A brilliant and succesful flagship

• Design and construct
• Show
• Cameras
• {Hardware} specs
• Verdict

Honor made a convincing pitch to hitch massive gamers of the smartphone world final 12 months, with the launch of the Magic 4 Pro – its first flagship smartphone to launch outdoors of China.

It was a powerful step in the appropriate course, and Honor now desires to construct on that momentum with the brand new Magic 5 Professional. It is a flagship telephone with flagship specs that look loads spectacular on paper – however how do they play out in use? This is our full overview.

Design and construct

• Dimensions: 162.9mm x 76.7 x 8.77mm (HWD)
• Colors: Meadow Inexperienced and Black
• Weight: 219g

The Honor Magic 5 Professional takes a couple of design notes from with the Magic 4 Professional, whereas additionally learns some classes, too. It is nonetheless a dual-glass design, with glass panels on the back and front, however this time spherical, it is providing a matte end to scale back the fingerprints we discovered the mirrored Magic 4 Professional to choose up.

This end is barely out there within the new color means although – a reasonably fetching Meadow Inexperienced – so the ever-popular black retains its shiny credentials for individuals who love that look (and do not thoughts preserving it polished). The matte design feels extra like plastic than it does glass, which we do not thoughts, however the added texture does not really add far more by the use of grip. That is fairly a slippery telephone, so that you’re in all probability going to need to add a case for peace of thoughts.

Just like the 4 Professional, the sting of the show has a slight curve to it on all sides, and that is matched on each back and front – one thing Honor calls its Symmetrical Design. Whereas curved shows would possibly divide opinion, there is not any doubt this does assist it to sit down properly in your hand, and it seems pretty too.

The silver aluminium body that runs across the fringe of the telephone is flat although, and thicker on the highest and backside than it’s on the edges. There are simply two bodily controls housed right here – a quantity rocker and an influence button on the appropriate hand aspect – with stereo audio system to the highest and backside, joined by the SIM tray and USB-C charging port alongside the underside edge too.

There is not any denying the primary point of interest within the Magic 5 Professional’s total appear and feel is the daring digicam design on its again panel, and the way you’re feeling about how that appears might be an enormous deciding think about whether or not that is the telephone for you. It is a centrepiece of the design and one we had numerous feedback on from family and friends throughout testing.

Whereas some producers could also be attempting to make the digicam bump smaller, the bump on the Magic 5 Professional sits much more prominently than it did on the 4 Professional, a lot in order that it lifts the telephone as much as an angle when resting on a desk. We do not thoughts it although, and contemplating the emphasis on the cameras on this telephone, having them be such a outstanding a part of the design isn’t any actual shock.

Show

• 6.81-inch LTPO OLED show
• 1312 x 2848 pixels, 461ppi
• 1-120Hz sensible refresh price
• As much as 1800 peak brightness

Just like the Magic 4 Professional, the Magic 5 Professional presents a big 6.81-inch LTPO show with a wise refresh price as much as 120Hz, so it could actually scale up and all the way down to swimsuit what you are doing, whereas additionally preserving battery. There are some variations and enhancements although, which we’ll get to shortly.

As we talked about above, it has the quad curve show, which seems pretty and feels nice to carry, and we had no points with the sides missing in responsiveness – a standard grievance from these kinds of design. It is in all probability as a lot about private style as it’s about efficiency now, although avid gamers should still want a flat design to make sure all content material is the place they’ll most simply see it.

The pill-shape cutout for the front-facing digicam, additionally introduced over from the Magic 4 Professional, will proceed to divide opinion as properly. It may be hidden in some apps by inserting a big black bar in the direction of the highest, however that relies on if that’s supported, and loses you a good slither of display actual property.

As soon as once more, you get biometric face unlocking, which works shortly and reliably, although there may be additionally a fingerprint scanner underneath the display as again up. We had a couple of incidents the place it did not recognise our fingerprint on first scan however total the face unlock obtained to the job fast sufficient so it wasn’t wanted anyway.

