Honor MagicBook Pro 16 (Intel)
A stunning laptop for the money – especially if Honor is running deals on its site – but it’s heavy and a little basic
SCORE
PRICE £792 (£950 inc VAT) from hihonor.com
It’s no coincidence that Honor’s laptops take such a dominant position in the “Everyday laptops” category of our A-List ( see p14). No other company delivers such consistently excellent value, and its three key ingredients are as simple as they are successful: generous specifications, metal chassis, low price.
Six months ago, we saw this in the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H version of the MagicBook Pro ( see issue 314, p72), but Honor has now added an Intel variant using a Core i5-10210U processor. In both cases, the chips are supported by 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Honor’s list price of the Intel version is £950, but at the time of going to press it was offering a ridiculous deal: you could buy this laptop with a Honor MagicWatch 2, Watch ES and a mouse for £700. The AMD version lists at £850, but again Honor was offering a bundle where you would get the Watch ES and mouse for free.
Despite its lower list price, the AMD version is faster than the 10thgeneration Intel Core processor in virtually any task – particularly those that take advantage of the Ryzen processor’s six cores. The four-core Intel chip is speedy, as reflected by a score of 135 in our benchmarks, but the AMD version scored 221. Still, a Core i5 is fast enough to keep this laptop feeling nippy for years.
Sensibly, Honor doesn’t rely on Intel’s integrated UHD graphics (which aren’t a patch on the Iris Xe graphics in most 11th-generation
Core processors), with Nvidia’s 2GB GeForce MX350 chip providing the gaming power. At the panel’s native 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and High settings, it averaged 57fps in F1 2020, 92fps in Dirt: Showdown and 48fps in Metro: Last Light. Only tougher, newer games become unplayable, with a 12fps return in Metro: Exodus while Wolfenstein: Youngblood refused to run at Mein Leben settings due to a lack of video memory.
Gaming is an area where this Intel spin of the machine outguns the AMD version, which relies on RX Vega 6 integrated graphics. These proved around 20% slower than the Nvidia MX350, with 33fps in Metro: Last Light and 72fps in Dirt: Showdown.
We’ve criticised Honor laptops in the past for lacklustre screens, but the MagicBook Pro is an exception: this 16in IPS panel covers 99% of the sRGB gamut with superb colour accuracy (its average Delta E was 0.4 with a 0.86 maximum). Peak brightness of 360cd/m2 and a 1,459:1 contrast ratio further add to its appeal.
What you don’t get is a widegamut display, as it can only cover 73% of the DCI-P3 gamut; place it side by side with the LG Gram 16 ( see p50) and colours look drab. It’s still great for a workaday system – and note it has a matte finish to thwart reflections reflection – but if you’re looking for vibrancy and a punch then you’ll need to pa pay extra for a laptop such as the th Gram.
The oth other big difference between the t machines is their weight, weig with the Honor system sys hitting 1.7kg on o our scales. That’s a tu tub of marg (540g) heavier hea than the Gram G 16. Note that th both laptops lapto can surviv survive a full
“I’d go with this Intel version if battery life and gaming are important to you, but ultimately both offer terrific value”
day away from the mains, with the Honor r lasting 10hrs 29mins in our video-rundown -rundown test (an hour longer than an the AMD version).
Nor will ll the compact USB-C power supply pply weigh you down at 200g, with h my sole complaint being that t it fills the only USB-C connector r Honor provides. It sits on the left t along with an HDMI output and d USB-A port, with a further two wo USB-A ports and 3.5mm jack ck on the right.
In a backwards ackwards step, an aged Intel 802.11ac 02.11ac card takes care of networking tworking duties. Honor also includes its more forward-looking rward-looking Magiclink ink technology, where you ou can pair an Honor or Huawei phone using the sticker to the right of the trackpad. This is like Microsoft’s Your Phone on steroids, with quick file transfers and even the ability to copy and paste text between phone and laptop.
There’s no luxurious glass topping for the touchpad, but it’s large and responsive, so I have no complaints. The keys don’t have much travel, but it’s fine until you press the spacebar. This offers barely any movement, which is annoying when you’re typing quickly. And, as ever, I should draw your attention to the pop-up webcam between F6 and F7. It’s great for privacy, awful for camera angles.
Honor makes a better fist of the audio system. Not only does the mic pick up voices clearly but music is actually listenable, with clear vocals and something close to approaching a stereo soundstage from the grilles either side of the keyboard. Just don’t expect much bass or depth.
It’s a little unfortunate for Honor that this review appears in the same issue as the far more lovely LG Gram 16, but in truth this Intel-powered MagicBook Pro only has one rival at this price: the AMD alternative. I’d go with the Intel version if battery life and gaming are important to you, but ultimately both offer terrific value and the choice may boil down to the
deal Honor is offering. ffering.