very good value for money

Honor would benefit from being better known. Since its separation from the Huawei firm, the little child has grown up, and has succeeded in creating a range of particularly interesting laptops which are placed in many sectors.

With the 2024 MagicBook Pro 16, we’re once again reaching the largest audience possible while delivering truly modern features.

Technical sheet

The machine is on loan from Honor for this test.

Design

Honor has always been a big advocate of the most sober and modern designs possible. This MagicBook Pro 16 fits perfectly in this direction, with a simplistic 16-inch format in a well-built metal chassis. Rounded corners, a centered mirror effect logo as the only large marker of belonging, a thickness of 1.99 cm which is average for what we expect for this format, and even a controlled weight of 1.79 kg without being alluring.

The MagicBook Pro 16 of 2024 looks somewhere exactly like a modern laptop that you would imagine in every home around the world. A sort of “Ikea photoshoot ready” product, in the good sense of the term since the latter is effectively aimed at the largest possible audience. And he does it very well: everything is very clean and welcoming.

Keyboard and touchpad

This “medium” format allows the laptop to integrate scissor switches that are more efficient than the average ultrabook. Here we have comfortably spaced keys, with a number pad of the exact same size as the rest (which is rare), but above all a rather large travel for a 2024 laptop. The typing comfort is really there.

On the other hand… The touchpad is really disturbing. If it has a very wide diagonal and its glide is quite good, we will regret an incredibly audible click which resonates in the void of the chassis with an atrocious noise. It recalls the build quality of entry-level devices from early 2010, which is far from modern standards. Properly centering the touchpad would also have been a plus.

Connections

On the left of the device we find a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, and a combo jack. Finally, on the back, we have two USB A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and an HDMI 2.1 port. No connections on the right.

For a 16-inch device, the 2024 MagicBook Pro 16 doesn’t offer the greatest selection of ports. For example, we would have liked to find two Thunderbolt 4 ports, or an additional SD card reader. But it must also be admitted that for office use, this selection is more than sufficient.

Webcam and audio

Okay… The 1080p sensor built into the 2024 MagicBook Pro 16 is pretty… disastrous, let’s be honest. The image speaks for itself: even ignoring the standards of the year which have greatly increased in quality, the camera would still be considered bad. And this even for videoconferencing.

The audio experience is more or less of the same ilk. This is often one of the sacrifices accepted by brands seeking to lower costs, and Honor is no exception. The volume goes up high, but saturates very quickly, when all the frequencies seem muffled. It’s bad, but at least it’s loud? That’s a bit of a conclusion to the use.

Screen

The 2024 Honor MagicBook Pro 16 integrates a 16-inch diagonal IPS LCD panel, supporting a maximum definition of 3072 x 1920 pixels, or a 16:10 ratio. The latter is compatible with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz.

Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we find a volume coverage of 147.6% of the sRGB space for 104.6% of the DCI-P3 space. Maximum brightness is measured at an excellent 573 cd/m², made all the better by the good anti-reflective treatment of the panel. It’s a real pleasure. The contrast ratio of 1197:1 is also very good for IPS LCD.

The average delta E00 is measured at 0.81, excellent, with a maximum deviation of 3.79 on blue tones for an average color temperature of 6300K very close to the expected standard. In short: everything is excellent here for IPS LCD. This is the greatest strength of the device.

Software

Windows, of course, with the Honor “PC manager” software at its center which theoretically allows you to fine-tune your device. It must be admitted that the whole thing actually lacks precision, and the two modes of use which are truly adjustable are not particularly well explained.

No, the theoretical advantage of Honor computers is the possibility of interconnecting all of the brand’s devices, particularly its smartphones. That being said, these are simplistic applications like Notes which are generally already saved in the cloud regardless of the service used… So it’s not such a great killer feature. Nice, but not essential.

Performances

The 2024 Honor MagicBook Pro 16 is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, the first generation of Intel Core Ultra SoC which offers 14 cores – 4 performance, 8 efficient and 2 ultra efficient – ​​for a maximum turbo frequency of 4.5 GHz. It is coupled with 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 6400 MHz, and 1 TB PCIe 4.0 storage separated into two partitions by default.

Benchmarks

Well… The Core Ultra 5 125H is not the most exciting SoC today, particularly after experiencing the latest generation of AMD or the arrival of Qualcomm on the Windows PC market. That being said, scores of 747 points in multi core compared to 96 points in single core are still very good for the vast majority of users today, particularly in office applications. The fluidity of use will be there.

If Honor is promoting its MagicBook Pro 16 as a gaming-ready laptop, we must calm its enthusiasm. This is only the first generation of the Intel Arc graphics part, which has not particularly stood out for its power or compatibility. At 2810 points on Steel Nomad Light, we know straight away that we will have to focus on 720p at low settings, but it is true that light games will run without problem.

The NPU part, the big novelty of the Core Ultra, is still lagging behind on this first generation at 292 points on Intel OpenVINO in float16 precision. This is three times less than the Snapdragon

On the creative side, it’s not great either. The Arc part of the Intel Core Ultra 5 holds up well for photo editing and small edits, but don’t imagine managing your latest short film on it. It’s honorable, in short.

In short… We are on the first generation Core Ultra 5, that is. A disappointing SoC in the context of the founders’ rivalry, but which remains very clever in use. As a bonus, Honor has not skimped on storage speed, a remarkable point since many people save money on this point.

Cooling and noise

Honor manages the cooling of the MagicBook Pro 16 quite well. On the chassis, we find a maximum temperature of 45°C while the vast majority of x86 computers easily reach 55°C. The fans know how to remain discreet, except when it comes to speeding up graphics tasks such as video games or video editing. From then on, they become very audible. However, the solution is honest and not very disturbing.

Autonomy

The 2024 Honor MagicBook Pro 16 integrates a large 75 Wh battery, all in all quite standard for this 16-inch format. The 65W power supply is provided and works via USB-C thanks to the Power Delivery standard.

In office use, connected to Wi-Fi with the brightness set to 50%, we find use of the computer for between 9 and 10 hours before it throws in the towel. That’s pretty good for this kind of computer, especially considering its price category. We are certainly not on the latest records for ultrabooks, but that is not exactly what this computer is aiming for.

Price and availability

The Honor MagicBook Pro 16 from 2024 is already available in France in a single configuration sold at 999.90 euros.