After a solid year of rebound, Honor has doubled down on its strategy to regain market space in Europe and China with a strong push of smartphones, tablets, laptops and wearables. The brand released its first Magic V foldout in China, followed by the Magic V later, eventually reaching markets outside of China. The Honor Magic4 Pro was one of the more feature-rich flagship offerings, while the Honor 70 and Honor 80 were the key phones in the mid-range segment.
We’ve also gotten solid laptops with the likes of the 2022 MagicBook 14, which impressed us with its powerful internals and lightweight design, while the wearables segment also had some notable entries with the Honor Watch GS 3 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro .
Winner – Honor Magic4 Pro
Honor has gone all out with the Magic4 Pro, which takes the crown as the brand’s most premium flagship to date. It has all the bells and whistles of a 2022 flagship: a high refresh rate LTPO OLED display with PWM dimming, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, versatile cameras including a periscope module, and blazing fast 100W wired and wireless charging .
You even get UWB support and a 3D ToF sensor for secure face unlock. It’s not easy to find a more feature-packed smartphone than the Magic4 Pro and while we had to wait several months for it to make its international debut, the wait was definitely worth it.
Loser – Honor 80
The Honor 80 was launched in November, and upon closer inspection, it can be said that not much has changed from its predecessor. Sure the back cover has been redesigned and there’s a new 160MP main camera and 256GB base storage, but the rest of the specs are identical to the Honor 70.
Honor 80 and Honor 70
A quick comparison of the specifications between the Honor 70 and Honor 80 shows how little has changed between the two generations. The Honor 80 is basically the same phone with a slightly newer Snapdragon 782G chipset and an updated 160MP camera. The newest phone also has a smaller 8MP ultrawide camera than the Honor 70’s 50MP module and still ships with Android 12.
Winner – Honor Magic vs
The Honor Magic V never made its way into markets outside of China which is a shame as it offered a sturdy design with a hinge that allows the phone to close flat while the crease in the middle was much less prominent than the foldouts competitors. Luckily for us and foldable device enthusiasts around the world, Magic Vs will be available outside of China, unlike its predecessor.
Honor Magic vs Ultimate
The Magic Vs offers all the great features of the Magic V along with some great additions like a 3x telephoto sensor, a more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, and a bigger 5,000mAh battery. The newest phone is also lighter at 261 grams compared to its predecessor’s 288 grams and is available in a new entry-level 8/256GB variant that starts at CNY 7,500 in China ($1,050/€1,015). There’s also an optional Magic Pen stylus holder, but that’s only for the 16GB RAM Ultimate edition phone.
Loser – Honor 70 European prices
The Honor 70 is a great mid-range phone with an excellent OLED display, premium design, reliable battery life, and above-average camera setup. The only problem is that it costs around €500 here in Europe, which puts it in the killer flagship segment where you can get a lot more bang for your buck. For reference, the Honor 70 launched at a base price of CNY 2,699 (€365) in China which gets you 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage compared to 8/128GB in Europe.
The asking price for the Honor 70 in Europe is simply too high and really hurts its competitiveness. We hope that Honor will offer the new Honor 80 with a more reasonable price once it reaches European markets to compensate for the bungled price of Honor 70.
Winner – MagicBook 14 2022
Honor MagicBook 14 2022 is one of the more impressive laptops that passed through our office for review this year given its compact size and powerful internals. It’s one of the only 14-inch laptops to feature 12th generation Intel processors along with a dedicated Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU, all at just 17mm thick.
The 75Wh battery provided stellar battery life in our tests, and the build quality was also top-notch with its aluminum frame. Add in the excellent selection of ports, the fast 135W USB-C SuperCharger brick and the large 3:2 screen and you have an adequate laptop that can handle both work tasks and games on the side.
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