HONOR today unveiled its new Magic5 Lite smartphone, featuring a high-quality display, long-lasting battery, and smooth user experience, all packed into a compact design at an affordable price.

HONOR Magic5 Lite features a 6.7″ 120Hz OLED display, Snapdragon 695 5G processor, 6GB of RAM, wide-angle (64 MP, f/1.8) + ultra-wide-angle (5MP, f/2.2) + triple rear cameras. macro (2MP, f/2.4), front camera (16MP, f/2.4) and 5,100 mAh battery with 40W fast charging.

HONOR Magic5 Lite is available for pre-purchase in three colors — Emerald Green, Midnight Black and Titanium Silver — at a price of €369 .

design and construction

HONOR Magic5 Lite has a front where the screen occupies a prominent place, with quite thin frames surrounding the screen , although not as narrow as in the most modern flagships.

The phone has a symmetrical front, with upper and lower frames of very similar thickness and side frames that almost disappear from view thanks to the curvature of the screen on both sides.

The curvature isn’t one of the most pronounced I’ve seen, but it’s more than enough to largely hide the side bezels and make the phone appear less thick than it really is.

The drawback of screens with a curve, especially when it is pronounced, is that the image appears darker at the edges. Here this effect can be seen clearly when looking at the screen fully from the front. Therefore, although these types of screens are aesthetically more attractive, they are not to the taste of all users.

The large screen of the HONOR Magic5 Lite has a hole for the front camera located in the center at the top, looking for the symmetry of the front .

When using apps that do not run in full screen, the front camera hole does not interfere, since the area where it is located belongs to the notification bar. In games that run full screen from side to side (no black bars to the right or left), the hole can indeed interfere with what we see on the screen .

HONOR Magic5 Lite has a thickness of 7.9 mm , making it one of the thinnest smartphones that we can find on the market. Its weight of 175 grams also makes it one of the lightest.

	Measurements (mm.)	Weight (g)	Screen	Screen to body ratio (*)
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra	163 × 78 × 8,9	234	6,8″	90%
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra	163 × 78 × 8,9	228	6,8″	90%
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra	164 × 75 × 8,4	234	6,8″	91%
Xiaomi Mi 11	164 × 75 × 8,1	196	6,8″	91%
Huawei Mate 40 Pro	163 × 76 × 9,1	212	6,8″	94%
ASUS ROG Phone 5s	173 × 77 × 9,9	238	6,8″	82%
HONOR 70	161 × 73 × 7,9	178	6,7″	91%
OPPO Reno8 Pro	161 × 74 × 7,3	183	6,7″	90%
Xiaomi 12 Pro	164 × 75 × 8,2	204	6,7″	90%
OnePlus 10T	163 × 75 × 8,8	204	6,7″	88%
Xiaomi 12T Pro	163 × 76 × 8,6	205	6,7″	87%
Pixel 7 Pro	163 × 77 × 8,9	212	6,7″	89%
iPhone 14 Pro Max	161 × 78 × 7,9	240	6,7″	88%
iPhone 14 Plus	161 × 78 × 7,8	203	6,7″	87%
iPhone 13 Pro Max	161 × 78 × 7,7	240	6,7″	87%
⏩ HONOR Magic5 Lite	162 × 74 × 7,9	175	6,7″	90%
POCO F4 GT	163 × 77 × 8,5	210	6,7″	86%
OPPO Find X5 Pro	164 × 74 × 8.5	218	6,7″	90%
OPPO Find X3 Pro	164 × 74 × 8,3	193	6,7″	90%
OnePlus 9T	163 × 74 × 8,7	197	6,7″	90%
LITTLE F4	163 × 76 × 7,7	195	6,7″	87%
POCO X4 Pro	164 × 76 × 8,1	205	6,7″	86%
Pixel 6 Pro	164 × 76 × 8.9	210	6,7″	89%
OnePlus 10 Pro	163 × 74 × 8.6	201	6,7″	90%
OnePlus 9	160 × 74 × 8,7	192	6,6″	88%
Xiaomi 12 Lite	159 × 74 × 7,3	173	6,6″	88%
Huawei P40 Pro+	159 × 73 × 9,0	226	6,6″	92%
Huawei P40 Pro	158 × 73 × 9,0	209	6,6″	92%
I live X60 Pro	159 × 73 × 7,6	179	6,6″	90%
Samsung Galaxy S22+	155 × 76 × 7,6	195	6,6″	88%
OPPO Find X5	160 × 73 × 8.7	196	6,6″	89%
Nothing Phone (1)	159 × 76 × 8,3	194	6,6″	86%
Sony Xperia 1 IV	165 × 71 × 8.2	185	6,5″	84%
Sony Xperia 1 III	165 × 71 × 8.2	186	6,5″	84%
LITTLE M4 Pro	160 × 74 × 8.1	180	6,4″	85%
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE	156 × 75 × 7,9	177	6,4″	85%
Pixel 6	159 × 75 × 8,9	207	6,4″	83%
Pixel 7	156 × 73 × 8,7	197	6,3	85%
Samsung Galaxy S22	146 × 71 × 7,6	167	6,1″	87%
iPhone 14 Pro	148 × 72 × 7,9	206	6,1″	87%
iPhone 14	147 × 72 × 7,8	172	6,1″	86%
iPhone 13 Pro	147 × 72 × 7,7	204	6,1″	86%
iPhone 13	147 × 72 × 7,7	174	6,1″	86%
Sony Xperia 5 III	157 × 68 × 8,2	168	6,1″	85%
Huawei P40	149 × 71 × 8,5	175	6,1″	86%
Pixel 6a	152 × 72 × 8,9	178	6,1″	83%
Pixel 5	145 × 70 × 8,0	151	6,0″	86%
iPhone 13 mini	132 × 64 × 7,7	141	5,4″	85%

(*) Screen-to-body ratio data obtained from GSMArena

One reason for the HONOR Magic5 Lite’s low weight is the use of plastic in the device’s chassis , rather than aluminum or steel. This means that it is not as resistant to drops and bumps as other smartphones.

