The Honor Magic 5 Pro was finally unveiled at this year’s MWC Barcelona, and we got our hands on a new device ahead of the big reveal (go to our Honor Magic 5 Pro review for the full verdict).
The fast-growing Chinese manufacturer has stepped out of the shadows of its old parent company, Huawei, on a mission to compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple in the premium smartphone market – and the Magic 5 Pro could be the phone to help Honor do just that.
Honor made its first premium move last year with the excellent Honor Magic 4 Pro – the brand’s first true premium smartphone to be launched outside of China – and another device, styled after the Honor Magic5 Pro, debuted at MWC 2023 with a foldable Honor Magic Vs (Go to our hands-on Honor Magic Vs review for our first impressions of the device.)
So, in light of the phone’s official announcement, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to all the details you need to know about the Honor Magic 5 Pro. Below you will find information on the configuration, design and features of the camera, as well as confirmed details about its price.
Honor Magic 5 Pro: price and availability
Honor officially unveiled the Honor Magic 5 series at MWC Barcelona 2023, and the Honor Magic 5 Pro will go on sale on Honor, Three, Amazon, Argos, Very, and Currys from April 28 in the UK.
Pre-orders for the device will start on April 19 for the Honor or Three, with Honor saying you’ll get £80 off the phone’s retail price of £949.99 if apply the code AM5PRO80 in the company’s official online store (opens in a new tab). The phone will also hit store shelves in Europe on April 28 for €1,199.
In comparison, the Honor Magic 4 Pro also cost £949.99 at launch and went on sale around the same time (May 13, 2022). The Honor Magic 5 Lite is on sale now from £329.99/€369.
As with its predecessor, the Magic 5 Pro is unlikely to be available in the US. Huawei sold Honor in 2020 to avoid placing its one-off sub-brand on the US import blacklist, and while there’s no legal reason why Honor couldn’t sell its latest flagship across the Atlantic, it’s not something we’ve seen the growing brand do so far.
Honor Magic 5 Pro: news and specifications
The Honor Magic 5 Pro will arrive with a real smorgasbord of premium specs.
For starters, its predecessor’s “Eye of Muse” design for the rear cameras remains, as does the same 6.81-inch LTPO display topped by quadruple curved glass. However, in line with the brand’s new human-centric design philosophy, the Honor Magic 5 Pro’s 120Hz refresh rate display is certified for circadian rhythm, which basically means it doesn’t put too much strain on your eyes. By mimicking the dynamic dimming of natural light, the Honor Magic 5 Pro reduces eye strain by 18% (compared to other premium smartphones), giving you 30 minutes more sleep, says Honor.
Sounds too good to be true? We thought so too. But Honor consulted Dr. Glen Jeffery, Professor of Neuroscience at UCL, to back up its claims about Magic 5 Pro’s sleep-promoting properties, and Jeffery concluded that “Honor’s new technology could help avoid [sleep disruption]. By regulating the blue light of the Magic5 Pro, Honor is taking an important step in this direction.” Impressive stuff.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset marks a step up from the Gen 1 processor found in the Magic 4 Pro. Honor has also added new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth infrastructure to its new flagship, which should greatly increase Wi-Fi performance (and reduce latency). See the full Magic 5 Pro specs below:
This is a device that has been designed based on insights about YOU. #Unleash the Power of Magic with the all-new #HONORMagic5 Pro. From a floating display to computational photography to an extra-large battery and more! #HONORMWC2023 #MWC23 #Snapdragon pic.twitter.com/4m4fiWfBdAFebruary 27, 2023
The Honor Magic 5 Pro also has a hefty 5,100mAh battery5, which is said to provide over 12 hours of battery life with heavy use (compared to more than the S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max can handle).
On the cameras – where this phone is likely to hit the headlines – the Honor Magic 5 Pro includes a 50MP wide-angle lens, a 50MP telephoto lens, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 12MP ultra-wide lens on the front.
The key differences between the Magic 5 Pro and its top competitors, however, are the former’s various special shooting modes. One of them is AI motion sensing capture, which allows you to capture impressive photos of dynamic movements such as dancing, jumping or shuffling a deck of cards.
Honor worked closely with Qualcomm to achieve this high level of processing power, with the latter increasing the cache interval more than sixfold – from 240 to 1500 milliseconds – to enable AI Motion Sensing in the Magic 5 Pro.
Check out the AI motion detection in action via the tweet below:
#HONORMagic5 Pro surprises us with its AI function – see how it automatically records the moment of breaking GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™! Discover what else it can do to #UnleashThePowerofMagic at #MWC23! @GWR #GuinnessWorldRecords pic.twitter.com/d0fy7FVZWNFebruary 13, 2023
We’ll be testing AI motion detection capture (and the rest of the phone’s photo features) as we spend more time with the Magic 5 Pro in the coming months. In the meantime, head over to our aforementioned review to see how the phone fared in our tests so far.