Honor, like a newborn calf, is thriving in the foldable screen market, breaking its thinness record continuously. The Digital series focuses on aesthetic design and DSLR-level portrait photography, becoming a trendy choice. The X series keeps pushing forward, with the X50 creating a generation of flagship devices. Stepping into the new year, Honor faces a vast and new world, armed with the sword of technology, ready to cut through the possibilities. The Magic 6 series, kicking off the year, interprets technology as magic, creating the most powerful Magic in history.
In terms of design, the Magic 6 series introduces new interpretations, drawing inspiration from the landscapes of China, offering four color options – Qilian Snow, Sea Lake Blue, Wheat Wave Green, and Cloud Purple – alongside the classic Velvet Black. Among these, Cloud Purple and Wheat Wave Green feature wheat-ear embossed leather textures, innovating visually and tactually and enhancing wear resistance. Qilian Snow and Sea Lake Blue, on the other hand, use glass material, creating a three-dimensional effect with delicate textures and bold surfaces. These colors vividly portray the shadows of the Qilian Mountains and the texture of the winter Qinghai Lake.
Sea Lake Blue, in particular, holds a unique charm. Last year, Honor released the Qinghai Lake battery, which caused quite a stir in the industry. It would have been fitting to introduce the Sea Lake Blue color at that time. Nevertheless, its inclusion in the Magic 6 series is still timely, especially with the upgrade to the second-generation Qinghai Lake battery. The combination of this color and the connection to Chinese landscapes and technology easily capture consumers’ hearts, narrating a romantic story that Honor wants to tell in its high-end products. If Honor plays the “Dujiangyan” card, how will competitors respond? What is Honor’s Dujiangyan? We’ll delve into that later in the article.
Moving on to the Deco design of the Magic 6 series, the official explanation draws inspiration from the vast universe, incorporating the forms of the Sanxingdui and Liangzhu civilizations’ unearthed jade Cong. Beyond this philosophical perspective, the Magic 6 series maintains a strong legacy from the Magic 5 series, with the starry triple camera forming Honor’s imaging triangle. Interestingly, the back of the Magic 6 series features the shapes of square, circle, and triangle, adding a playful touch.
Looking at the design evolution between the Magic 5 series and Magic 6 series, it’s evident that Honor has established its preference for high-end design – the starry triple camera combined with symmetrical design elements. This choice has evolved continuously, aiming for a high level of recognition similar to the Huawei Mate series. For any domestic brand, this path is long and challenging. Honor’s exploration is currently undergoing market validation, and the results are eagerly anticipated.
Concerning the tactile experience, the standard version, in my opinion, is preferable. With a body weight of 199g (206g for the glass version) and a thickness of 8.1mm for the standard version, it is more suitable for users sensitive to weight. On the other hand, the Pro version, with a weight of 225g (229g for the glass version) and a thickness of 8.9mm, feels heavier overall but offers a more comprehensive and enriching user experience. The choice between the standard version and the Pro version has been a perennial debate, and it ultimately depends on what aspect users prioritize.
On the front, the Magic 6 series features a 6.78-inch fully symmetrical curved screen, while the Pro version has a 6.8-inch suspended streamlined quad-curved screen with a greater side curvature. Honor has demonstrated expertise in quad-curved screens over multiple product generations, ensuring an outstanding visual experience on the front, including a natural R-angle design.
The Magic 6 series adopts a full-range low-power LTPO screen, supporting dynamic adjustment from 1-120Hz. The application of new screen spotlight technology achieves a maximum global brightness of 1600nits and a peak brightness of 5000nits, reaching a new pinnacle in screen brightness. This ensures a brighter and more extensive dynamic range for everyday use, maintaining clear visibility outdoors. Regarding eye protection, users can trust the quality of Honor’s Oasis Eye Protection Screen.
This time, the Magic 6 series achieves support for up to 4320Hz ultra-high-frequency PWM dimming, surpassing the previous 3840Hz zero-risk screen. Although this may face diminishing returns, Honor believes there is still room for upward innovation, leading to the introduction of 4320Hz ultra-high-frequency dimming. Additionally, features such as a sleep aid display, quasi-natural light eye protection, and natural color display are all part of the arrangement.