HONOR does not make any mention in the phone’s specifications regarding the use of Gorilla Glass to protect the front, so it can be assumed that it does not have this coating or any similar.

What HONOR does claim is that the phone incorporates 0.65mm reinforced glass, higher than the industry average of around 0.55mm, with an enhanced stress of more than 900 MPa² on its screen. curve, which translates into a drop resistant screen.

According to HONOR, this means that the phone is capable of withstanding accidental drops onto hard floors from heights of up to 1 meter. Will it be true? I preferred not to try it.

The back of the HONOR Magic5 Lite is curved on both sides, but what really stands out when flipping the phone over is the huge Matrix Star Ring camera module made up of a large ring that houses the three cameras and flash.

The camera module juts out from the phone’s surface, but being centrally located, the phone doesn’t wobble too much when you tap on its screen while it’s sitting on a table, unless you do it very close to the top.

Next, we are going to review the elements that we find on the sides of the phone.

On the right side we find the power button and an elongated button for the volume.

On the left side we do not find any element.

The upper part of the phone is free of elements, except for the infrared emitter.

The bottom of the phone has a USB-C connector in the center. On one side we find the slot to house up to two nano-SIM cards and, on the other side, a conventional speaker.

HONOR highlights of this phone the unique colors of the back that, according to the brand, are inspired by nature: Titanium Silver (only available in HiHONOR), Emerald Green and Midnight Black.

The Emerald Green model is the one I’ve tried and it has a color gradient that plays with light and reflects it, creating a striking effect.

HONOR Magic5 Lite is not certified for protection against water , so you have to be careful not to take a dip or it could be damaged forever. If this happens to you, remember that it is not a good idea to introduce it into rice.

Screen

HONOR Magic5 Lite has a 6.7″ OLED screen with a 20:9 ratio and Full HD+ resolution (2,400 × 1,080 pixels) , which implies a pixel density of 394 ppi.

Some high-end smartphones have displays with higher Quad HD+ resolutions and therefore higher pixel densities. However, the sharpness offered by the screen of the HONOR Magic5 Lite is more than enough, so, in my opinion, you will not miss a higher resolution.

The screen has a touch sampling rate of 300 Hz, so it responds quickly to touches and can therefore give you an advantage in action games.

HONOR has incorporated a panel with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and allows you to choose between three settings: Standard (fixed refresh rate at 60Hz), High (fixed refresh rate at 120Hz) and Dynamic (adapts the refresh rate to 120Hz). refresh to displayed content to save battery). The normal thing is that you have chosen the latter, which offers a good balance between performance and autonomy.

Some smartphones are more advanced and have LTPO panels can reduce the refresh rate up to 10 Hz (or even less) if, for example, you are viewing a static image, but in the price segment in which we find ourselves, HONOR Magic5 Lite complies exceedingly.

In addition to having a high refresh and sampling rate, the HONOR Magic5 Lite’s screen offers a wide 10-bit color range, which allows it to cover the DCI P3 gamut.

If you’re not familiar with color spaces, all high-end smartphones more than cover the standard Android color space: Rec. 709 / sRGB.

The most advanced try to cover the DCI-P3 space used in the film industry, and a few point to the even wider Rec. 2020 color space , which covers 76 percent of the visible spectrum.

No current panel is capable of displaying the full Rec. 2020 color space, but many panels, like the one on this phone, do cover the DCI-P3 space.

On the other hand, HDR technology increases the dynamic range of color tones displayed on the screen. However, HONOR Magic5 Lite does not support HDR content.

To analyze the quality of the screen we have carried out various tests with the professional software CalMAN Ultimate and an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter .

HONOR Magic5 Lite offers two color reproduction modes: normal and vivid . As its name indicates, the vivid mode offers more vivid colors, but, at the same time, less faithful to reality, while the normal mode is the one that aims to show colors that are closer to reality.

With the normal mode active, the color fidelity turns out to be excellent since the average error is located at 0.8 dE (a value below 4 dE is considered excellent and above 9 is considered unacceptable) and the maximum error is 2.5 dE .

In this color mode, the screen covers 96% of the sRGB space (and 72% of the DCI P3 space), as expected, and the color temperature turns out to be 6,307ºK, a value that is very close to the temperature reference of 6,500ºK

Display test results in normal color mode

If we switch to vivid mode, which is the one that is active by default, the color fidelity compared to the DCI-P3 gamut worsens to a mean error of 3.4 dE and a maximum error of 6.7 dE. This is because colors appear more saturated than they actually are.

The color temperature turns out to be 7,353ºK, a high value that gives the screen a rather marked bluish tone. If we choose the warm mode, the color temperature decreases to values ​​closer to optimum. In this mode, 100% of the DCI-P3 color space is covered.

Display test results in vivid color mode

Some smartphones offer an option to dynamically adjust the screen’s color temperature based on ambient light for a paper-like experience, similar to how True Tone works on iPhones. However, in HONOR Magic5 Lite this functionality does not seem to be available.

According to my own measurements, HONOR Magic5 Lite’s maximum panel brightness is around 514 nits at full brightness in manual mode, but increases to 813 nits if we set auto mode and are under brightly lit environment (HONOR speaks 800 nits on its spec sheet). These tests have been carried out, as usual, with the screen completely blank.

In this comparative graph we reflect the maximum brightness value with the screen at 100% in white, since it is the usual way of measuring the brightness of a screen.

