HONOR Magic 4 Pro Review: Real Magic Or Misdirection?

We've had a lot of phones on this channel, but it's always an "honor" to revisit brands after a long while. Wordplay aside, the Honor Magic 4 Pro is our reintroduction to the brand and it doesn't disappoint. Running on the latest 8 Gen 1, we recorded our first "Maxed Out" Vulkan score on our graphics performance test. With a periscope telephoto camera and a familiar resemblance to Huawei's P50 Pro, among other interfaces that might remind you of the "red petal flowers", it still carries some standalone characteristics as a flagship.

Could this still be a Huawei underneath? Can a little makeup, granted access to Google Mobile Services and a clean break change the dynamics of a smartphone completely? You might already have your own opinion on it, but where "magic" might just be a myth to some, there's surely some sprinkled all over the Honor Magic 4 Pro. Just by glancing at the glass finish at the back, it's a quick tell on how fingerprints will be a smudgy mayhem, especially in this black colour-way. You might get away without a cover in the Cyan and Gold colour-way that's also available, but with a glossy texture like this, fingerprints are inevitable. The huge round camera module at the top – similar to the rest of the Magic 4 Series, X9 or X30 – might have some split opinions whether it's aesthetically pleasing or an eyesore, so we'll leave that to you to decide. Despite that, it's hard not to be drawn to the big periscope camera at the centre. It's probably only then you'll realise how well all of this is packaged together and how symmetrical the majority of this phone is. Discounting this pill-shaped dual front facing camera cutout at the front however. Not the first we've seen in a phone of course, but we felt like it would've looked better if it were placed in the centre of the screen and not in the top left corner. There's something about the notification icons being squished toward the middle that makes the negative space feel a little awkward and doesn't sit quite right to our eyes. Holding it in the hands does feel slightly slippery and might be a drop hazard for those with smaller hands considering its longer and wider size and weighing 209g, it might be a handful to some. After all, you do get the benefit of enjoying the 6.81 inch LTPO OLED HDR10+ over-the-edge display which reaches up to 1000nits and considerably one of the brightest we've tested, promising over 1 billion colours and sits comfortably alongside some of the greats like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which in our opinion had the best display that's come out of this year so far. There's even further options within