HONOR MagicBook 14 (2022) Review – Fast, Road Warrior Laptop.

HONOR has been in the Laptop market for over a year, starting with last year, HONOR releases both Intel and AMD variant of their MagicBook with various sizes to cater the Hybrid work and creativity specs Laptop which still cover a majority of market size.

HONOR sent us a unit of MagicBook 14 2022 here for a review and a few surprises that caught us, this time they are going a level up targeting content creation side and multimedia focused.

Design & Ports

While from the outlook, it seems look the same from the last years release of the MagicBook, there is a few changes being done to it as compared to the MagicBook 14 2021 edition. The first that we notice is a newly designed metallic outlook and structure which signified a stronger body overall that is solid when holding it, without changing too much on the size of the Laptop. The upgraded aluminum alloy chassis also undergone some refinement that resulted in a smooth body touch all around the Laptop. Weight wise, its weighted at 1.58KG with a thickness of 16.9mm, which is just slightly heavier from the last year’s model.

Keyboard may still look the same, but in actual fact this is more fun to type with it’s redefined 1.5mm key travel making it comfortable in terms of the keypress feel you still get the white LED backlight, so you still can work even in a darker environment. Touchpad remains pretty sizable with up to 4 finger gesture that is Windows 11 Precision drivers certified. The Power button as usual, is also a fingerprint scanner that supports Windows 11 security for unlocking your laptop with or without Microsoft Account.

So towards the ports placement, over the left you have 2 USB C ports that supports external DisplayPort compliant displays simultaneously, charging, data and reverse charging, followed by a 3.5mm combo jack for your headphone. To the right you get one USB 3 A port and a HDMI 2.0 port which supports 4K displays up to 60Hz.

Finally HONOR has placed the Webcam where it should be, right on top of the display which makes it better on focusing and adjustment by just tilting the screen, it is a 720P resolution camera, but video conferencing with it is still serviceable.

Display and Audio

Over to the display, the HONOR MagicBook 14 2022 came with a 3:2 aspect ratio 1440P IPS display that features blue light filter, Gorilla Glass protection with 100% sRGB Color Gamut that brings clear visuals over the screen, also since its a glass type display, you get a better viewing angle up to 170 degrees in straight, side or flat positioning. Whether it is scrolling webpages, editing photos or working on excel sheets, the screen aspect ratio is certainly one of the selling point of the Laptop. Brightness of the laptop can go peak up to 300nits, you can work almost on any indoor environment and not too bright outdoor places, such as outside a café or your favorite coffee shop.

Audio side, it is powered by the signature Nahimic App with Realtek Sound chip that carries several features such as customisable equalizer and profiling that works really loud with good treble with it’s built in speakers. If you prefer to plug in headphones or earbuds, the Nahimic App supports multiple audio listening source which you can connect two headphones with any combination of Audio Jack, USB or Bluetooth.

Performance, Benchmarks, Companion Features

The HONOR MagicBook 14 2022 is powered by Intel 12th Generation Core i5-12500H Processor with 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB of SAMSUNG PCIe 4.0 NVME storage and the Graphics is powered by dedicated NVIDIA RTX 2050 4GB Graphic that is switchable to Intel XE graphics when in battery mode. This is also the first where HONOR put in a dedicated graphics card to their Laptop. Below are the benchmark results.

We tested 3 games on this laptop and below are the best configurations by using the RTX 2050 dedicated graphics.

HONOR MagicBook 14 2022 came with HONOR PC Manager, it is a one stop App for important functions such as updating drivers and BIOS, optimizing your system, connect with other HONOR branded devices such as the HONOR Pad or the HONOR 50, 70, Magic4 Pro series and HONOR EarBuds, just to name a few to keep the device in sync and easily switch whenever you need. Apart from that by connecting to the PC Manager, you are also able to connect your HONOR Smartphone using Direct WiFi to sync files and control the phone’s screen. This bridges the gap of your mobile devices and enables better sync with all your HONOR devices.

Overall I would say that the MagicBook 14 2022 is in a great portable position for being a mobile workforce Laptop and plays great on some Triple A titles such as FarCry 6 as long you are setting it to medium graphics. Back to work and content creation, this Laptop can render with creative applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere pro decently. During our day test with the Laptop, just by editing a few photos, writing this review, music over bluetooth and streaming a few videos, we estimate it can last you about 9.5 hours at least over a full charged battery. Recharging back from almost flat to full will take about 99 minutes average. During a short 20 minute test on FarCry 6, temps can go up to about 85 Celcius while during work, it is always under 40 Celcius.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Thoughts

The HONOR MagicBook 14 2022 is not just magical, but brings a loveable size for a Laptop lover to carry beside me, gets it going with a good battery life, lightweight with dedicated graphics power that you can do content creation, work and gaming all in a package that you can just put in your bag pack. If you have at least a HONOR phone, one tap NFC with HONOR Magic-Link instantly sync your phone with MagicBook 14 2022 to quickly backup your multimedia assets easily.

The HONOR MagicBook 14 2022 is now widely available at the price of RM5099 and you can find out more in the link HERE