In terms of specifications and features, the Honor Magic 4 Lite is a genuine mixed bag, with some that far outpace rivals at a comparable price and others that fall short.
It isn’t the most well-rounded smartphone available, but for some users—those who value the things the Honor Magic 4 Lite shines at—this will be the ideal device. That’s virtually always the case with the Honor Magic 4 Lite. It has a lot to like and checks off many of the most critical boxes, all at a fair £319.
Nonetheless, the Honor Magic 4 Lite appears to be the real deal. The black design radiates class, and once you have it up and running, you’ll appreciate the fast performance provided by the Snapdragon 695 5G CPU. The camera arrangement is equally spectacular in appearance but lackluster in performance, continuing the habit of appearing the part but not truly delivering.
Although, for the pricing, the Magic 4 Lite still provides several essential features. While it is far from a must-have when compared to competitors like the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, a huge screen, reasonable performance, and outstanding battery life may be enough to persuade some customers.
What will you see here?
Price & Availability
The Honor Magic 4 Lite 5G is now available in the United Kingdom and Europe for £299/€349 for a 6+128GB variant. You can get it from both the Honor shop and
The Xiaomi Poco X4 Pro 5G, which has identical specs and features but a superior AMOLED display, throws a wrench in the works for this device. It’s also less expensive at £259/€299. You might also pick the £299/€349 OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G, which also has AMOLED.
Design
The Honor Magic 4 Lite appears to be substantial. It appears to be larger than it actually is due to its 6.81-inch display. Instead, with dimensions of 166 x 75.8 x 8mm, this is a relatively slim phone. It’s also not too hefty, at 189g.
A punch-hole camera with a 16MP sensor is located directly at the top of the screen. It’s remarkable that for such a huge phone, it’s just 8mm thick & weighs 189g.
A fingerprint sensor for unlocking is incorporated in the sleep/wake button on the right, as is a volume rocker. But that’s all there is to physical controls, so don’t expect to call Google Assistant with a physical button.
A USB-C charging connector, a SIM tray, as well as a speaker grille are located on the bottom, while an earpiece is only used for listening to calls is located on the top. There is no headphone jack either.
When you flip the smartphone over, you’ll see a large array of sensors set out in a circular outer ring, exactly like the Honor Magic 4 Pro. Speaking of unpacking, there’s also a slimline transparent case inside. That’s useful since the Honor Magic 4 Lite 5G captures fingerprints like no other. The phone, however, does not have a waterproof certification.
Display
The Honor Magic 4 Lite both gives and receives in equal parts. It features a big screen with a good resolution. The best part is its fast refresh rate, which is ideal for quickly skimming through the material.
However, because it has an LCD screen, it may appear better. The colors & blacks aren’t as bright as users like, and the viewing angles aren’t great. It is an LCD with a resolution of 1080p and a refresh rate of 120Hz. This makes a significant impact not only when gaming, but also when browsing the OS and scrolling over social media feeds YouTube playlists, and other content.
When using the Honor Magic 4 Lite outside in direct sunshine, you will have difficulty seeing anything on the display properly. The display appears washed out, and you won’t be able to see the pictures on the screen. This isn’t the worst display to look at outside, but the Honor Magic 4 Lite seems like it should have been better.
Due to the limited speaker system, you’ll probably want to utilize headphones. When you’re watching a film in landscape mode, for example, most “all-display” phones include an earpiece that serves as a speaker for stereo output. The Magic 4 Lite 5G does not, instead of sending all audio through the phone’s mono speaker at the bottom.
Cameras
The Honor Magic 4 Lite’s camera is one of its flaws; while it boasts a triple-lens back camera, only one of those lenses is very useful. There are 3 cameras: a 48MP f/1.8 primary (wide) sensor, a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera; and a 2MP f/2.4 depth camera. You can probably tell which one is worthwhile based on that.
It’s normal practice for smartphone manufacturers to include filler lenses on lower-cost devices, but it’s a shame we didn’t get an ultrawide lens here. In this regard, comparably priced competitors such as the OnePlus Nord CE 5G and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G outperform the Honor Magic 4 Lite.
It is feasible to make some manual tweaks and cycle through the presets on the phone to find something that works well, but this is still not a simple camera to use.
Night mode performs significantly better in some situations. However, it takes time to properly capture the photo, which isn’t always feasible.
Even with its main 48MP sensor, the results are decent rather than exceptional. This is not a phone for serious mobile videographers or photographers, as video recording is limited to 1080p at 30fps. The 16MP selfie camera is adequate for the price, but not extraordinary.
Specifications & Performance
The Honor Magic 4 Lite 5G’s Snapdragon 695 5G processor, along with the Adreno 619 GPU, means it punches beyond its weight – and, in many ways, its price category. The Poco X4 Pro 5G is no exception.
The smartphone comes with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. As a result, there’s plenty of power to go around in games like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG: Mobile, and League of Legends: Wild Rift. While games don’t pop as much on the LCD screen as they do on AMOLED, they do put that 120Hz refresh rate to work.
It won’t give flagships a run for their money. However, it’ll crush any job you throw at it, allowing you to go between work and play with no apparent latency – even with a slew of applications stacked up in multitasking. That fast refresh rate, on the other hand, makes scrolling feel silky smooth.
The disadvantage? The Honor Magic 4 Lite runs Android 11, not Android 12. It features Honor’s Magic UI superimposed on top of Android 11, but that doesn’t matter because Android 12 is nowhere to be found. The smartphone also comes preloaded with a slew of Honor applications that you’ll almost certainly never use.
Battery Life
Despite its power and large screen, arguably the most surprising aspect of the Magic 4 Lite 5G is its battery life. PCMark Battery Work 3.0 achieves a really amazing 15 hours and one minute.
That’s four hours longer than the Poco M4 and most competitors. This should be plenty for the great majority of users to get through a standard day, and light users may receive two. Even better, the 66W Honor SuperCharge adaptor is included in the box. That’s enough to fast charge the 4800mAh battery. Users might expect 44% in 15 minutes and 77% in 30 minutes.
Is Honor Magic 4 Lite waterproof?
Because the Honor Magic4 Lite lacks water-resistant certification, you should avoid contact with fluids and gels.
Conclusion
The Honor Magic 4 Lite 5G is a powerful 5G gadget, but its media potential is hampered by poor speakers and curiously variable camera results. Nonetheless, there’s a lot to appreciate. The battery life is adequate, the screen is large, and it does not compromise power in order to pursue the 5G dragon.
