We already have the first large mid-range terminal of 2024, and it is none other than the HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G . A very balanced terminal on a technical level, equipped with Snapdragon 6 Gen1 CPU and maintaining a design similar to that of the previous generation, with a curved screen.
HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G Review: Experience Next-Level Connectivity
Without a doubt, HONOR is betting heavily on being a reference in a disputed mid-range, with an original and large camera panel where the 108 MP Samsung sensor stands out. It does not neglect sections such as the battery, with 5300 mAh , screen, with a very large 120 Hz AMOLED panel or storage, with 256 GB . Let’s start the review!
We thank HONOR for trusting us for sending us this terminal for analysis.
Unboxing
The presentation of this HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G is quite simple and concise, using a small hard cardboard box, which obviously gives us the impression that it does not include a charger.
Inside, we have the elements stacked on top of each other, with an accessory box and paper protection for the phone.
The content of the package will be as follows:
- HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G Terminal
- USB-C to USB-A cable
- SIM tray remover
- Documentation
In the official store you can include a pack with the HONOR Watch 4 or the HONOR Band 7, and as a gift in any option come HONOR Earbuds X5 headphones and the 66W charger , so this is very good news.
As we have already anticipated, HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G has greatly enhanced its aesthetic section to emerge as one of the most beautiful terminals in its price range, competing with Oppo’s Reno 10 Pro, also with a curved screen, although the HONOR is even more cheap.
It comes in original and even daring colors, with that orange color in vegan leather , although the combination of elegance and sobriety that this emerald green color gives is my favorite.
The screen area obviously stands out for the curved finish on the sides , something unusual in this price range, although increasingly common. The rest of the frames are quite tight.
It has a hole in the screen with a central location and a slightly larger size than other terminals. The type of screen glass is not detailed, but it has scratch protection.
The rear area has a matte finish, but the surface gives a very striking metallic shine effect, and also leaves few marked fingerprints . The smooth area blends very well with the certification inscriptions to leave them barely visible, under the brand’s distinctive.
The large camera panel stands out in the upper half , this time protruding about 1.5 mm from the main plane with an aluminum perimeter with a serrated edge instead of a smooth one. The central area is unoccupied, with the 3 sensors and flash distributed in the outer ring .
On the upper edge we only find a microphone in the right corner, the rest is completely flat, indicating that there is no upper speaker , except for the call one, on the edge of the screen.
The lower edge has more space with the speaker on the right , USB-C in the central part and Dual SIM tray on the left, accompanied by the second microphone next to it.
The side edges do not have dividers as occurs in glass terminals, only the right one has the power and lock button, and the volume buttons .
At least a basic silicone case could have been included, but this is not the case, we will have to purchase it ourselves
Screen and multimedia sections
If we look at the size of the HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G and its screen, the surname Lite falls short, since it is a terminal with 6.78-inch AMOLED panel, one of the largest we can find.
This panel, in addition to being curved on the sides, has excellent quality, with FHD+ resolution of 1080p x 2652, giving 422 dpi density, and a maximum brightness of 1200 nits, surpassing direct rivals in price. It has 10 bits, covering the entire DCI-P3 spectrum, and is compatible with stylus.
It has features adapted to gaming such as its dynamic 120 Hz refresh, which will be adjusted to balance battery consumption, with a fixed option at 120 Hz and 60 Hz. In any case, it is not an LTPO panel by any means.
It has excellent color temperature adjustment, wide viewing angles, without greenish reflections typical of AMOLED panels. Many aspects can be adjusted from the configuration; color temperature, automatic brightness, reading mode, fonts or video optimization.
Next to this excellent panel we have a somewhat more modest sound section, since we only have a speaker at the bottom, so we will not have a stereo effect.
It has a medium/high volume, although the quality is not at a level of excellence , in fact, at maximum volume it distorts noticeably in the treble, and that loud voice mode it has does not help much.
Performance and connectivity
We enter the hardware section, where we have some interesting features for the HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G in its price range.
Equips the Snapdragon 6 Gen1 CPU, a mid-range SoC based on the 4 process nm at 64 bits ARM, provided with 8 cores up to 2.2 GHz. It is accompanied by an Adreno A710 GPU, being able to work with graphically demanding games reliably. The performance is very similar to that of the Snapdragon 778G.
The good efficiency of this CPU means that the terminal heats up little, although we do not have details about the dissipation system. The benchmarks reflect a fairly decent performance, although remaining in a fairly medium range today.
The RAM configuration consists of a single option of 8 GB LPDDR5, it is not the highest in its range as there are 12 options GB, along with 256 GB of UFS type storage with the possibility of expansion via Micro SD.
In the connectivity section we have the usual, 5G capacity for the double NanoSIM slot, which is also compatible with Micro SD, Wi-Fi 6 Dual band + Bluetooth 5.1 LE and NFC. The geolocation system will be compatible with GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo satellites.
Operating system, biometric sensors and battery
HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G comes with Android 13 out of the box along with the customization layer MagicOS 7.2, and with good news; It also brings Google services (Play Store and others) installed as standard. We hope that updates for Android 14 will arrive soon, since the latest version is already a reality.
As a Huawei sub-brand, the MagicOS layer is quite similar to EMUI of the main brand, the design of the sections, fonts, approach to options and customization. In the gesture control section it also reminds us a lot of iOS
HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G cameras
We continue with the cameras section of the HONOR Magic6 Lite 5G, equipping 3 rear sensors, although the really relevant one is the main one as we will now see .
Let’s start with the rear sensors:
- Main sensor: it will be a Samsung HM6 of 108 MP which has an ISOCELL type lens with focal aperture f/1.75, pixel size of 1.00 µm and sensor size of 1/1.67. It has digital image stabilization, but not optical.
- Wide Angle Sensor: this is a 5 MP sensor, with CMOS and focal lens f/2.4.
- Portrait mode sensor: This is simply a 2 MP depth sensor for use in portrait mode.
The main sensor is adjusted in such a way that generates photos with quite high color saturation, making them striking, with even in low light and what we would call “resultant”. AI intervenes to further reinforce this processing.great dynamic range.
We see that the behavior is excellent both near and far, with a x3 zoom that is quite good thanks to those 108MP, managing light and shadow situations well, and obtaining clear information at higher magnifications.
It has portrait mode helped by the depth sensor, whose advantage is being able to focus and quickly crop the scene, giving a final result a little better than other terminals in this price range in complicated captures. You can adjust the bokeh effect during and after the photo.
We also have macro mode for close-up photographs, with acceptable behavior, using the 2 MP depth sensor.
As for the wide angle, the main problem is that it has only 5 MP nor does it have as much dynamic range, but the photo processing is similar and in general it does an acceptable job as far as we have tested .It does not capture as much light as the main one and, therefore, little detail in photos.
We liked the night mode behavior a lot, since it maintains a dynamic range and balance realistic white color, without too much overexposure, bringing out detail in very dark images without noise. Even at x3 or x2 zoom it has performed very well, and the wide angle, despite having low detail, also does a similar process to the main sensor.
We are very happy in general with the photography, we have been surprised by how well it works in different conditions. We have filters for photos in the Xiaomi style, not many, but they allow for some play, as well as additional modes such as multi-video to record from the front and back at the same time, pro mode, document scanning, among other common ones.
