The Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 from a few years ago got a good-but-not-great active usage score of 9:42 hours. It was pulled down due to its web browsing score of 7:56 hours. Today, we’re testing a new generation 12.3” tablet from Honor – let’s see if it performs better.
The Honor MagicPad4 has a 12.3″ OLED panel with a 3,000 x 1,920px resolution and a 10,100mAh battery. It’s the same size screen as the MagicPad 2, but with a higher peak refresh rate (165Hz vs. 144Hz) and higher peak brightness (2,400 nits vs. 1,600 nits). Battery capacity is basically the same (as the older slate is less than 50mAh) and charging is the same with support for 66W Honor SuperCharge.
The Honor MagicPad4 packs a 10,100mAh battery and comes with a 66W charger
The tablet actually performed better by about an hour – it achieved an active usage score of 10:31 hours. This comes with a noticeable improvement of about 2 hours in the video playback test and a slight boost in gaming. Call times are better too – note that since this is a tablet with no cellular connectivity, we test WhatsApp calling instead.
Anyway, web browsing remains a weak spot for the MagicPad4. It has a more powerful chipset, a 3nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 5, while the MagicPad 2 uses a 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. It also brings new connectivity with Wi-Fi 7 (be) support, over Wi-Fi 6 (ax). Please note that we test at a calibrated brightness, so the extra nits on the new panel don’t affect the score.
honor pad
The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro is a more premium offering with an 11.2″ IPS LCD (144Hz, 3,200 x 2,136px), a Snapdragon 8 Elite, and a smaller 9,200mAh battery. It performed even better with an active usage score of 13:39h. The OnePlus Pad 3 also uses a Snapdragon 8 Elite and has a 13.2″ IPS LCD (144Hz, 3,392 x 2,400px) and a 12,140mAh battery which is bigger than others. However, despite having a larger capacity of 2,040mAh, it could only reach an active usage score of 10:49 hours, barely lagging behind the MagicPad4.
Using the widget above, you can play with the sliders to get a usage pattern mix that works better for you, for example try reducing the call percentage or increasing the video playback time.
As mentioned above, the Honor MagicPad4 is backed by a 10,100mAh battery and supports 66W SuperCharge. There are some tablets with higher power ratings, for example the OnePlus Pad 3 and Pad 4, but the MagicPad 4 is well specified in this regard.
However, the results are quite disappointing. At the 15-minute mark, it was actually ahead of the Redmi Pad 2 Pro, which has mismatched hardware – a larger 12,000mAh battery paired with relatively slow 33W charging. It lasts for a 30 minute charging test.
Things look better at the end of the 100% charge test where the MagicPad4 crossed the finish line in 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is a good but not spectacular result. For example, it matches the OnePlus Pad 4, which has a larger 13,380mAh battery to fill – and a faster 80W charger to fill it up. In fact, it’s only the affordable slates like the Honor Pad X9 and Redmi Pad 2 Pro that are slower. The Pad X9 took 24 minutes longer, but remember that a 100% charge on the X9 lasts longer than 100% on the MagicPad 4.
charging speed
- in 15 minutes
- in 30 minutes
- Time to fully charge (from 0%)
Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro
67W Xiaomi HyperCharge
oneplus pad 3
80W Superwook
oneplus pad 4
80W Superwook
Honor MagicPad 2 12.3
66W Honor SuperCharge
honor pad x9
22.5W super charge
honor magicpad4
66W Honor SuperCharge
redmi pad 2 pro
33W Xiaomi
The battery life of the Honor MagicPad4 seems to be improved, but Honor needs to work on web browsing times. Additionally, the company has several phones with 80W and even 100W charging, but only one tablet that goes above 66W. It’s time to change this. With that, we get back to work on the full review.