This maximum brightness value with the screen illuminated at 100% is very high , in line with other high-end smartphones.

The black color is very deep , so the colorimeter has been unable to measure any level of gloss. This means that the color black is really black and that the contrast is theoretically infinite. When there is a lack of ambient light, HONOR Magic5 Lite reduces the screen’s brightness level to as low as 2 nits, minimizing eye irritation for users in dimly lit environments.

OLED screens have a peculiar behavior when viewed from an angle. On the one hand, the light emitters are closer to the surface, and this causes the contrast and brightness to vary less when moving relative to the center, but on the other hand, the Pentile matrix causes the colors to be distorted.

In the case of the HONOR Magic5 Lite, the viewing angles are wide and the colors are hardly altered when looking at the screen from an angle. Now, since the screen is curved on the sides, when looking at the phone from the front you can see a darker color on the sides.

HONOR has incorporated the functionality to turn on the screen with a double tap to see if we have pending notifications, as well as the Always Show on Screen functionality , although it is somewhat hidden in Settings > Main screen and wallpaper > Always show on screen.

Always On Display Screen (or, as HONOR calls it, Always Show on Screen) 

This functionality shows the time / date, battery level and app notification icons on the lock screen. It is possible to configure that it is always active, only when you click on the screen or at certain times.

HONOR has incorporated a reading mode that filters out blue light to relieve eye strain. It can be activated manually or, if we prefer, we can program the start and end time.

An eBook mode is also present , which prevents eye strain if you read for an extended period of time on the device. When this mode is enabled, the device screen appears in black and white to rest your eyes.

HONOR has included high-frequency PWM dimming at 1,920Hz, which prevents screen flicker at low brightness levels while maintaining color fidelity. Even though it is imperceptible to the eye, this flicker causes headaches in some people. Other smartphones resort to DC Dimming which, by acting on the screen circuit power, reduces flicker at the cost of deteriorating image quality.

Hardware

HONOR Magic5 Lite is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G processor , which was announced in October 2021 to bring 5G speed and performance to the most affordable range of smartphones.

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This is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G is a mid-range chip with 8 Kryo 660 (64-bit) cores divided into two clusters. A fast dual-core cluster up to 2.2GHz based on the ARM Cortex-A78 design and an efficient cluster up to 1.8GHz based on much smaller ARM Cortex-A55 cores. Both clusters can be used together.

In addition to the 8 CPU cores, the chip integrates a lower-middle-range Adreno 619 GPU, an X51 5G modem (up to 2.5 Gbits of download, without mmWave), 802.11ac connectivity (Wi-Fi 5, 8×8 , Dual Band, 2×2), Bluetooth 5.2, satellite positioning (GPS, QZSS, GLONASS, SBAS, Beidou and Galileo) and a video engine (compatible with H.265, H.264, VP8 and VP9).

Compared to the previous SD690, the SD695 is now manufactured in 6nm (instead of 8nm) and offers a higher clock frequency cluster. However, the Snapdragon 695 only supports Wi-Fi 5 instead of the Wi-Fi 6 of the Snapdragon 690.

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HONOR Magic5 Lite has 6 GB of RAM , which should be more than enough to be able to have several applications open at the same time. It is true that some competitors offer much more RAM, but in my opinion, this is often more a matter of marketing than a real big improvement for users.

While the built-in RAM is of the LPDDR4x type, there are already many smartphones on the market with LPDDR5 (and even LPDDR5x) memory, which offer faster access times and lower power consumption.

To prevent background processes from being terminated when users switch between apps, HONOR Magic5 Lite is equipped with HONOR RAM Turbo to convert a small portion of storage to RAM. Now, we must take into account that storage is much slower than RAM, so performance suffers.

HONOR Magic5 Lite can get extra 5GB RAM with HONOR RAM Turbo technology. This technology also optimizes RAM usage by compressing background apps, allowing HONOR Magic5 Lite to keep more apps running in the background.

In my tests, HONOR Magic5 Lite has been able to keep a large number of applications open in memory, without restarting when going through them again.

Next, we are going to see the results of the phone in various benchmarks , which will give us an idea of ​​the power of this terminal compared to other phones.

In the AnTuTu v9 benchmark , it has achieved a result of 400,168 points , a score that does not stand out particularly.

In the Geekbench 5 benchmark focused on processor performance, it achieved 666/1,849 points in single/multi-core tests, which are again modest results.

In the PCMark 3.0 general performance test, which measures performance when performing everyday tasks, it has obtained a score of 10,165 points , a rather low value.

When it comes to storage, the phone scores very poorly in AndroBench ‘s read and write speed tests.

In the CPU Throttling test that measures the drop in CPU performance after 15 minutes of sustained load, the phone performed well, with performance dropping by only up to 93% in that period.

Next, we are going to see the results in various graphics benchmarks to check the expected performance in games.

In GFXBench tests based on modern low-level and high-efficiency APIs (Metal on iOS and Vulkan on Android), the phone achieves rather low results compared to other phones.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited test , the phone also achieved a rather modest result of 1,190 points.

To check the graphics performance on a day-to-day basis, I’ve tried several demanding 3D games — Real Racing 3, Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty Mobile .

Using the GameBench software , I have been able to measure various performance parameters in these games in real world play.

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Do you know GameBench Pro? GameBench Pro is the industry’s leading tool for measuring gaming performance on Android and iOS smartphones. If you want to know more, you can visit their website .

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Games produce a stable rate around 30 FPS on Asphalt 9, 60 FPS on Call of Duty, and 60 FPS on Real Racing 3.

These are correct values, but other smartphones with screens with refresh rates above 60 Hz easily exceed 60 FPS in titles like Real Racing 3. In this case, you will not take advantage of the greater fluidity of the screen when it comes to play.

