Honor MagicBook View 14 review – the screen in the foreground

Honor continues to supply the market with ultrabooks that stand out, which has dominated the inexpensive laptop segment for several years now. With the Honor Magicbook View 14, the manufacturer is targeting a slightly more demanding audience in a price range that requires it to align the arguments. Is the result worth it? Response elements in this test.

Heads and tails, the magic happens

If we can recognize something in Honor, it is its consistency in the design of its laptops. Since the first MagicBook of the name, the case has hardly changed. We are always on surfaces in gray aluminum which return an impression of solidity to the handling and ensure a beautiful robustness. The only design element that stands out, the brand affixed to the center of the lid in a chrome finish plays the card of sobriety.

Exit the colored blue borders, this Magicbook View 14 is more serious and eyeing more than ever its apple cousins ​​in the back. More generally, all manufacturers are now adopting very similar aesthetic codes on this kind of small ultrabook, whether it’s HP, Dell, Honor or Apple.

Finishes as assembly, we have absolutely nothing to reproach this View 14 externally, except perhaps for slightly protruding edges around the case which mark the palms when using the touchpad. On the sides, the connection is significant with the presence of modern ports: a USB 3.2 Type-C and a USB 4.0 Type-C Thunderbolt 4 and ports that we would have liked not to see disappear elsewhere: USB 3.2 Type-A (standard format), HDMI port, headphone / microphone jack.

The hood opens with one hand and reveals a very nice edge-to-edge glass screen. Note immediately that the tilt threshold of the lid is limited to 120 degrees, annoying if you use it on your knees for example. But let’s get back to the screen, which at the risk of spoiling the suspense, is THE strong point of this View 14. It is at aspect ratio 3:2particularly comfortable for office automation because it offers display height, useful on web pages or documents in particular.

The 14.2-inch panel delivers a fine display thanks to the resolution of 2520×1680 pixels (213 ppi) and the feeling of fluidity will be all the more obvious if you activate the 90Hz refresh (keyboard shortcut Fn + R; 48Hz by default). The benefit of this feature is not obvious, but wait to switch between the two frequencies, scrolls and mouse movements are clearly affected.

Another strong point of this screen, it supports the multi touch screen. It’s quite incidental on a PC that is not convertible but rather practical to use for manipulating windows or scrolling through content. In the area of ​​smartphones, who has never been surprised to touch his computer screen? The downside of this technology, we are dealing with a particularly reflective shiny panel. Fortunately the brightness is sufficient (450 nits) to counter glare in bright rooms. We also recover a very good contrast with 1735:1 and an full coverage of the sRGB space (DeltaE 2.15).

The black frame is thin, especially on the sides (5 mm) while the top border is a bit thicker to accommodate two 5 MP sensors and the IR sensor enabling Windows Hello facial recognition. Great good has taken Honor to opt for this particularly comfortable technology on a daily basis, while abandoning this webcam hidden under a keyboard key that was its signature. Here, the image quality of the webcam is good even if a noise persists in low light.

Now let’s move on to the keyboard, which like the rest of the chassis of this View 14, calls for little criticism. We could just criticize the not always silent typing, especially at the space bar. For the rest, the stroke is short but not too much (1.4 mm) to really feel the actuation and thequite classic layout with 16 x 16 mm keys and 2.5 mm spacing. Some will find that it is rather “picked up” but the time of adaptation is frankly fast.

A 3-level key backlighting is present but not really effective. good point, a fingerprint reader Windows Hello compatible takes place at the “ON” button, easily identifiable thanks to the fingerprint printed on it. It did not fail us during the entire test period. For its part, the touchpad is reasonably large (120 x 72 mm) even if we would always like larger. Fast, responsive, it sounds a little hollow but remains pleasant under the fingers.

Surprisingly well endowed on the sound part, the MagicBook View 14 benefits from two speakers (woofers) located under the PC and two front tweeters on both sides of the keyboard which make a rather honest sound. This is rarely a part where ultrabooks excel but it is clear that the View 14 is placed in the high average with a powerful sound although a little unbalanced with a lack of bass.

Performance, noise, autonomy: the right balance

The exterior sobriety also stands out under the hood of the Honor MagicBook View 14. The configuration tested and the only one available to our knowledge in France consists of a Intel Core i7-11390Hof 16 GB RAM welded and a 512 GB NVMe SSD.

So yes, it is indeed a “High Performance” Intel Core-H as opposed to the low-power processors more widely integrated into this type of nomadic ultrabook, but Honor has opted for a Quad Core model (TDP 35W) which has little to do with the Core i7 Octo Core crossed on powerful laptops. All in all, the MagicBook View 14 works well, but not much better than its smaller low-power cousins, not enough to justify highlighting it in this respect anyway.

In fact, this processor is perfectly at ease with versatile use of web, office automation and streaming. The View 14 totals rather honorable scores on Capture One Pro and DaVinci Resolve moreover, opening the door to a few occasional creative tasks (photo retouching, video editing), even if the absence of a dedicated graphics card will always be a barrier to these uses. Namely that Honor offers via its “Honor PC Manager” utility a “performance” mode which changes almost nothing on the times.

However, the ultrabook does not remain frozen when it is imposed resource-intensive tasks. Internal temperatures rise significantly and affect the top of the keyboard and under the base, without this affecting comfort. Which is a little less true noise level. Even if the breath is muffled and deaf, it can quickly climb around 47 to 50 dBA if you push it to the limit. We have already seen more discreet. For softer use (excluding Windows updates), the ventilation is practically not noticeable.

It remains to judge the autonomy of this Honor MagicBook View 14, equipped with a 60 Wh battery and a 65W (200g) charger. With nearly 12 hours of battery life (screen brightness 140 nits, frequency 48Hz), the ultrabook is doing well and will allow you to chain meetings, presentations and courses without worry. To know that ofopting for the 90Hz screen reduces the autonomy around 8:15 a.m., which remains quite estimable under the conditions mentioned.

Our opinion on the Honor MagicBook View 14: a good package

Honor is making a nice move upmarket with its MagicBook View 14, which was confined to entry-level PCs when it married Huawei. The ultrabook does its job flawlessly except for a few hiccups like the highly reflective panel or the just-average battery life at 90Hz. Let’s also mention the “45W Performance” mode which does not change anything, but the performance is there so let’s not make it a determining criterion.

What we especially remember is its very well-made QHD 3:2 90Hz touch screen, its well-finished and sober case as well as its quality webcam with facial recognition. The presence of an Intel Core i7-11390H processor sets it apart from other ultrabooks equipped with a low-power processor but should not be a criterion in itself, because basically it doesn’t make a big difference.

The Honor MagicBook View 14 gets the score of 4/5

Compare the different available configurations of the Honor MagicBook View 14

Features of the Honor MagicBook View 14