Honor pulls the Magic4 Pro out of its hat at MWC 2022

Honor’s Magic4 and Magic4 Pro smartphones are the company’s big flagship phones for 2022, and have been announced at Mobile World Congress, the industry trade show taking place in Barcelona, Spain, this week. These two phones are packed with camera technology, the latest Qualcomm processor, and Google Mobile Services, making them very exciting. We just hope the opportunity will come for global fans to actually buy one.

Magic4 Pro

The Magic4 follows the Magic3 series announced by Honor in mid-2021, and despite it being called a global launch at the time, the devices have not made it out of China yet. Now it seems likely that the Magic3 will be quickly forgotten as Honor focuses on the Magic4. We just hope it secures a wider release, as at the time of this writing, Honor has not provided availability information or the price for the phones.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the devices in detail, starting with the Honor Magic4 Pro. Like the Magic3, it is styled using Honor’s distinctive “Eye of Muse” camera module design on the back, where four sensors surround the central main camera inside a circular housing, making it look a bit like an eye. There are three cameras in total, a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50MP 122-degree wide angle camera, and a 64MP periscope zoom camera with a 3.5x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. The array also has a time-of-flight sensor and a flicker sensor.

Honor says to expect big improvements in definition due to its multi-camera fusion computational photography technology, which employs all the cameras to enhance photos at all zoom lengths, from the 0.6x wide-angle to the 100x digital zoom. Features including a macro mode are included, plus the chance to shoot 10-bit 4K resolution video at 60 frames per second (fps) in Log mode for those who want greater flexibility when editing.

A dual-sensor selfie camera with a 12MP camera and 3D depth camera sit in a pill-shaped cutout in the 6.81-inch OLED screen, which is also equipped with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and a 2848 x 1312 pixel resolution for a 460 pixel-per-inch pixel density. It also has HDR10+ certification, the ability to upscale from SD to HDR, and a 1.07-billion color gamut. The phone’s software is Honor’s MagicUI 6.0 based on Android 12, complete with Google Play and all the usual Google apps installed.

Qualcomm has supplied the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor for the Magic4 Pro, and it comes with either 8GB or 12GB RAM, plus 256GB or 512GB of storage space, along with Honor’s Turbo X gaming enhancements. Other features include a second-generation Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, a special system to minimize sound leakage from calls, stereo speakers, and 5G connectivity. A 4,600mAh battery is recharged in 35 minutes using Honor’s 100-watt fast charging system.

Magic4

The non-Pro Magic4 differs in several areas. It looks very similar to the Pro version and retains the Eye of Muse design on the back, as well as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor with the same RAM and storage options, but the screen and camera are different. The 6.81-inch OLED has a 2664 x 1224 pixel resolution, but luckily does still have the 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. The two 50MP main and wide-angle cameras are here too, but with an 8MP periscope camera with a 5x optical zoom and 50x digital zoom.

For selfies, you get a single camera on the Magic4, and Honor has increased the capacity of the battery to 4,800mAh, but equipped it with a 66W fast charging system instead of the 100W system on the Pro. Elsewhere, you still have 5G, stereo speakers, NFC for payments, and most of the camera and video recording features too.

The Magic4 will be available in black, white, gold, or cyan, and the 8.8mm thick phone weighs 199 grams. The Magic4 Pro comes in the same colors with a glass body, or in orange if you choose a special version with a leather-like polyurethane back. The Pro is a little thicker at 9.1mm and heavier at up to 215 grams.

Honor will reveal the price and availability of the Magic4 series during its MWC launch event, and we will update thgis artic;e when we have the details. Honor has not sold its hardware in the U.S. for a while, and we don’t expect that to change this time, but a U.K. and European launch is possible.

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