Review: Honor Magic 5 Pro – The Promising Yet Disappointing Flagship Phone

After Honor returned to Hong Kong last year with the Magic 4 Pro, their latest flagship phone Magic 5 Pro in 2023 will be brought here for sale. However, because the previous generation only landed in August, there is only 8 months before the new flagship. I feel that the pace is quite urgent, but I believe it will return to normal in the future. This time, the Honor Magic 5 Pro has a more topical AI shooting function. It features three 50MP cameras, eagle eye wonderful capture, and 100 times telephoto. It seems to be more playable than the previous generation. But what about the actual effect? I believe that everyone probably guessed one or two from the title, but the editor’s personal feelings are still quite disappointing.

Exterior

The overall shape and details of the Honor Magic 5 Pro are inherited from the previous generation. Looking at the front, it is also a mobile phone with a curved screen. There is a slender pill-shaped dual front camera in the upper left corner. The big difference in appearance lies in the back of the phone. The back panel is still made of matte glass, which feels comfortable to the touch and will not leave fingerprints or stains. It is very attractive. The green version that was tested can especially show the harmony of the overall color of the fuselage. It is just to separate the two back and camera areas. The surface treatment process is used to make the difference. Compared with the previous generation with a large area of ​​black paint, it is visually more friendly to the non-black version. Another sense of harmony is that the openings of the three cameras of the Magic 5 Pro are all the same size, and there is no such thing as the previous generation.

The screen specification is similar to the previous generation, it is the same 6.81″ FHD+ LTPO panel, but the Magic 5 Pro is upgraded to a screen refresh rate of 1~120Hz, and has a higher frequency of 2,160Hz PWM dimming. It is also pre-installed with protection Save a little worry for users. Although the Magic 5 Pro’s screen will still be FHD+ until 2023, the picture detail is quite high. The factory emphasizes that this screen can display 1.07 billion colors. Watching Disney+ HDR movies The content has a very bright color performance, but the overall color contrast is a little bit lower, and it looks a little gray and light.

Although the appearance and feel of the Honor Magic 5 Pro are similar to the previous generation, and the weight has only increased by 4g, the battery inside is a slightly larger 5,100mAh capacity, but the fast charging power is cut from 100W to 66W; the wireless charging power is also halved to 50W, but this does not affect general use.

The specifications are at the level of the flagship in 2023. The Hong Kong version is Qualcomm Sanpdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, paired with 12GB RAM + 512GB storage space. Its performance in the benchmark tool is not as good as that of the Samsung Special Edition, but it is still at the level of the S8G2 fleet. .

camera

The three cameras of the Honor Magic 5 Pro are all 50MP. In addition to retaining the 100x telephoto of the previous generation, it also features the AI ​​​​shooting function “Hawkeye Wonderful Capture”. As the name suggests, it allows the mobile phone to analyze the wonderful moments on the screen and automatically shoot. “Hawkeye Wonderful Capture” supports multiple focal lengths from 0.5x to 5x. The official said it can automatically capture “people smiling, jumping and running, as well as cats and dogs and other scenes”. Simply put, the AI ​​​​camera has “people” and ” The recognition of animals, the former is the standard configuration of today’s smartphones, such functions as “smile shutter” and “gesture selfie” are old-fashioned functions, but what is new is that it can recognize animals and take pictures automatically. The editor took such a test shot with such expectations, and then was completely disappointed.

Although furkids are raised by humans as children, they cannot stand up and take pictures obediently like humans, so the function of being able to quickly and automatically capture pictures is really attractive. However, Magic 5 Pro’s eagle eye capture takes one to two seconds between “successful recognition” and “shooting”, and it does not shoot continuously. Users need to enter the album to check and then exit to automatically capture again. To put it simply, the imaging that relies on the eagle eye to capture cannot be used. They are all broken faces that miss cute moments. It is better to press the shutter manually.

The 100x telephoto on mobile phones today is optical zoom + digital zoom, plus a little bit of AI to complete the picture. At this time, the strength of AI is very important. The editor is here to do a “vision test” for the eagle eye, and take a 100x telephoto vision test picture in the distance. First of all, the telephoto stabilization function of the Magic 5 Pro is not ideal, and the editor has to spend a lot of effort Going to aim at the picture, the resulting imaging also clearly shows that the AI ​​​​has not successfully identified the content, and the effect of the completion is strange. Compared with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, not only can it easily aim at the subject, but its AI can also perfectly reproduce the English words on the “eye test”, and it even turns on the iPad screen.

On the contrary, the Magic 5 Pro’s macro shooting ability is good, whether it is telephoto macro or physically close to the subject, it can be used (the closest focusing distance is 2.5cm). Although the smearing feeling is quite strong, it is still clear and usable. The picture is also the closest to the performance of “Hawkeye”.

The highest recording specification is only 4K/60p. There is no anti-shock option on the interface, but you can see the sticky feeling of the screen movement. It is quite effective EIS + OIS, and it is also usable for general filming. However, the ultra-wide-angle camera can only be selected in the 30fps recording mode, and the experience is a bit unsmooth.

Summarize

Looking around at the flagship phones on the market, the performance of the Honor Magic 5 can only be regarded as mediocre, and the specifications cannot meet the group who pursue top standards, and the actual functions are even more lacking. The price in Hong Kong is not too surprising at HK$7,299, but the pre-order gifts are full of sincerity and give away DJI Osmo Mobile SE mobile phone stabilizer, original 100W wireless charging stand and special mobile phone case, so that consumers can carry large Pack a small bag and go home contentedly, but there is any other attraction, which I haven’t found yet. In any case, the time for Honor to develop independently after divesting from Huawei is still short, and it may take more time to figure out the way forward.