Honor Magicbook 14

elrasho · 23 Jul 2020 at 09:33

Just ordered one of these, anyone else got one?

For the price it's got a lot going for it. I would say its classed as a budget ultrabook as it has the formfactor of an ultrabook but lacks the high brightness screen and more powerful CPU

I can't link to the Honor site as they are a competitor I think; but google will show you

Bug One · 23 Jul 2020 at 09:51

I wonder if Trump's Huawei ban will have any effect on these. Looks like a bargain.

elrasho · 23 Jul 2020 at 10:33

Bug One said:
I wonder if Trump's Huawei ban will have any effect on these. Looks like a bargain.

That was something that put me off getting one, and the fact that you can't upgrade the ram. But if it lasts me three years as it is then I'd be happy. Also comes with a nice bag, Bluetooth headphones and mouse

Heinz57 · 23 Jul 2020 at 16:48

My mother bought the space grey for use as an office laptop. Seems decent and solid for the price. Ryzen 3500u might be older, but fine for office work, the laptop feels quite quick. Screen is reasonable.

Only negatives I can think of is occasionally the fan is a bit high pitched, the keyboard backlight is quite dim and in some lights the laptop looks more purple than grey.

chrismscotland · 24 Jul 2020 at 00:23

Interesting; I'm looking for a mid-powered ultrabook I can chuck in my bag as I'm going for a gaming desktop build - was almost looking at a Chomebook but this looks decent

Snapshot · 24 Jul 2020 at 08:48

Apart from the freebies, I can't see any advantage for this over the Lenovo Ideapad we're discussing in a nearby thread. Bringing the Ideapad up to the same spec gives a 4500U instead of a 3500U and is still slightly cheaper than the Magicbook's reduced price.

elrasho · 24 Jul 2020 at 10:08

Snapshot said:
Apart from the freebies, I can't see any advantage for this over the Lenovo Ideapad we're discussing in a nearby thread. Bringing the Ideapad up to the same spec gives a 4500U instead of a 3500U and is still slightly cheaper than the Magicbook's reduced price.

Doesn't the ideapad have a TN screen? This one is IPS. Also ships in 6 weeks :/

elrasho · 24 Jul 2020 at 20:29

It arrived today, came from abroad in 24 hours!

First thing the build quality is excellent. Metal chassis and solid with a nice feel to it. It's also very light, think around 1.3kg and the space grey colour is nice. Yes it looks like a Macbook ripoff, the keyboard looks very similar and the trackpad looks the same size too. But it's for half the price

The keyboard is lovely to type on, its quiet and has a nice resistance to it. Feels like a Lenovo one. Same with the trackpad, very responsive and accurate.

The screen was something I was worried about; some reviews said it was sub standard for this price range. I'd disagree; its good enough for me with its sharpness and brightness. Yes the colours aren't as vibrant but I think I can adjust them with a calibration tool (need to google how to do this). Sound is perfectly fine and the camera is good, although its placed in the Function keys row so people get to see you from a lower angle... it's not too bad but I prefer cameras on the bezzle of the screen.

The fingerprint reader is the fastest I've used; if you switch on the laptop with the recognised finger it logs you straight into Windows.... takes about 15 seconds from turning on.

Battery life is apparently 6 hours from a full charge; I was happy with anything over 5 hours. Not sure what else to say but if anyone has some questions let me know

Snapshot · 25 Jul 2020 at 15:38

elrasho said:
Doesn't the ideapad have a TN screen? This one is IPS. Also ships in 6 weeks :/

There's a choice of one TN screen and two IPS. I don't think anyone here has had to wait six weeks. Mine actually came in ten days, three or four of which were transit from China.

But it sounds like you've got a decent machine. My wife has an HP Pavilion that's pretty much the same spec (but 15.6" screen) and it's very pleasant to use.