Honor MagicBook Pro: Exclusive hands-on of the 16-inch laptop with Ryzen 5 4600H SoC
The Honor MagicBook Pro with an Intel processor and Nvidia GeForce GPU was already available in China, but the new 2020 model with a modern AMD Ryzen 5 processor (H-series, 45 Watts) will also be available in Europe. There are currently two versions with differences in terms of memory equipment. The entry-level SKU for 749 Euros is equipped with 8 GB RAM and 156 GB NVMe-SSD storage, while our test sample for 899 Euros has 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB NVMe-SSD. Both models feature the Ryzen 5 4600H processor with the integrated Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU, a matte 1080p IPS screen, and an illuminated keyboard. We want to share our initial impressions of the new MagicBook Pro before the full review will be published soon.
Case & Ports
The MagicBook Pro is only available in gray and the design is very similar to the Huawei MateBook 14. There are differences in terms of design and quality compared to the less expensive Honor MagicBooks (which are based on the MateBook D models from Huawei). The first impression of the metal case is very good and it would also be a good fit for a more expensive device. The display bezels at the top and the sides are very narrow (4.9 mm), so the notebook does not appear too bulky despite the 16.1-inch screen.
Honor did not cut corners in terms of ports, because you only get fast USB 3 ports. One of them is a Type-C connector (3.2 Gen.1, 5 Gbps), which is also used for charging. if you have a corresponding adapter, you can also use it to attach an external screen via DisplayPort-Alt mode, but this will block the charging port in return. You also get a full-size HDMI output and three USB Type-A ports (3.2 Gen.1, 5 Gbps), one of the left and two on the right side of the chassis.
Display & Speakers
Honor uses a 16.1-inch IPS display (16:9) with the 1080p resolution. The matte panel creates a good picture and even bright contents do not look grainy. Honor specifies the brightness at 300 nits and a contrast ratio of 1000:1, which is confirmed by our measurements. We record more than 300 nits at all 9 measurement spots and even around 340 nits in the center of the screen. The black value is also very low at 0.19, which results in an excellent contrast ratio of ~1600:1. Subjectively, there is no criticism for the screen.
The additional width of the chassis is used for two top-firing speakers on both sides of the keyboard, so the sound is directly aimed towards the user. The speakers sound better compared to the MagicBook 15, for example, but they lack bass and tend to distort at higher volume levels. The manufacturer also included the Nahimic audio software with different presets and a virtual surround sound mode.
Performance & Fans
The AMD Ryzen 5 4600H inside the MagicBook Pro is a modern 45W processor. It has 6 cores (12 threads) running at up to 4.0 GHz. We can see this value for all 6 cores (50W) during the benchmarks before it will settle at 6x 3.7 GHz (42W) after a few seconds. This level can be maintained, which is also shown by our Cinebench R15 Multi loop. The CPU performance of the current Ryzen CPUs is very good and we have included the current Dell XPS 17 (Core i7) and the MacBook Pro 16 (Core i9) for comparison. These devices cost at least three times as much, but the MagicBook Pro can still easily keep up in terms of CPU performance.
Graphics calculations are handled by the integrated Radeon RX Vega 6, which is a part of the processor. The iGPU is roughly on par with the dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 in the MateBook X Pro and can handle some light gaming. Standard multimedia tasks including the playback of high-resolution videos are no problem for the Vega 6 iGPU.
The cooling solution consists of two heat pipes and two fans. They are usually deactivated during light workloads and we did not notice any coil whine so far, either. 3D load (like the 3DMark benchmarks) only result in a quiet fan murmur, but this is not surprising considering the iGPU. Only more demanding CPU tasks will result in an audible fan noise, but it is not annoying.
First Impressions - Big laptop with great price-performance ratio
The Honor MagicBook Pro leaves a good initial impression, especially for a price of 749 or 899 Euros, respectively. The modern AMD processor offers plenty of CPU performance and the integrated GPU is a good choice for daily multimedia applications. The metal case also leaves a high quality impression and the subjective picture impression of the matte screen is good.
We will obviously perform all our usual measurements and benchmarks for our full review (will be published soon). Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions for the review.
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