Game	FPS (mediana)	FPS stability	FPS Min.-Max.	%CPU
Asphalt 9	30	98%	22-31	8%
Real Racing 3	60	99%	41-61	6%
Call of Duty	60	100%	53-61	14%

(*) Game quality settings:

Asphalt 9: Graphics quality set to “high”
Real Racing 3: Graphics quality by default
Call of Duty Mobile: Graphics quality “high” and frames per second at “very high” speed

In addition to specific graphics performance, it is important to know if the phone is able to sustain this performance over time or if it is reduced by the increase in processor temperature. The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test precisely measures the variation in graphics performance after 20 minutes of running the test.

The phone has achieved a very good result of 99.3%, which means that the graphics performance hardly deteriorates after a long period of use.

HONOR Magic5 Lite ships with 128GB of storage. HONOR doesn’t specify what kind of storage it is, though from the benchmark results (and the fact that it doesn’t advertise it) I’m inclined to think it’s UFS 2.x.

HONOR does not offer the ability to expand storage via a micro-SD card and also does not offer other options with more capacity, so you are limited to that storage.

The USB-C port is a USB 2.0 type and supports OTG, so you can plug in a USB-C key and access it like external storage.

In terms of connectivity, HONOR Magic5 Lite supports WiFi 5 , but it is not compatible with WiFi 6, the protocol for WiFi networks that not only increases speed but is specially designed to connect a large number of devices at the same time.

HONOR includes a dual SIM slot, but does not offer eSIM support. HONOR Magic5 Lite supports Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and various satellite positioning systems. 

Of course, HONOR Magic5 Lite is compatible with 5G networks . Now, in the tests that I have carried out, the network speed for both Wi-Fi and cellular have not been particularly high.

HONOR Magic5 Lite has reached 239 Mbps download and 237 Mbps upload on Wi-Fi with a 300 Mbps connection, being unable to reach the maximum speed that other smartphones do. In the 5G cellular connectivity test, I have measured speeds of around 34 Mbps download and 12 Mbps upload with Orange’s 5G network in an area with not very good coverage.

In the “absences” section, it should be noted that it does not incorporate an FM radio , which some users will find a limitation, nor an infrared emitter.

Biometric systems

HONOR Magic5 Lite has two biometric authentication systems: fingerprint reading and facial recognition.

HONOR has incorporated a fingerprint reader under the screen itself  that allows you to quickly unlock the phone by placing your finger on the area of ​​the screen where the sensor is located. The sensor is positioned a bit too low for my liking, so it may take a bit of finger stretch to reach it depending on how you hold the phone.

When you move the phone, the fingerprint area appears marked, so you just have to put your finger on it to unlock the phone without having to touch any button .

Fingerprint reader under the screen of the HONOR Magic5 Lite

HONOR has also added a facial recognition system that uses the front camera to capture a 2D image, so it’s not as secure as the 3D recognition found on some smartphones.

Face unlock works very quickly, so it’s really convenient if, for some reason, you prefer not to put your finger on the screen to unlock your phone.

HONOR allows fingerprint and face recognition to be active at the same time , so we can use the one that best suits us at any time.

Battery

The HONOR Magic5 Lite battery has a capacity of 5,100 mAh , which is a very high value for a phone with this screen size and, above all, with such a thin thickness.

HONOR claims the phone can handle up to 29 hours of YouTube Music streaming, 24 hours of YouTube streaming, 19 hours of TikTok views, up to 21 hours of social media consumption, or 11 hours of gaming on a single charge.

To check the autonomy, I have carried out the battery test of the well-known PCMark test: Work 3.0.

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ℹ️Info: A reflection on autonomy tests

Given the importance of the screen in the consumption of the battery, it is important to calibrate with a colorimeter (or a similar instrument) the screens at the same absolute level of brightness (it is not valid to set it to 50%) if you want to obtain comparable autonomy results. between devices.

Otherwise, the results may be greatly affected by the brightness level of each smartphone’s screen and are therefore not comparable. Not all analyzes take this into account and sometimes absurd values ​​are read in this test.

In the case of PCMark: Work 3.0, the test itself indicates that the test must be carried out with the screen calibrated at 200 nits so that the results are comparable. This is how we perform autonomy tests on smartphones.

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PCMark Work 3.0 tests the autonomy of the terminal when carrying out a mixture of daily and demanding tasks, since the test simulates browsing web pages, writing texts and inserting images, applying filters to photos, editing videos and data manipulation.

In PCMark’s Work Battery Life 3.0 battery test , the phone has given an excellent result of 11 hours and 38 minutes with the screen refresh rate at 120 Hz.

If we reduce the refresh rate to 60 Hz, the test result increases to 16 hours and 58 minutes , which is quite a high mark.

Finally, I have also carried out a test with the active dynamic rate and, in this case, I have obtained a value of 13 hours and 16 minutes — a result halfway between the two, and which is still very high.

On a day-to-day basis, the autonomy of the HONOR Magic5 Lite is very good. I have not had any difficulty getting through the day with moderate phone usage using dynamic rate.

In addition, HONOR has incorporated a power saving mode within the System Manager app and in the Settings section.

This mode saves power by enabling dark mode and disabling the Always On Display functionality and auto-syncing, restricting background app activity, and reducing visual effects.

HONOR also offers a maximum performance mode , which optimizes settings for higher performance, but this causes battery consumption and temperature to increase.

The System Manager app also performs a phone status scan to increase power savings by suggesting various actions.

For example, the app indicates which applications consume the most energy and what settings we can modify to reduce energy consumption: reduce the time the screen waits before turning off, set the brightness to automatic mode, deactivate automatic rotation, etc

One feature that I liked is that it allows you to individually select which apps can start automatically, as well as which ones can continue to run in the background .

