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HONOR’s been churning out one quality smartphone after the other in quick succession and the latest to roll out of its assembly line is the beautiful HONOR Magic4 Pro. The phone which was announced officially at MWC 2022 in February 2022, is finally making its way to the regional shores. While the phone is all set to be launched officially in the region on June 14, 2022, we got out hands on this brilliant piece of tech a week in advance, thanks to the HONOR team!
So, let’s get on with the review. The HONOR Magic4 Pro is a beautiful device inside and out. The construction of the phone is made using a mix of metal and glass. On the right edge, you will find the volume rockers and the power button, while on the top edge, you will find the IR blaster, a noise-cancelling microphone, and the speaker grille. On the bottom edge, you will find the dual SIM slot, the USB-C port, and the speaker grille, along with a second noise-cancelling microphone.
DISPLAY
On the front, you get a 6.81-inch Flex OLED display, which offers a resolution of 2848-by-1312 pixels. It also offers a pixel density of 460 PPI, a refresh rate of 120Hz, and a touch sampling rate of 360Hz. It covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colours and offers a brightness level of 1000 nits.
The HONOR Magic4 Pro also packs in the industry’s first LTPO Display with 1920Hz PWM Dimming. PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is a technique for controlling the brightness of a display panel by varying the width of the light pulse. Simply put, you control how long the screen remains on or off. Lowering the brightness causes the screen to be off for longer than it is on, which is perceived as lower brightness.
PWM dimming provides a more precise output level and has a wider dimming range. This means the HONOR Magic4 Pro is the first smartphone to offer a PWM of 1920Hz. This technology minimises the strain on the eyes and provides a comfortable viewing experience, even in low-light environments.
To enhance the viewing experience, HONOR has also introduced an independent display chipset. According to HONOR, the Always-on HDR technology can optimise the image and easily upgrade the SDR videos to HDR in real-time. The MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation), intelligently converts a video of a low frame rate to a higher frame rate resulting in a silky-smooth video.
HONOR Magic 4 Pro also comes with adaptive refresh rate technology. This essentially means that the display’s refresh rate can go down as low as 1Hz when it’s not in use thus saving battery. And when you need performance, the refresh rate can be pushed up to 120Hz.
CAMERA
The HONOR Magic4 Pro comes packed with a powerful set of triple cameras, placed in the “Eye of Muse” symmetrical design. The triple camera setup includes a 50MP Wide Camera, a 50MP Ultra-Wide Camera, and a 64MP Periscope Telephoto Camera. These cameras are all powered by the Ultra-Fusion Computational Photography technology, which allows the device to produce high-definition images with excellent clarity and sharpness.
You also get an 8×8 dTOF sensor and a flicker sensor as part of the triple camera setup at the rear of the device. On the front, on the top left corner of the display, you get a 3D Depth Camera with a 3D Face Recognition feature and a 12MP Ultra Wide Camera, with a 100-degree field of view.
During our tests, the camera performed really well, under good and low light conditions. Images shot using the HONOR Magic4 Pro came out really well with a good amount of clarity, sharpness, and colours. Ultra-wide shots, night photography, and HDR photography also came out looking brilliant.
If you are a content creator, you will be amazed at the videography capabilities of the HONOR Magic4 Pro. It offers the industry’s first 10-bit log 4K 60fps video recording capability, called HONOR Magic Log. The Log formats are commonly used to shoot professional-grade movies. This format allows you to enhance the look of your videos with cinematic colour tones in HDR clarity.
The HONOR Magic4 Pro also comes equipped with Cinematic 3D LUT (Look Up Table) capabilities. Thus, with its Magic-Log format, it helps you edit your videos in superior colour hues fit for the movies, allowing you to bring Hollywood-style colours and moods to your content.
In order to use the HONOR Magic Log, all you need to do is go to Camera, then Movie Mode and then turn on LOG mode. At this point, the video turns grey. Once you are done shooting, you can edit the log movie on your computer or on your phone, and add LUT to the grey movie to turn it into a vivid movie.
You can choose between eight different 3D LUTs, which are certified by IMAX Enhanced. These LUTs include Classic, Nostalgia, Sunsplash, Dazzling, Pure, Gloomy, Bravura, and Focus. Alternatively, you can also add your own LUTs by importing the video to your desktop PC.
You can also shoot the videos directly using the 3D LUTs. All you need to do, is to go to the camera, then movie mode and then select a LUT, before you start recording the video. This way, you can capture Log+LUT video directly.
SPECIFICATIONS
Under the hood, the HONOR Magic4 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Chipset. It is also backed by the HONOR Turbo Engines which maximise the capability of the chipset, ensuring the hardware and software work seamlessly together to improve fluency, anti-aging, and power consumption.
With the HONOR Magic4 Pro also brings the industry’s first AI Super Rendering technology to mobile gaming through GPU Turbo X, delivering high framerates and network connectivity while generating less heat and lowering latency. You also get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage space. The phone runs on the Android 12 operating system with Magic UI 6 running on top of it.
AI AND SECURITY
Usually, when you receive calls in a public area such as trains, buses, lifts, and so on, people around you are able to listen to some of your conversation, due to the leakage of sound. The HONOR Magic4 Pro offers a Privacy Call feature supported by AI and powered by Directional Sound Technology, which prevents sound leakage for more private phone calls.
The screen and the receiver work together to adjust the volume of the incoming audio to suit different environments. This means, that even if you are in a quiet environment such as an elevator, people standing next to you will not be able to hear the caller’s voice or spy on your conversation.
For enhanced privacy and security, the HONOR Magic4 Pro also comes with the Dual-TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) security system. Using this technology, HONOR will not share any biometric information of the user with online service providers. Instead, it will only store, calculate, and use it in the local Dual-TEE. The phone also offers 3D Face Recognition and Ultrasonic Fingerprint sensing capabilities, thanks to Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 technology.
BATTERY
The HONOR Magic4 Pro is powered by an ultra-large 4600mAh battery featuring HONOR’s most powerful SuperCharge combination to deliver an ultra-long battery life and all-day connectivity.
The HONOR Magic4 Pro is also the first to support 100W Wireless HONOR SuperCharge technology, which charges up the device to a 50% battery capacity in just 15 minutes. In addition, with 100W Wired HONOR SuperCharge, the HONOR Magic4 Pro juices up to a 100% charge in just 30 minutes. And unlike other smartphone vendors on the market, HONOR includes a 100W charger inside the box.
VERDICT
The HONOR Magic4 Pro will soon be available in colour options such as Black and Cyan. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet. Having said that, the overall design and build quality are top-notch. The performance of the phone was also very good.
The stand-out feature is the phone’s outstanding triple-camera module that does a very good job, whether it shooting photos or recording videos. Every sensor on the HONOR Magic4 Pro performs really well, whether it is an ultra-wide sensor, the periscope telephoto sensor, or even the main sensor. We consistently ended up with brilliant-looking images and outstanding videos.
The HONOR Magic4 Pro undoubtedly comes with the best camera on a flagship smartphone. The HONOR Magic4 Pro thus comes across as highly recommended.
Price: To be announced
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