Honor Magic 5 Lite

Verdict

This price range handset borrows lots from final 12 months’s flagship to ship a well-known and strong-performing smartphone.

Introduction

Whereas primarily specializing in Asian markets, Honor is a well-liked Android model amongst worldwide customers as effectively.

Whereas the model pumps out its justifiable share of flagship gadgets, it’s maybe most well-known for its price range choices – with loads of inexpensive handsets out there below the £300 price ticket. And Honor’s newest smartphone is not any exception. The Magic 5 Lite is a well-known gadget, taking inspiration from final 12 months’s flagship. Whereas scaling again the worth, it goes full-steam-ahead on options for a succesful price range providing.

Up-front, the Magic 5 Lite greets with a powerful 6.67-inch OLED show, that includes a 120Hz refresh fee. Contained in the smartphone, you’ll discover a large 5,100mAh battery that simply will get you thru the day. And spherical again, there’s a succesful triple digicam array fronted by a 64MP important sensor.

Throw all of those into one budget-friendly gadget, and also you’re left taking a look at a severely succesful little bit of equipment. However how does the Honor Magic 5 Lite fare out in the true world?

Design & display

• Acquainted and light-weight design
• 6.67-inch OLED 120Hz show
• Constructed-in fingerprint scanner

If the Honor Magic 5 Lite appears slightly acquainted to you, you’re not alone. The smartphone model has taken inspiration from final 12 months’s flagship Magic 4 Professional. Fairly than your standard rectangular form, the Magic 5 Lite embraces curves each on the physique and the display itself. Not solely does this look extra aesthetic than sharp corners, but it surely additionally feels higher when you’re holding the gadget.

Once I first bought my mitts on this gadget, the slimline design actually impressed me. It’s solely 7.9mm thick, whereas the tapered edges emphasise simply how slim this gadget is. Plus, the polished polycarbonate body helps out the “Lite” in Magic 5 Lite, with the gadget weighing in at simply 175g.

Flip over to the rear, and also you’ll discover Honor’s signature round digicam bump. So far as digicam bumps go, this one is pretty inoffensive – not elevating the gadget an excessive amount of. With three cameras packed inside, it takes up loads of room on the rear. Under this, you’ll discover some Honor branding, and that’s just about it. The Magic 5 Lite embraces its polished color design. My unit is Emerald Inexperienced, however Titanium Silver and Midnight Black are additionally out there.

Whereas the polycarbonate again panel doesn’t really feel essentially the most premium, it helps to maintain the worth down. You could wish to whack a case on the again, although, for added safety.

Carry your consideration to the Magic 5 Lite’s show and also you’ll discover a powerful display wanting again at you. The smartphone goals excessive with a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel, that includes a 2400 x 1080 FHD+ decision. Colors are vibrant whereas watching content material on this smartphone, that includes the wealthy blacks that AMOLED panels are identified for.

On prime of this already spectacular show, you’ll discover some further premium options. Honor features a 120Hz refresh fee on the gadget for crispy and easy navigation on the gadget. It boasts a helpful always-on show, displaying you the time and notifications at a look.

The Magic 5 Lite can crank as much as round 800 nits of brightness inside, which is fairly ample for on a regular basis viewing. Nevertheless, you might discover that this price range gadget begins to battle when you head exterior or into different vivid environments. Up prime, there’s a gap punch selfie snapper on the very prime of the show.

Underneath the show is an optical fingerprint reader. In my expertise, this was snappy and correct to unlock with the contact of a finger.

Whereas commonplace for a budget-focused Android gadget, you gained’t discover any official water or mud proofing on the Magic 5 Lite. It’s not IP-certified, however Honor nonetheless reckons it ought to be splash resistant. The model has taken steps to attempt to maintain water out, corresponding to a rubber gasket across the SIM tray. I’d most likely nonetheless err on the aspect of warning and attempt to maintain this cellphone dry.

Because of a powerful show, skinny and light-weight type issue, and acquainted, flagship-esque design, the Magic 5 Lite is kind of the looker. Design-wise, it doesn’t really feel such as you’re utilizing a price range smartphone, which I can solely commend Honor for.

Cameras

• Spectacular 64MP important snapper
• Extra cameras aren’t fairly as highly effective
• Some digicam options aren’t as much as scratch

For the reason that Magic 5 Lite is a price range smartphone, don’t count on flagship-level digicam efficiency. Nevertheless, the 64MP important sensor’s photos are positively value writing house about for a tool at this value. Sadly, the extra cameras and a few options let down what would in any other case be a really strong smartphone digicam setup.

Beginning with the principle 64MP snapper, you’ll discover the gadget produces sharp and well-exposed photos. Colors are vivid, correct, and true to life – leaning to extra practical colors slightly than specializing in vibrancy. Photos get fairly vivid, too, because of the f/1.8 aperture, which might let a variety of mild in.

You’ll discover a scarcity of element once you zoom into a picture, nonetheless. Pictures grow to be lots much less sharp, with considerably grainy and noisy photos. You may go for the higher-resolution mode to retain additional element, however these photographs are nonetheless a far cry from flagship outcomes.

You’ll get some practical portrait photographs from the digicam itself, which might deal with close-ups slightly effectively. Head into Portrait Mode, and also you’ll discover equally correct edge detection. Nevertheless, Honor’s blur can depart photos wanting slightly unrealistic.

Regardless of the f/1.8 aperture, the Magic 5 Lite can battle to take pictures in low-light environments. You’ll discover excessive ranges of noise, a scarcity of element and a noticeable yellow hue. The cellphone’s devoted Night time Mode permits extra mild by preserving the shutter open for longer, however nonetheless produces sub-par photographs.