At 461ppi, the display on the Magic 5 Professional is crisp and detailed in use, however above all – it is brilliant. Whereas Magic 4 Professional may obtain 1000 nits of brightness, the Magic 5 Professional can go to 1300 nits, and packs Novel Show Luminance Enhancement know-how to push that as much as a peak HDR brightness of 1800 nits.

Color accuracy particularly has been an enormous focus for the Magic 5 Professional, and the result’s that it has the bottom Delta E rating – which measures color distinction between the native color and the way it seems – of any smartphone.

That is backed up by dual-luminance calibration, set at a typical 120 nits indoor brightness and 800 nits outdoor brightness, to make sure the colors you see are mechanically adjusted accordingly relying on the place you’re looking at them.

That is all supported by a brand new discrete show chipset, which guarantees to enhance the standard of video and gaming throughout the board, because of delivering a better body price and improved video enhancement for smoother, extra detailed pictures. The results of all of that is that it’s at present sitting on the prime of the DXOMARK rating for smartphone show, with a rating of 151. By comparability, the Samsung S23 Extremely scored 148.

This all comes good in observe too and watching movies on the Magic 5 Professional is a real delight, with an excellent color stability, deep blacks and unimaginable brightness via HDR highlights that basically pack a punch. It is a incredible display for watching films on the go, and up there as the most effective we have examined.

There has additionally been a fairly heavy concentrate on eye consolation within the Magic 5 Professional, which is not a foul factor contemplating how lengthy we spend in entrance of our telephones. However Honor has carried out a number of applied sciences to strive to make sure our eye well being is a precedence.

Firstly, it has the trade’s first LTPO show with 2160Hz PWM dimming know-how, to minimise display flickering and assist enhance eye fatigue. It is one thing the corporate began with the Magic 4 Professional, nevertheless it’s pushed additional nonetheless this 12 months. It will be a kind of belongings you may not discover the advantages of till you have been utilizing the telephone for some time, nevertheless it’ll be there doing its bit for you anyway.

There has additionally been a discount in blue mild output (and a certification from TÜV Rheinland for being Circadian pleasant in addition), plus the inclusion of dynamic dimming that simulates the pure mild and adjusts your show to ease eye pressure.

Whereas we perceive the goal with the latter, we do someday discover these automated dimming options somewhat bit irritating, so we’re pleased to see that that is one thing that may be turned off.

Cameras

Triple fundamental digicam system

• 50MP Broad Digicam (f/1.6, customised 1/1.12 inch sensor)
• 50MP Extremely-wide Digicam (f/2.0, 122-degree FOV)
• 50MP Periscope Telephoto Digicam (f/3.0, 3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom, Sony IMX858 Sensor)

Entrance-facing digicam:

• 12MP(f/2.4 aperture)
• 3D Depth Digicam

As we have come to count on from flagship telephones, there’s a big selection of cameras on the rear of the Honor Magic 5 Professional, packing in three massive sensors on the again.

It is 50MP all spherical, with a return to the periscope-style telephoto lens that we noticed on the Magic 4 Professional. That guarantees the identical 3.5x optical zoom and an impressive-sounding as much as 100x digital zoom – although handle your expectations sizeably for the efficiency at these better zoom lengths.

There’s a bigger sensor this 12 months too, which Honor says can absorb 24 per cent extra mild than the iPhone 14 Professional Max, and 13 per cent greater than S23 Extremely, for improved low mild efficiency.

As traditional, the three cameras will all work collectively, in addition to on their very own to get you the most effective photograph doable within the circumstances, and the Magic 5 Professional will change up the lens mechanically to make sure you get the most effective outcomes. The all-new Millisecond Falcon Seize algorithm guarantees to make sure that occurs shortly too, even at night time, because of the brand new Tremendous Evening Seize mode.

This can be a massively succesful set of cameras, and you might be in good fingers throughout just about all lenses in most circumstances – and that is saying one thing. There’s often a weak hyperlink someplace however these are all largely nice cameras.

