Once again, we are Honor-ed to get our hands on the all new Honor MagicBook 16. Priced at RM4299, the all new MagicBook 16 weighs 1.8kg only. At first glance, it is nothing but sleek, chic, and elegant. Smooth to the touch, the MagicBook 16 accentuates all the feels of splendour.
Before we get to the juicy part, first thing first, the design and built quality. Out of the bat, the Honor MagicBook 16 brings a feeling of smart and contemporary. When your hand first feels the aluminium around it, it sure feels more expensive than it does, which is not a bad thing, considering its price. Though for one, this MagicBook 16 does feel a little on the heavier side. Weighing in at 1.8kg, it puts some weight on your hands as you carry it, but at only 18.2mm thick, it is slim enough to slip into a backpack. The fully aluminium body gives the laptop a sense of solidity while the Space Grey colour scheme hides the fingerprint marks pretty well, in addition to making the MagicBook looks smart.
There are multiple ports available on this new MagicBook 16. Honor is getting more and more generous with the allocations of ports. There are two Type-A USB ports on the right and two Type-C on the left. All four are 3.2 Gen 1 spec, where the maximum supported data transfer speed is 5Gbits/sec. If you look closer, seeing that this device is an AMD-based laptop, it is no surprise that there is a lack of Thunderbolt support. A 3.5mm audio jack can be found on the right and an HDMI 2.0 socket is located on the left. There are no slots available for the memory card. The MagicBook 16 comes equipped with Realtek Wi-Fi 6 card and Bluetooth 5.1. While it does come with an NFC radio, unless you own an Honor smartphone that can make use of its NFC-linked screen sharing protocols, it is pretty much kept untouched.
Identical to almost all other laptops, the chiclet keyboard is a little shallow, but it has a near-silent key action, which is a positive feature when working in a space where noise reduction is required. Having no numeric keypad, it gives the MagicBook 16 rooms on each side, which were utilised to house not-so-flattering loudspeaker grilles. In the right-hand speaker grille, you can see the power button, which also serves as a fingerprint scanner.
The touchpad comes at a decent size of 120 x 72mm. It is pleasant to the touch and works faultlessly. The click action is also decent, although it feels a bit on the loose side. The 720p webcam is the same as any other webcams that you will find on any Windows PCs. It is a bit dull and grainy, nevertheless, it works just fine for a simple online meeting. The MagicBook 16, however, does not come with Windows Hello IR face recognition, so users are stuck with unlocking your laptop with the fingerprint reader or pin security.
The device also comes with a 16.1 inch display, which occupies more than 87 percent of the lid. The screen bezels are 7mm at the side and 9mm at the top. Its screen has a 144Hz refresh rate, but to maximise battery life, you can drop it down to about 72Hz in the Window 11 advance display settings menu. The resolution is 1,920 x 1,080, which is a standard resolution for most laptops, and it works out at 137ppi.
Although the position of the speakers is too conspicuous, yet they deliver high quality sound. The MagicBook 16 can produce a 84dB at a distance of one metre. The sound delivered is punchy and well balanced, with a decent amount of bass.
The battery performance is pretty satisfactory as well. On a full charge, it can last throughout the day doing minimal strain work like your day to day emailing, spreadsheets, and typing. However, when you factor in the usage of battery when you are watching Netflix, YouTube, and editing and the such, the performance can be quite lacklustre.
To sum it all, much like its previous devices, the MagicBook 16 is a competent laptop. It can be sustained through everyday tasks without much hassle. So if you’re looking for a laptop for home use or mediocre office work, this can be a very good option. Plus, the price range for this device isn’t too out of proportion. It is definitely worth considering.