In addition, the phone also indicates which applications consume a lot of power so that we know where we are going to reap the most benefits.

HONOR Magic5 Lite has 40W fast charging technology, which is quite fast for what we usually find in most smartphones of this price.

I would like HONOR (and, in general, almost all Chinese manufacturers) to adopt USB-PD as a fast charging standard, since to achieve maximum charging speed you need to use the brand’s own charger.

HONOR claims that just 30 minutes of charging, HONOR Magic5 Lite offers 12.5 hours of video streaming. In my tests with a 40W SuperCharge charger, the entire charging process took 1 hour and 10 minutes . In just 25 minutes, it reaches 50 percent charge.

HONOR Magic5 Lite doesn’t include wireless charging , which is a shame for those like me who have gotten used to charging their phone just by resting it on a compatible charging pad on the nightstand, next to the computer, or even in the car.

The phone offers reverse wired charging , so it is capable of charging another smartphone if you connect it using a USB-C to USB-C cable.

Software

HONOR Magic5 Lite runs Android 12 , and on top of the operating system, HONOR incorporates its own Magic UI 6.1 customization layer.

Magic UI 6 was announced in March of last year with some interesting new features, such as the ability to customize the desktop by adjusting the size of the widgets and easily access information without having to open the apps.

To do this, just drag the handle up on the icon of certain apps — those that allow this gesture have a line under the icon. For example, it is possible to drag on the calendar icon to see the agenda for that day or on the photo gallery to see featured images.

HONOR Share allows you to quickly share files with nearby HONOR devices without using mobile data, as well as print files to nearby printers. You can also enable Computer Sharing to share files with a computer connected to the same network.

HONOR has also introduced improvements to the search function with HONOR Search. Now it’s possible to find local files and settings, as well as web pages, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Lastly, Magic UI 6 also keeps more apps running in the background compared to the previous version.

In addition to these new features, Magic UI continues to offer interesting features on Android, such as Application lock to protect access to an application by fingerprint or facial recognition, Safe to protect access to certain content such as images, videos or files or the Manager Password Manager to store usernames and passwords locally on the smartphone and access them using the lock screen password.

I miss some functionalities present in other layers of software, such as being able to clone apps (to have two accounts in apps that do not support multi-account, such as WhatsApp), having a second private space, using advanced tools for games (such as Game Center ), display floating windows for multitasking, or enable a desktop interface.

Multimedia

HONOR Magic5 Lite has a single speaker located at the bottom of the phone, next to the USB Type-C connector. The position is not the best as it is easy to cover the speaker with your hand when holding the phone horizontally.

Unlike other smartphones, HONOR has not included a second speaker in the ear cup, so we cannot enjoy stereo sound.

In my tests, the sound has been heard powerful and clear, although the quality cannot compete with other smartphones that have stereo speakers.

HONOR has dispensed with the traditional headphone jack , so we will have to use USB-C or Bluetooth headphones, or use a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter.

If you are used to listening to music with headphones, you will be happy to know that HONOR includes a 3D audio technology that it calls Histen.

This technology allows you to enjoy various playback modes through headphones : automatic, 3D audio, natural and standard.

HONOR Magic5 Lite also features a ten-band sound equalizer with several preset modes, should you prefer a more granular setting.

At the codec level, HONOR Magic5 Lite is compatible with SBC, AAC and LDAC.

In practice, the sound is heard very well with headphones, although my untrained ear does not notice a difference compared to other smartphones.

HONOR Magic5 Lite Sound Options

HONOR Magic5 Lite does not come with its own music player software, instead it makes use of YouTube Music , like many other smartphones.

The Gallery app is owned by HONOR and is used to view and play the photos and videos stored on the phone. The app includes three tabs: Photos (to see all the stored photos), Albums (to see the content organized into photos, videos, screenshots, favourites, etc.) and Discover (to create stories, videos, and collages from the photos).

The application also allows you to edit the images using various basic tools for cropping, adjusting the color, modifying the contrast, etc. Nothing new that we haven’t seen before.

HONOR Magic5 Lite Gallery App

HONOR Magic5 Lite is L1 certified by Google’s Widevine DRM system , so we can play HD content on streaming apps like Netflix. Now, as I have already mentioned, it is not compatible with HDR content.

cameras

In the photographic section, HONOR has included three rear cameras in HONOR Magic5 Lite:

• Wide-angle camera with 64MP sensor, f/1.8 aperture lens and autofocus.
• Ultra-wide-angle camera with 5MP sensor and f/2.2 aperture lens without autofocus.
• 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture.

In this camera configuration, the optical stabilization in the wide-angle camera is missing, as well as the presence of a telephoto camera. In both cases they are expected absences given the price range in which the phone moves.

The Camera app is pretty standard. The main modes are arranged in a carousel, and you can switch between them with a swipe. The “More” menu contains the rest of the modes. General camera settings are accessed via an icon in the upper right corner of the viewfinder.

If you’re an expert user, you’ll be happy to know that HONOR includes a Professional mode that allows you to manually adjust parameters such as ISO sensitivity, focus point, white balance, shutter speed, and more. Now this mode is only available with the wide angle main lens.

Main camera (wide angle)

HONOR Magic5 Lite is equipped with a 64MP sensor, although the captures are taken at 16MP making use of the pixel binning functionality that groups 4 pixels into 1. In this way, it is possible to reduce noise and take better images in low light conditions. .

HONOR offers a High Resolution mode that allows you to capture an image at the native 64MP resolution, resulting in sharper images, as seen in this example.

Comparison between photographs taken at 64MP or 16MP

Below, we can see some photos taken with the main camera in abundant light conditions.

