HONOR MagicBook Pro (2020) 16.1 "| Review
In the last few days we have spent several hours on it, working assiduously and also using it for some moments of relaxation, listening to music or watching TV series and films on the main streaming services. This 2020 Honor MagicBook Pro is definitely a notebook of excellent value and with a really good quality / price ratio, despite some defects that do not make it an absolute best buy.
Design
Definitely you are wondering, “where have I already seen this design?”. the Honor MagicBook Pro 2020 is inspired by Apple's MacBook Pro, even if it is only an aesthetic reference given the difference in price and performance. Honor's idea of taking a cue from Apple's popular laptop, however, isn't evil. The design is minimal, with aluminum chassis and consequently heavier weight than magnesium alloy notebooks, reaching 1.7 kg.Overall dimensions are 369 x 234 x 16.9 mm, confirming itself to be the right thin laptop, guaranteeing an edge-to-screen ratio of 90%. An excellent result, which allows you to insert a 16 "screen into a 15.6" chassis.
In general, the notebook proves to be very elegant and minimal; the only color available is Space Gray, a smoky gray that does not leave too many fingerprints. The numeric keyboard is not present, in favor of two side speaker boxes that surround the keyboard. The power button integrates fingerprint recognition.
On the right side we have two USB 3.2 Gen1 ports and a classic 3.5mm jack input, while on the left side there is an HDMI input to connect it to an external monitor, a USB-C input (which doubles as a power input) and another USB 3.2 Gen1 port. An SD card reader is missing, which would have been very useful in a product of this type.
At the base of the Honor MagicBook Pro there are two rubber strips which have a double function: they do not slide the notebook on the surfaces and raise it slightly, to allow better circulation of the hot air, expelled by a perforated grid placed right at the base.
Screen
The screen of the Honor MagicBook Pro 2020 is a 16.1-inch IPS Full HD LCD display, which offers vivid colors both for working without tiring the eyes and for watching movies or TV series in complete relaxation.Its matte finish allows very few reflections on the outside, making it great for working outside the home, even in bright sunlight, as long as you don't think you have the screen fully visible. With that said, the brightness of 300 nit is also good when working indoors, slightly lower outdoors, but equally satisfying.
The screen contours do not have a built-in HD webcam, this one. last (an Omnivision OV9734) is retractable, integrated into the keyboard between the F6 and F7 keys.
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard is very good, working on it 8 hours a day for several days we found it comfortable and of excellent quality. The keys, practically recessed on the surface, are backlit, allowing us to use it even in low light conditions. If you are people who write a lot, especially on the move, this keyboard could really give you great satisfaction thanks to the short key travel. Too bad only for the absence of the numeric keypad; it doesn't weigh much to us, but surely Honor's choice could annoy those who use it and expect to find it in a notebook of this size.The touchpad does not have physical buttons, but it still manages to perform the his work, especially for its generous size, which allows you to wander a lot with your hand during use.
Performance and autonomy
The Honor MagicBook Pro is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 processor 4600H with a base frequency of 3 GHz, an integrated Vega 6 iGPU that manages to reach 1.5 GHz, 16 GB of RAM in two 8 GB banks (soldered, sadly) and a 512 GB NVMe PCIe WD SN730 SSD. The Wi-Fi card is a Realtek 8822CE 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) with full support for Bluetooth 5.0. The battery instead has a capacity of 56 Wh (but managing to guarantee average results). The power supply is USB-C and has a power of 65 W.Its processor allows the use of several programs simultaneously, ensuring optimal performance even with important workloads. Despite this, the notebook does not heat up much, activating the fans only in really critical conditions. Below you can read in detail the results obtained with PC Mark 10.
Small praise for the audio, the two speakers placed on the sides of the keyboard surprised and convinced us, giving a crystal clear audio even with some pieces quite challenging music. We are not at excellent levels, but we are certainly talking about a sound system of good quality.
The Magic-link function is also really interesting, which allows those in possession of a Huawei and Honor phone with NFC support to be able to use the phone directly from the Honor MagicBook Pro.
Now we come to autonomy. We first ran the two Modern Office and Video tests of PCMark 10, obtaining in the first case a duration of 12 hours and 16 minutes and in the second of 10 hours and 34 minutes. These benchmarks were run in 50% brightness and “Best Performance” battery mode, which sets itself automatically once the power cord is removed. These results, together with the 8 hours detected during daily work, confirm the impressions told before: autonomy is average, without infamy and without praise.
Verdict
The Honor MagicBook Pro 2020 is a notebook that has satisfied us, both and above all for its decidedly competitive price of 870 euros (discounted to 749 euros at the time of writing) and for what it offers overall. The lack of a thunderbolt port and an SD card reader could make you turn up your nose, although the latter can easily be replaced by an adapter.If you are looking for a good notebook, that guarantees you of the more than satisfactory performance, this Honor MagicBook Pro is certainly to be taken into consideration, despite the aforementioned defects. Net of everything, it remains a commendable product, which with a few more tricks could have become a best buy.
