Introduction
Final September Honor debuted its MagicBook View 14 in China powered by Intel’s 11-gen Core chipsets, NVIDIA GeForce MX 450 GPU and operating Home windows 11 out of the field. The identical laptop computer (minus the devoted graphics card) got here to Europe later in This autumn and we’re lastly prepared to present you our impressions after a take a look at interval the place this reviewer used the MagicBook View 14 as his sole work machine for over two weeks.
Coming from MacOS to a Home windows 11 laptop computer took some getting used to at first and whereas I’m not absolutely transformed to make the swap simply but Honor actually made an interesting ultra-portable which covers all the foremost pillars of a great laptop computer – premium construct, good display screen and keyboard, respectable efficiency and ample battery endurance. Ought to this be in your shortlist or are you higher off with different equally sized compact laptops?
Design, show, keyboard
MagicBook View 14 options an aluminum unibody design weighing slightly below 1.5 kg. The laptop computer is 14.5mm at its thickest level and all this interprets to a straightforward on a regular basis carry that matches any normal-sized backpack. Our assessment unit comes within the glossy Area Grey shade, however Honor can be providing a extra eye-catching darkish blue possibility. One premium mark that all the time deserves reward is when you may open up the laptop computer lid with only one finger and I can gladly report that is the case right here.
The star of the present is the 14.2-inch LTPS LCD touchscreen with its 2520 x 1680 pixel decision, 90Hz refresh price, and a 3:2 side ratio. The taller side ratio is a welcome productiveness side permitting for extra vertical content material on the display screen which is useful for those who depend on two side-by-side home windows like a browser and phrase editor or are continually digging by excel sheets. The panel is made by TCL’s Huaxing Optoelectronics and bears the MNE208UA1-1 half quantity.
Viewing angles are nice with no noticeable shift in distinction. For shade rendering, the show goals for 100% sRGB and 72% NTSC protection. Honor claims 400 nits of brightness output and we measured a most of 405 nits, which is a lot for indoor use and usable outside too although the shiny floor will not be superb for this state of affairs.
The default display screen refresh price is 60Hz however it may be switched to 48Hz or 90Hz by urgent the Fn+R keys. I personally most popular the very best refresh price setting with the UI feeling smoother. The bezels are fairly slim and translate to a pleasant viewing expertise and the 10-point multi-touch performance is good for the few events if you’d use your fingers as an alternative of the glass trackpad.
One of many few occasions I most popular to make use of the touchscreen was whereas binge-watching TV exhibits in dimmer-lit rooms. It was a lot simpler navigating the UI with out having to make use of the trackpad or keyboard and Home windows 11 appears higher suited to contact controls than its predecessor.
The built-in 5MP digital camera with a 90-degree wide-angle lens and devoted ISP chip is a transparent step up from the world of 720p webcams on older laptops and does make a distinction in readability on Skype and Zoom calls. The laptop computer additionally comes with Home windows Good day and has a devoted fingerprint scanner embedded within the energy button.
USB 3.2 port, Thunderbolt 4, headphone/microphone combo • USB 3.2 (type-A interface) and a full-sized HDMI
I/O is respectable for an ultra-portable of this dimension. The appropriate facet boasts two USB 3.2 ports with the second doubling as a Thunderbolt 4 connector. You additionally get a headphone jack/microphone combo. The left-hand facet homes a single USB 3.2 (type-A interface) and a full-sized HDMI connector.
The keyboard is your standard chiclet affair with respectable journey (Honor claims 1.5 mm) and also you shortly get used to its dimensions. It provides a two-stage backlight which is nice sufficient to make use of within the darker rooms. The one gripes I had with the keyboard are the shortage of a full-sized enter key and the squished arrow keys that are too cramped and resulted in a fair proportion of mispresses. You additionally get 4 microphones and a quad-speaker setup that will get decently loud.
Efficiency
The bottom variant MagicBook View 14 comes with Intel’s 11-gen Core i5-1132H Tiger Lake-U processor whereas the upper finish mannequin we now have brings a Core i7-11390H. The laptop computer comes with a 35W stability mode which attracts much less energy and provides quieter operation. In case you want extra energy you may allow the 45W efficiency mode (Fn+P) as we did throughout our benchmarking exams. Observe that you have to be plugged into the facility adapter for the high-performance mode.
There are 4 Willow Cove cores, every with two threads and a base frequency of three.4Ghz within the 45W efficiency mode which may turbo enhance as much as 5Ghz if you solely want a single-core. You get 12MB degree 3 cache on the Core i7 chip and an everyday TDP of 35W.
Let’s discuss benchmark scores. Beginning off with Geekbench 5 – MagicBook View 14 manages 1,548 single-core factors and 6,118 factors on the multi-core take a look at. A comparable AMD Ryzen 7 5800H would fare 8% worse off within the single-core take a look at however would make up for that within the multi-core division with a 20% benefit over the Intel chip.