The camera does a good job of preserving detail, but it does deliver somewhat muted colors at times and somewhat limited dynamic range, as if HDR processing isn’t applied automatically. This is seen in photographs with very light and very dark areas, where certain areas look like a black or white spot.

Pictures taken with the main camera in bright light

The image quality worsens when the light is scarce, since the absence of optical stabilization forces the ISO sensitivity to be raised to high values ​​and, therefore, noise appears. Unlike other phones, HONOR has preferred to keep the noise in rather than apply an aggressive noise reduction algorithm that leads to loss of sharpness.

In any case, the resulting captures are reasonably good for the price range in which this phone moves.

Next, we can see some photos taken at night.

Photos taken with the main camera in low light

HONOR includes a long-exposure shooting functionality called Night mode , which allows you to take brighter handheld night photos.

Shots in Night mode look brighter and less noisy than those taken in Normal mode, making it a useful mode for those times when light is very low. The downside is that the photo takes several seconds to take.

Difference between photos taken in normal mode and night mode

HONOR includes an Artificial Intelligence setting that detects the scene you’re shooting and adjusts certain image parameters. In my tests, the adjustments are very subtle, to the point where they are sometimes completely imperceptible.

Difference between photos taken in normal mode and AI mode

Por último, para comprobar la aberración de la lente, he tomado una fotografía de texto donde se puede apreciar que la nitidez no es uniforme, sino que las letras se ven nítidas en el centro, pero comienzan a verse borrosas tan pronto como nos alejamos hacia los bordes.

Prueba de aberración de la lente

La app de Cámara permite tomar fotografías con zoom 2x, aunque en realidad es un recorte de la zona central de la imagen y un escalado a la resolución deseada. Esto significa que obtenemos un resultado similar a si recortamos manualmente una captura tomada sin zoom.

Cámara ultra gran angular

La cámara ultra gran angular permite tomar fotografías muy espectaculares que permiten captar muchos más elementos de los que normalmente caben en una fotografía.

En cuanto a la calidad de imagen, la limitada resolución de 5MP hace que las capturas presenten una nitidez mejorable. Tampoco el rango dinámico es especialmente amplio, sino que las zonas muy iluminadas se ven quemadas y las oscuras casi negras.

Fotografías tomadas con la cámara ultra gran angular durante el día

Esta lente no posee estabilización óptica y su apertura es limitada, por lo que no está especialmente indicada para tomar fotografías en situaciones de poca luz. De hecho, las capturas tomadas con esta cámara por la noche apenas son utilizables, ya que se ven muy borrosas.

A continuación, se incluyen algunos ejemplos de fotografías tomadas por con poca luz.

Fotografías tomadas con la cámara ultra gran angular por la noche

Cámara macro

La cámara macro posee un sensor de 2 MP con una lente con apertura f/2.4 que permite enfocar a 2-4 centímetros.

Con estas características, no cabe esperar una gran calidad de imagen y, como podemos ver en las siguientes capturas, no son especialmente buenas. En mi opinión, es una cámara prescindible.

Fotografías tomadas con la cámara macro

Modo Retrato

HONOR Magic5 Lite ofrece dos modos de disparo que hacen uso de la cámara de profundidad:

• Modo Apertura: Permite escoger una apertura desde f/0,95 hasta f/16.
• Modo Retrato: Permite activar el efecto bokeh (pero no la intensidad del efecto) y el nivel de retoque de belleza (entre 0 y 10).

La lente ideal para tomar un retrato es aquella con una distancia focal de unos 50 mm, lo que equivale a un zoom 2x, por lo que en otros teléfonos, los retratos se toman normalmente con la cámara teleobjetivo. HONOR Magic5 Lite no cuenta con una cámara teleobjetivo, por lo que los retratos se toman con la lente gran angular, que tiende a deformar el rostro al tomar primeros planos.

A continuación, podemos ver unos ejemplos de fotografía tomadas en modo Retrato. HONOR Magic5 Lite hace un excelente trabajo a la hora de separar a la persona del fondo de la imagen, con solo algunos pequeños fallos.

Fotografías tomadas en modo Retrato

Cámara frontal

La cámara frontal tiene un sensor de 16MP con una lente con apertura f/2.45. En cuanto a vídeo, permite grabar a 1080p a 30 fps. Aunque no cuenta con un flash frontal, es capaz de iluminar la pantalla en un color blanco muy intenso al tomar un selfie para emular la presencia de un flash.

La calidad de los selfies es buena. Otros smartphones tienen un rango dinámico menor y los fondos iluminados se ven blancos, pero HONOR Magic5 Lite expone correctamente toda la imagen, como se puede apreciar en algunos de estos ejemplos.

Selfies tomados con la cámara frontal

Grabación de vídeo

HONOR Magic5 Lite es capaz de grabar vídeo hasta resolución 1080p a 30 fps, pero no es posible grabar vídeo [email protected] ni [email protected]

A continuación, podemos ver un vídeo grabado por el día, que presenta la misma limitación con el rango dinámico que hemos experimentado al tomar fotografías. La estabilización electrónica funciona bien, y el vídeo se ve estable.

Vídeos grabados con buena luz

A continuación, podemos ver un vídeo grabado por la noche, que se ve razonablemente bien, aunque las luces intensas se ven demasiado brillantes.

Vídeos grabados con poca luz

HONOR ha incluido algunas funcionalidades de grabación de vídeo especialmente pensadas para vloggers, ya que permite grabar con varias cámaras a la vez. Por ejemplo, usando el modo Multivídeo es posible grabar con la cámara frontal + cámara gran angular a [email protected] a la vez.

Llamadas de voz

HONOR Magic5 Lite cuenta con varios micrófonos con cancelación de ruido para eliminar el ruido de fondo y mejorar la calidad del sonido durante las llamadas.

