After a solid year of setbacks, Honor doubled down on its strategy to regain market space across Europe and China with a strong push of smartphones, tablets, laptops and wearable devices. The brand released its first foldable with the Magic V in China, which was later followed by the Magic Vs, which will eventually make their way to markets outside of China. The Honor Magic4 Pro was one of the most functional flagship offerings, while the Honor 70 and Honor 80 were the key mid-range phones.
We also got solid laptops with the likes of the MagicBook 14 2022 impressing us with its powerful internals and lightweight design, while the wearables segment also had some strong entries with the Honor Watch GS 3 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro.
Winner – Honor Magic4 Pro
Honor went 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 lightning-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 – Glory 80
The Honor 80 was launched in November, and upon closer inspection, you can see that not much has changed from its predecessor. Sure, the back cover has gotten a redesign and there’s a new 160MP main camera and 256GB base storage, but the rest of the spec sheets are identical to the Honor 70.
Honor 80 and Honor 70
A quick one spec comparison between 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 upgraded 160MP camera. The newer phone also has an inferior 8MP ultrawide camera compared to the Honor 70’s 50MP module and still ships with Android 12.
Winner – Honor Magic vs
The Honor Magic V never made it to 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 far less prominent than on competing foldable devices . Fortunately for us and foldable enthusiasts around the globe, the Magic Vs will be available outside of China, unlike its predecessor.
Glory Magic vs Ultimate
The Magic Vs brings all the great features of the Magic V along with some nifty additions like a 3x telephoto camera sensor, a more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and a larger 5,000 mAh battery. The newer phone is also lighter at 261 grams compared to its predecessor’s 288 grams and comes in a new 8/256GB entry-level variant which starts at CNY 7,500 in China ($1,050/€1,015). There’s also an optional Magic Pen stylus support, but it’s only for the 16GB RAM Ultimate edition phone.
Loser – Honor 70 European awards
The Honor 70 is a great mid-range phone with an excellent OLED display, premium design, reliable battery life and an above-average camera setup. The only problem is that it costs around €500 here in Europe, which puts it in the flagship-killer segment, where you can get a lot more for your money. For reference, the Honor 70 was launched at a base price of CNY 2,699 (€365) in China, which gives 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 when it reaches the European markets to compensate for the erroneous Honor 70 pricing.
Winner – MagicBook 14 2022
The Honor MagicBook 14 2022 is one of the most impressive laptops to come through our office for review this year due to its compact size and powerful internals. It’s one of the only 14-inch laptops with Intel’s 12-gen processors along with a dedicated Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU, while measuring just 17mm at its thickest point.
The 75Wh battery delivered great battery life in our tests, and the build quality was also top-notch with its aluminum chassis. Add the excellent port selection, fast USB-C 135W USB-C SuperCharger brick and spacious 3:2 screen, and you’ve got yourself a decent laptop that can handle both work tasks and games on the side.
