Once upon a time, Honor was a subbrand of Huawei that sold affordable midrange smartphones, tablets, and laptops. That was then. Since becoming an independent brand in November 2020, it is far from being a mid-range device maker. Of late, the company has been going high-end with its Magic range, which includes a folding phone.
Now, the Magic range has grown to include the new Magic4. There are three models of Magic4: the regular Magic4, the Pro model, and the range-topping Honor Magic4 Ultimate Edition, which costs a whole 1,500 yuan (about US$236) more than the top-spec Magic4 Pro.
As you can see, the Honor Magic4 Ultimate Edition differs not just under the hood; it also looks different too. If I can be honest, it looks less boring than the other Magic4. The strongest suit of the Magic4 Ultimate is the quad-camera system, featuring the world’s first Dual Free-Form Lens, paired to an additional brand-new custom-made image processor.
Apparently, imaging is so good that it makes the top of the chart on the DxOMark smartphone with 95 points, dethroning Huawei P50 Pro. The quad-camera comprises of a 50 MP wide-angle camera with a large 1/1.12-inch sensor and customized 8P lens, a 64 MP ultra-wide-angle camera with the said Dual Free-Form Lens, a 64 MP periscope telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom, and a 50 MP “spectrum enhanced camera”, which was first introduced in the Magic V folding phone.
The new Honor Magic4 Ultimate is outfitted with a 6.81-inch next-gen LTPO OLED display (FHD+ 2,848 x 1,312 pixels) with an adaptive refresh rate (1-120Hz) and supports 1920Hz Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) dimming. The display is bolstered by an advanced display chipset that offers AI HDR capable of boosting HDR10 to HDR10+ and enabling MEMC. The display is where you will also find a 12 MP selfie camera alongside a 3D depth camera.
It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G Mobile Platform, bolstered by Honor OS Turbo X, GPU Tubo X, and LINK Turbo X to promise smooth operation, improved battery life, and stable communication.
Other highlights include dual SIM support, independent security chip featuring TEE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, IR remote, GPS (AGPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo), IP68 rated, DTS:X Ultra, and a 4,600 mAh battery that supports Honor 100W super-fast charging and 50W super-fast wireless charging. And yes, it does come with an Honor SuperCharger power brick.
The Honor Magic4 Ultimate is available to order in China now in 12 GB and 512 GB configuration for 7,999 yuan (roughly US$1,256).
Images: Honor [CH].
