Honor has just introduced the Magic4 series at MWC 2022, complete with a new smartwatch and its latest earbuds. The Magic4 series isn’t a drastic departure from the Magic3 it introduced just half a year ago, but it’s packed with the latest technologies like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and even more high-quality cameras. We’ve had the chance to give the Magic4 Pro a quick try at the Fira, and it’s definitely an appealing high-end device sporting the newest and best hardware — though we’re wondering if Honor can really ask for €200 more for it than for the regular Magic4.
Starting with last year’s Magic3, Honor diversified its flagship lineup with different phones at different price points. But in contrast to the Magic3 and 3 Pro, which could be easily differentiated based on their processor of choice (Snapdragon 888 vs. Snapdragon 888+), the Magic4 and 4 Pro virtually have the same flagship hardware. The only real difference between the two new phones are the 4 Pro’s quad-curved screen, its 64MP periscope camera, and 100W charging support. The regular Magic4 might be the better choice for most people at €900, with the €1100 asking price for the 4 Pro could possibly just be too much given that there are only a few things it really improves upon.
I thought that one of the most visually distinct parts of the Magic4 Pro would be the quad-curved display, but in the end, the phone feels more like a device with a regular curved screen. It’s not that the OLED panel itself is curved on all four sides — it’s more like the display glass is curved at the top and bottom, not including the display itself. The quad-curved design isn’t really too terribly different from the regular Magic4’s curved screen that way, though in the long term, it might just enable crazy new display formats a la Xiaomi’s wrap-around display.
The 64MP periscope camera is certainly impressive based on my short time playing with it, and the Magic4 Pro’s 100x digital zoom capabilities are exciting (and downright creepy when you zoom in on people 20 meters away from you). But as with any of these gimmicky digital zoom levels, the results you’ll get at the highest zoom levels are barely usable if you care about the image quality. From my quick session with the phone, the optical 5x zoom was nice, and I can definitely see it being incredibly useful when out and about. However, I don’t see anyone using this mode too often, so an 8MP solution like on the regular Magic4 would probably be enough.
100W charging is another one of these breakthrough technologies that we might take granted and absolutely expect in a few years, but right now, the reality is that many people charge their phones overnight anyway and rarely need these speeds in the first place.
Both phones in the Magic4 lineup get to enjoy all the other benefits Honor has introduced for the series. The company announced its so-called “Ultra-Fusion Computational Photography,” a technology that combines pictures taken from multiple cameras into a single one. That’s supposed to help the phone shoot high-quality images under more circumstances than if it was to rely on only one camera at a time. This isn’t something I can properly test during a short hands-on session, so proper judgment needs to be reserved for a review, and the idea behind using multiple sensors for images might not be new — just think of all these phones with depth sensors augmenting portrait photography — but if Honor is able to push this technology, all the better.
With all these factors in mind, it’s great to see Honor pushing for new and innovative hardware solutions for new problems, but for consumers, I don’t see too many enticing reasons to go for the €1100 Magic4 Pro over the €900 Magic4 right now, unless they absolutely need to live on the bleeding edge of the bleeding edge.
The situation really is reminiscent of the Pixel 6 and the 6 Pro. The two phones are priced €250 (or $300) apart at €650 and €900 ($600 and $900), and here at Android Police, we haven't found too many reasons to consider the 6 Pro over the 6. Most notably, the Pixel 6 Pro has a slightly bigger screen with a faster refresh rate and packs a periscope camera, and we still don't find the difference is big enough to explain the gap or really justify spending more money.
The performance gap between the Magic4 and the 4 Pro seems even narrower than the gap between the Pixel phones, and it’s still almost the same difference in price. While the Honor Magic4 Pro is certainly an innovative piece of technology and I’m very much curious how it will compare to the Magic4 in a longer-form review, it's clear that cheaper phones have become so good that many people will never need to consider the absolute high end anymore – unless they want a foldable.