Honor Magic 5 Lite

Verdict

This funds handset borrows loads 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 properly.

Whereas the model pumps out its fair proportion of flagship units, it’s maybe most well-known for its funds choices – with loads of reasonably priced handsets accessible beneath the £300 price ticket. And Honor’s newest smartphone isn’t any exception. The Magic 5 Lite is a well-known machine, taking inspiration from final 12 months’s flagship. Whereas scaling again the worth, it goes full-steam-ahead on options for a succesful funds providing.

Up-front, the Magic 5 Lite greets with a powerful 6.67-inch OLED show, that includes a 120Hz refresh charge. 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 digital camera array fronted by a 64MP principal sensor.

Throw all of those into one budget-friendly machine, and also you’re left a significantly succesful little bit of equipment. However how does the Honor Magic 5 Lite fare out in the actual world?

Design & display

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

If the Honor Magic 5 Lite seems to be a little bit acquainted to you, you’re not alone. The smartphone model has taken inspiration from final 12 months’s flagship Magic 4 Professional. Reasonably 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, nevertheless it additionally feels higher when you’re holding the machine.

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

Flip over to the rear, and also you’ll discover Honor’s signature round digital camera bump. So far as digital camera bumps go, this one is pretty inoffensive – not elevating the machine an excessive amount of. With three cameras packed inside, it takes up loads of room on the rear. Beneath 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 accessible.

Whereas the polycarbonate again panel doesn’t really feel essentially the most premium, it helps to maintain the worth down. It’s possible you’ll need 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 high of this already spectacular show, you’ll discover some extra premium options. Honor features a 120Hz refresh charge on the machine for crispy and clean navigation on the machine. 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 funds machine begins to battle when you head exterior or into different vivid environments. Up high, there’s a gap punch selfie snapper on the very high 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 common for a budget-focused Android machine, you received’t discover any official water or mud proofing on the Magic 5 Lite. It’s not IP-certified, however Honor nonetheless reckons it needs to be splash resistant. The model has taken steps to attempt to preserve water out, equivalent to a rubber gasket across the SIM tray. I’d in all probability nonetheless err on the aspect of warning and attempt to preserve this cellphone dry.

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

Cameras

• Spectacular 64MP principal snapper
• Extra cameras aren’t fairly as highly effective
• Some digital camera options aren’t as much as scratch

Because the Magic 5 Lite is a funds smartphone, don’t count on flagship-level digital camera efficiency. Nevertheless, the 64MP principal sensor’s pictures are undoubtedly price writing house about for a tool at this worth. Sadly, the extra cameras and a few options let down what would in any other case be a really strong smartphone digital camera setup.

Beginning with the primary 64MP snapper, you’ll discover the machine produces sharp and well-exposed pictures. Colors are vivid, correct, and true to life – leaning to extra sensible colors quite than specializing in vibrancy. Footage get fairly vivid, too, due to the f/1.8 aperture, which may let lots of gentle in.

You’ll discover an absence of element whenever you zoom into a picture, nonetheless. Pictures change into quite a bit much less sharp, with considerably grainy and noisy pictures. You possibly can go for the higher-resolution mode to retain additional element, however these pictures are nonetheless a far cry from flagship outcomes.

You’ll get some sensible portrait pictures from the digital camera itself, which may deal with close-ups quite properly. Head into Portrait Mode, and also you’ll discover equally correct edge detection. Nevertheless, Honor’s blur can depart footage wanting a little bit unrealistic.

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

Prepared to fireside up some video? Sadly, the rear digital camera solely data in 1080p at 30fps. It’s a far cry from the 4K taking pictures you’ll discover on most smartphones lately, together with different funds choices such because the Poco X5.

The opposite two cameras on this triple digital camera array are a 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro lens. Because the ultrawide snapper is just 5MP, it could possibly’t seize almost as a lot element as the primary sensor – which already struggles. The result’s noisy and grainy pictures, which you’ll additionally discover are usually quite a bit darker. Colors are more-or-less as correct as the primary digital camera, however the lack of element actually lets it down.

And the 2MP macro lens is basically fairly poor. The precise Macro mode isn’t simple to search out within the Digital camera app. And whenever you do attempt to take some tremendous close-up pictures, you’ll be left with largely unusable pictures. There’s noticeable distortion, noise, and hues don’t look anyplace close to as vibrant. It’s a standard development for funds smartphones to incorporate a low-res macro lens as a 3rd digital camera, nevertheless it 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 digital camera is a 16MP sensor, with a reasonably slim f/2.5 aperture. Pictures are detailed, colour-rich, and vivid sufficient regardless of the shortage of HDR. One redeeming function is that Honor included a large lens right here, which lets you fill the body with loads of folks – ideally suited for group selfies.

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

Efficiency

• Can deal with on a regular basis use properly
• 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 funds smartphones lately, it additionally helps 5G connectivity.

Whereas Snapdragon 695 can deal with on a regular basis utilization properly, it’s designed for gentle 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 mentioned, 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 received’t stress out the machine. Even when taking part in some lighter video games, the smartphone can maintain its personal.

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

Placing the Magic 5 Lite by some benchmarking checks, produced some anticipated, however undoubtedly middle-of-the-road outcomes. Operating a Geekbench 6 benchmark check on the cellphone, I obtained 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 units, Honor’s providing is the higher choice.

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.

At the least issues really feel acquainted in comparison with different Honor smartphones, when you’re coming from a earlier machine. 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 little thing 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 quite they weren’t there to start with.

Connectivity-wise, the Magic 5 Lite packs every thing you’d count on from a smartphone, even for its funds worth. 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 will also be used for knowledge 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 greater 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 truly 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 straightforward feat on this funds 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 embody flagship-level charging speeds, nevertheless it does nonetheless embody quick charging at 40W through the USB-C port. It’s pretty customary lately, however will comfortably juice up the machine 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 funds machine, however that is one thing else that’s pretty widespread on funds smartphones.

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