Honor Magic5 Lite

Honor Magic5 Lite Review

Design

The Honor Magic5 Lite, launched on February 20, 2023, features a sleek design with a focus on thinness and lightness. It measures 161.6 mm in height, 73.9 mm in width, and a slim 7.9 mm in depth, weighing a mere 175 grams. The phone is available in Midnight Black, Emerald Green, and Titanium Silver. The device incorporates a dual edge, 3D curved glass screen, contributing to a modern aesthetic and comfortable in-hand feel. The phone's build is not foldable and uses a frameless design with a hole-punch notch for the selfie camera.

Display

The device boasts a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 395 ppi. The display supports 1 billion colors, has a 120Hz refresh rate, and achieves a high brightness mode (HBM) of 800 nits. It also incorporates 1920 Hz PWM dimming for eye comfort and a touch sampling rate of 300Hz. The screen supports a 20:9 aspect ratio and has a 10-bit panel (8-bit +2-bit FRC) and features a scratch-resistant surface and carries TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort Certification. It lacks HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision support.

Performance

Under the hood, the Honor Magic5 Lite is powered by the Qualcomm SM6375 Snapdragon 695 5G (6 nm) chipset. The CPU is an octa-core configuration with two 2.2 GHz Kryo 660 Gold cores and six 1.7 GHz Kryo 660 Silver cores. Graphics are handled by the Adreno 619 GPU. The device offers configurations of 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB of storage, and 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM with 256GB of storage. The phone achieved an Antutu benchmark score of 431000 using version 10. There is no SD card slot for expandable storage. The device incorporates several sensors including Fingerprint (under display), Proximity, Light sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, Gyroscope, and Gravity. It also supports Hi-Res Audio and has two microphones with noise cancellation. It does not feature a cooling system or gaming buttons and lacks a notification LED.

Camera

The rear camera setup includes a 64MP primary lens with an f/1.8 aperture and CMOS BSI sensor, a 5MP wide-angle lens with f/2.2, and a 2MP macro lens with f/2.4. The phone does not have Optical Stabilisation. The camera includes features like digital zoom, triple camera setup, digital image stabilization, autofocus (with phase detection), continuous shooting, geotagging, panorama, HDR, face detection, white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, scene mode, and a self-timer. Video recording is capped at 1080p at 30fps with a slow-motion video recording option at 120fps. The front-facing selfie camera has a 16MP sensor with an f/2.45 aperture. The phone has a DXOMARK Mobile score of 74, with 70 for photo and 77 for video.

Battery Life

The device is equipped with a 5100 mAh Li-Polymer battery. It supports 40W fast charging. The battery is non-removable, and wireless charging is not supported.

Software

The Honor Magic5 Lite runs on Android 12 out of the box, and is upgradable to Android 13.

Connectivity

The Honor Magic5 Lite includes several connectivity features: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, and hotspot functionality; Bluetooth 5.1 with A2DP; GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, and Galileo for positioning. It supports dual SIM (Nano-SIM) functionality with dual standby. The phone includes a USB Type-C 2.0 port with OTG support, charging, and mass storage capabilities, but lacks display port and video output. The phone supports NFC. Network bands include 5G, 4G LTE, 3G, and 2G capabilities across various frequencies.

Pricing

The 8GB/256GB version of the Honor Magic5 Lite is priced in the medium range. Prices vary slightly across retailers, approximately between $249.22 and $329.99.

Overall Verdict

The Honor Magic5 Lite presents a solid mid-range option with an attractive, slim design and a vibrant 120Hz AMOLED display. Its Snapdragon 695 chipset offers adequate performance for daily tasks and light gaming. The camera system performs acceptably, although it lacks optical stabilization. The 5100mAh battery with 40W fast charging is a plus. The lack of an SD card slot, wireless charging, and potentially limited software update cycles should be considered. This phone is suitable for users seeking a stylish, lightweight device with a good display and reliable battery life.