Think of Huawei what you will—and everyone’s got opinions—but there’s almost no denying the fact the company has produced some of the finest hardware in the smartphone scene in recent years. While the smartphones drew plenty of attention and coverage, Huawei’s laptops had been quietly garnering top marks, too.
And now the company’s sub-brand, Honor, wants in. Technically speaking, Honor had released a laptop last year, but it’s this year’s update, named the MagicBook Pro, that really brings over many of the flourishes from the well-reviewed MateBook X Pro series.
I’ve been testing a European unit of the MagicBook Pro for over a week and this is, as usual with Honor’s products, an almost flagship level premium product in a more affordable package.
What carries over from the MateBook X series?
Let’s start by running down the list of things carried over from Huawei’s top dog laptop lineup. The first are the slim bezels that wrap the MagicBook Pro’s 16-inch screen, they are as thin as they were on the 2020 MateBook X Pro.
Then there’s the one touch fingerprint scanner/power button combo, that allows users to press the power button once from a cold machine, and have it boot up all the way to the home screen ready to go in six or seven seconds without the need to stop for a log-in page. There’s the webcam that when not in use is hidden, recessed inside the keyboard. There’s the NFC at the lower right corner of the laptop’s base that allows one-tap connection between an Honor/Huawei device and the machine. This is useful for those who are already using Huawei or Honor smartphones, as it allows the user to answer WhatsApp messages or check smartphone-specific apps directly on the computer.
Screen
The first thing many will notice with the MagicBook Pro is its large screen. It’s a 16.1-inch LCD panel with thinner bezels than what’s seen in Apple’s 16-incher. If you’re jumping over from the higher priced Huawei MateBook X series, you’ll notice some corners were cut here, such as the resolution being “just” 1080p instead of 2K or 3K, and there’s no touchscreen functionality. The display panel also was constructed separately from the bezels, as in it’s two distinct pieces instead of the complete smooth one-piece glass seen in Huawei’s laptops.
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Does any of that matter? I’d argue not really. I can see why sleek and seamless build is ideal for smartphones (something we hold in our hands all day), but a laptop? I personally don’t care. Nor do I think we really need a 3K panel on a screen—the 1080p panel here is plenty sharp. The lack of a touch panel could perhaps hinder me down the line if I want to make fine, small crops in a photo editing app or “sign” a digital document, but most laptops do not offer touchscreen anyway—that’s a bonus on Huawei’s top laptops.
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The screen looks good with excellent viewing angles and max brightness. It is in a wider 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the more squared 3:2 aspect ratio that most people prefer, but the overall large size means there’s still plenty of vertical scrolling space.
The hinge is sturdy and aluminum construction is solid, although noticeably a notch below the premium Huawei MateBook X series. Due to the 16-inch screen, the machine has a slightly larger footprint than most laptops you’ll see in the real world: 369mm x 234mm x 16.9mm and a weight of 3.7 pounds. This can still fit in my small Muji backpack, but it does fill the bag all the way to the top. Max brightness is about 300 nits—not amazing, but enough for most people.
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The keyboard is large, with evenly spaced keys and generous key travel, but the lack of a number pad is odd, considering the large size of this 16-inch machine.
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In terms of ports you have two USB-As, a USB-C for charging and data transfer, a headphone jack and a HDMI output.
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The DDR 4 RAM is, sadly, not upgradeable, as they’re built into the motherboard. The 16GB of RAM should be enough for most people, however. Storage is of the PCIe NVMe SSD variety and comes at 512GB of space.
Overall performance is fine, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, a six-core 7nm chip with an integrated GPU inside. Obviously, handling productivity apps like Microsoft Word or email is absolutely no issue, but I’m also surprised by its capable gaming prowess. I was able to play the graphically intensive Asphalt 9: Legends on here at highest graphic setting without hiccups or frame drops. The speakers, unfortunately, are sub-par despite its size, pumping out muted sounds.
Thermals are solid, despite 30 minutes of gaming, the machine barely heated up thanks to its well placed vents and two cooling fans inside the machine.
The 56Wh battery here is on the small side, but still enough to power the machine for continuous use to last a full eight hour day, although I will need to charge it shortly after the eight hour mark.
The MagicBook Pro is on sale in Europe and China only for now, and retails for the equivalent of around $950.
Since there aren’t many laptops on the market with a 16-inch screen—most laptop makers had decided 13-inch is the ideal size—there aren’t many machines to compare this to, except, of course, the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
If you’re looking at the two in a vacuum and comparing only performance, Apple’s machine has a better screen, speaker, trackpad and processor for advanced video editing work. But Honor’s machine has a better keyboard and is at least half the price, perhaps even one-third the price once you add more memory to Apple’s machine.
Ultimately it’s an apples to oranges (or Apple to Honor?) comparison—these two machines should not be pitted against one another as they serve different needs. Apple’s 16-inch machine is for video editors and creatives who do graphic work. Honor’s 16-inch machine is for those whose work is less intensive, but still benefit from a larger screen. For this latter camp, it doesn’t make sense for them to pay $2,000 and up for a laptop.
It’s a very small field, but the Honor MagicBook Pro wins the best value 16-inch laptop by default.
