Honor launches View 30 series and MagicBooks at China launch event (updated)

In addition to the Magic Watch 2, Honor has launched the View 30 and View 30 Pro, plus two MagicBook laptop PCs at its launch event in China’s capital.

The Kirin 990 powered View 30 and View 30 Pro each come with 5G support and a SuperSensing AI triple camera, while the new MagicBooks come in two different screen sizes with two different processor options.

At this time it’s unclear if any of these products (besides the watch) will come to the UK, especially given the View 30 models will have the same lack of Google Mobile Services that has seen the Mate 30 series held back from being released in the UK.

However, there’s a hope the MagicBooks could surface here [Update: Yes, the MagicBooks are getting a global release], and we’re still hopeful the US will soon allow Google to once again sell its goods and services to Huawei, which would then allow the Play Store, YouTube, Gmail and other Google services to be loaded once more on new phones, allowing the View 30 series to be sold globally.

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Honor MagicBook 14 & 15

The MagicBook 14 comes with a 14-inch Full HD display, with two configurations: AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with Radeon RX Vega 10 GPU, or Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega 8 GPU.

RAM ranges from 8 to 16GB dual-channel DDR4, with 256 or 512GB of high-performance PCIe SSD storage.

The MagicBook measures 322.5 x 214.8 x 15.9 and weighs around 1.38Kg in its lightest configuration Colours include grey or silver.

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The power button contains an integrated fingerprint sensor for security, a 56Wh battery (with USB-C 65W charging) and the computer also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI output, USB-A 3.0 and USB-A 2.0 ports.

The larger MagicBook 15 has a 15.6-inch Full HD display, with the same CPU/GPU options, RAM, storage, ports and colour options. However, it has a 42Wh battery.

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The MagicBook 15 measures 357.8 x 229.9 x 16.99 mm and weighs 1.53Kg in its lightest configuration.

For now, global pricing is yet to be announced but a direct Chinese to Pound Sterling comparison shows the pricing as:

MagicBook 14 – Ryzen 5 8GB/512GB £430 / Ryzen 7 8GB/512GB £465
MagicBook 15 – Ryzen 5 8GB/512GB £430 / Ryzen 7 8GB/512GB £TBC

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Honor View 30 series

Since the launch of the Mate 30 Pro, all eyes have been on Honor to see what it would do – given the pattern of launches toggle between Huawei and Honor, making the View (or V) series models the in-between release until Huawei launches its next P-series in spring 2020.

When I attended the Paris launch of the View 20 in January 2019, Honor boss George Zhao said in a post-event interview that Honor would have a 5G handset at the end of the year, and he wasn’t wrong.

The View 30 and View 30 Pro support dual-mode 5G that offers support for standalone and non-standalone 5G networks, including a wider number of bands.

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The View 30 has Kirin 990 with a separate 5G modem, while the View 30 Pro utilises the Kirin 990 chip with embedded 5G modem.

This will be particularly useful if the phones go on sale here, as Ofcom is preparing to auction700MHz spectrum next year to complement the existing 3.4GHz spectrum in use for the first-wave launch of 5G.

The View 30 Pro also has the world’s first aurora nano texture, which I am sure Honor will explain in more detail in due course.

As you might expect, the main focus won’t be on connectivity, but rather the advances in camera tech.

Camera

The View 30 Pro has a Sony IMX600 40-megapixel SuperSensing camera – the same as the Huawei P30 Pro – with f/1.6 aperture, AI Ultra Clarity Mode, dual OIS and laser focus sensor.

Honor is calling it the (Super) Matrix Camera.

Accompanying it is a 12-megapixel Super Wide Angle camera (Cine-lens, like the Mate 30) with f/2.2 aperture, 109 degree field-of-view, 4-in-1 light fusion, pro-grade videography, macro, dual OIS and laser focus sensor.

Finally, an 8-megapixel sensor takes up the zooming role, with a 3x lossless optical zoom, with f/2.4 aperture and laser focus sensor.

Up front is a dual-selfie camera setup with a 32-megapixel AI Selfie camera (f/2.0) and 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor (f/2.2, 105 degree field-of-view – reduced slightly after distortion correction).

Display

As mentioned above, the display has two cameras on the front and the phone uses the cut-out notch design similar to that of the View 20. It’s an LCD display with a resolution of 1080×2400 pixels.

The phone has a 91.46% screen-to-body ratio.

Battery & Performance

Keeping you going for the day is a 4,100mAh battery with 40W SuperCharge (0-70% in 30 minutes) and 27W wireless charging (0-52% in 30 minutes) on the Pro model. The View 30 Pro also supports reverse wireless charging.

For extra gaming performance, both phones support GPU Turbo and Kirin Gaming+ 2.0.

Storage and RAM

The View 30 Pro comes with 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage.

Out of the box, the View 30 Pro will be running Magic UI 3.0.1 (built on Android 10).

My thoughts

It’s great to see that both models get 5G, rather than being a separate variant. It bodes will for the future of both Honor and Huawei handsets where 5G will become the norm, starting at the flagship level and then trickling down the range.

The View 30 Pro will be offered in a choice of ocean blue, galaxy black, icelandic frost or sunrise orange.

For now, global pricing is yet to be announced but a direct Chinese to Pound Sterling comparison shows the pricing as:

View 30 – 6GB/128GB £365 / 8GB/256GB £410
View 30 Pro – 8GB/128GB £430 / 8GB/256GB £465

It is sadly unlikely we’ll be seeing either the Pro or the standard model on sale in the UK until Honor can get Google services back onboard.

[Update: Honor has informed me that it hopes to bring the View 30 to Europe next year at Mobile World Congress]

More info: Honor