Honor MagicPad 4 review: £499 tablet takes on iPad and Samsung - and does surprisingly well (aff)
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
The Honor MagicPad 4 review shows how this £499 tablet delivers premium features without the premium price
If you're in the market for a properly high-end tablet, you might automatically think you need a Samsung or an iPad. But I'm not sure that's the case any more.
I've been living with the new Honor MagicPad 4 for a few weeks now, and it's throwing a spanner in the works.
Here's a £499 tablet (if you can catch a £100 coupon offer) that genuinely rivals the big boys, and punches well above its price point.
First impressions are all about the design. This thing is ridiculously thin at just 4.8mm and surprisingly light at around 450g, which means it's a lovely thing to hold - just the right weight, and nicely balanced.
👉 Best shopping deals, reviews and news in tech, fashion, homeware and more: click here
It has incredibly thin bezels, which makes for a large 12.3-inch display, and the display is the star of the show here. It's OLED, with a sharp 3000 x 1920 resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate - so it's absolutely gorgeous.
The surprising features just keep coming, though. You get a frankly remarkable 10100mAh battery, and it'll charge at up to 66 watts. This makes it ideal for heavy lifting, or just going for long stints between charges. A Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip handles tasks brilliantly, and there are eight speakers for spatial audio.
Pair it up with Honor's MagicPad4 Smart Keyboard (which is surprisingly cheap) and you might never look at a laptop again. It really is that good.
That said, it's not perfect. Perhaps the biggest drawback is the software. MagicOS isn’t bad, but it’s not as clean or intuitive as iPadOS, and there’s a bit of bloatware pre-installed.
It works, and it works well enough for productivity, but it doesn’t feel as polished as some rivals. Longer-term software support is also a bit behind the likes of Samsung, which is worth thinking about if you tend to keep devices for years.
Accessories are another slight weak point. The keyboard is decent but not class-leading, and the stylus, while usable, isn’t quite as refined as the best alternatives. They’re good enough – just not standout.
And, as always with tablets, the cameras are there more out of necessity than anything else. They’ll do for video calls, but you won’t be reaching for this to take photos.
That said, you can capture 4K video with the rear sensor, and the front camera is mounted in the tiny bezel - so you basically don't even notice it. It's really neat.
Any complaints I have about the MagicPad 4 do feel rather trivial, to be honest, when you step back and take a look at the bigger picture.
Because what the Honor MagicPad 4 does really well is deliver premium hardware at a price that undercuts a lot of the competition. At around the £500 mark, you’re getting a gorgeous OLED display, strong performance, a super-slim design, and a genuinely versatile device that works for both entertainment and light productivity.
And that’s really the key point.
This isn’t trying to beat the very best four-figure tablets outright and, if I'm honest, it doesn't. But it gets remarkably close without charging you for the privilege. And in that sense, it absolutely succeeds.