Prepared to fireplace up some video? Sadly, the rear digicam solely information in 1080p at 30fps. It’s a far cry from the 4K capturing you’ll discover on most smartphones lately, together with different price range choices such because the Poco X5.

The opposite two cameras on this triple digicam array are a 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro lens. For the reason that ultrawide snapper is barely 5MP, it might probably’t seize practically as a lot element as the principle sensor – which already struggles. The result’s noisy and grainy photographs, which you’ll additionally discover are typically lots darker. Colors are more-or-less as correct as the principle digicam, however the lack of element actually lets it down.

And the 2MP macro lens is actually fairly poor. The precise Macro mode isn’t simple to seek out within the Digicam app. And once you do attempt to take some tremendous close-up photographs, you’ll be left with largely unusable photos. There’s noticeable distortion, noise, and colors don’t look anyplace close to as vibrant. It’s a typical pattern for price range smartphones to incorporate a low-res macro lens as a 3rd digicam, but it surely doesn’t make it any much less disappointing.

Flip over to the entrance selfie snapper, and the Magic 5 Lite can take a social media-worthy snap. The outlet punch digicam is a 16MP sensor, with a reasonably slender f/2.5 aperture. Pictures are detailed, colour-rich, and vivid sufficient regardless of the shortage of HDR. One redeeming characteristic is that Honor included a large lens right here, which lets you fill the body with loads of individuals – perfect for group selfies.

As for front-facing video, the digicam can shoot in 1080p at 30fps, similar to the rear sensor. Whereas spectacular for front-facing video, it solely makes the principle recording on this gadget extra disappointing.

Efficiency

• Can deal with on a regular basis use effectively
• Can battle with extra performance-heavy duties
• Ships with Android 12

Powering the Magic 5 Lite is the Snapdragon 695 chipset coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It’s an octa-core CPU, with an onboard Adreno 619 GPU for graphics. As is the norm for price range smartphones lately, it additionally helps 5G connectivity.

Whereas Snapdragon 695 can deal with on a regular basis utilization effectively, it’s designed for mild duties like messaging and looking the net, and this turns into noticeable with extra demanding duties like 3D gaming. It matches the chipset used within the similarly-priced Poco X5 and OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite, and is barely much less highly effective than the MediaTek Dimensity 930 discovered within the Moto G73 5G.

With all this stated, the Magic 5 Lite is able to dealing with most on a regular basis duties with out a lot concern. Internet looking, checking emails, or scrolling by social apps gained’t stress out the gadget. Even when enjoying some lighter video games, the smartphone can maintain its personal.

Nevertheless, even the easier aspect of extra complicated duties made the Magic 5 Lite sweat. Multi-tasking graphics-heavy apps (corresponding to Netflix or video games) brought on some critical lag. It’s right here you could actually really feel the smartphone start to battle.

Placing the Magic 5 Lite by some benchmarking exams, produced some anticipated, however positively middle-of-the-road outcomes. Working a Geekbench 6 benchmark take a look at on the cellphone, I bought a single-core rating of 828 and a 2070 multi-core rating. Even with the identical processor inside, the Poco X5 couldn’t fairly break 700 on the single-core rating, and solely simply handed 2000 on the multi-core. So between the 2 gadgets, Honor’s providing is the higher possibility.

Disappointingly, the Magic 5 Lite ships with Android 12. That’s now two Android variations behind, so customers miss out on the newest options, stability, and efficiency that the working system can ship.

No less than issues really feel acquainted in comparison with different Honor smartphones, in case you’re coming from a earlier gadget. MagicUI 6.1 is intuitive – simple to get round, options related navigation, and affords a well-designed UI.

There’s a good bit of bloatware on the Magic 5 Lite, which is disappointing. Every part from Netflix, Reserving.com, and a few video games come pre-installed, with some Honor-branded apps alongside current Google choices. It’s simple sufficient to disable, however I’d slightly they weren’t there to start with.

Connectivity-wise, the Magic 5 Lite packs all the things you’d count on from a smartphone, even for its price range value. Alongside 5G, there’s additionally help for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC. There’s a USB-C port for charging on the backside, which can be used for information switch.

Battery life

• Sufficient energy to final all-day
• Environment friendly battery administration
• 40W quick charging capabilities

Honor has packed an enormous 5,100mAh battery contained in the Magic 5 Lite – even larger than the cell used within the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.

It’s secure to say you’ll haven’t any hassle breezing by the day on this battery. The Magic 5 Lite’s spec trade-offs really assist out with battery life. Whereas the chipset struggles to multi-task, it makes use of a lot much less energy, leaving you with additional cost. All-day battery life is a simple feat on this price range providing, and I’ve been tempted to courageous two days on a single cost.

After an hour of watching HDR content material on Netflix, the Magic 5 Lite misplaced simply 4% of its cost. Half an hour of gaming burned by an identically affordable 4%.

The Magic 5 Lite doesn’t embrace flagship-level charging speeds, but it surely does nonetheless embrace quick charging at 40W through the USB-C port. It’s pretty normal lately, however will comfortably juice up the gadget in not a lot time in any respect.

Impressively, the Magic 5 Lite took simply 26 minutes to cost from 0% to 50%, although it took slightly below 2 hours to go all the way in which to 100%. Notably, there’s no wi-fi charging on Honor’s newest price range gadget, however that is one thing else that’s pretty widespread on price range smartphones.

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