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As with the launch of the Magic V2, Honor is taking advantage of a major international trade show to unveil the Magic6 Pro, its new star smartphone. A year after a very convincing Magic5 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer is doing it again at the MWC in Barcelona.
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Last September, the Europe director explained to us the brand's ambitions on the Old Continent. He explained Honor's desire to focus on innovation and positioning to reconquer the market. If its objectives are audacious, Honor's return is successful. Its growth is impressive, as evidenced by the sales figures for the year 2023.
After the technical demonstration of the Magic V2, company executives are now counting on the Magic6 Pro to challenge flagship models from Samsung and Apple. To achieve this, Honor has integrated the best of available technologies, paid particular attention to photography and developed an innovative battery. All in a smartphone with a unique design.
Does the recipe work? To find out, we used the Magic6 Pro daily for several weeks before its release. Discover our complete test.
Our test of the Magic6 Pro was carried out on a model with unfinalized software. We will update it if the final version affects our opinion.
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The Magic6 Pro will be available from March 14, 2024 at the price of 1 300 euros in a single 12/512 GB version and two colors : Black and Epi Green (our test model ). Honor therefore opts for an ultra-premium price which positions the Magic6 Pro against flagship models from Samsung and Apple (iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra).
For the launch (from February 25 to March 26, 2024) Honor is offering a Pad 9, its latest tablet worth 400 euros. Something better to make the pill go down.
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Honor had already demonstrated its taste for fashion at the IFA in Berlin by presenting the Magic V Purse, a folding smartphone concept that can be worn like a handbag. The Magic6 Pro inherits this sensitivity to leather goods: our test model Epi Green uses the relief prints of major luxury brands. In order to respect animal welfare, the design team opted for “vegan leather” covering.
Honor combines this key fashionto its technological origins. Like its predecessor, the Magic6 Pro proudly displays its photographic module in an imperfect round shape. Small brushed undulations adorn this silver-colored module housing the three optics, including the enormous 180 MP periscopic telephoto lens.
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Like its direct competitors, the Magic6 Pro is a heavy and bulky phone that will not appeal to everyone. Although the vegan leather covering allows for a good grip, we strongly recommend that you use it with two hands. It would be a shame to lose an investment of around 1,300 euros due to clumsiness.
In the event that fate turns against you, Honor has everything planned to limit the damage. Like all ultra-premium smartphones, the Magic6 Pro is IP68 certified: it therefore resists immersion up to 1.5 m for 30 minutes. So much for water and dust.
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© Lemon squeezer
On the front, Honor integrates the NanoCrystal Shield screen protector, a patented technology developed in-house. The brand promises the “highest resistance level in the industry”, ahead of the Honor Magic6 Lite (you know the phone with which you can hammer in nails ?).
NanoCrystal Shield can withstand drops from 1.6 m when Apple's Ceramic Shield is limited to 1.2 m and the Corning Gorilla Victus 2 at 0.8m. For obvious reasons, we did not push our tests further to verify these figures. So we'll have to take Honor's word for it.
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The Magic6 Pro's screen is not only ultra-durable, it's also sublime. Honor remains one of the rare manufacturers to still offer a screen with a plunging edge. This reinforces the premium aspect of the device as well as the feeling of immersion in multimedia uses.
The manufacturer is also one of the last to offer 3D facial recognition housed in a small pill at the top of the screen. Like Apple with Dynamic Island, the Chinese has developed software features exploiting this small imperfection (we will come back to it).
The Magic6 Pro screen is based on a 6.8” LTPO AMOLED panelwith a refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz. In a few numbers, it can reach maximum brightness (in HDR peak) of 5,000 nits (1 ;nbsp;600 nits daily), displays 1.07 billion colors and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space. Add to this Dolby Vision and HDR Vivid compatibility as well as Full Care Display 3.0 certification by TÜV Rheinland (eye protection).
Reading these lines, you will guess that the Magic6 Pro screen is a marvel. Comfortable for everyday use and productivity, it shows all its potential in gaming and video with breathtaking image quality, even in less favorable light conditions (in direct sunlight for example ).
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Honor spared no expense in designing the front and rear cameras of the Magic6 Pro. See instead:
- a “Super Dynamic Falcon H9000” wide-angle lens (variable aperture f/1.4 – f/2) with 50 MP CMOS sensor (1/1.3''); OIS
- an ultra wide-angle (122° – f/2) with 50 MP sensor; HD macro mode at 2.5cm
- a periscopic telephoto lens (f/2.6); 2.5x optical zoom; 100x digital zoom; 180 MP Ultra-wide CMOS sensor (1/1.49’’); OIS
- a 50 MP sensor; ToF sensor; wide-angle lens (90°, f/2); 3D facial recognition
The manufacturer opts for a periscopic telephoto lens with a 2.5x optical zoom “only” when competitors are able to achieve 5x. The engineers preferred to associate a 180 MP sensor to play on cropping while maintaining a high level of detail. A first in the industry, and it works!
In all conditions (including low light) shots up to a magnification factor of 10x are simply excellent.Beyond that, digital noise becomes perceptible. Up to a 50x zoom the results are surprising in good light conditions. When it drops, we will preferably stop at 10x zoom. We thought the telephoto lens of the Galaxy S24 Ultra was unbeatable, but the Magic6 Pro makes us reconsider our judgment.
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The main module produces high quality photographs with excellent sharpness. The contrasts are reminiscent of the signature of Huawei phones (Honor has recovered a good part of the imaging team from its former parent company), with great precision in the management of highlights . Here again, it has nothing to envy of market references.
