The Magic 5, the next top phone series from Chinese maker Honor, is starting to make headlines. It’s been over a year since the last generation was released, so it’s no surprise that a new generation is on the way.
Here’s all we’ve learned thus far about the Honor Magic 5.
When will the Honor Magic 5 be released?
Honor has officially announced that the Magic 5 will be unveiled, along with the Magic Vs foldable, at the MWC tradeshow in Barcelona on February 27th. The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. local time, which is 12:30 p.m. GMT / 7:30 a.m. ET / 4:30 a.m. PT.
Given that the Honor Magic 4 was unveiled almost exactly at the same time during MWC last year, the timing makes sense. Despite the European launch event, only a few versions were released in Europe and other countries, with the regular and Ultimate variants remaining exclusive to China. As with prior generations, the Magic 5 is unlikely to be available in North America.
How much will the Honor Magic 5 cost?
Because there has been no official announcement from Honor on the pricing of the forthcoming models, we must evaluate how much the previous generations cost:
- Honor Magic 4 – ¥6,725 (approx. $999/£818/€922)
- Honor Magic 4 Pro – £949/€1,099 (approx. $1,159)
- Honor Magic 4 Lite 5G – £299/€349 (approx. $365)
- Honor Magic 4 Ultimate – ¥8,677 (approx. $1,289/£1,055/€1,190)
- Honor Magic 3 – €899 (approx. $973/£797)
- Honor Magic 3 Pro – €1,099 (approx. $1,189/£975)
- Honor Magic 3 Pro Plus – €1,499 (approx $1,622/£1,328)
This list above is difficult to interpret since it contains a variety of currencies that may or may not include local taxes and other fees. Honor launched the Magic 3 range with pricing in Euros, but the phones were never released in that region. The Magic 4 phones featured two Western variants and two Chinese models, with pricing reflecting this.
Putting it all together, and assuming Honor follows the lineup of the Magic 4 generation, these are the approximate pricing we believe you’ll see when the Magic 5 models arrive:
- Honor Magic 5 – $999/£799/€899
- Honor Magic 5 Pro – $1,149/£949/€1,099
- Honor Magic 5 Ultimate – $1,299/£1,049/€1,199
- Honor Magic 5 Lite – $369/£299/€349
These are obviously speculative prices, but we believe they are in the proper ballpark. We saw one post online that had a rumored spec sheet for the new models (details below) and listed three versions with the following prices:
- Honor Magic 5 – ¥4,999 (approx $740/£599/€679)
- Honor Magic 5 Pro – ¥5,999 (approx $888/£719/€819)
- Honor Magic 5 Prestige – ¥7,999 (approx $1,185/£959/€1,093)
These look to be less expensive, which would be a nice change in these days of ever-increasing prices.
What features will we see in the Honor Magic 5?
As with the other sections of this post, we’re still waiting for Honor to reveal the specifications of its future devices. However, a few leaks have already made their way into the public eye, and we can make some educated guesses about what the Magic 5 range will look like.
A few design renderings have surfaced, with this one from Twitter leaker @rodent950 being the most detailed. It has a layout similar to the Magic 4 family of gadgets, with the circular camera area on the rear being the prominent feature. The cameras here closely resemble the design of the official launch poster above, indicating that this design is likely accurate.
A recent Weibo post from the appropriately titled The Factory Manager is Classmate Guan also appears to outline the three likely Magic 5 gadgets. According to the post’s leaked spec sheet, there will be a Magic 5, Magic 5 Pro, and Magic 5 Prestige – which appears to be this year’s version of the Pro+ or Ultimate.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets, 6.8in LTPO AMOLED screens with configurable refresh rates ranging from 1-120Hz, 2160Hz high-frequency dimming, HDR10+, 480Hz touch rate, under-display fingerprint sensors, and a maximum brightness of 1,100nits will be standard across the board. That’s not awful at all.
The Magic 5 and Magic 5 Pro will be available in 8+256GB, 12+256GB, and 12+512GB configurations, while the Magic 5 Prestige will only be available in 12+512GB. LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.0 storage are used.
The front cameras are the identical throughout the board, using a 13Mp Sony IMX688 sensor, however the back arrays varies slightly. The Magic 5 should include three cameras: a 54Mp Sony IMX800 main, a 50Mp Sony IMX758, and a 64Mp OmniVision OV64B.
The Magic 5 Pro has a few changes, including the addition of a new Sony IMX878 sensor with OIS capability. The OmniVision OV64B returns, this time with a Sony IMX516 sensor. The listing for the Magic 5 Prestige includes a 1in Sony IMX989 sensor with OIS, a 50Mp Sony IMX758, a Sony IMX516 sensor, and an unnamed extra camera.
With a 5000mAh battery in the Magic 5 and 4800mAh batteries in the Pro and Prestige, battery life should be enough.
We expect the basic Magic 5 to enable 66W wired charging (as confirmed by the phone’s 3C certification in China), while the Pro and Prestige are expected to have quicker 100W cable rates as well as 50W wireless charging.
Other differences include IPX54 waterproofing for the Magic 5 against IP68 for the others, and the Magic 5 will have 2D face recognition while the other two versions will have greater 3D recognition capabilities.
Many of the other specifications are shared by all three variants, including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, USB 3.1, NFC, and MagicOS 7.0.
