The Magic4 Professional is Honor’s first world flagship launch because it emerged as a brand new, “separate” entity from mother or father firm Huawei. Regardless of giving its launch the “world” moniker, it isn’t a tool that’s accessible for buy within the US. Nonetheless, for these in Europe, the prospect of a Huawei-like cellphone returning to the market needs to be an thrilling proposition—Huawei was a strong alternative to high Android picks within the area earlier than it lost Google services.
These accustomed to the appears of Huawei gadgets, and significantly the Mate 40 Pro, will instantly recognise the traits of the Honor Magic 4 Professional: a pointy, curved display, metallic rail splitting the back and front, giant rear digicam module and a twin front-facing digicam cut-out.
In 2022, it’s a design that feels fairly outdated, with a pattern in the direction of flatter sides and matte glass throughout the trade. The rear, within the cyan colour possibility (the opposite accessible selection being black) is rapidly plastered with fingerprints after little use. However, on the plus aspect an absence of up to date appears doesn’t cease this machine from feeling top quality and durable in development.
Good first impressions aren’t the Magic 4 Professional’s forte, although. After you get previous the uninspiring appears, it’s onto the software program. This isn’t the clear and seamless model of Android you’ll discover on the likes of the Google Pixel 6 vary. As a substitute, you’ll see a mixture of each Honor’s personal apps and third-party bloatware like Reserving.com, MyTrainPal and extra thrust upon you. You possibly can trim this fats, however the preliminary trouble is an annoyance.
Image Imperfect
The software program issues lengthen to this cellphone’s, largely glorious, digicam. There was loads of jittering on opening the Digicam app, and it continued intermittently when tinkering with varied choices. It isn’t a deal breaker, however it does hinder considered one of this machine’s finest options, which is especially disappointing as the pictures the Magic 4 Professional produces are nice, with easy point-and-shoot snaps grabbing loads of element and attention-grabbing colour. Being choosy, the outcomes can err on the aspect of over-saturation, and a few over-sharpening, particularly in a setting with loads of gentle, however it isn’t sufficient to be distracting.
As much as 10x zoom, the outcomes are spectacular, too, particularly inside its 3.5x optical zoom vary—all achieved by this handset’s 64 MP periscope telephoto lens. This cellphone, just like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely, can go as much as 100x, however you received’t be displaying the photographs off on Instagram.
Portrait mode is a combined bag, with sturdy blur round clear edges, however it usually struggles to encompass the point of interest as precisely as you’d like. There’s additionally Evening Mode, which does an honest job of bringing the brightness up late within the day, however results in loads of over-sharpening.
You possibly can video document at as much as 4K 60fps on the Magic 4 Professional, and you’ll completely need to. The outcomes are gorgeous, with popping colours and splendid element. An absence of top-class stabilization stops this from being up there with the perfect, although.
What does assist with the irritation of the cumbersome digicam software program and cluttered bundled apps is the excellent show. It’s a 6.81-inch 120 Hz OLED panel that does profit from the bezel-less sides afforded by the steep curved glass, even when it results in some content material drooping off the display. Pictures and movies are introduced in pristine trend whereas the 120 Hz show, mixed with the speedy flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, means looking and leaping from app to app is a breeze.