100x digital zoom. And as far as one could judge that within the framework of a superficial acquaintance with a smartphone, one can really think about something with such an increase.
The front camera of the Magic5 Pro is dual: the 12-megapixel main module with wide-angle optics (viewing angle 100°) complements the depth sensor. The latter is responsible for unlocking the smartphone on the face using 3D scanning.
Looking at the characteristics of the cameras, someone will think that they are nothing special – the usual flagship set, and there is nothing like that here. But as we all know, hardware is far from everything and it is important to be able to work with it. And here Honor was able to surprise by equipping the new flagship with a number of interesting features. First of all, Honor noticed the extremely fast camera speed, which allows you to take amazing pictures of moving objects. But it can be difficult to capture the right moment yourself, so Honor called on the power of AI to help – in AI Motion Sensor Capture mode, the smartphone takes a series of shots and chooses the best moment. This broke Piotr Grobowski’s Guinness Book of World Records for highest slam dunk with ball held between the legs in January.
The rest of the Magic5 Pro is a fairly traditional flagship. It is based on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, complemented by a separate security chip, as well as 12GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage. Interestingly, Honor doesn’t present any other memory configurations. The smartphone also received a very large 5100 mAh battery with support for wired fast charging of 66 W and wireless charging of 50 W. It is protected against dust and moisture according to the IP68 standard. The smartphone runs MagicOS 7.1 based on full Android 13 with Google services.
magic5
In addition, Honor introduced a simplified and therefore cheaper flagship Magic5. It’s a bit more compact in size and has a less advanced screen and cameras. Honor Magic5 received a 6.73-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2688 × 1224 pixels, a frequency of 120 Hz and brightness up to 1600 cd/m²2.
Instead of a triple 50-megapixel rear camera, it uses a combination of a 54-megapixel main module (1/49″, f/1.9), a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera (122 ° and f/ 2.0) and a 32 -Megapixel telephoto module with 2.5x optical and 50x digital zoom. The selfie camera is basic here, with a resolution of 12 megapixels and a viewing angle of 100°.
Magic5 is also built on top of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 but has only 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage. The battery here is the same as the older version. Fast 66W wired charging is supported, but no wireless charging.
Magic5 Lite
The third in the flagship series was the mid-range Magic5 Lite smartphone, which offers more modest features and a much lower price. The latest novelty received a 6.67-inch OLED display with a resolution of FHD+ (2400 × 1080 pixels), a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a maximum brightness of 800 cd/m2. There is a fingerprint scanner under the screen.
The smartphone is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip with 5G support, complemented by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash memory. On the rear is a triple camera setup with a 64MP main sensor, a 5MP wide-angle lens, and a 2MP macro sensor. For selfies, the Magic 5 Lite has a 16-megapixel front camera. The battery also has a capacity of 5100 mAh, but only supports fast charging up to 40 watts. The smartphone runs Magic UI 6.1 based on Android 12.
magic vs
Finally, an international version of the Magic Vs foldable book smartphone with a flexible screen was presented at MWC 2023 – the smartphone was launched in China at the end of 2022. The smartphone received a 7.9-inch main OLED display with a resolution of 2272 × 1984 pixels, a refresh rate of 90 Hz and brightness up to 800 cd / m2as well as an external 6.45-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 2560 × 1080 pixels, a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a brightness of up to 1200 cd/m²2.
The developers note the updated hinge mechanism, which consists of only four parts, instead of almost a hundred in the previous generation model. Internal tests at Honor Labs have shown that the new hinges can withstand up to 400,000 folds, more than 10 years of operation at 100 folds per day.
The smartphone is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, which is complemented by 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of flash memory. The software platform is MagicOS 7.1 on Android 13. The 5000mAh battery supports 66W fast charging. The triple camera setup includes a main camera with a 54 MP Sony IMX800 sensor and f/1.9 lens, a 50 MP wide-angle camera and an 8 MP camera with 3x optical zoom. There’s also a pair of 16-megapixel front cameras with f/2.45 optics on each of the displays.
Prices and Release Dates
The Magic5 Lite will be the very first among the smartphones mentioned: it is already available in Europe at a price of 379 euros. Huawei did not name specific release dates for the remaining new products. Honor Magic5 and Magic5 Pro will go on sale in the second quarter of this year, priced at €899 and €1199 respectively. Finally, for the collapsible Magic Vs, the release dates were not given at all, but the price is given – 1599 euros.
Something else
Honor introduced the industry’s first silicon-carbon battery at MWC 2023, which has 12.8% higher energy density than current lithium batteries.
A key feature of the new battery is the charge retention at low voltages: If the lithium battery is already almost empty when its voltage drops to 3.5 volts, the Honor battery retains 240% more charge at this voltage, which is a boost overall ensures capacity by 12.8%. For example, if the Honor Magic5 Pro smartphone has a standard 5100mAh battery, then when replacing it with a silicon-carbon battery, the capacity will be 5450mAh. And this technology is already being applied: the Chinese version of Magic5 Pro comes with a battery of only 5450 mAh.
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