Honor equips the entire Magic 6 series with the Honor Giant Rhino Glass, certified by Swiss SGS for five-star anti-drop resistance. The anti-drop effect matches that of Huawei’s Kunpeng Glass.
Empowered by the third-generation Snapdragon 8, Honor showcases its dragon-taming prowess once again. While Honor has not specifically ventured into gaming smartphones, each product silently possesses gaming capabilities. The Magic 6 series is powered by the third-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, providing an excellent gaming experience along with leading imaging features and AI capabilities. The 4nm process technology, increased CPU frequency by 30%, GPU performance improvement by 25%, and enhanced AI capabilities contribute to a robust gaming performance.
Taking “Honor of Kings” as an example, with a high frame rate and ultra graphics settings, the gaming experience on the Honor Magic 6 Pro remains smooth, even in intense team battles, maintaining stable frame rates.
In “Genshin Impact,” after half an hour of testing, the Honor Magic 6 Pro runs smoothly without any lag, even in complex combat scenes, demonstrating a seamless gaming experience.
The gaming performance of the Magic 6 series is remarkable, attributed not only to the strong platform but also to the contributions of GPU Turbo X and the cooling system. It features a new ultra-wide liquid cooling design with 19 high-precision intelligent temperature sensors to monitor temperature conditions. The innovative micro-nano VC structure improves heat dissipation efficiency by 150%, ensuring rapid heat dispersion. Additionally, the Magic 6 series debuts the GPU rendering instruction stream reorganization technology, combined with AI intelligent scheduling technology, achieving stable and smooth gaming experiences in mainstream game scenarios.
The Magic6 series features the second-generation Qinghai Lake battery, which significantly improves energy density. The standard version has a capacity of 5450mAh, supporting 66W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging, while the Pro version boasts a 5600mAh battery, with 80W wired and 66W wireless fast charging capabilities. Additionally, the entire Magic6 series incorporates the new Honor Dujiangyan power management system, which employs a combination of hardware chips and software algorithms. This system offers precise battery level measurements and optimizes battery usage, safety, and charging strategies.
Regarding how the second-generation Qinghai Lake battery and the Dujiangyan power management system impact the endurance of the Magic6 series, as well as the performance of the Hongyan satellite communication, these aspects will be tested and discussed in upcoming videos.
In terms of imaging, Honor introduces significant improvements with the Magic6 series. The H9000 sensor, a super dynamic eagle-eye main camera, boasts the highest dynamic range in the industry, adapting to various brightness and contrast conditions. The newly upgraded DSLR-level eagle-eye camera system enhances dynamic range, light sensitivity, telephoto capabilities, and dynamic vision, improving startup, focus, shutter response, and imaging speed.
For the Huawei Magic 6 Pro, there are two key points of interest in imaging: the performance of the variable aperture and the 180-megapixel telephoto lens. The variable aperture, ranging from F1.4 to F2.0, can manually select either F1.4 or F2.0 in professional mode, simplifying its use. The benefits of the variable aperture include increased light intake for low-light photography, enhanced depth effects for portraits, and DSLR-level background blurring. It can also capture starburst photos, though currently, this requires professional mode, with automatic mode possibly being added later.
The Huwaei Magic 6 Pro debuts a 180-megapixel periscopic telephoto lens with the industry’s largest 1/1.49-inch sensor for telephoto lenses, supporting 2.5x optical zoom and offering a clearer telephoto shooting experience.
Additionally, Honor introduces the “Image Magic Box,” accessible with a click or upward swipe. This feature allows users to adjust photo ratios, guidelines, and image styles. The new image styles – natural, vivid, and textured – cater to various shooting scenarios, marking Honor’s foray into distinctive imaging styles.
In conclusion, as Honor’s flagship launch for 2024 and a step towards globalization and the high-end market, the Magic 6 series carries significant importance. Inspired by the Chinese landscape in its design, the series combines powerful hardware and software to deliver an outstanding performance experience. In imaging, Honor embarks on a new journey, resonating more with consumers. Further insights into the AI-powered MagicOS 8.0 will be shared after extensive use.