The Magic6 Pro will also convince fans of action photos (sport, children, animals). Thanks to its Honor Motion Sensing AI 2.0 algorithm, the Magic6 Pro is capable of capturing 30 images per second to produce the best possible shot. In practice, motion blur does not disappear completely, but is much rarer.
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The portrait mode of the new high-end Honor also excels with a bokeh of great finesse and precise clipping. The lens with two apertures (f/1.4 or f/2) has a lot to do with it. The Magic6 Pro produces portraits that are almost as convincing in low light as they are in bright daylight.
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© Portrait
Often neglected by manufacturers, ultra wide-angle turns out to be just as attractive.Its designers have managed to limit the distortion of the edges of the image and the level of detail remains impressive in low light. The macro mode, managed by the ultra wide-angle, is quite simply one of the best we have ever tested.
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Gifted in photography, the Magic6 Pro loses a little of its splendor in video capture. It can go up to 4K at 60 im /s with very clean results. But it is clear that Honor has not made it its priority: no 8K nor 4K at 120 fps on the program (unlike the Galaxy S24 Ultra) nor new creative features. At Honor we are mainly interested in photography, video will (perhaps) come later.
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Like all ultra-premium smartphones released in 2024 (with the exception of iPhones), the Honor Magic6 Pro integrates the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, the latest from Qualcomm laboratories. It comes with 12 GB of LPPDR5X RAM (with the possibility of recovering 8 GB of the ROM to increase to 20 GB) and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
Armed to the teeth, the Magic6 Pro logically displays high performance. Enough to compete with market references ? Yes and even beyond, for certain uses such as photo editing or video editing.
But it is especially in play that the Magic6 Pro shows the extent of its talent. Thanks to the integration of an XXL cooling chamber (5 052 mm2 for 0.38 mm thickness) as well as careful software optimization, it is more stable than these competitors. We can therefore continue long gaming sessions without fear of overheating or loss of performance. The Magic6 Pro could almost appear in the ranking of the best smartphones gaming.
Confident in its ability to ensure a high level of performance over time, Honor promises that the Magic6 Pro will retain all this power for 5 years. See you in 2029 ?
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“ Without control, power is nothing ” displayed Pirelli on its communication media. Honor takes inspiration from the tire specialist by promising “the greatest autonomy in the industry”. To achieve this, the engineers integrated a 5 600 mAh (!) 2nd generation silicon-carbon battery, making the Magic6 Pro « the only flagship equipped with a battery of more than 5 600 mAh ». The use of silicon-carbon allows the Magic6 Pro to withstand extreme temperatures: up to -20°C according to Honor.
The manufacturer has associated this state-of-the-art battery with its new Honor E1 chip specifically responsible for optimizing energy consumption and recharging. Does this accumulation of technologies allow the Magic6 Pro to become one of the most durable smartphones on the market?? The answer is yes.
With more than 20 hours of versatile battery life (figures from 01Lab), the Magic6 Pro has slipped into the top 5 of the most durable smartphones on the market. On a daily basis, it will therefore last you two days in versatile use, half a day less if you overdo the good things, half a day more if you use energy saving mode.
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This excellent autonomy is accompanied by a more powerful fast charging system than that of the previous generation. The Magic6 Pro can accommodate 80W wired charging as well as up to 66W wireless charging. Since the manufacturer does not provide a charger in the box (there are some Apple inspirations that we could do without), we carried out our tests with a third-party wired charger with a power of 80W.
The Magic6 Pro reaches 100% in 57 minutes and 50% in 22 minutes.Honorable scores (ah ah…) but far from reaching the best in this area. Most of Xiaomi's high-end models charge fully in just 30 minutes.
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The Magic6 Pro integrates Android 14 and the MagicOS 8 overlay. Honor uses the interface of the Magic5 Pro, legacy of “ the one whose name must not be pronounced.” with its qualities (many customization parameters, fluid animations) and its faults (too many pre-installed applications and somewhat complex menus).
Among the good ideas, Honor takes up the parallel spaceallowing you to create a second interface in order to separate, for example, professional life and private life. Honor also announced AI privacy Call 3.0, a feature allowing you to make calls with the greatest discretion.
Like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Magic6 Pro is an AI-powered smartphone. With Magic Portal (developed in partnership with Qualcomm), Honor integrates a ChatGPT-style conversational AI with which it is possible to interact anytime, anywhere. The brand even promises to go further than Samsung with around a hundred features transforming the daily use of smartphones.
Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence functionalities are only available when the product is released next March, we have not had the honor (again ha ha…) to taste it. We will therefore be sure to update this test.
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Magic Capsule, functionality to use the front camera space to display interface elements (timer, call, recording voice etc.) is the other big new feature of this Magic6 Pro.
Some will say that Honor happily pumps the Dynamic Islandfrom Apple. It is not so. Honor is in fact the first manufacturer to have developed this technology with the Honor V20, a smartphone launched three years before the iPhone 14 Pro.
Clarification made, the experience offered is as fluid as on Apple smartphones. The pleasant surprise comes from the developers who adopted the Magic Capsule. So, in addition to Honor apps, third-party apps like Spotify are supported. The Magic Capsule is therefore to the Magic6 Pro what Dynamic Island is to the iPhone.< /p>
Already in great shape last year, Honor confirms its great ambitions with a Magic6 Pro successful enough to compete with market references.
Behind its beautiful case, the Magic6 Pro packs all the best it can do in 2024: a sublime, ultra-resistant screen, top-notch performance and colossal battery life. Above all, it has established itself as the benchmark for smartphone photography alongside the historic trio Samsung, Apple, Google.
A feat that the manufacturer charges 1 300 euros for. A price which reserves it for an audience with comfortable finances. Just to remind those who doubt it that, just like Samsung or Apple, Honor sees itself as an ultra-premium brand.
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