Honor has established itself as a well-known brand and a leading smartphone manufacturer. However, the company is now trying to expand its horizons in order to seek additional revenue streams. And like most of its competitors, it is dipping its toes in the laptop industry. The company has recently released its first MagicBook laptops in two different sizes, the HONOR MagicBook 14 and MagicBook 15.
This is a mid-range budget laptop that offers high-end hardware at a reasonable price. It is very rare to see a budget laptop in which style goes hand in hand with price and specs. Surprisingly, the MagicBook 14 performs well in all three major selling factors i.e. style, specifications ad price.
But can it compete in the laptop market with other budget laptops? Does it have what customers want in their next laptop? You are going to find answers to these questions in this review post. We have evaluated the MagicBook 14 – 53010WHW for its strengths and weakness.
Specs sheet
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U (Quad-Core) / 2.10GHz Max Turbo Speed 3.70GHz
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB SSD
Display: 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Resolution
Graphics: AMD Radeon Vega 8 Integrated
Battery: 56Wh Weight: around 3 lbs (1.38 kg)
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Instead of Intel parts, Honor has loaded the MagicBook 14 with AMD components. But these are good specs for a budget laptop at this price.
Design
HONOR MagicBook 14 comes with an aluminium chassis and plastic bezel parts around the screen. It is a strong, sturdy budget laptop that can withstand knocks and bumps. The downside of having a metal chassis is that it is slightly heavy. It weighs around 3 lbs (1.38 kg) which is not an ideal weight for a laptop of this size.
However, you won’t find it too heavy unless you carry it on your shoulder all day. On the bright side, the extra weight brings strength and you won’t find any flex points. Opening the lid with a single hand is a tough task and you have to hold its base.
The area around the palm rest and hinges is rigid and tough. We didn’t find any wobble when it was placed on an unstable surface, and we were able to open the lid to 180 degrees.
Display
The display is the key selling point of HONOR MagicBook 14. It has a 14-inch wide FHD display with thin bezels and a resolution of 1080p. This budget laptop stands out among the competition and delivers vivid colours with lively contrast. Unfortunately, its display struggled when we tried to use it outside on a bright sunny day.
Keyboard
The MagicBook 14 features a decent keyboard with a backlight feature. We found the LED illumination to be discreet which comes with two adjustable levels. Its keys are well spaced, have decent depth and offer nice clicky feedback. We were able to achieve our normal typing speed and enjoyed the gentle rattle sound of the keyboard.
The touchpad is responsive, but we found the upper half a bit hard to press. Also, it is slightly wider than the average which we found useful.
Connectivity
Honor has distributed the ports wisely on both sides of the MagicBook 14. The right side houses a Type-A USB 2.0 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the left side, there is an HDMI connector, a Type-A USB 3.0 and a USB-C connector for data transfer and charging.
It would be cruel if we don’t mention that the port distribution is really useful for tech geeks. Unlike many laptops, the HDMI cable and charging cable won’t get in your way if you decide to attach an external monitor.
Performance
As we mentioned earlier, Honor has equipped the MagicBook 14 – 53010WHW with AMD components. It comes with the Ryzen 5 CPU that can deliver a base clock speed of 2.10GHz. This quad-core processor runs on the Windows 10 Home OS and can offer a maximum turbo speed of 3.70GHz. In addition, it features Radeon Vega 8 Integrated graphics.
This is the same specification and speed that Intel Core i5-8250U CPU delivers along with Intel UHD 620 graphics. Moreover, there is a 256GB SSD drive and an 8GB memory, which is a high-speed combo. We tested the Honor MagicBook 14 by running office programs, browsing a dozen Chrome tabs and streaming videos.
Verdict
We found the MagicBook 14 to be a laptop that lives up to your expectations. It is a budget laptop that can easily handle your everyday computing needs. You can use it for entertainment, work and casual gaming. With a 56Whr battery, it can offer a battery time up to 9 hours which is impressive.
