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HONOR MagicBook 15 (2021) Review

Charles TYK

Introduction

The HONOR MagicBook 15 was released before HUAWEI sold off HONOR last year, and the company had refreshed it with the 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor and Intel Iris Xe Graphics a few months ago. Technically, it is still the same product as the HUAWEI MateBook D15 with some slight differences. I’ve been using the laptop for a few weeks, and here’s the full review!

HONOR MagicBook 15 (2021) Specs

Design

As mentioned earlier, this is actually a refreshed model, so it is expected to see the same design. The HONOR MagicBook 15 has an aluminum metal body design, looks pretty simple and ordinary. The hinge can go down around 165°, something you will appreciate if you are the one that often lies on a sofa with your knees up and uses the laptop.

The left side of the laptop houses a USB-C port, a USB Type-A port, and an HDMI port. As for the right side, there’s another USB Type-A port and a 3.5mm audio jack. One of the USB Type-A ports is USB 3.2 Gen 1, while the other one is USB 2.0.

Display

The laptop sports a 15.6″ Full HD IPS FullView display, which is quite a common display for laptops nowadays at this price range. The laptop has an 87% screen-to-body ratio and it now gets a 100% sRGB color gamut. The colors are vivid and vibrant, but the screen isn’t that color accurate, something you should expect before buying it.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is quite decent, feels good enough to type with a relatively short travel distance. As for the touchpad, it comes with Windows Precision Touchpad drivers. All Windows 10 gestures will work without any issue. I like the way how the function key works. You just have to press the Fn key once to toggle it on or off, instead of pressing the Fn + F5 together every time when you want to lower down the volume. The power button also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor, not a common feature for laptops nowadays.

The HONOR MagicBook 15 still has a pop-up webcam located in between the F6 and F7 keys. Still not a fan of it because of the awkward angle.

Performance

Powering the laptop is the Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor with 16GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB PCIe SSD. Yup, HONOR has made a jump from AMD for the refreshed version, which is a good move as the 11th Gen Intel processor now comes with the Intel Iris Xe Graphics, which is quite a capable GPU for day-to-day tasks such as web browsing, typing documents, and more. You can even play GTA V at a very smooth frame rate too!

Software

The HONOR MagicBook 15 runs on Windows 10 Home. It comes with a pre-installed software called PC Manager, an app that has a few nice features such as checking whether your drivers are up-to-date or checking the CPU usage. The laptop also comes with the Multi-Screen Collaboration feature, which lets you pair your HUAWEI/HONOR device to your laptop so that you can control your phone using the laptop. However, since it’s no longer part of HUAWEI, it doesn’t come with that high level of PC-tablet collaboration as shown in the HUAWEI MatePad 11 review.

Battery Life

The laptop packs a 42Wh Li-Po battery, which charges through a USB-C port. Its 65W Type-C fast charger can also charge your HUAWEI/HONOR smartphone and the SuperCharge feature still works. I was able to get around 5 hours of battery life with heavy Chrome web browsing, YouTube, and Spotify.

Final Words

Retailing at RM3,699, the HONOR MagicBook 15 is priced quite similar to other laptops that also feature the same specs. If you happen to be using an HONOR or HUAWEI smartphone, this is definitely your go-to laptop as you can easily connect your phone with it. If you’re not using an HONOR or HUAWEI smartphone, this is still a good budget laptop you can get as most laptops at this price range don’t get 16GB RAM. I’m actually surprised that HONOR, initially a phone manufacturer, actually caught up to the laptop game pretty quick.

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