The Honor Magic 5 Pro could well be one of the most exciting phones to launch at this year's MWC Barcelona – and indeed the Chinese brand's best mobile yet.
The fast-growing manufacturer has emerged from the shadow of its old parent company, Huawei, with a mission to compete against the likes of Samsung and Apple in the premium smartphone market.
Honor began that mission last year with the excellent Honor Magic 4 Pro – the brand's first bona fide premium smartphone to launch outside of China – and we know that a follow-up device, stylized as the Honor Magic5 Pro, will make its debut at MWC 2023. The show, which kicks off on February 27, will also play host to the international launch of the foldable Honor Magic Vs.
Ahead of the phone’s official announcement, we’ve put together this one-stop-shop guide to all the latest rumors and confirmed details about the Honor Magic 5 Pro. Below, you’ll find details on its expected camera, design and performance features, as well as our predictions surrounding its price.
Honor Magic 5 Pro: Release date
Honor has confirmed (opens in new tab) that it’ll be officially unveiling the Honor Magic 5 series – which we know will include the Honor Magic 5 Pro – at MWC Barcelona, the annual mobile trade show. The company’s press conference is due to take place at 7:30am ET / 4:30am PT / 2:30pm GMT on February 27, which is 1:30am the following day in Australia.
In all likelihood, the Honor Magic 5 Pro will become available to pre-order on that day, with a proper release date coming a few months later down the line. Its predecessor, the Magic 4 Pro, hit shelves on May 13, 2022, so Honor may well opt for a similar date this year.
It’s worth nothing, though, that the Magic 5 Pro is unlikely to be available in the US. Huawei sold Honor in 2020 to avoid seeing its one-time sub-brand placed on the US import blacklist, so there’s no legal reason why Honor couldn’t sell its upcoming flagship across the Atlantic, but it’s not something we’ve seen the burgeoning brand do as of yet.
The Magic 4 Pro is available to purchase in the UK and Europe, so we’d expect Honor to follow suit by making the Magic 5 Pro available in these regions, too. Availability in Australia, however, seems unlikely.
Honor Magic 5 Pro: Price
Honor hasn’t yet released pricing information for the Magic 5 Pro – those details are likely to come at MWC Barcelona on February 27.
However, the company’s pricing strategy for the Magic 4 Pro gives us a rough idea about what to expect from its next flagship phone. Honor launched the Magic 4 Pro for £949.99 / €1,099 (which is roughly $1,160 / AUS $1,700), and we don’t anticipate seeing the Magic 5 retail for much more than that in the UK and Europe.
Honor Magic 5 Pro: News and leaks
Naturally, Honor is waiting until MWC Barcelona to reveal the ins and outs of the Honor Magic 5 Pro, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely in the dark about what to expect from the device.
Let’s start with the official stuff. We know what the Magic 5 Pro will look like – from the front, at least – thanks to a recent tweet (opens in new tab) from Honor itself. The brand collaborated with Guinness World Records to tease the inclusion of an AI-powered camera feature on the phone, sharing a carefully positioned image of the Magic 5 Pro in the process.
Based on the above image, the Honor Magic 5 Pro will closely resemble its predecessor from a front-facing design perspective. We haven’t yet seen any official imagery for the rear of the device, but a detailed design render from Twitter leaker @rodent950 (opens in new tab) does suggest that the Magic 5 Pro will feature a striking three-camera setup.
#HONORMagic5Pro leaks based concept pic.twitter.com/6Vd8Ure5yuJanuary 9, 2023
For obvious reasons, we’re hesitant to take the above renders as gospel, but a darkened teaser image of the Magic 5 Pro on Honor’s own website does suggest that @rodent950’s leaked design images are accurate – at least in terms of the phone’s rear camera array.
Under the hood, a recent Weibo post (opens in new tab) from a leaker called – wait for it – The Factory Manager is Classmate Guan suggests the Magic 5 Pro will arrive packing Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED display panel.
The latter will supposedly boast 2160Hz high-frequency dimming, HDR10+, under-display fingerprint sensors and a maximum brightness of 1,100nits – which would be mighty impressive from a brand whose first premium smartphone came only a year ago.
The same Weibo post also makes mention of three configurations for the Honor Magic 5 Pro – 8GB RAM / 256GB storage, 12GB RAM / 256GB, and 12GB / 512GB – as well as a 4,800mAh battery. Again, we’d advise taking these supposedly leaked specs with a pinch of salt, but it would be great to see the Magic 5 Pro better – or at least match – its predecessor in these performance departments.
As for the phone’s rear camera set up, the latest intelligence suggests the Magic 5 Pro will feature three powerful Sony snappers, though we don’t have much more to go on beyond that at this point. We know the device will be getting some form of AI-powered shooting mode – Honor teased as much in the aforementioned tweet (opens in new tab) – but the jury is still out on just how powerful the Magic 5 Pro’s cameras will be.
The #HONORMagic5 Pro is blowing our minds with its AI feature – look at how it automatically captures a moment of breaking a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™! Uncover what else it can do to #UnleashThePowerofMagic at #MWC23! @GWR #GuinnessWorldRecords pic.twitter.com/d0fy7FVZWNFebruary 13, 2023
For context, the Magic Pro 4 sports 50MP wide and ultra-wide sensors, a 64MP telephoto camera and a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor. On the front are two selfie sensors – a 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 100-degree field of view, and a 3D depth sensor. We’d expect its successor to match or improve upon each of these snappers.
In a press release sent to TechRadar, Honor said the Honor Magic 5 Pro “will bring some great innovations for photo shooting [to the table],” so we’re excited to see what these new camera features turn out to be on February 27.
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