By Paul Rasmussen

Honor looks to outsmart iPhone flagship with latest handset

Using new chipset technology has enabled Honor’s latest smartphone offering to bring itself level to Apple’s flagship iPhone 13 Pro device, the company claimed, adding that its camera features go further and out-performs its rival’s product.

The latest Honor Magic4 series, unveiled yesterday at MWC22, come in two flavours. The Magic4 and Magic4 Pro use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G platform, a boost over the earlier Magic3 that contained the lesser Snapdragon 888 chip.

Compared to the previous generation, the Honor Magic4 Series enhances CPU performance by 20 per cent, GPU performance by 30 per cent and AI capabilities by a huge 300 per cent, according to George Zhao, CEO of Honor Device.

“Delivering a true flagship performance, our Turbo X technology ensures that the hardware and software work seamlessly together to improve fluency, anti-ageing and power consumption,” he said.

Of particular note is the Magic4 Pro’s 100W wireless charging, allowing the device battery to be 100 per cent restored in just 30 minutes. The lower-spec Magic4 only allows 66W wired fast charging.

Zhao spent considerable time presenting the Magic4 Pro’s camera capabilities. The flagship handset has three cameras on the rear - a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide with a 122-degree field of view, and a 64MP periscope telephoto camera that offers 3.5-times optical zoom. The Magic4 has a lower resolution 8MP periscope telephoto camera.

Of the many camera features and capabilities of the Magic4 Pro, Zhao was keen to prove how these measured up against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro. In numerous technical areas, the Honor exec highlighted that the Magic4 Pro outperformed Apple’s leading handset. A clear indication that the burgeoning company want to take market share and credibility away from the US vendor.

The Honor Magic4 Series will be available starting next quarter, with the base model starting at €899 (8 GB+256 GB), while the Magic4 Pro will start at €1,099 (8GB+256GB). The company also announced a new range of smart watches and earbuds.