Hands-on: Honor Magic5 Pro

Honor's Magic5 series got a quiet start with the Magic5 Lite, but the company was saving its best performance for the MWC – the new Honor Magic5 Pro is an all-round flagship that builds on last year's design. It doesn't follow a straight path to upgrades, however.

In fact, the phone's designers prefer curved lines, and the phone is rounded all over. Despite the expansive 6.81" display, the phone is on the lighter side – it weighs 219g. For comparison, a Galaxy S23 Ultra is 234g, an iPhone 14 Pro Max is 240g. If you've held a Magic4 Pro in your hand, you should have a rough idea of the dimensions of its successor. It weighs about the same, it's a bit slimmer (8.8mm vs. 9.2mm) but also wider (76.7mm vs. 74.7mm).

The Honor Magic5 Pro is for people who love large phones, but it's not excessive either (the aforementioned Galaxy and iPhone are about a millimeter wider, for example). Like last year, the phone is rated IP68 for dust and water resistance. The company did not reveal the origin of the phone's glass panels.

The Pro model is coming in five color options: Glacier Blue, Meadow Green, Coral Purple, Orange and Black. The unit we got to handle was Glacier Blue. Note that the Purple and Orange colorways have vegan leather backs.

The display is the same size and resolution as last year – 6.81" and 1,312 x 2,848px (19.5:9, 461ppi). And yes, it is a 10-bit LTPO panel with HDR10+ support. The refresh rate ranges from 1Hz to 120Hz. However, there are a number of improvements that improve the display's performance and reduce the user's eye strain.

For starters, it is much, much brighter. The new display can reach up to 1,800 nits when displaying HDR content, the highest global brightness is 1,300 nits. For comparison, the old display peaked at "just" 1,000 nits. Honor also improved the high-frequency PWM dimming system and boosted it to 2,160Hz (up from 1,920Hz). The company has calibrated the display's color accuracy at two brightness levels (120 and 800 nits) down to deltaE of 0.27 (translation: the human eye can't perceive any deviations off the true color).

The rear camera has a multi-spectrum color temperature sensor to measure ambient light. Let's talk about the camera, shall we? The triple module still lives on a large circle, which Honor calls "Eye of Muse". This year the camera trio was rearranged into a triangular constellation – the periscope moved to the top, the main and the ultra wide cameras are on the bottom.

All three use 50MP sensors this year. The main camera is especially interesting. Last year Honor used the IMX766, a 50MP 1/1.56" sensor that we've seen on flagships and some less expensive phones. This year, the company has secured a customized 1/1.12" sensor and widened the aperture to f/1.6 (up from f/1.8). The unnamed sensor has 1.4µm native pixels and 4-in-1 binning support.

This has a big impact on night shots, and we won't keep you waiting; check out some camera samples below. Do you know what else helps with taking handheld photos in the dark? Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), of course, which is available on Magic5 Pro's main camera (its omission from the Magic4 Pro was a sore point last year).

Honor Magic5 Pro camera samples from a darkly lit bar (main camera)

Honor optimized the phone for high-quality video too, it can record 4K footage at 60fps in either HDR10+ or Magic-Log 10-bit log formats. There is an IMAX-branded app that will help you edit the videos you shoot on the phone itself, no need for a computer. One thing that is missing compared to other flagships an 8K mode.

The Magic5 Pro brings a new periscope telephoto camera. The optics still offer 3.5x magnification and have a brighter aperture to boot (f/3.0 vs. f/3.5 on the old Pro). The new module uses the 50MP Sony IMX858 sensor (instead of a 64MP sensor). Digital zoom goes all the way to 100x.

Before we show you more camera samples, we should note that the ultra-wide camera rounds up the triple 50MP setup; it has a 122° field of view and an f/2.0 aperture (vs. f/2.2 on the old Pro). Now, here are photos shot with each of the three cameras.

Honor Magic5 Pro camera samples: ultra wide • main • telephoto • further zoom

Honor Magic5 Pro camera samples: ultra wide • main camera • telephoto • further zoom

Honor Magic5 Pro camera samples: ultra wide camra

Honor Magic5 camera samples: main camera

Honor Magic5 Pro camera samples: telephoto camera

Here's an interesting note – this phone has two cameras capable of shooting macro images. The ultra wide module can do it up close (2.5cm/1in), and the tele camera can do it at a distance of 30cm/12in.

The Honor Magc5 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, because, of course, it is. Honor simplified the memory configuration for the phone – 12GB of LPDDR5X and 512GB UFS 4.0, that's it.

Honor added some custom features like the Discrete Display Chipset, which always renders the video in HDR10+ and has the option to turn 30fps content into 60fps. The phone also has a security system co-developed with Qualcomm, which keeps your passwords and biometric data secure.

That biometric data includes 3D face scans – the pill-shaped hole in the upper left corner holds the 12MP selfie camera (1.22µm, alas with fixed focus lens) and a depth sensor for more accurate, more secure face scans. The selfie camera, by the way, has a wide field of view, 100°, which allows it to easily capture group shots.

Last year, the Magic4 Pro impressed with its ability to charge at 100W both over a wire and wirelessly. This year Honor dialed back the speed – 66W wired, 50W wireless – and increased the battery capacity instead 5,000mAh, up from 4,600mAh. Honor includes a 66W SuperCharge adapter in the retail package, here's a look:

The Honor Magic5 Pro will be available in Q2 (April-June) at a price of €1,200 (that's the equivalent of $1,270/£1,055/₹105,000) for the 12/512GB configuration (which is the only option for now). For comparison, the Magic4 Pro went global with a price of £950 for an 8/256GB unit.