How Close Can a MacBook Clone Be?
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After finding success with their Honor line of smartphones, Huawei decided to take the success story to the PC world. Huawei’s Honor MagicBook is the manufacturer’s first laptop in the original Honor [smartphone] series. The Honor MagicBook looks every inch like a MacBook Air – at least that must have been the intention. The 14-inch ultrabook is crammed into the frame of a 13 incher giving it an aesthetically pleasing look.
This laptop features the latest generation of Intel’s high-end processors and mid-range Nvidia GPUs. Furthermore, the laptop is considered an ultrabook as it weighs barely 1.5 kg and measures less than 20 mm in height. Considering that this laptop is priced almost half the cost of Apple’s MacBook Air, it goes a long way to tell that you can get quality and great specs at a good price.
Keep on reading to learn more about the Honor MagicBook.
Design
A first glance on the Honor MagicBook may betray your eyes as you’d take it for a MacBook Air. From the silver-colored sleek aluminum chassis to the island-style keyboard, almost every part of this laptop screams “MacBook!”
The striking resemblance, however, doesn’t mean that this ultrabook is a complete clone of the MacBook Air.
Display
The near-borderless screen of the MagicBook is a 1080p IPS panel that is 14 inches long. The matte screen has mediocre brightness levels and an average contrast ratio; this combination makes it quite difficult for outdoor use.
Keyboard and Touchpad
A backlit full-sized keyboard adorns the lower part of the MagicBook. The keyboard has no numpad – just like Apple’s offering – which ensures that the keys are properly spaced. The good key travel and actuation force ensures that typing with the keyboard is a comfortable experience.
The trackpad sits at the bottom-center of the lower half and is highly sensitive. The touchpad surface is made of glass which allows buttery-smooth gliding as well as support for multi-finger controls. As a ClickPad, there are no dedicated clickable buttons but embedded ones.
Performance
Performance-wise, the Honor MagicBook offers a lot of promise and is a worthy competitor to the MacBook Air. While both variants of the laptop come with the latest eight-generation Intel Core i-series processors, the standard version uses a Core i5 while the higher version uses a Core i7.
Both versions of the MagicBook feature a discrete graphics card, Nvidia’s MX150 GPU (with 2GB of video RAM). The memory is 8GB while the storage is a 256GB solid-state drive.
Battery Life
Moving forward, we take a look at the MagicBook’s battery. The 57.4Wh battery can last up to about 10 hours on average use and can be recharged through the fast-charging type-C USB port.
Ports and Connectivity
Ports on the Honor MagicBook are scanty as with most recently produced laptops. The port selection includes a USB 2.0 port, one USB 3.0 port, one HDMI port, and an audio combo jack. Not forgetting, you have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios for connecting wirelessly.
Pricing and Availability
At around $800 and $900 for the Core i5 and Core i7 variants respectively, the Honor MagicBook is one of the less expensive laptops with the newest Intel CPUs.
Specs at a Glance
| Screen Size | 14 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8250U/Core i7-8550U |
| Memory | 8GB |
| Storage | 256GB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |
| Weight | 1.47 kg |
Conclusion
Honor is to Huawei as Zen is to Asus. At under $1000, the Honor MagicBook is one of the less expensive alternatives to the MacBook Air. The overall design, high-performance CPU, good battery life, and ultra portability are the hallmarks of this device. In all, this is a laptop worth buying.
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