We recently told you about the Matebook X Pro 2024, a lightweight, compact laptop that we really liked. The device has a full range of functions and solutions that allow it to be labeled “top” – we are talking about one of the best laptops of 2024 in its class. MagicBook Art 14 is in many ways similar to the Matebook X Pro, but at the same time it has recognizable features and features inherent in HONOR laptops.
HONOR MagicBook Art 14
⇡#Technical characteristics, equipment and software
The RAM in MagicBook Art 14 is soldered directly to the motherboard. Therefore, it is important to choose a model with the amount of RAM that is definitely enough to complete your tasks. In my opinion, it’s definitely not worth saving on this component. But it makes sense to think about choosing a central processor – besides, MagicBook Art 14 models equipped with Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 chips are available for sale. Other characteristics of the “magic” laptop are listed in the table below.
Intel Core Ultra 5 125H
1 × USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-С
1 × Thunderbolt 4
1 × HDMI
The flagship version of MagicBook Art 14 came to us for testing – with a Core Ultra 7 155H, 32 GB of LPDDR5X-7467 RAM and a 1 TB SSD. At the start of sales, they are asking 199,999 rubles for it. During the pre-order period from October 1 to October 14, there is a special offer: a discount of 20,000 rubles, as well as a HONOR Pad 9 5G tablet as a gift. The version with Core Ultra 5 125H will cost you 179,999 rubles.
The laptop supports Power Delivery technology. An external power supply with a power of 65 W and a weight of 200 g is supplied with the mobile PC. The laptop is equipped with various interfaces, but the connection to the Network is carried out primarily wirelessly. The connection is provided by the Wi-Fi 6E AX211 module, which supports 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax and Bluetooth 5.3 standards. The mobile PC uses a smart antenna with a three-dimensional design. The manufacturer claims that it provides an increased connection distance – up to 360 meters in open areas. Signal stability increased by 50%.
⇡#Appearance and input devices
On sale you will find two versions of MagicBook Art 14: in Emerald Green and Sunrise White colors. It’s easier to call the light model pink and blue – it’s not an ordinary, but interesting combination of colors. The laptop looks bright and noticeable, but at the same time not too flashy.
The body of the device is entirely made of magnesium alloy, and the base is made of titanium. This feeling is difficult to convey with photographs and text, but MagicBook Art 14 is very unusual and feels pleasant in the hands. The metal surface is somewhat reminiscent of the Soft-touch coating, but it only resembles it. The Matebook X Pro used micro-arc oxidation of parts – apparently, a similar technology is used here. In addition to tactile sensations, the use of MDO increases the reliability and strength of parts, and a rugged laptop is a good laptop. At the same time, the material of the case turned out to be non-staining and very practical in everyday life: fingerprints are not visible, dust is not visible either. Taking care of MagicBook Art 14 is easy.
Important characteristics of the hero of today’s review are its weight and body thickness. HONOR engineers came up with a funny thing: the laptop weighs one kilogram, and the thickness of its body without taking into account the legs is slightly more than one centimeter – one to one, it turns out. If we refuse to list exact values and quantities, then MagicBook Art 14 is a very light and fairly compact laptop. Such a PC will definitely not be a burden on the road.
The lid of the laptop with an OLED screen opens up to 150 degrees. The panel requires some effort, but still turns with one hand. The design of the laptop uses tight and precise hinges. The screen does not shake while typing.
One of the disadvantages of this “refinement” of the MagicBook Art 14 is the small thickness of the display cover – when closed, it flexes noticeably when pressed lightly. The laptop should be used with care.
«And for the sake of these thin frames they gave up webcams? — the thought is spinning in the reader’s head. Perhaps the extreme elegance of the MagicBook Art 14 was truly elevated to the absolute level by HONOR engineers. However, they didn’t leave us without a camera. The block with the matrix is hidden on the side – if necessary, you can always take it out and connect it to the display cover. The camera can be rotated 180 degrees. Being magnetized, it is securely attached to the lid.
The webcam supports Full HD resolution at 30 Hz. The picture and sound quality is quite sufficient for work calls and communication with loved ones.
The laptop is thin, but adding a USB A-connector worked. It would seem like a small touch, but how the functionality of the computer changes. On the other hand, MagicBook Art 14 is also equipped with a full-fledged Thunderbolt 4 port – by purchasing a special docking station, the functionality of the laptop can be significantly expanded.
