Honor Magic 5 Lite is equal parts skinny and stylish
Sensibly-priced smartphone goes big on style and screen
Hey there, good lookin’. The Honor Magic 5 Lite might give off proper premium vibes, but this latest addition to the firm’s line-up actually sits towards the affordable end of the smartphone spectrum. It’ll arrive in the UK next month for £330, bringing luxuries like curved glass, high pixel count camera and a giant battery for all-day use.
The first entry in the Magic 5 series (not to be confused with the Magic V, the firm’s first try at a folding phone) borrows some of its styling from last year’s high-end Honor Magic 4 Pro, with tempered glass, super-slim display bezels and a circular module around back containing a trio of camera sensors. The 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro lens might be standard fare for a mid-range phone, but the 64MP main sensor should deliver high quality snaps.
Up front, the 6.67in OLED screen has a 2400×1080 resolution and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The curved left and right edges help give it an impressive 93% screen-to-body ratio, with smart mistouch prevention to cut down on accidental taps and swipes. 1920Hz PWM dimming should also cut down on screen flicker.
The Magic 5 Lite is a mere 7.9mm thick, and only weighs in at 175g, yet still finds room inside for a 5100mAh battery good for 24 hours of YouTube streaming or 11 hours of gaming on a single charge. Power comes from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695, paired with 6GB of RAM (plus an additional 5GB borrowed from the built-in storage). That’s a decidedly mid-tier CPU, but one that has baked-in 5G support.
Out of the box it’s running Honor’s MagicUI 6.1 skin on top of Android 12, but the firm plans to roll out an update to Android 13 from July onwards. Owners can look forward to three years of software updates and security patches.
The Honor Magic 5 Lite will be going on sale in the UK from the 1st of March, in Titanium Silver, Emerald Green, and Midnight Black colours. You’ll be able to pick one up directly from the Hihonor website, or from Amazon, Currys, Argos and Very. Prices are set to start at £330.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
