Welcome to my review on Honor Magicbook 14 (2021 AMD version). I bought it for around MYR 1850 (about USD 415+) as my parents entertainment/media PC. Main specs are as below:
- AMD Ryzen R5-5500U
- 8GB (4X2) 3200MHz RAM
- WD SN530 256GB PCIe SSD
- 14 inch FHD 100% sRGB IPS Display
- Intel AX200 WIFI
- 56Wh battery
- Mystic Silver
Honor Magicbook 14 website: Buy HONOR MagicBook 14 AMD | Price & Offer | HONOR MY (hihonor.com)
Build quality
The laptop chassis is mainly made from metal. The bottom chassis (keyboard deck/C cover) has almost no flex when force is applied. The body is rock solid and holds itself when twisted. The lid cover is also metal but it is a bit thin. Some flex can be seen when pressing on middle of the lid cover and when twisting the lid, but nothing concerning. The lid can be opened with one hand, the maximum angle is 180 degrees. The hinge feels solid enough. There is no noticeable wobbling when shaking the laptop.
Input devices
The keyboard has 1.3mm key travel and ~50g actuation force. Typing experience is OK, no bad or good. Typing noise is on the quieter side. There is white keyboard backlit with 2 stages of brightness.
The clickpad surface is very smooth. Accuracy and usability are excellent. The L/R clicks are shallow and a bit mushy. The clickpad surface is big and aligned at the middle.
Display, Speakers
The 14 inch FHD IPS display from BOE (BOE092E) has good colours and contrast. Other than that, it is nothing special - 300 nits brightness, 60Hz, 16:9 aspect ratio.
The 2 down firing speakers are located at the sides. Audio quality is decent. Volume is loud. No additional tweaking is needed with headphones on.
Thermals
The cooling solution consists of 2 heatpipes and single fan. There is sufficient intakes under the laptop.
Ambient temp: ~30C
Laptop is lifted, ~1.5cm space at bottom for airflow
Laptop is plugged in
Max fan noise is audible but not too loud.
Power limits:
Balanced mode: 18W
Performance mode: 28W (depending on CPU temp)
Thermal results:
Aida64 - CPU only
Balanced: ~80C, ~3.4GHz, 18W
Performance: ~93.5C, ~3.7GHz, 23W
The unit I got did not hit the advertised 28W power due to thermal throttling. Had the fans be slightly more aggressive, it might be able to hit 28W.
As the max power limit is only 28W, the metal body only feel warm to touch and not uncomfortably hot.
Battery life
This laptop has a 56Wh battery. Battery life is very good, with full charge you can achieve almost 10 hours of YouTube video playback.
Settings: Microsoft Edge, 1080p quality, brightness 45%, volume 24%, Windows best battery life, Balanced power mode.
Miscellaneous
Important Settings in PC Manager:
Power mode: Balanced or Performance.
Settings: Battery > Can set to cap battery at 70% or 90%.
This laptop weights at ~1.38kg and has <16mm thickness. The included power adapter is a 65W USB C brick (3 pin) which is similar to phone fast charger. Overall package is very portable to carry around.
There is no RAM slot or extra M.2 slot.
There is fingerprint reader embedded into the power button.
The webcam pops out from the keyboard, the angle is not ideal though (aka nose-cam).
Conclusion
For such cheap price, you get a solid metal body and a high sRGB display. Since it is going to be entertainment/media usage only, the limited amount of RAM and storage are fine. It is light weight, has decent battery life and even has a fingerprint reader. Although the CPU is a bit dated, 6C12T Zen 2 CPU is still no where slow. Definitely a great choice.
Pros:
Decent build quality
Decent battery life
Decent 100% sRGB IPS panel
Decent audio quality
Fingerprint login for Windows Hello
Very portable
USB C charging
Cons:
Hardware a bit dated, new design available (2022)
Nose-cam
Limited expandability
Wish it could have more ports
Thanks for reading!
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