Honor MagicBook View 14 on Geekbench 5
Switching over to Cinebench R20 reveals a 2,523 level outing which is spectacular for a skinny and light-weight laptop computer. The built-in Iris Xe graphics card is admittedly not your ticket to triple-A gaming but it surely will get the job achieved for informal titles and light-weight video/picture modifying. Honor geared up the laptop computer with twin followers and wing-shaped warmth sinks which solely kicked in throughout intensive benchmarking classes whereas regular on a regular basis duties made the fan noise barely noticeable.
Cinebench R20 and CrystalDiskMark scores
MateBook View 14 comes with 16GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a 512GB WD SN730 PCIe NVMe SSD. Learn and write efficiency right here is respectable with 3,400 MB/s sequential learn and a pair of,700 MB/s write speeds. A chilly boot up takes simply 10 seconds and Chrome stays responsive even with over a dozen tabs open.
Software program
That is the primary laptop computer we acquired with Home windows 11 House out the field and it’s a bit polarizing. The interface seems acquainted but feels dramatically totally different in comparison with Home windows 10 and I discovered myself in search of sure UI components within the incorrect place greater than as soon as. Microsoft made some developments in contact enter recognition and the entire UI feels noticeably extra touch-friendly which is a welcome addition.
The brand new personalization menus structure and detailed choices are nice as is the system-wide darkish mode. The snap help device lets you handle as much as 4 apps in your display screen with out shifting your cursor all that a lot. It took me just a few days to get used to the brand new begin menu and I didn’t make a lot use of the brand new widget panel however then once more I wasn’t a fan of its dwell tiles predecessor both.
The brand new default apps settings are an pointless ache and if you wish to set a third-party browser as your default you need to undergo the method of choosing that one to open particular person file varieties from HTML to HTTPS which simply takes a pointless period of time. Regardless of some shortcomings, I discovered Home windows 11’s refreshed visible id a welcome change and had no points with stability or efficiency.
Honor additionally has its Multi-Display screen Collaboration device which helps you to hook up suitable Honor telephones to the laptop computer. You may mirror your cellphone display screen on the laptop computer, switch information and footage wirelessly and take audio and video calls on the large display screen. I examined this out with a Honor 50 we had laying round on the workplace and whereas the pairing course of was a breeze the precise display screen mirroring was fairly gradual and laggy.
Battery life and charging
Honor managed to suit a decently sized 60Wh battery contained in the MateBook View 14. The battery is rated at 15 hours of native video playback at 1080p decision and 150 nits brightness and 11.7-hours of blended utilization once more at 150 nits brightness. In our testing which consisted of taking part in a 1080p video in YouTube over Chrome with 75% display screen brightness at 50% quantity, we acquired 6 hours and 56 minutes which is kind of respectable.
Honor is bundling a 65W USB-C SuperCharger that weighs 200 grams with the removable USB-C cable included making it tremendous handy for touring with one single charger for all of your gadgets. Apparently sufficient, you may cost the laptop computer through both of the 2 USB-C ports on the most 65W speeds. A full cost took 104 minutes with the laptop computer reaching 80% after an hour on the charger.
Verdict
With its MateBook View 14, Honor managed to achieve a powerful mixture of energy and portability at a worth level that’s laborious to be rivaled by opponents. Higher but some bundles embody an Honor 50 smartphone which makes this an excellent sweeter deal for those who can snag one up. In the meanwhile the laptop computer is proscribed to China, Russia, Belarus and France the place it retails for €1,099. There’s even a bundle that allows you to get the Honor 50 for simply €400 additional.
A fast comparability reveals few laptops that may match the wonderful show, premium and light-weight construct, quick efficiency and long-lasting battery of the MagicBook View 14. Acer’s Swift 3 and 5 sequence come to thoughts as does Asus’s Vivobook S14 as potential opponents within the €1,000 worth bracket. Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 7i Professional, MSI’s Status 14 Evo and LG Gram 14 could be had for those who enterprise above the €1,000 threshold.
In case you’re not tied to the Home windows ecosystem you might spend a bit extra – €1,200 can at the moment get you a 13-inch M1 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage. Additionally, remember that a barrage of Intel 12-gen CPU powered laptops are as a result of launch within the coming months.
MateBook View’s 14.2-inch QHD+ display screen is an absolute pleasure to make use of with vibrant colours, spacious 3:2 side ratio and it even helps 10-point multi-touch. The keyboard provides respectable journey and is properly laid out and the glass trackpad is kind of spectacular.
Intel’s Core i7-11390H handles all workplace duties with ease whereas the built-in Iris Xe GPU manages gentle video games and content material creation. Having a 60Wh battery on a skinny and light-weight laptop computer like this can be a stellar transfer and it makes you neglect about sitting subsequent to a wall plug.