En las pruebas que he realizado, la calidad de la voz es correcta y hemos podido mantener perfectamente conversaciones en entornos moderadamente ruidosos sin dificultades.

La aplicación de Llamadas y de Contactos son la misma, con pestañas separadas para el marcador, la lista de contactos y los favoritos.

Precio

HONOR Magic5 Lite está disponible para compra anticipada en trescolores: Emerald Green, Midnight Black y Titanium Silver (solo en HiHonor) a un precio de 369€.

Además, el dispositivo llega con una oferta de lanzamiento que incluye: un cupón de descuento de 20€ para todos los usuarios que se suscriban a HiHonor, 6 meses de protección de pantalla y unos auriculares HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite.

A partir del 1 de marzo los dispositivos comenzarán a enviarse a los usuarios.

Conclusiones

HONOR Magic5 Lite llega con un diseño original y llamativo, destacando especialmente su parte trasera con un acabado en gradiente de color sobre el que se sitúa el módulo de cámara en forma de anillo. A lo largo de este módulo se encuentran las tres cámaras y el flash.

La construcción del teléfono, sin embargo, dista de ser premium, ya que nos encontramos con una cubierta trasera y un chasis de plástico. El cristal que recubre la pantalla no está protegido por Gorilla Glass, aunque HONOR afirma haber utilizado un vridrio más grueso capaz de resistir caídas.

La pantalla de 6,7″ está rodeada por marcos simétricos y razonablemente estrechos, que le otorgan un buen ratio pantalla-a-cuerpo de 90% según GSMArena.

La pantalla está curvada a los lados, lo que ayuda a que los marcos laterales desaparezcan casi por completo. A cambio, se producen cambios de tono de color en los extremos.

HONOR ha incluido un orificio circular en la zona superior de la pantalla que alberga la cámara frontal. Por su posición, puede interferir con la interfaz en algunos juegos al sostener el teléfono en horizontal, pero, en general, no resulta molesto.

A la hora de desbloquear el teléfono, HONOR Magic5 Lite incluye un lector de huella dactilar bajo la pantalla que funciona con rapidez, aunque está situado un poco abajo para mi gusto. También podemos hacer uso de reconocimiento facial mediante la cámara convencional, que, al no ser 3D, no es tan segura como la huella.

HONOR ha incorporado un panel OLED con resolución Full HD+, que ofrece una abundante densidad de píxeles de 394 ppp. La pantalla es capaz de mostrar una amplia gama de colores — cubre el 100% del gamut DCI-P3 — pero no soporta contenidos HDR.

En el modo de color normal, la pantalla ofrece una fidelidad de color muy elevada. Si optamos por el modo de color vívido, la fidelidad de color empeora ya que, como el propio nombre indica, los colores se muestran sobresaturados (aunque mucha gente prefiere colores intensos aunque sean irreales).

El brillo máximo de la pantalla ronda los 813 nits (medidos con la pantalla totalmente iluminada en blanco), que es un valor elevado. Dado que el panel es OLED, el color negro es puro y el contraste es muy elevado (teóricamente infinito).

La pantalla ofrece el modo Pantalla Siempre Activa que muestra la hora y otros datos de interés como nivel de batería e iconos de notificaciones. Es posible despertar la pantalla con un doble toque sobre la misma o al levantarla, así como hacer que se encienda momentáneamente cuando llegue una notificación.

HONOR ha incluido un panel con una alta tasa de refresco de 120 Hz que hace que las animaciones se vean mucho más suaves. Se ofrecen tres posibles modos: estándar (60 Hz), alta (120 Hz) o dinámico.

HONOR Magic5 Lite cuenta con el procesador Snapdragon 695 5G de gama media fabricado en un proceso de 6 nm. Este chip tiene ya un tiempo, ya que fue lanzado en octubre de 2021. Integra ocho núcleos divididos en dos clusters: uno de alto rendimiento con 2 núcleos ARM Cortex-A78 hasta 2,2 GHz y un clúster de eficiencia con núcleos ARM Cortex-A55 hasta 1,8 GHz.

HONOR Magic5 Lite viene acompañado por 6 GB de RAM LPDDR4x, una cantidad que, sin ser muy elevada, debería permitir multi-tarea sin problemas. Gracias a HONOR RAN Turbo, el sistema puede hacer uso de hasta 5GB de almacenamiento como memoria RAM extendida.

En los benchmarks de CPU, el HONOR Magic5 Lite obtiene unas puntuaciones bastante modestas, ya que este chip no destaca especialmente por su rendimiento.

En el día a día, HONOR Magic5 Lite se mueve con suficiente soltura y, en general, no he sufrido parones a la hora de moverme por la interfaz, cargar apps/juegos pesados o hacer multi-tarea.

El rendimiento gráfico 3D es también contenido, quedando de nuevo por debajo de muchos otros smartphones en los benchmarks que he ejecutado.

En todo caso, lo importante es medir el rendimiento real en juegos y, por ello, he probado juegos 3D como Asphalt 9, Real Racing y Call of Duty Mobile. En todos ellos he medido tasas medias de refresco buenas de 30 o 60 FPS, aunque otros smartphones consiguen superar los 60 FPS en algunos títulos. En cualquier caso, si eres aficionado a los juegos, no tendrás grandes problemas para echar unas partidas.

HONOR Magic5 Lite carece de conector de 3.5 mm. El único altavoz disponible es el que se encuentra a un lado del conector USB-C, por lo que es fácil taparlo inadvertidamente al jugar o ver un vídeo. No ofrece sonido estéreo, ya que solo cuenta con un altavoz.

