2022 Winners and Losers: Honor

After a solid bounce-back year, Honor doubled down on its strategy to regain market space across Europe and China with a strong push of smartphones, tablets, laptops and wearable devices. The brand released its first foldable with the Magic V in China which was later followed by the Magic Vs, which will make its way to markets outside of China eventually. Honor Magic4 Pro was one of the most feature-packed flagship offerings while the Honor 70 and Honor 80 were the key phones in the midrange segment.

We also got solid laptops with the likes of the MagicBook 14 2022, which impressed us with its powerful internals and lightweight design while the wearables segment also had some strong entries with the Honor Watch GS 3 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro.

Winner – Honor Magic4 Pro

Honor went all out with the Magic4 Pro, which takes the crown as the brand’s most premium flagship to date. It has all the bells and whistles of a 2022 flagship – a high-refresh rate LTPO OLED display with PWM dimming, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, versatile cameras including a periscope module and blazing fast 100W wired and wireless charging.

You even get UWB support and a 3D ToF sensor for secure facial unlock. It’s not easy finding a more feature-packed smartphone than the Magic4 Pro and while we had to wait several months before it made its international debut, the wait was definitely worth it.

Loser – Honor 80

The Honor 80 launched in November and upon closer inspection, you can tell not much has changed compared to its predecessor. Sure the back cover got a redesign and there’s a new 160MP main cam and 256GB base storage but the rest of the spec sheets are identical to the Honor 70.

Honor 80 and Honor 70

A quick spec comparison between the Honor 70 and Honor 80 shows how little has changed between the two generations. Honor 80 is basically the same phone with a slightly newer Snapdragon 782G chipset and an upgraded 160MP camera. The newer phone also has an inferior 8MP ultrawide camera compared to Honor 70’s 50MP module and still ships with Android 12.

Winner – Honor Magic Vs

Honor Magic V never made its way to markets outside of China which is a shame as it offered a robust design with a hinge that allows to phone to shut flat while the crease in the middle was way less prominent than on competing foldables. Luckily for us and foldable enthusiasts around the globe, the Magic Vs will be available outside of China, unlike its predecessor.

Honor Magic Vs Ultimate

Magic Vs brings all of the great features of the Magic V alongside some neat additions like a 3x telephoto camera sensor, a more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and a larger 5,000 mAh battery. The newer phone is also lighter at 261 grams compared to its predecessor’s 288 grams and comes in a new 8/256GB entry-level variant which starts at CNY 7,500 in China ($1,050/€1,015). There’s an optional Magic Pen stylus support too but it’s only for the 16GB RAM Ultimate edition phone.

Loser – Honor 70 European pricing

The Honor 70 is a great midrange phone with an excellent OLED display, premium design, dependable battery life and an above-average camera setup. The only problem is that it costs around €500 here in Europe, which positions it in the flagship killer segment where you can get a lot more bang for your buck. For reference, the Honor 70 was launched at a CNY 2,699 (€365) base price in China which gets you 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage compared to 8/128GB in Europe.

The asking price for the Honor 70 in Europe is simply too high and really hurts its competitiveness. We hope that Honor will offer the new Honor 80 with a more sensible price tag once it reaches European markets to make up for the botched Honor 70 pricing.

Winner – MagicBook 14 2022

Honor MagicBook 14 2022 is one of the most impressive laptops that came through our office for review this year given its compact size and powerful internals. It’s one of the only 14-inch laptops with Intel’s 12-gen processors alongside a dedicated Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU all while measuring just 17mm at its thickest point.

The 75Wh battery delivered stellar battery endurance in our tests and the build quality was also top-notch with its aluminum chassis. Add in the excellent port selection, speedy USB-C 135W USB-C SuperCharger brick and spacious 3:2 aspect screen and you’ve got yourself a proper laptop that can handle both work tasks and gaming on the side.