The audio system of the review hero consists of six speakers (four low-frequency and two high-frequency speakers). Some of them are directed upward through the perforations of the topcase, others – downward, through the ventilation slots on the sides.
The keyboard buttons have a travel of 1.5 mm, they have a clear actuation moment and do not feel sticky to the touch. Triggers at medium volume. The white backlight has two brightness levels. For obvious reasons, the keyboard does not have a number pad. The power button is combined with a fingerprint sensor. It stands out in structure and shape. There was no place for the Print Screen button for some other keys. But MagicBook Art 14 has large Shift, Enter, Caps Lock and Backspace.
The laptop has an excellent large touchpad measuring 128 × 95 mm. The case is equipped with a large, fixed touchpad without physical switches, but with magnetic feedback. I rate gesture recognition as excellent – seven functions are supported. For example, to increase or decrease the volume, just swipe your finger along the right edge of the touchpad. I have no complaints about cursor tracking either. The strength of the haptic response can be increased or decreased as needed in the HONOR PC Manager application.
⇡#Internal design and upgrade options
The cooling system of MagicBook Art 14 is called Bionic VC. We are talking about a thin evaporation chamber equipped with two fans. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. The wireless communication module cannot be replaced without completely disassembling the device. But the main and only drive can be removed over time. The test sample is equipped with far from the fastest SSD from Western Digital.
⇡#Testing methodology
Testing was carried out in the following games at a resolution of 1920 × 1200 pixels:
- GTA V. DirectX 11. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark (last scene). High quality graphics, 16x AF, advanced graphics quality settings – off.
- Counter-Strike 2. DirectX 11. Dust II map. Graphics quality – low, FSR – off.
- PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. DirectX 11. Training mode. Minimum graphics quality, display scale – 100%.
- Dota 2. DirectX 11. Match recording. Minimum graphics quality, FSR – off.
- Disco Elysium. DirectX 11. DirectX 11. Walking through Martinez. Maximum graphics quality, 4x AA.
- Songs of Conquest. DirectX 11. Map “Trouble”. High quality graphics.
Gaming performance was determined using the well-known CapFrameX program. It allows you to get the rendering time of each frame. The use of the 1st percentile instead of the minimum number of frames per second indicators is due to the desire to clear the results from random performance fluctuations that were caused by reasons not directly related to the operation of the main components of the platform.
The following resource-intensive applications were used:
- Blender 3.4.1. Determining the final rendering speed in one of the popular free 3D graphics packages. The duration of construction of the final classroom model is measured.
- CINEBENCH R23. Measuring the performance of photorealistic 3D rendering in the CINEMA 4D animation package, CPU test.
- Corona 10 Benchmark. Testing rendering speed using the renderer of the same name. The speed of building a standard scene used to measure performance is measured.
Comprehensive gaming benchmarks:
- 3DMark Professional Edition 2.25.8043. Testing in Time Spy and Fire Strike scenes.
- Unigine Superposition Benchmark. Testing in 1080p Medium mode.
- Futuremark PCMARK10 Professional Edition 2.1.2574 64. Testing in scenarios Essentials (the usual work of the average user: launching applications, surfing the Internet, video conferencing), Productivity (office work with a word processor and spreadsheets), Digital Content Creation (creating digital content: editing photographs, non-linear video editing, rendering and visualization of 3D models).
Browser tests (Firefox Portable 117.0.1):
- JetStream 2.1. Testing web scripts based on JavaScript and WebAssemblies covering a variety of complex workloads and programming techniques.
- WebXPRT 4: Test web scripts based on HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly, covering a variety of complex workloads and programming techniques.
Testing of the laptop in games, resource-intensive applications and complex benchmarks was carried out with the activation of the fastest mode suitable for these tasks.
Display testing is performed using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and DisplayCAL 3 application.
The battery life of the laptop was tested in two modes. The first load option – web surfing – involves alternately opening and closing tabs on the sites 3DNews.ru, Computeruniverse.ru and Unsplash.com with an interval of 30 seconds. For this test, the Google Chrome browser version current at the time of testing is used. In the second mode, video in .mkv format and Full HD resolution is played in the built-in Windows OS player with the repeat function activated. In all cases, the display brightness was set to the same 200 cd/m2, and the keyboard backlight (if any) and sound were turned off. The wireless communication module worked constantly.