The principle digicam is the star of the present right here, and produces clear sharp pictures with incredible a color stability that typically veers in the direction of hyper-realistic, however creates enticing, brilliant and well-balanced photographs – even in tough lighting circumstances.

At night time, the Magic 5 Professional does simply because it says it ought to, and pulls in an entire lot of sunshine to carry even close to pitch black pictures to one thing enticing, sharp and low in noise.

Often it can take any components of sunshine within the image and creates a falsely brilliant image that lacks among the distinction that you simply’d hope for in an evening shot. This can be a uncommon occurence although, and you’ll just about level and click on and go away the Magic 5 Professional to do the heavy lifting. There’s a particular night time mode which you could select however we discovered we did not have to, and that outcomes from the primary digicam had been the identical as with night time mode chosen.

The selfie digicam is ok for what you will want from it and in good mild takes brilliant, sharp selfies with the choice to have magnificence mode on or off.

Portrait mode is enabled by default whenever you change the digicam, and is out there in 2x (the default) or 1x zoom – each of which serve up enticing and robust edge detection, with adjustable bokeh.

AI Movement Sensing is on board to offer secure, clear footage of transferring pictures too, and we definitely discovered that to be the case in testing. Even at 3.5x and 10x zoom, it captured racing horses in motion with next-to-no blur – although pictures did lose some element on the bigger zoom lengths.

The results of all of that is one other DXOMARK stamp of approval. At the moment, the Magic 5 Professional is sitting on the prime of the worldwide digicam rankings with a rating of 152, in comparison with the iPhone 14 Professional Max at 146 and the Google Pixel 7 Professional at 147.

{Hardware} specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 12GB RAM
• 512GB storage, 12 GB RAM
• Adreno 740 GPU
• 5100mAh battery, 66W wired charging/50W wi-fi

The Honor Magic 5 Professional is powered by Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, with a lift of 12GB of RAM from 8GB within the Magic 4 Professional and double the storage too, now as much as 512GB. It is good and quick in use and we have had no points in any respect with it from a efficiency perspective, getting solely barely heat when gaming – however definitely nothing to be involved about.

Sadly, the Magic 5 Professional doesn’t get the 100W charging of the 4 Professional, nevertheless it nonetheless presents a really respectable 50W wi-fi charging functionality/66W by way of the in-box charger, and an improved battery capability, as much as 5100mAh from 4600mAh. We discovered it will take round 45 minutes to cost from empty, however you will get an excellent 15 per cent enhance in round 5 minutes when you’re in a pinch.

We had no issues getting via a full day of fairly moderate-to-heavy use with that, and we observed round an 11 per cent drop in battery streaming a 90 minute film on 50% brightness at 50% quantity.

The Honor Magic 5 Professional will run the newest Magic OS 7.1, based mostly on Android 13. It nonetheless has its quirks and comes with some pre-installed apps that add to some bloat – nevertheless it’s removed from the worst offender. You’ll nonetheless be left with a few of Honor’s apps duplicating Google’s suite of apps that additionally comes put in, however loads will be deleted. You will have to tinker with it to get it working the way you need it, however there’s largely not loads to complain about her after you have.

Verdict

The Honor Magic 5 Professional reveals Honor inching ahead in its makes an attempt in the direction of actually difficult the main Android telephones available on the market proper now. The Magic 5 Professional has loads to like, and little or no that lets it down.

It is massively highly effective, has a stunning show, cameras that carry out properly throughout the board and a strong design. The digicam bump and design might divide opinion however we did not thoughts it – it is a speaking level on the very least.

The UI remains to be barely heavy handed for our style nevertheless it’s fairly customisable and we predict most individuals can discover a pleased medium right here.

Even higher is that it is available in cheaper than a few of its opponents, just like the Xiaomi 13 Professional, in order that makes it much more enticing for anybody searching for a photography-focused flagship smartphone.