With MWC 2024 in Barcelona kicking off, Honor wants to make a splash on day one. Among the mobile devices coming to MWC from the manufacturer, Honor is also debuting its latest laptop, the MagicBook Pro 16. While the company may not be the first brand that comes to mind when thinking of laptops, Honor knows how to make a great laptop with fast and reliable performance that integrates perfectly with the mobile devices in its portfolio.
I’ve had a chance to go hands-on with the Windows laptop while in Barcelona and will be working on a review for the MagicBook Pro 16 soon. But for now, here’s what you can expect from the computer and some quick first impressions.
A laptop with a personality right from the start
At first glance, you might mistake the Honor MagicBook 16 Pro for any of the top Windows laptops with a white case — and you'd be partially correct. On the lid of the device, Honor has put what it calls a "3D Coloring Spray Technology in Metallic" that gives it a subtle iridescent look when the light hits it just right and is a nice touch to provide the laptop with a bit of character without being too in-your-face.
Regarding I/O options, the MagicBook 16 Pro has one USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 and one certified for USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, both located on the left end of the device. Then, on the laptop's back edge, which I find to be an odd location but helpful location, you get two USB-A 3.1 ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Once we open the lid, we are greeted with a full-sized backlit keyboard and a number pad. The power button with a fingerprint scanner for biometric security is in the upper-right corner of that number pad. There is a large trackpad that supports several gestures and multi-finger shortcut options. Six speakers are flanking the keyboard on both sides to support Honor’s Spatial Audio, which sounded good for a first impression.
The display is a beautiful 16-inch Honor FullView Display at a 16:10 aspect ratio with a 3072x1920 resolution. Aside from the slim and vibrant display looking good, Honor received certification from TÜV Rheinland for low blue light and flicker-free to make it easier on your eyes during long viewing sessions.
Honor did an excellent job keeping the bezels to a minimum, with a 3mm ingress to the screen on the sides. For those who need their bezels to be equal, you’ll be disappointed here because the top and bottom have a few extra millimeters. The top edge uses that extra real estate for the front-facing camera and dual microphones.
Moving to the internals, the Honor MagicBook Pro 16 is packing one of the latest chipsets with the Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 155H and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. Supporting these processing beasts is up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM at 6400MHz and up to 1TB of storage.
For wireless connectivity, you get 802.11ax Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and improved signal retention thanks to the 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration. Keeping the lights on is a 75Wh battery that Honor claims to get 10 hours of use tested via PCMark 10.
The Windows 11 laptop brings some smart AI features to take advantage of the Intel Core Ultra 7, which has helpful interconnectivity with Honor's mobile devices. I quickly tested the multi-screen collaboration feature for projecting the phone's screen to the MagicBook Pro 16. When doing this, you can drag and drop files between the devices and manage your entire phone through the laptop — even using the phone's camera for your webcam. I was impressed with how low the latency was between the two devices.
The Honor MagicBook Pro 16 is a pretty impressive device at first glance, and I look forward to testing it some more. Availability and pricing will be announced shortly; we'll have that for you when it arrives.