⇡#Laptop display
The laptop has an EDO14.55 OLED matrix. A non-standard 3:2 ratio is used, which significantly increases the working space of the screen at the stated 14.6″. Plus, don’t forget about thin frames. Resolution – 3120 × 2080 pixels or marketing 3.1K. Vertical scan frequency – 120 Hz. Modern OLED panels are famous not only for their excellent image quality, infinite contrast and large viewing angles, but also for their instant response – less than 1 ms.
The MagicBook Art 14 panel is touch-sensitive, but it has virtually no glare. The matrix has an excellent brightness reserve: up to 500 nits in normal mode and up to 700 nits in HDR. There is a light sensor.
The review hero is definitely suitable for those who work with digital content. The image quality of the OLED panel approaches the reference one. There is support for TÜV Rheinland certificates – the display provides low levels of blue light, and the PWM frequency is a healthy 4320 Hz.
HONOR MagicBook Art 14
(
⇡#Heating, performance, gaming
The laptop does not have any programs installed with which we can configure the operation of the central processor. It turns out that we cannot at least minimally regulate the noise level and performance of the device – we have to rely on the default settings included in the BIOS.
Heating of the laptop case (work applications)
Heating of the laptop case (games)
There are two power settings for the laptop CPU: 28 and 43 W for PL1 and PL2. In PL2 mode, the laptop does not work for long – and almost immediately the power consumption of the Core Ultra 7 155H decreases in complex multi-threaded tasks. At this moment, elevated temperatures are observed – otherwise, the operation of the 16-core can be described as cold. In general, the laptop works quietly – being near it and using the computer is quite comfortable.
In games, MagicBook Art 14 is even quieter – depending on the settings, the power consumption of the central processor remains in the range of 20-25 W. In both cases, the metal body of the laptop heats up noticeably only in the area where the central processor is located. No critical indicators were found. In addition, the user’s hands, as a rule, are located along the edges of the laptop body.
Without load, the computer operates almost silently. Only sometimes – when launching applications, watching videos, surfing the web and performing other undemanding tasks – does the MagicBook Art 14 cooler make itself felt.
In general, the hero of the review can be described as a quiet and cool laptop.
Naturally, the reduced appetite of the Core Ultra 7 155H affects the performance of the laptop. And yet I can’t even call MagicBook Art 14 slow. Not at all, the large number of P- and E-cores of the processor does its job: the laptop easily and consistently outperforms models equipped with 8-core Core and Ryzen processors. As for the competition between laptops with Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9 chips, the determining factor here is the power consumption with which the processors operate. Let me remind you that the computing unit on Intel crystals is the same.
Interestingly, in scenarios involving a low load on the central processor (launching applications, web surfing, working with office software), MagicBook Art 14 often comes out ahead.
Finally, the hero of the review is also suitable for games – with a number of reservations, but still. Thus, the performance of the built-in Arc Graphics is sufficient to provide stable 60 FPS in popular multi-user projects. Naturally, you should play in a resolution of 1920 × 1200 pixels – it scales well on a 14.6-inch display.
⇡#Battery life
The laptop is equipped with a 60 Wh battery – the design uses lithium-polymer cells. The official HONOR website claims that the new MagicBook Art 14 will work on a single battery charge for more than 11 hours in video playback mode. In the test laboratory, the laptop worked even longer, but overall the result turned out to be similar to what the manufacturer promised us.
The laptop supports fast charging. In 30 minutes, the device’s battery is charged by 46%. A full battery charging cycle is 95 minutes.
⇡#Conclusions
MagicBook Art 14 is the type of device with which everything is immediately clear. When you pick up a computer, you immediately understand what to expect from it. Some kind of magic! Testing only confirms your assumptions. The tested model has something to praise for. I liked the build quality and the materials used – the body is tactile and practical. MagicBook Art 14 is a truly lightweight and compact laptop, convenient and practical. The installed OLED panel does not cause any complaints – the display is suitable for both those who create content and those who only use it. The functionality of the device is sufficient, but it can be expanded in any case. Finally, the MagicBook Art 14 is a powerful and durable build in its class. It’s also quiet and relatively cold.