Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: a reasonably priced laptop with a big screen

On the hunt for an affordable laptop with a big screen? This Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review should be able to help. One of the best student laptops you can buy, it's just as good for streaming Netflix as it is for getting work done.

Honor might not be the first brand you think of when you’re searching for one of the best laptops but their devices are actually worth considering. Once owned by Huawei, you can still see the echoes of Honor's past when it comes to how their devices look and feel, something that will please anyone who cares about the aesthetics of their tech.  

With a 16.1-inch screen, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) is a versatile piece of kit that can be used for work or play. Read on to find out everything you need to know about it from its price, design and screen to its performance and battery life. 

Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: price and availability 

You can buy the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) now direct from Honor for £850 in the UK - currently you can only buy it in one configuration, that being with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Take a look at the widgets on this page to see where you can buy it in your region. 

Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: design and screen 

With a huge 16.1-inch screen, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) is by no means a compact computer. It measures 18.2 x 236 x 368mm and weighs 1.84kg so if you’re someone who works on the go a lot, it might be a little too big for you, but it will still fit in a backpack. 

Making this PC look a lot more expensive than it actually is, the design is very Huawei-esque and it only comes in one colour as things stand, Space Grey. There’s a shiny but discreet silver Honor logo across the lid but the rest of it is made from matte aluminium, so it doesn’t just look good but it feels sturdy and long-lasting too. If you did carry it with you in your bag, it’ll survive a few knocks and bumps here and there.

The low-profile tenkeyless keyboard is quiet, tactile and feels nice to type on, the only problem I found was that the keys are positioned very closely together which could mean mistyping every now and then. You soon get used to it, though. There's built-in backlighting to illuminate the keys at night so you can use it at any time of day.

Down each side of the keyboard, there are upwards facing speakers, one of which houses the fingerprint sensor which also doubles up as a power button. I had no problems using it to unlock the device. Below the keyboard, there’s a large trackpad that is very responsive and accurate to use although feels a little plasticky and even a  little loose when you click on it. 

In terms of connectivity, the benefit of a big body is that there’s space for larger ports like an HDMI. You’ll also get two USB 3.2s, two USB-Cs and a 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack. It’s a shame that Honor hasn’t used the space for even more connection options, like ethernet or even an SD card slot, but what you do get will be fine for most. 

If you value a bigger screen then this laptop will definitely tick that box. The huge 16.1-inch display takes up a lot of the top panel, with a screen-to-body ratio of 87.3%. Of course, that’s not quite as impressive as some other PCs but it’s hardly outdated either.

With FHD resolution at 1920 x1080p, 137 PPI and a peak brightness of 300nits, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) doesn’t have a knockout screen but it’ll be good enough for most day-to-day tasks. The 16:9 aspect ratio is well suited to streaming TV shows and movies while lettering looks clear and sharp. It may not be precise enough for detailed photo editing or but if you need this for word processing, spreadsheets or browsing the web then it’ll be just fine.  

Packing a 144Hz refresh rate, this laptop does feel incredibly smooth to use, and that will be particularly handy for gaming.

Thanks to the matte coating over the display, you can see the screen even under bright light, and there’s a wide 170-degree viewing angle so you can position it however you’d like on your desk without affecting the view, although you can't flip the screen backwards. It has TÜV Low Blue Light Certification as well so you should be able to use it comfortably through long workdays without harming your eyes.

Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: performance and battery  

Powering the PC is an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, often used in gaming laptops, which is paired with AMD Radeon Graphics, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. 

You might not want to rely on this for PC gaming but it will be able to handle light gaming as well as most day-to-day tasks like browsing the web, making video calls and typing out documents. 

Having picked up Geekbench 5 scores of 864 in single-core and 4,540 in multi-core, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) isn’t going to blow you away with ultra-fast performance but it is still speedy enough for most. 

The 56Wh battery will last you for a lot of the day but not all of it so you'll need to recharge it regularly. To give the battery a proper test, I downloaded and played an hour-long HD TV show on full brightness. In that time, the battery level dropped by 27% which suggests it would have lasted about 4 hours in total, that’s nowhere near the longevity you'd get from more expensive laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 or the LG Gram 17. 

Charging it back up again took just under an hour and a half which isn’t long at all especially considering the fact that the charger itself looks more like it belongs to a smartphone than a laptop - it'll be very easy to carry around with you which helps to make up for the fact that the battery won't last for hours on end. 

Built into the top bezel is a 720P HD webcam - it's fine to use for your video calls but the footage does come out a little grainy so you won't be recording anything for social media or taking selfies on it. 

Running on Windows 11, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) will boost the efficiency of your work. There are loads of features that will improve your productivity including handy widgets giving you quick access to information from your calendar or to your photos, as well as new snap layouts to organise your screen better, and it’ll be much easier to pick up where you left off when you last unplugged the laptop from an external monitor because Windows will remember how you had your apps laid out last time. 

When it comes to your apps and software, not only will you get the Microsoft Store and the whole web to download them from, but you’ll even be able to download Android apps. 

The Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) also supports multi-screen collaboration allowing you to work across multiple devices at once. It'll make file sharing between devices much easier, and means you can answer your voice and video calls from the laptop. 

Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: verdict 

You can use the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) for just about any task from office work to light PC gaming. It has a big screen, decent performance and it looks great too, with a sleek modern design and slim bezels around the FHD screen. 

The battery life isn’t amazing so this might not be a great choice if you plan to use it out and about, but it barely takes any time at all to charge so it’ll be fine for taking between rooms in your house or office. 

If you need a well-rounded 16-inch laptop that won't cost you the earth, and you don’t mind the average battery life or the sheer size of it, the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) is worth adding to your shortlist. 

Honor MagicBook 16 (2022) review: also consider  

If money is no object then the best laptop you can buy with a big screen is the Dell XPS 15 9510 OLED. It has a 15-inch 3.5K display and a powerful processor so it can pretty much do it all. 

Anyone on a budget should consider the Asus VivoBook S15 because it costs about the same as the Honor MagicBook 16 (2022). You get a sharp 15.6-inch display, a choice of Intel processors, a stunning design and sturdy build quality.