Honor Magic 5 Lite Review

It appears that Honor did learn its lessons from the launch of the Honor Magic 4 Lite released last year. The phone had been competent, but mostly unremarkable. It had a great battery life, but its displays lacked the oomph needed and the cameras were nothing impressive. Now, the company has returned with the Honor Magic 5 Lite and this offering has been refined thoughtfully. Does the subtle overhaul do any good? Let’s find out.

Design and build

Even though Honor may have now expanded to building premium phones, it started with cheaper phones that were able to deliver over and above their weight. This is something you get to see firsthand with the Magic 5 Lite, which seems like a premium phone at first glance. It is due to its 7.9mm slim body, a smart glass back and a dual-curved display. It is available in three colors, which are Midnight Black, Emerald Green and Titanium Silver.

The phone is smaller than its predecessor because of the 6.67 inch display and it is also lighter because it weighs 175g, even though it comes with a bigger battery. The ring-shaped camera motif can be seen on the back of the Magic 5 Lite. The sides are very thin, with power and volume keys on the right side, but the top and bottom edges are flat.

Screen and speakers

The Magic 5 Lite boasts a 6.67 inch FHD+ OLED display that comes with a 120Hz refresh rate. It offers significant benefits like black remains truly black and the colors pop just right. It also has a respectable brightness at 510 nits. The audio output may not be very impressive, as the sole speaker is on the phone’s bottom edge.

Specs and performance

The new device has the Snapdragon 695 5G chip as its predecessor, which is a bit disappointing. Therefore, its performance in terms of GPU and CPU is similar to the Magic 4 Lite. Generally, the Magic 5 Lite performs well, but its appearance makes it seem like a premium phone and that it cannot deliver. It also comes with 6GB RAM and internal storage of 128GB.

Camera

The Magic 5 Lite has been equipped with a 64Mp main camera and Honor has also added the 5Mp ultrawide. It still has a 2Mp macro sensor that does not really serve much purpose. The main sensor is quite sharp and decent. The 16Mp front camera is also a good one for taking selfies.

Battery life

The 5100mAh battery is the most distinguishing feature of the Magic 5 Lite because it is a large bump over its predecessor as well as other devices in the same price range. The battery is actually capable of lasting two days, depending on your usage, which is quite a feat. But, you should bear in mind that the device does not come with a charger in the box and supports 40W charging, which is a downgrade from the 66W for the previous one.