Earlier this year, I reviewed the Honor MagicBook 14, with a Ryzen 5 3500U processor. The laptop had its advantages, but considering Ryzen 4000 had already been announced at that point, I couldn't help but wish the MagicBook 14 had newer internals. This week, Honor did just that, and announced a refresh of the MagicBook 14 and 15, in addition to the new MagicBook Pro.
The new MagicBook 14 packs a Ryzen 5 4500U, which is a six-core, 12-thread processor with integrated Radeon graphics. It's a pretty significant upgrade, transitioning from GlobalFoundries' 12nm process to TSMC's 7nm. Benchmark results on Ryzen 4000-powered laptops have been very promising, so naturally, I've been very excited to try them out. This is a 15W processor though, not a 45W one like on the MagicBook Pro, so you're giving up some performance for battery life, thermals, and portability.
Aside from the new chipset, though, you're looking at a lot of the same stuff from the previous generation. 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 14-inch Full HD display without touch support, and that last bit is a bummer. The overall design is very much identical, too.
You can watch our hands-on video below:
