If 2021 is a rebound year for Honor, it would be an understatement. The former Huawei sub-brand emerged from the smoke of Huawei’s US ban and once again embarked on the track of releasing phones with Google Mobile Services (GMS). The Honor 50 series followed closely, followed by the flagship Magic 3 series. In particular, Magic 3 Pro+ can be said to be the most impressive spec sheet of all Android flagship products this year, although like other products in the Magic 3 series, it is still unique to China.
Honor continues to provide outstanding products in notebook computers. The new AMD Ryzen and Intel CPUs provide stable performance, sufficient battery life and lower prices than established competitors. The field of wearable devices remained stable, such as Earbuds 2 Lite and the excellent Honor Band 6 also impressed us.
Winner: GMS returns to glory phone
After Huawei sold Honor in November 2020, the current independent brand successfully got on the right track and obtained a Google mobile service license. This was confirmed in June, and sure enough, the Honor 50 series announced later that month was the first time we launched a new Honor phone with Google apps in more than two years.
Their attractive designs and solid specification sheets have been transformed into the revival of the honor brand of the West. Since then, we have witnessed the debut of the flagship Magic 3 series, which brings first-class specifications and outstanding design, but is still the company’s exclusive product in the domestic market.
Winner: Honor 50 series
Honor’s first phone with GMS and 5G connectivity and some lucrative specifications. In our own Honor 50 review, we liked its bright 120Hz OLED display, reliable battery life, and robust camera and video capabilities. The more impressive Pro model has a larger display, dual selfie cameras, and ultra-fast 100W wired charging, but it has not yet made it out of China.
Facts have proved that the Honor 50 series is also very popular in China. They helped the company rebound sharply in the Chinese market, and sales from June to July increased by 36%. More importantly, they sent a clear message to the rest of the smartphone world-Honor is back.
Loser: Honor 60
Although it only came out in December 2021, Honor 60 looks too similar to its predecessor, and the specifications included are not too different.let us compare the two of them. On the newer Honor 60, you will get a slightly larger 6.67-inch screen, but using the same Snapdragon 778G chipset and a slightly larger 4,800 mAh battery.
The rest has hardly changed, which begs the question, why does Honor even bother to release the vanilla 60 version. Considering that the Honor 50 is about to be discounted, it is difficult to sell the Honor 60.
Loser: Magic 3 series on sale worldwide
Hi Honor, what happened to the planned international launch of the Magic 3 series? Oh yes, it did not succeed. The Magic 3 series represents Honor’s best Magic3 Pro+ on the market, and in particular provides some of the most eye-catching specifications of any Android phone on the market. From stylish design to curved OLED display, top Snapdragon 888+ chipset and IP68 dust/water resistance.
We haven’t even swiped the camera. At the helm is Sony’s flagship 50MP IMX700 1/1.28″ sensor, next to it is a 1/2″ 64MP ultra-wide snapshot, 64MP telephoto module, 3.5x optical zoom and 64MP monochrome camera. This phone is of course a winner, but having it unique to Asia makes it the loser in our book.
Winner: MagicBook laptop
Although the release cycle of its Android phones is not the most diverse on the international stage, Honor’s laptop games continue to perform well. In our own reviews of MagicBook Pro and MagicBook 14, we found that these two notebooks strike a good balance between performance, price and portability.
Especially MagicBook Pro, its bright 16.1-inch screen and excellent contrast left a deep impression on us. The onboard 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD are more than enough for the price, and the independent GeForce MX350 GPU performs well in modern games.
Although not the most powerful, Intel’s 10th generation Intel Core i5 processor achieved impressive results in our benchmark tests. MagicBook 14 offers an updated 11th generation Intel i5/i7 chipset, good port selection and a good 56W battery, which we found to be sufficient for most use cases.
