HONOR MagicBook X 16 Review
Last year, Honor seemed to disappear from the radar of our portal. There were hardly any news. So I was very glad to have the opportunity to try out their laptop, the HONOR MagicBook X 16, released at the end of last year, to see how the familiar brand has changed and what it has achieved.
Design
As for the design, not much has changed. The laptop still has that sleek and thin body with rounded corners. No unnecessary embellishments, except for the HONOR logo centered on the lid.
It weighs only 1.75 kg, so you can even carry it in your hands without getting tired. Plus, it looks stylish. Especially since the model is available in two color options — "cosmic gray" (the standard for the company) and "mystical silver" (which is slightly lighter than its counterpart).
The camera is traditionally located above the screen — apparently the company has finally abandoned the idea of embedding it in the keyboard.
By the way, speaking of the keyboard — it has indeed changed compared to the last model I had in my hands. Now it features a full numeric keypad, as well as larger and more comfortable arrow keys.
The touchpad is large and registers up to 5 taps. So there are quite a few gesture controls available on the laptop.
There's just no separate Print Screen key — the screenshot function is assigned to F12 in Fn mode. Of course, the other F keys also have additional functions with Fn enabled, like volume and brightness control, calling the notification sidebar, etc.
The lid opens to 150 degrees. The HONOR FullView display has an aspect ratio of 16:10, 100% sRGB coverage, and a brightness of 300 nits. As usual with Honor, it includes flicker suppression and blue light protection in accordance with TÜV Rheinland certification.
Glare is very well suppressed. There's also a separate mode for e-books, optimized for long reading in terms of brightness, contrast, and color parameters.
However, the number of connection ports has decreased. Only one USB Type-A port on each side remains (at least both are version 3.2 Gen 1) and one USB Type-C port, which is also used for charging. By the way, you can charge not only the laptop but also other devices from it.
Besides USB, there is a 3.5mm audio jack on the right side and an HDMI port for an external monitor on the left.
Hardware
The HONOR MagicBook X 16 is equipped with an Intel i5-12450H processor, 16GB of RAM, and an integrated Intel UHD Graphics.
For storage, it features a 512GB SSD split into two partitions — one for 200GB (the system) and 260GB. This can be a bit inconvenient. I mean, it's good that the OS has a separate partition, which even has a quick reset function. However, due to the not very large size of the second partition (and today 260GB is indeed a bit), I had to install some stuff on the "C drive."
At least the drive operates quite quickly. Loading a large map in Humankind from partition D took 28 seconds. However, for some reason, when the drive is heavily filled, its performance slows down significantly. (see tests)
The last measurement was with a full drive.
As for performance tests, they showed quite mediocre results.
Even [Doom Eternal](/games?search=Doom Eternal) failed to launch. So I wouldn't recommend buying the HONOR MagicBook X16 as a gaming machine. New titles may not run, and if they do, you'll have to play on the lowest settings.
Well, at least the laptop boots up quite quickly — in 18 seconds.
Battery life: 7 hours under light load (watching videos online, working with documents) and 1 hour 20 minutes under heavy load (for example, running [Cyberpunk 2077](/games?search=Cyberpunk 2077)).
The laptop charges fully in 1 hour 15 minutes if not loaded with additional tasks.
Functionality and Software
As in previous models of laptops from Honor, most settings and functions are managed by the built-in utility PC Manager. Through it, you can update drivers, switch modes from "smart" (battery saving) to "performance" (available only when plugged in) and quickly back up files.
PC Manager also includes the Honor Connect, Honor Share, and Multi-Screen features. All of them are designed to connect with other Honor devices. With them, you can transfer files without unnecessary manipulations, redirect calls (to avoid being distracted by searching for your smartphone), transfer applications, and even control one device through another.
Unfortunately, I couldn't test the last feature as I didn't have the necessary Honor devices on hand for collaboration.
Conclusion
The average price of the HONOR MagicBook X16 is 60,000 rubles. There are, however, places where it's cheaper, and some where it’s more expensive. Overall, it is more of an entry-level laptop. Definitely not for gaming, given its somewhat average performance and not 100% compatibility.
However, it's quite suitable for document work or, say, graphic editors (especially 2D, which are less demanding on hardware). This is a kind of "magic folder" that you can easily carry around and show everything you need on screen when necessary. And in your free time, read or watch a movie.