Está disponible con 128GB de almacenamiento que, según mis pruebas, parece ser UFS 2.x, ya que es más lento que otros smartphones con UFS 3. HONOR no ofrece la posibilidad de ampliar el almacenamiento ni otras opciones de capacidad, por lo que estás limitado a esos 128 GB.

En el aspecto de conectividad, HONOR Magic5 Lite va bien servido con WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.1 (soporta SBC, AAC y LDAC) y NFC, pero no cuenta con radio FM ni emisor de infrarrojos.

HONOR Magic5 Lite soporta conectividad 5G y, cuenta con soporte de Dual SIM mediante dos tarjetas nano-SIM, pero no es compatible con eSIM. En las pruebas de conectividad, no he obtenido valores tan altos como en otros smartphones, aunque en el día a día esto no debería afectar.

A pesar de la delgadez del terminal, en su interior cuenta con una batería de 5.100 mAh que, en mis pruebas, ha demostrado ofrecer una autonomía espectacular a 60 Hz y muy buena a 120 Hz. De hecho, es uno de los smartphones con mayor autonomía que he probado.

HONOR incluye soporte para carga rápida SuperCharge a 40W que permite recargar la batería en poco más de una hora, pero no ofrece carga inalámbrica.

Centrándonos en el software del teléfono, HONOR Magic5 Lite corre Magic UI 6.1 sobre Android 12. HONOR incorpora mejoras respecto a Android, como la posibilidad de personalizar el tema, mostrar widgets arrastrando sobre el icono de la app, gestionar los permisos de las apps de forma bastante granular, controlar el teléfono mediante gestos, o proteger apps y contenidos privados (fotos, videos y archivos) con contraseña.

Ahora bien, carece de funcionalidades presentes en otras capas de software, como clonar apps (para tener dos cuentas en apps que no admiten multi-cuenta, como WhatsApp), habilitar un segundo espacio privado, disponer de herramientas para juegos, ejecutar apps en ventanas flotantes, o ejecutar una interfaz de escritorio.

Por suerte, el veto estadounidense no aplica a la marca y, por tanto, incorpora los servicios móviles de Google (GMS) y tienda de apps Play Store.

EHONOR Magic5 Lite cuenta con una cámara triple trasera formada por lentes gran angular (64 MP, f/1.8) + ultra gran angular (5MP, f/2.2) + macro (2MP, f/2.4). Se echa de menos una cámara teleobjetivo y estabilización óptica en la gran angular.

Comenzando por la cámara principal, su rendimiento en condiciones de abundante luz es adecuado, con buena nitidez general, pero un rango dinámico limitado y colores que resultan más bien apagados en muchas situaciones.

Cuando la luz escasea, la cámara principal sufre ya que no posee estabilización óptica, pero mantiene una nitidez bastante razonable a costa de dejar pasar un nivel elevado de ruido.

HONOR ha incluido un modo Noche que, si tienes paciencia para esperar unos segundos, toma capturas más luminosas y limpias de ruido, por lo que es una opción muy interesante.

Esta cámara también permite tomar capturas en modo Retrato y, en las pruebas que he realizado, el desenfoque se ve bastante natural, aunque, como es bien sabido, la cámara gran angular no es la ideal para tomar retratos por la distorsión que produce a distancias cortas.

La cámara ultra gran angular consigue capturas con una nitidez bastante escasa y, por la noche, son prácticamente inutilizables, ya que se ven muy borrosas. La última cámara es la cámara macro que, con una resolución de solo 2 MP, ofrece una calidad de imagen muy escasa y, en mi opinión, es totalmente prescindible.

A la hora de grabar vídeo, HONOR Magic5 Lite ofrece grabación 1080p a 30 fps, pero no permite grabar en 4K ni tampoco a 60fps. La calidad de la imagen es correcta y la estabilización funciona bien a todas las resoluciones.

La cámara frontal cuenta con una resolución de 16 MP y captura selfies con buena calidad. También permite tomar selfies en modo Retrato, si te gusta posar para ti mismo.

En conclusión, HONOR Magic5 Lite es un smartphone recomendable si andas buscando un dispositivo con una buena pantalla, un rendimiento razonable y, sobre todo, una autonomía excepcional, todo ello a un precio bastante asequible.

Lo mejor:

• Diseño compacto, fino y ligero, con un acabado llamativo y original.
• Pantalla con buena fidelidad de color, elevado brillo, alto contraste, amplio gamut de color y una elevada tasa de refresco dinámica hasta 120 Hz. Funcionalidad Pantalla Siempre Activa.
• Fluidez adecuada gracias al chip Snapdragon 695G acompañado por 6 GB de RAM (más 5 GB de RAM Extra con Turbo RAM).
• Magic UI trae funcionalidades útiles como Pantalla Siempre Activa, bloqueo de aplicaciones, caja fuerte, personalización del tema, etc.
• Lector de huella integrado en la propia pantalla con reconocimiento rápido y fiable. Reconocimiento facial.
• Cámara frontal con elevada nitidez y un modo Retrato.
• Espectacular autonomía a 60 Hz y muy buena al activar la tasa dinámica de 120 Hz.
• Carga rápida por cable a 40W (100% de la carga en 1 hora y 10 minutos). Cargador rápido incluido.
• Conectividad 5G. Dual SIM con 2 tarjetas nanoSIM.

 

Lo peor:

• Construcción con chasis y cubierta trasera de plástico y sin Gorilla Glass para el cristal. Sin resistencia al agua.
• Magic UI no ofrece tantas funcionalidades extra sobre Android como otras capas de personalización.
• Rendimiento de las cámaras correcto pero sin destacar en la reproducción de colores, el rango diámico o el control de ruido. Ausencia de cámara teleobjetivo y estabilización.
• Sin altavoces estéreo, conector de auriculares de 3.5 mm ni radio FM.

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