For years, Honor was known as the Huawei sub-brand focused on budget devices, but after the Huawei-US issues, Honor split off from Huawei and became its own company. This has allowed Honor to really show what its mobile technology can do. Last year’s Honor Magic 4 Pro had some of the best hardware but was hampered by poor camera software. Now, the Honor Magic 5 Pro fixes that, while providing one of the best all-around devices with interesting software choices.
I want to start by talking about the hardware on this phone. It has a classic Honor design, which is derived from Huawei’s legacy. The display is curved at the sides with a slight curve over the top and bottom. It’s not as intense as the quad-curve of the Huawei P40 Pro, but it’s still there. This makes home and notification gestures more comfortable, although not everyone is going to like it. If you don’t like curved phones, you probably won’t like this one either, but I love it. I haven’t had any issues with accidental touches or glare around the curves either.
The screen is big, 6.81 inches, but unlike most phones released recently, it has a wider 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It feels big. It is also technically impressive, with a peak brightness of 1800 nits, IMAX Enhanced Certification (whatever that means), and a custom display chip.
Honor also claims the display has PWM dimming of 2160 Hz, which should, in theory, mean it is more comfortable on the eyes at night. PWM dimming basically allows the pixels on the display to turn on and off at a faster rate, which is different from switching data like refresh rate, in order to have better color accuracy at night. I have never really had a complaint about this on any phone, nor have I heard any complaints about it, so it feels like solving a non-issue for the sake of it.
In the aforementioned massive display is a pill-style hole-punch camera. It is big, prominent, and actually useful. Unlike many other devices that just throw in a secondary depth camera, Honor has a full 3D facial recognition camera with secure biometric face recognition, similar to FaceID on the iPhone. At the bottom of the display is an optical fingerprint scanner, which is a downgrade from the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner used in the Honor Magic 4 Pro, but realistically, facial recognition will be the primary form of authentication with the fingerprint mainly serving as a backup. And yes, it does work in third-party apps, like banking apps.
The back of the phone is a giant circle that houses the Honor Magic 5 Pro’s tri-50MP camera setup and 3D dTOF (Direct Time-of-Flight) scanner, which seemingly does little to nothing outside of possibly autofocus. This camera bump takes up over a third of the back panel. It is still comfortable to hold due to the “Gaudi Curve” around the bump.
What does “Gaudi Curve” mean? I have no idea. It is just a marketing term for curving the glass up to the camera bump to make it more comfortable, and it works. OPPO did this with the Find X3 Pro and Find X5 Pro as well, and it works just as well for Honor as it does for them.
Powering this phone is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. As expected, it is fast and great. The phone does not heat up, and the battery life is excellent. The 5,100 mAh battery can take up to 66 W of power through the USB-C port or 50 W wirelessly, with 5W reverse wireless charging. The 66 W charger can fill the device in approximately 45 minutes. It is worth noting that the Chinese model of this phone has a 5,450 mAh battery that uses a new silicon-carbon material for increased battery energy density. Honor did not say why the international version has a different battery cell, but it is unfortunate that this newer technology could not be made available to all markets.
To me, what really makes this phone stand out is its camera setup. The main sensor has some of the best HDR and stills I have seen, with the fastest shutter speed of any device I have used. The telephoto lens is a 3.5x periscope, which produces remarkably good photos. The ultrawide is a standard ultrawide, but still of excellent quality.
Finally, as mentioned before, the software choices are interesting.
The phone comes with Honor’s MagicOS 7.1, which is based on Android 13. However, it barely feels like Android 13. The software design is almost identical to EMUI 10 from Huawei, prior to the Huawei/Honor split. Honor has managed to keep most of the new Android features, but it still feels outdated. Furthermore, it is missing important features such as double-tapping the power button to access the camera or an easy way to power off the device, requiring you to hold the power button for 10 seconds and ignore the Google Assistant.
Honor’s camera feed support in third-party apps is also not that great. While the selfie camera does support up to 4K 30fps recording, no third-party apps take advantage of this. Moreover, apps such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram have poor quality. Although it is the responsibility of app developers to optimize the apps to the hardware, there are things Honor could have done to improve this, such as working with the developers to provide support before the devices launch.
None of these quirks in the Honor Magic 5 Pro software are deal breakers, but they do make the experience a little different. If you’re buying this phone, you’ll get used to it in under an hour and likely keep the device for years.
Realistically, you can keep the device for years too. Honor is matching Google’s Pixel series, offering three years of Android updates and five years of security updates. This should mean it’ll get Android 16 and security patches until 2028. How quickly this will happen is yet to be determined, as the previous-generation Honor Magic 4 Pro has yet to receive Android 13 internationally several months later, or at least my review unit has yet to receive it.
Another upside of the Honor Magic 5 Pro is the price. The Honor Magic 5 Pro launches in the UK today for £949.99, or approximately $1,200 USD. It will be launching in other regions soon for €1,199, although there is no information about that yet.
Although £949.99 is a lot of money for a phone, I believe it is well worth it. This phone is great and most people will likely be satisfied with it. If you are particularly interested in technology, ecosystems, customization, and branding, then a Galaxy S23+ is probably more suited to you. However, if you are simply looking for a really good phone, don’t have strong loyalties to brands, and are willing to spend flagship prices on a flagship phone, then the Honor Magic 5 Pro is the one for you.
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