HONOR MagicBook 14 2021 (AMD) review

Lightweight Magic with love from AMD Ryzen

Today we will look at the latest lineup of the HONOR MagicBook series for the year 2021, the MagicBook 14 AMD from HONOR is an upgrade from its previous Ryzen 4000 series generation AMD processor. This year’s model comes with the AMD Ryzen 5500U processor and Radeon graphics card in a light but not to be underestimated laptop.

Design

The HONOR MagicBook 14 design carries on the design across last year’s 14 inch and 15 inch MagicBook, which still follows the same design language. With that said, it is just nice to carry at just 1.38KG. Body wise, the Laptop is made of aluminium shell outside with a combo of plastic over the display hinge, during review we found that HONOR did it well with very minimal flex over the display side.

The keyboard is still the same over its chiclet design which I can get used to anytime over its comfort typing everyday with documents and posting updates over social media coupled with its white LED which I can still work even in slightly darker environments.
 

The MagicBook 14 AMD comes in 2 colors, Space Grey and Mystic Silver. The color that we choose to review is the Space Grey that pretty much fits on many user choices.

Located on the right side of the keyboard is the power button of the MagicBook, which also features a fingerprint scanner that works well with Windows 10 and fully compatible with Windows Hello.

 
Over to the trackpad, this is a fairly well spaced trackpad that features Windows Precision Drivers which means that all Windows 10 trackpad gestures and navigation is properly supported up to 3 fingers gesture support.

Looking between the F6 and F7 keyboard you will spot a pop-up webcam that runs at 1 Megapixel 720P resolution that is on par with most mid budget laptops. But the webcam does support HDR and using it works well over video conferencing and live sessions.

Ports and Charging

The HONOR MagicBook 14 comes supplied with the same 65w charger and a USB C to USB C cable that supplies charging from 10% to 100 % around 1hour and 40 minutes on average. Over on the left side of the laptop you will spot 1 USB C port for charging and peripheral, 1 USB 3.0 port and 1 HDMI port for extending to a second display that is compatible with AMD FreeSync technology. Over on the right side, there is 1 USB 3.0 port and a headphone/mic combo jack should you wish to plug in your favorite headphone.

Thermals and Heat

The MagicBook 14 does a good job in the thermal department, hovering around 45 degree celsius average in a normal temperature room while working on documents with literally no noise over the fan heatsink giving it a pleasure working with the laptop. The only time when the fan is spinning real fast is when you are pushing the laptop on intensive processing, such as playing a few games over 20 minutes and beyond or running heavy editing, which will quickly spin down once it goes idle.

Display

Over in the display department, the MagicBook 14 AMD features an IPS 1080P 14 inch display with 100% SRGB accuracy with Blue light filter. Furthermore, looking at the display is not glaring and comfortable indoors and outdoors, perfect for those who are using it for long hours for minor graphical editing, social posting and multimedia use. The bezels are thin also, giving it a great viewing angle.

Software Suite

HONOR did include some of its signature software suite into the MagicBook lineup, which is the PC Manager. PC Manager is a suite that ensures your Laptop is up to date with it’s drivers and ability to cast selected HONOR branded phone screen over to your laptop, such as the new upcoming HONOR 50 Smartphone that gives users more flexibility on working and managing the phone at the same time.

Benchmarks & Scores

The Honor MagicBook 14 features the AMD Ryzen 5500U 6 Core processor (Lucienne U) with AMD Radeon Graphics, 4GB x 2 of dual channel system RAM and 512GB of NVME SSD. Below are the benchmark results.

During benchmark we observed that the temperature rose up to about 71 degree celsius which is normal for an AMD Laptop but it dissipates faster after that to its idle temperatures. Overall such scores are expected since this is a multimedia and work laptop.

Performance

We tested 2 games on this laptop and below are the best configurations.

Being an AMD powered laptop with an integrated Radeon graphics, the MagicBook 14 AMD can run a few games at Low mixed with Medium settings which makes it suitable over casual category users that still craves for some quick esports title or even playing Genshin Impact over it’s standard domain hunting with my friends around Asia maintaining about 58 FPS average. Games like DOTA 2, Fortnite should not be an issue as well, just keep the graphical settings to medium or low with resolutions between 720P to 900P, you will be enjoying your game play just fine.

Over general performance, from Microsoft Office to Video streaming, even light editing with Adobe Photoshop will work well with it. 

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Thoughts

The HONOR MagicBook 14 2021 AMD opens up with an appealing performance and portability that screams work, style and play that sits well on small desks and boots up quickly whenever you need it. Although it’s design is retained, we felt that the outlook of the laptop is well represented, practical and suitable for all uses. Currently at this point of writing, the HONOR MagicBook 14 is priced from RM2,699 starting with 8GB RAM/256GB storage configuration and RM2,999 for its 8GB RAM/512GB storage. On top of that this laptop will have support and upgrade to Windows 11.

Special thanks to Honor for loaning us the product to review

For more information on the MagicBook 14 2021 AMD, visit https://www.hihonor.com/my/product/honor-magicbook-14-amd